Castle of Black Iron

A fresh breath of air was brought by the breeze in the valley. The scent of nature, grass, and wood carried in the breeze instantly caused Zhang Tie to feel relaxed. The breeze flowed through Zhang Tie’s hair and circled around his collar before moving to his sweaty back. That cool sensation was so pleasant that Zhang Tie almost moaned.

Today marks the seventh day since Zhang Tie had recovered and left Wild Wolf Castle, and today also marked the seventh day since he resumed his work as a miner. During the past few days, Zhang Tie had gotten accustomed to carrying the mining basket filled with ores and handing it to the delivery point beneath Wild Wolf Castle. In the past, he would usually carry about 50-60 kg of ores at once, and sometimes he would even carry as much as 70 kg; however, over the past seven days, every time, Zhang Tie would carry more than 100 kg of ores. He would hand in the number of ores required for the job in one go, causing the people at the delivery point to be greatly startled. They could have never imagined that Zhang Tie’s average looking frame had such amazing strength, strength that could not be matched with his peers.

Over the past seven days, Zhang Tie looked tranquil. Currently, nobody knew that Zhang Tie’s strength had crossed over to the next level. Five days ago when Zhang Tie ate the third Leakless Fruit, as expected, Zhang Tie consecutively broke through three cultivation barriers for the burning point at his rear end, causing the burning point at his rear end to radiate a blue light. With one more Leakless Fruit, the burning point would radiate a purple light, which meant that he would have reached the next level and would officially become a LV 2 soldier. Within a month, he would be able to ignite his second burning point and become a LV 2 soldier—this was truly an astonishing speed. At the very least, Zhang Tie has never heard of someone in Blackhot City who could match his speed in igniting the burning points. Aside from the burning point at his rear end being ignited soon, he also gradually began to see the effects of the Trouble-Reappearance Fruit. Through fighting the three wild wolves several times a day, Zhang Tie could feel an obvious increase in his fighting skills. It was now easier for him to apply the fighting skills he had learned in school, thus allowing him to easily kill the wild wolves.

With that great magical treasure, Zhang Tie decided to become even more low-key than before. In the eyes of the others, Zhang Tie was working even harder than before, seemingly as if nothing had even happened; it was as if he had forgotten the whole ordeal of having been attacked by the wild wolves.

Like usual, when Zhang Tie placed his mining basket onto the scale at the delivery point, the students from the Second National Male Middle School who were acquainted with Zhang Tie ran over to take a look at the number on the scale once again.

“138 kg… F*ck, you broke the record again! Could one’s strength really improve that fast by doing mining work?” one of the students complained, “I really have to give it a try as well. Zhang Tie looks at ease whenever he hands in his ores. With just one trip, he can already get his rations!”

“You? You should forget about it. Zhang Tie has already ignited his Shrine burning point and has already become a LV 1 soldier!” said the guy beside him as he shook his head and recorded the numbers in his notebook. Then, he gave a glance at Zhang Tie, indicating that he’s asking for a favor of helping them pour the ores from his mining basket into the cart on the rails. In the past, two people were able to finish this task; however, ever since Zhang Tie started to bring more and more ores at once, they would struggle to lift the mining basket of ores, which weighed more than 100 kg, 1m into the air before pouring them into the cart, thus they would always ask Zhang Tie for this favor.

“Didn’t Tanin also ignite his Shrine burning point a long time ago and become a LV 1 soldier? How come he doesn’t seem as strong as Zhang Tie…” the fellow who just spoke rebutted as he shot an admiring glance at Zhang Tie. On one side, he helped lift the mining basket, while on the other, he mumbled, “Since he could survive despite falling into a 200 m hole dug by the Gold-Eating Boas, this guy truly is a freak!”

Zhang Tie didn’t know who this Tanin person was, but he could guess that he was an outstanding student. Listening to their discussion, Zhang Tie just gave a generous smile as he fabricated a lie, “To tell you the truth, doing mining work is really challenging, especially the part where you have to carry the mining basket out from the mine. As you know, I was not able to carry so many ores in the past; however, over the past few days, I had realized that when I chose to challenge my physical limits, once I clenched my teeth and stuck to it, I would always see an explosive growth in my physical strength at that moment. If you don’t believe me, you can have a try!”

Although Zhang Tie’s words were half true and half false and contained a little bit of mischief, Zhang Tie expressed it very seriously. If the two guys truly trusted him and wanted to experience this “very promising vocation”, it would have nothing to do with Zhang Tie. Certainly, one could get stronger through doing labor work; however, the amount of physical strength one could gain would depend on their fortune as well as their efforts.

Zhang Tie couldn’t help but laugh inwardly as he mumbled in his heart, “If you could enjoy a Leakless Fruit every week like me, then you would also see a rapid growth in your strength.”

