Castle of Black Iron

After dealing with the corpses of the three wolves, while Zhang Tie recuperated in the ward, the Hit-Plane Brotherhood got to experience the pleasures of being rich. Barley exchanged the 100-odd kg of wolf meat for 40 kg of dried rations and 20 kg of dried meat.

Wolf meat, fresh wolf meat especially, was very popular among male students. According to the “market price” in the square of Wild Wolf Castle, 1 kg of fresh wolf meat could be exchanged for 1 kg of dried rations or 3 kg of dried meat from other people. For those who were able to acquire dried rations and other types of food that were not meat, they were very much willing to do business, as such business could benefit both sides. One side could acquire some fresh meat, while the other side could get dried rations, which could be easily preserved.

In addition to food, the three wolf hides could, under the evaluation of Barley, be sold. Although one of the wolf hides was in poor condition, the other two could sell for at least 20 silver coins. With this amount of money, they had half of the total amount needed for Zhang Tie’s circumcision.

60 kg of food and 20 silver coins was the “wealth” that Zhang Tie had accidentally acquired almost at the expense of his life. The other members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood insisted for Zhang Tie to take it; however, Zhang Tie decided to leave half of the food to be shared among the Hit-Plane Brotherhood. Hearing Zhang Tie’s intention, the guys all shook their heads as fast as possible.

“Bighead, you risked your life to get this food. How could we even be in the mood to eat it...” Barley said.

“Right, if we ate it, it won’t bode well for our conscience!” Leit added.

“Yea, eating it would be like eating your flesh. It would be too miserable!” Doug also replied.

Seeing everybody nod, Zhang Tie decided to not talk about food anymore. Additionally, as he had expected, the fact regarding him already having ignited his Shrine burning point didn’t have too much of an effect.

After learning that Zhang Tie had ignited his Shrine burning point when he visited Zhang Tie at the hospital, Bagdad ferociously patted Zhang Tie’s shoulder before grabbing onto his shoulders and heavily shook him. “This rascal! I never thought that the first person to ignite their Shrine burning point in the Hit-Plane Brotherhood would be you! It should’ve been me who broke that record. You are truly too excessive. Not only did you ignite your Shrine burning point, but you even hid that fact afterwards!”

“I’m afraid the shock would hurt your innocent and fragile souls, making you lose hope to continue living. Look, I did this all for you...” Zhang Tie said in an arrogant and comedic way.

“Qie!” A row of middle fingers was raised in front of Zhang Tie.

“Oh right, how did you ignite your Shrine burning point so fast?” Leit asked.

“Don’t you know that we Chinese can always ignite the Shrine burning point faster than you?” Many Chinese people could truly ignite their Shrine burning point faster than the other human races. Take Zhang Tie’s dead eldest brother, Zhang Yong, and Zhang Tie’s second brother, Zhang Yang, as an example. They had both ignited their Shrine burning point faster than the people from the other human race. Zhang Tie was born a Chinese, which meant that he could ignite his Shrine burning point faster than the other human races; however, nobody knew that Zhang Tie had ignited his Shrine burning point by depending on Karma Fruit Tree, instead of his talent as a Chinese.

Hearing what Zhang Tie said, everyone understood, as they had heard of a saying which said that the Chinese clan was born with innately higher spiritual energy than the other clans in this age.

During the time he recuperated in the ward, Zhang Tie was able to enjoy his free time. As he lived in the same ward as two other patients, he felt that there was nothing else to do but to chat with them and walk around Wild Wolf Castle by using a crutch made of a tree branch.

At almost the same time as the wolf bit onto Zhang Tie’s shin, Zhang Tie had already stabbed the dagger into the wolf, thus the wolf had only left two medium-sized bite marks which were neither deep nor shallow. Although the wound wasn’t fatal and medicinal ointment had been applied, it would still take him at least a week to recover to his previous state.

During this period, Zhang Tie could only act like a cripple. Thankfully, he didn’t need to worry about eating and clothing, as the other members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood would send him a container full of fish soup every evening, saying it was good for his recovery. Seeing their actions, the two other guys in the ward began to admire him. They especially admired him because of the trap in the stream used to catch fish, which could catch several fish every day regardless of the weather.

In that case, Zhang Tie felt very relaxed and felt at ease to recuperate in the castle. Zhang Tie pulled over Barley and the other members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood and inquired about Glaze’s group, yet he didn’t find any special information. With the exception of Glaze still being forbidden to enter Wild Wolf Castle, Zuhair and the other members would occasionally go to Wild Wolf Castle to show off or exchange their prey for other things.

