Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie remembered a story that Donder had told him when he was still working in the grocery store. The protagonists of that story were a group of barbarians who had been living in a cave ever since they were born. One day, the group of barbarians found a new area in the cave, one where there was a huge human shadow shaking on the wall. The human shadow was so big that those barbarians had even taken it as a god and deity. Every year and every day, all of them would kowtow in front of that shadow as every one of them showed their respect to that huge shaking human shadow. Many years later, a young barbarian also noticed that huge shaking shadow on the wall; however, unlike the others, who worshiped the shadow in awe, this young barbarian was smart. At the sight of that shadow, he wanted to figure out how the shadow was formed in order to explain it to the others. Later on, after many difficulties, that young barbarian became the first person to leave the cave. Leaving the cave, he realized how the “deity” was formed—a bunch of rays shone upon a stone by the entrance of the cave, causing the shadow of that stone to be projected on the wall of the cave in the shape of a human figure. Because of the movement of the sun, the human-like shadow also became longer.

Having found the reason, the young barbarian excitedly returned to the cave and told the other barbarians what he had seen outside. However, rather than being shocked, those barbarians were infuriated. Tying up that young barbarian, for the reason of blasphemy, they had killed that young barbarian right in front of the “deity” and continued to happily kowtow in front of that human-like shadow.

There were two truths within this story that Donder had wanted to impart unto Zhang Tie. The first: when everyone else believed in one thing, even if it was wrong, you should not reveal the truth and you should not put yourself in the opposition of these people, as they all took it as the truth. This was a rule of survival in human society. The second: truth was mastered by only a few people. For most people, they wouldn’t know what the truth really was and instead only believed in the illusions created by their emotions, thus emotions were more important than the truth.

It was truly out of Zhang Tie’s expectation that his casual joke could impact them in such a grand way.

Mining… a mysterious cultivation method? F*ck! That went too far.

Seeing the desire in their eyes, Zhang Tie realized that if he told the truth, he would quickly be buried in their saliva and condemnation, turning into the enemy of 50 to 60 people.

‘Should I tell the truth?’

‘Of course not, this father is not an idiot!’

‘It seems that I have to use my killing move…’

'Three… Two… One. I got it. “Barbarian Lifestyle in the Mining Cave”...

Within only a second, trains of thoughts had already flashed past Zhang Tie’s mind. Under the looks of amazements of all the horny students, Zhang Tie’s expression changed from one of shock and amazement into an expression of endless solemnity.

Zhang Tie looked very serious at this moment.

“I really can not imagine that my secret has actually been discovered… Ugh!” Zhang Tie helplessly heaved a deep sigh.

Hearing Zhang Tie’s sigh, everyone became excited. It was truly a secret! Earlier, many of the animals only wanted to give it a try; they did not imagine that they could have obtained such a great fortune.

“It’s truly a mysterious knowledge?” Wood became extremely excited as he rubbed his hands and asked.

“It’s not convenient to talk about that here. Let’s enter the mining cave!” Pretending to be cautious, Zhang Tie turned his head left and right before turning his gaze towards those animals. “From now on, please don’t act on your own. Keep quiet and follow my orders. Those who can’t follow this, please leave. As for those who will listen to me, follow me in!”

As he said this, Zhang Tie had already taken out the torch from his mining basket and had already ignited it. Waving his hand towards Wood, he whispered to him:

“After a while, when we enter the mining cave, you should stay at the back. Remember not to ignite your torch. After we have entered roughly 100 m, you should just lurk at the end of the team for five minutes to check whether someone is silently following us. We will wait for you at the front of the tunnel!” Zhang Tie told Wood in a low voice.

“But I have no watch, how could I tell how much time has passed in the dark?” Wood restlessly scratched his head.

Unexpectedly, that guy named Wood had really treated this thing seriously. Zhang Tie had no choice but to teach him how to calculate time. “When you start lurking at the back, press down on your pulse and count to 300 before you leave...”

“Fine!” Wood’s eyes shone. It was secret knowledge, the most mysterious and powerful Oriental secret knowledge! At this moment, not only Wood but also all the other animals’ heart had started to heavily pound.

Wood then silently stood to the side and stared at Zhang Tie, who had ignited his torch. At this moment, Zhang Tie carefully glanced over the thirsty faces of the 50 to 60 animals. Zhang Tie noticed several familiar faces among the animals. They were the unlucky fellows who had been digging in the mines with him over the past few days. They were the truly unlucky fellows who had moderate strength and were not able to capture any prey. Adding on the fact that they were introverted and had few friends, they had no choice but to dig in the mines in order to survive.

When Zhang Tie glanced over those unlucky fellows who had always been digging in the mines here, they all tried their best to raise their chests. Even Zhang Tie himself had not realized that he was already the pride and idol of all the miners here. Besides Zhang Tie’s amazing display of intelligence and fighting prowess yesterday, even just what he had done last night—hugging two beauties with huge boobs and swaggering in public—had already made those guys sincerely respect him.

