Castle of Black Iron

On the way home, Zhang Tie couldn’t contain his excitement. He held his pocket tightly in fear that the thing would escape. When he picked it up just now, he saw a round object that was smaller than a chicken’s egg in the center of one of the halves of the common pyrite. There seemed to have been a beautiful decorative pattern on it. Nobody would have known that there was something inside the common pyrite if it had not been smashed onto the ground by that pioneer. It was definitely not created naturally. Additionally, it took at least several hundreds of millions of years to form a common pyrite geologically. Zhang Tie was really amazed about the object which entered the common pyrite several hundred million years ago…

Several hundred million years ago...

Not formed naturally...

Beautiful decorative patterns...

When the above information appeared in Zhang Tie’s mind, he was really shocked.

On the way home, Zhang Tie maintained a normal walking speed at first, but he couldn’t help but run when he was close to home. He continued to hold the common pyrite tightly as he ran. Zhang Tie might have been too nervous, he felt as if the common pyrite in his hand was becoming increasingly hot.

When he arrived home, his mom was making rice brew. Hearing Zhang Tie’s scurry, she shouted without turning her head, “Supper is ready. It’s still hot, so eat slowly!”

“Mom, I’ve eaten outside!”

After their exchange, Zhang Tie rushed upstairs. As his elder brother was not home today, it was much more peaceful now. Lowering the staircase, Zhang Tie dashed into his attic cell. He then pulled up the staircase and plugged in the socket of the floor slab. Lighting the oil lamp, he lowered the curtains and the cold-proof double-layer wooden partition. Zhang Tie was alone in the narrow space and would never fear about being seen by others. He sat on his bed while continually gasping for air.

While he was still gasping, Zhang Tie couldn’t wait to take out the half piece of common pyrite and put it under the lamplight. His eyes widened…

The object wrapped inside the common pyrite was like a small crystal chicken egg that was carved with sophisticated and beautiful patterns. The patterns seemed as if it faintly formed an arched door. He noticed a miniature sapling inside the egg, which was really delicate and seemed to be naturally formed.

Two-thirds of the crystal egg had been exposed while the rest was stuck within the remaining common pyrite. Zhang Tie tried and easily pulled the crystal egg out of the cracked common pyrite. He then was able to see the entire object — it contained no “yolk” but a sapling instead while the “white part of the egg” was flowing with something akin to mercury. Zhang Tie carefully stared at the “mercury” and found that it was a colorful light fog that was exceptionally beautiful. The light fog was swirling about the sapling mysteriously. The faint flash that Zhang Tie noticed came from the colorful light fog.

Several blisters had formed on Zhang Tie’s palms after the spear training at noon. Perhaps due to Zhang Tie holding the common pyrite too tightly on his way back home, the blisters on his palms were pricked broken by the edges of the common pyrite. As a result, the common pyrite and the crystal egg were dyed with Zhang Tie’s blood. The crystal egg, being dyed with fresh blood, became not as beautiful. When Zhang Tie tried to clean the blood marks on the egg with his sleeve, he found that a small patch of dark blood could not be cleaned off. Instead, it penetrated into the crystal egg slowly. The blood mark gradually shrunk and became round. It slowly condensed into a drop of fresh blood at the top of the crystal egg. When the fresh blood condensed, the crystal egg began to shine brighter.

“Argh…” feeling hot, Zhang Tie naturally loosened his hold on the crystal egg. He was stunned because the crystal egg was steadily suspended in the air in front of the oil lamp with a faint glow. Zhang Tie was frightened and widened his eyes nervously. While he was confused and frightened, the small drop of blood finally came into being at the top of the crystal egg and dropped towards the small sapling in the center of the egg.

The moment the drop of blood fell, Zhang Tie felt dazzled; he felt as if he was falling from high altitude. He then saw the glowing crystal egg flying towards him. Almost at the exact same moment, he felt a sharp pain between his eyebrows. It seemed as if something had suddenly drilled into his brain, and as a result, Zhang Tie saw his vision dim and passed out...

He totally lost his consciousness then...

Zhang Tie finally recovered consciousness after a long time.

The first thing he felt was a cold feeling on his face. He was still somewhat frightened and didn’t know what had happened to him. After several seconds of thinking, Zhang Tie opened his eyes and realized his face was completely on the floor.

Rolling his eyes, Zhang Tie tried to climb up. Sitting on the bed, he found the lamp was still lit, although it was a little dim. He estimated that three to four hours had already passed. He stood up and pulled away the cold-proof partition on the window. It was pitch black outside, and the barking of dogs reverberated from afar which confirmed Zhang Tie’s judgment that it was currently midnight.

Hold on... Where was the crystal egg?

Zhang Tie was startled. He stared at his hands and looked around but found nothing except for the “fool’s gold” in his room. He picked up the half of common pyrite and observed it. The only thing he could see clearly was the smooth and round track in the common pyrite which told Zhang Tie that what had just happened was all true.

CouldCouldn’t it be that...it had flown away...

When Zhang Tie recalled that the crystal egg was suspended in the air, he checked everywhere in his room, including wall seams, doors, and windows. He found nothing and naturally accepted the above conclusion.

He took out a mirror from the drawer at the head of the bed. Besides the slightly pale face, he found no wounds between his eyebrows, thus he blankly sat on the bed for a while until his stomach thundered and reminded him that he had not eaten supper. Zhang Tie suddenly felt an unprecedented hunger and felt like he could eat an entire calfwolfing a calf.

Aside from the crystal egg event, the most critical thing for him was to fill his stomach. Otherwise, he would starve to death and the crystal egg would mean nothing to him.

Zhang Tie did not dare to make any noise as he carefully lowered the staircase. With an oil lamp in hand, he went down the stairs stealthily and found food in the kitchen. Thankfully, the staple food was boiled sweet potatoes, which were as delicious as when they were freshly boiled. There were seven or eight boiled sweet potatoes in the kitchen. Zhang Tie didn’t think much of it and wolfed them down in the fastest speed he could. Surprisingly, he noticed that his appetite had greatly improved. The sweet potatoes weighed more than 1 kg. Usually, he would only be able to eat half of them at most. What was happening? To his surprise, he only felt half full and thirsty at the same time. He drunk another two gourds of water and three more bowls of cooked rice brew. It was really an unprecedented experience.

Under the light of the dim lamp, he simply brushed his teeth and washed his feet before returning to his room. Removing all of his clothes, Zhang Tie laid on his bed as he tossed and turned; he couldn’t fall asleep at all. Finally, he made the decision to cultivate. Assuming the posture, he sat on the bed and evenly adjusted his breath. The moment he closed his eyes and visualized the abacus in his mind according to the book MENTAL ARITHMETIC BY ABACUS, he suddenly found something new in his mind. When Zhang Tie focused on it, he gradually recognized it. He almost cried out as it was exactly the simple yet brilliant arched door on the shell of the egg. The arched door was suspended in his deep consciousness. When Zhang Tie concentrated on it, it expanded quickly and became increasingly clear…

It seemed… seemed as if he could enter it, a hazy voice reminded Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie was also confused about this idea. Zhang Tie gazed at the arched door and said, “Enter!”. The miserable 15-year-old teenager would never have imagined that his life would be different from before at that point forward…

……