The attack of the wild wolves was like Zhang Tie’s bruises and wounds. Aside from leaving a mark on his heart, this incident was soon forgotten by the public.

During the survival training, there was a lot of news circulating, as there were many events happening in Wild Wolf Valley every day…

After going through this life and death situation, Zhang Tie had become more mature. Although the second Leakless Fruit had already ripened three days ago, Zhang Tie remained calm and didn’t eat it. In fact, he didn’t even spare a glance at the Castle of Black Iron, as he was currently in Wild Wolf Castle, making it inconvenient for him to move. Before the survival training had even started, he had considered the Castle of Black Iron to be something extremely important to him; however, after experiencing that life and death situation, the importance he attached to the Castle of Black Iron was not as much as he previously attached. He began to realize that there were many other things that were more important than the Castle of Black Iron. Sunshine, for example, was something that he learned the value of after having entered that pitch black hole. Without sunshine, plants would not be able to grow; without plants, animals would not be able to survive; and without animals and plants, human beings would not be able to survive either.

Although sunshine was precious and represented hope and life, it was still free.

Air was very precious, without which people would soon die within a couple minutes, yet air was free.

Water was very precious, without which most living beings would not be able to live on, yet water was also free in the wild.

Family bonds were precious; in fact, it was the most precious thing in the world, yet that was also free, as many people had been born with it.

Friendship was very precious and could spice up your life, making life more substantial, yet friendship was also free.

Love was very precious. As Hista had told him, love was the most beautiful thing in the world. The moment of ecstasy as a man and a woman seduced each other in order to make love was truly beautiful. As Zhang Tie had never done such a thing, he could only temporarily trust Hista.

Life was also the most precious thing in the world, and yet it was something given to him by his parents for free.

Zhang Tie realized that many things that could be bought were not too precious, while things that were truly precious could never be bought with money. Many people had ignored the precious things in their lives and were instead pursuing the things that could be bought with money. Once they found what was truly precious in their daily lives, they could truly be considered “rich”. Understanding this, Zhang Tie’s view of the world instantly expanded.

Every morning, after waking up, he would wash his face and brush his teeth. Afterwards, he could climb atop a small hill with the help of his crutch. Standing atop that small hill, he would inhale the fresh air as he did some simple exercises, pleasantly waiting for the first rays of sunshine to shine upon him. The feeling of being bathed in the first rays of sunshine brought people an euphoric sensation.

After welcoming the arrival of the first rays of sunshine, Zhang Tie returned using the crutch. He would casually bring some food and pick up some common rocks on the road before using them to occupy a small booth outside the gate of Wild Wolf Castle. Sitting in front of the booth, he would watch the beauties enter and leave the castle. Zhang Tie had discovered that there was a benefit of watching the beauties; it would speed up the circulation of his blood, which was beneficial to his recovery.

This was good for my recovery—Zhang Tie found himself a shameless excuse. Using this shameless excuse, every time he watched the beauties, he would end up using his “Right Hand Shame Covering Technique” as he put his right hand into his trouser pocket and pushed down on his restless p*nis while awkwardly escaping.

After watching the beauties, Zhang Tie would casually eat some lunch before having a luxurious nap. Upon waking up through the help of his biological clock, he would wander about the square filled with vitality and would look for Pandora in order to exchange for some wild fruits, which would be his snacks. With wild fruits in his mouth, he would visit the iron smelting workshop in Wild Wolf Castle to learn about craftsmanship and smelting iron and would watch the fellows there complete assembling a set of steam engines in the simple workshop.

For using charcoals to melt iron, the biggest problem was that the temperature of the burning charcoal was not high enough to melt iron ores in the crucible, and without sufficient heat, it would not be possible to obtain steel. Block iron smelting was commonly used. After mixing the iron ores and the charcoal together in the iron melting kiln, they would repetitively temper the iron blocks and push out the impurities from within. Due to the low amount of carbon content, wrought iron was soft and could not be directly used to be processed into tools without being carburized[1], which would allow them to obtain low-carbon steel. Although Zhang Tie had learned this knowledge at school, he still needed some time to proficiently put them into practice. These days, he had already been familiar with the group of craftsmen in the iron melting workshop. Sometimes, he even went there to help them wave the bar, which would blow air and thus making the fire more ferocious, or brought them some fruits in exchange for learning something. After a few days of learning, Zhang Tie found that he was now able to proficiently smelt iron and knew how to completely carburize wrought iron. This could be considered an accidental achievement!

For the past few days, as he was recuperating, Zhang Tie didn’t know that his survival from the attack of the wolves had left a good impression on Captain Kerlin, who was planning to give a truly good reward!

[1] Adding carbon to iron or steel to toughen the material