These past few days, Zhang Tie would dig in the mines early in the morning before transferring the useless ores into the Castle of Black Iron. Afterwards, he would return to the tree base and would spend the entire afternoon cultivating the <Iron-Blood Fist Skill>. When comparing the cultivation of a fighting skill used by the monarchs of the Norman Empire to a bit of food that could only alleviate hunger, everyone knew which was more important, and Zhang Tie was no exception.

Presently, Barley and the other members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood had managed to dig five deep pits and had set more than 20 small traps made from twigs and stones. They had become increasingly proficient at setting traps. The power of their traps was put on full display as beasts would absolutely succumb to the fishy scent from the fish guts and the deep traps. Because of their traps, the Hit-Plane Brotherhood also gradually became famous among the students attending this survival training while some of the other fellows had begun to learn how to set traps from them.

After handing over the ores, Zhang Tie had received his rations and was prepared to return to the tree base, but right as he was about to step away, he saw a blue flag that could be seen from miles away hanging at the top of Wild Wolf Castle. A blue flag indicated that a foreign commercial transportation team had reached Wild Wolf Castle, and at the same time, the flag signaled that the students could come to Wild Wolf Castle to exchange items with the commercial team.

On the 20th day since the start of the survival training, the commercial transportation team that had set off from Blackhot City had finally arrived at Wild Wolf Castle. Their arrival made many people excited, as it meant that they could sell their items to the commercial team as well as purchase necessities.

As expected, the square of Wild Wolf Castle had already become boisterous, as many people surrounded the three transportation vehicles parked on one side of the square. Even Zhang Tie pushed his way inside the crowd. It was the first time for Zhang Tie to see such a transportation vehicle used in the wild. These vehicles were different than the public transport used in Blackhot City; these transportation vehicles that were used in the wild looked strange, as each of them looked like an ugly grasshopper. The vehicle had two low carriages, and its head was like a miniature, round locomotive that was embedded in a square building block, beside which was a tall chimney that was eye-catching. The wheels under its head were composed of two parts—continuous tracks at the front and solid tires in the back. On the second part of its head was a coal bunker. Every one of the wild transportation vehicles was more than 20 m in length. Aside from the onlookers, there were people who were unloading crates one after the other, which quickly occupied the space, turning them into trading platforms. After that, they opened the crates one by one and directly displayed them in front of the public. Most of the things contained in the crates were standard military rations from Blackhot City. Aside from the standard military rations, there were also some dried milk slices, dried meat, and sausages in the crates as well as some biological products used to make experiments.

An exclamation reverberated from the horny students next to one wild transportation vehicle at the side. Hearing their exclamations, Zhang Tie pushed his way over and became frightened at the sight before him—f*ck! When the crates were opened, shiny knives and pikes were put on display, greatly exciting the horny students so much that they began to immediately drool.

“Everyone, please take out everything you have, including hides, herbal medicine, crystal sand, and the other strange things that you don’t recognize. As long as you have something good, then you can exchange it with anything here,” A manager of the commercial transportation team jumped onto several crates and shouted loudly into a speaker made from a rolled up iron sheet, “Those who want to exchange your hides, move over there! Those who want to exchange you herbal medicines, move to the middle! Those who want to exchange your crystal sand and other eccentric things, come to me. Hurry up, what are you waiting for!?”

Hearing his words, many people became excited. The girls ran towards the inner castle, while the boys ran towards Wild Wolf Valley. When he thought of the wolf hides, Zhang Tie was also a bit moved. Seeing the goods brought by the commercial transportation team, Zhang Tie also prepared to go back to bring those hides acquired by the Hit-Plane Brotherhood to exchange them for some necessities like food. For necessities like food, the more they had, the better...

Before he left the square of Wild Wolf Castle, Zhang Tie couldn’t help but to look back at those shiny weapons. The knives and pikes lined up in rows had already been hung up in very eye-catching places. Zhang Tie became suspicious, as the commercial transportation teams had rarely brought weapons here in the past years.

……

“I don’t agree...” When the square outside Wild Wolf Castle was noisy, a quarrel was occurring in the office of the Temporary Supervision Committee. Miss Qili, who had given Zhang Tie an unforgettable “punishment” in the small square, was angrily glaring at a businessman with a mustache who was as slim as a stick of bamboo and was wearing a bright, silk hat in the office. “Since Goose-neck Grass and golden wolf marrow cannot be found in Wild Wolf Valley, if they want to collect Goose-neck Grass and golden wolf marrows, then the students would have to leave Wild Wolf Valley and enter deeper into the area between Wild Wolf Valley and the Crescent Prairie. However, that place is too far away from Wild Wolf Castle and there are numerous packs of wolves over there that could pose great dangers to the students attending the survival training!”