“Brothers who have always been mining here, please move forward!”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, those guys restlessly walked out of the crowd. They exchanged glances, fearing that they would be driven out of the crowd by Zhang Tie. For these guys, over the more than ten years, they have already gotten used to being unlucky and ignored by others, both at school and anywhere else, thus when Zhang Tie had called them out, they all looked pretty nervous. Some of the more pessimistic guys among them had even instantly become visibly depressed as they furrowed their eyebrows.

“We… we want to follow you in!” a guy plucked his courage and shouted to Zhang Tie with a red face.

“Of course, when that holy gate is opened, nobody would be left alone!” Thinking of the barbarian lifestyle in the mining cave, Zhang Tie forced an easy going and warm smile, one that would be seen on those damn lecherous priests when they stood in front of their followers. “Since you are more familiar with the terrain of the tunnel than the others, I want you to walk ahead with your torches to light the path ahead as our guides in case your fellow brothers enter the wrong path. Can you complete this mission?”

“Yes, of course, we can!” Those guys, who were just slouching, stuck out their chests excitedly.

“Then, you can go now. Use your torch to light up the path for your fellow brothers!” Zhang Tie’s thought became increasingly clearer at this moment. He had been able to cleverly apply the barbarian lifestyle in the mining cave, and his words were gradually becoming mysterious as well. “When you begin to light up the path filled with darkness for others and not yourself, your future path will also be brightened!”

Hearing his enlightenment, the highly spirited, unlucky guys immediately became solemn. One of them even blushed, expressed that he wanted to follow Zhang Tie, and had even bowed in front of Zhang Tie. Afterwards, raising their chests and heads, they entered the pitch black cave with their burning torches in hand.

“Everyone, let’s follow...” Following those unlucky guys, Zhang Tie shouted to the other people behind him. Some of them had torches in hand, while the others didn’t. Although there were only a bit more than 30 people among the group that had torches, it was already enough for them to march onwards. After having received militarized education and training for several years, it had caused them to have high discipline. Nobody talked and nobody wanted to be left alone. All of them just calmly followed Zhang Tie in. Assuming a great responsibility, Wood slowly moved to the end of the team, as Zhang Tie had ordered him to do so...

For those animals who followed Zhang Tie in, this was their first time to enter a mining cave. The circular marks left by the Gold-Eating Boas on the walls were seen every once in awhile in the darkness. Everyone seemed to be walking in an endless tunnel that had a sense of mysteriousness and solemnity.

Nobody talked. In the entire mining cave, the only sounds that could be heard were the sound of footsteps and the occasional “Zi La” sound that came from the torches every now and then.

Zhang Tie’s walking speed remained unchanged, and so did his followers’. Walking in the tunnel, although Zhang Tie looked calm, he was quickly racking his mind as all the stories and events concerning liars told by Donder flashed across his mind. Since the moment they had entered this mining cave, Zhang Tie was using this time to work out a good plan. Thankfully, roughly 300 m away from the mouth of the mining cave, an audacious idea that was very suitable for the current situation came to mind. Then, Zhang Tie gradually started to work out a plan with a bit of mischief and playfulness.

No matter what, even if they found out that this had been a ruse after the survival training, this would not have harmed them in any way. They can just consider it as playing the mouse meeting[1]. Zhang Tie then started to think about the next step. Although he laughed loudly inwardly to the point that it caused his intestines to be twisted, his expression became increasingly serious.

“Stop!” Zhang Tie’s voice reverberated far in the cave as he stopped his footsteps. All the others also stopped, not knowing what Zhang Tie’s intentions were.

Zhang Tie didn’t give an explanation. He only remained silent. Since Zhang Tie had told them to stay silent, everyone else also kept silent, fearing that they would lose this opportunity to learn about mysterious knowledge the moment they opened their mouth. In such a weird silence, the atmosphere in the pitch black mining cave became increasingly mysterious and serious.

Five minutes later when Zhang Tie had thought over his plan again and improved some of its details, Wood’s footsteps became gradually clearer as he caught up with them with a torch in hand.

“Nobody has followed us!” Although Wood didn’t specifically raise his voice, his words could still be clearly heard by all the others in the tunnel. Seeing Zhang Tie treating this thing so seriously, everybody gradually confirmed that the mysterious knowledge about mining that they were about to learn was true...

This method was usually used by liars to control people’s mind. No matter how absurd and no matter how much of a sham the thing was, as long as you treated it seriously, carefully, and faithfully, that thing would gradually become true and important in eyes of others. As Donder had once said, for most normal people, one’s thoughts and attitude towards something was not determined by one’s own judgment and observations, but rather, it was based on the attitude and judgment of others that could be seen with the eyes. Therefore, in public, even if there was nothing in the sky, as long as you raised your head and stared at the sky, you will soon have more and more people that would stare at the sky together with you. Even if there was nothing in the sky, they would continue to try their best to find something in the sky, trying to convince themselves. If they couldn’t see anything, instead of others, they would first doubt themselves. Thus, a liar, if he could even cheat himself, had already succeeded half of the way…

[1] Mouse Meeting refers to Pyramid Scheme, namely an illegal multi-level viral marketing that originated in the United States. Read more in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme