Castle of Black Iron

After Zhang Tie was beaten another four times on Wednesday, the first Iron Body Fruit should finally become ripe. Much like the Iron Body Fruit, the seeds of the parasol trees on both sides of the streets of Blackhot City would soon be ripe as well.

After leaving the Iron Thorns Fighting Club, as Zhang Tie walked on Bright Avenue, he suddenly felt a sharp pain, as something had fallen and hit his head. Squatting down, Zhang Tie picked up the object on the ground—it was a parasol seed. Every May and June, all the parasol trees in Blackhot City would start to produce thorny seeds. After drying up, parasol seeds the size of walnuts would fall off the trees, spreading all over the sidewalk.

On the way back home, under the light from the street lamps on both sides of the road, Zhang Tie picked up many parasol seeds and foisted them into his pockets.

Zhang Tie intended to throw them all into the Castle of Black Iron. He was brimming with pleasure when he imagined that the land in the Castle of Black Iron would be covered with parasol trees in just a few years.

Wednesday was the day of harvest. Although he had already ignited the Shrine burning point, he was only a bit more powerful than those rich kids, thus he still had to suffer from being beaten up in the Iron Thorns Fighting Club, and it would always take him two days to slightly recover from the excruciating pain each time. Only a few people would feel no pain after being beaten by a powerful opponent.

It seemed that Benet had already become resentful towards Zhang Tie. Every time, he would always knock Zhang Tie down; however, Zhang Tie was as stubborn as a small blade of grass trampled upon by numerous people—whenever he was knocked down, he would pick himself back up from the ground until Benet became exhausted. Rather than attributing it to his physique or his will, it was his positive attitude that allowed him to persevere, as attitude determined everything. For Zhang Tie, he simply considered all the pain as something that would help accelerate the growth of the Iron Body Fruit. Similar to his last name—Tie, which meant “Iron”—like a red block of iron, he would not become fine steel without being repetitively tempered on an anvil.

Zhang Tie appreciated each strike and each feeling of pain. When he experienced the effect of the first Leakless Fruit, he utterly realized how excellent that small tree was, causing him to greatly appreciate it. He also extended his sincere gratitude to the gods for giving him this opportunity to change his own life. He appreciated the Castle of Black Iron and the small tree gifted by the God. Zhang Tie knew that on the entire Kun’ang Continent, there was no else that was as fortunate as him and no one else that was able to change the strikes inflicted on him into sweet fruits.

Because of gratitude, Zhang Tie knew how to treasure it.

Another day had passed, yet that unknown danger still hadn’t arrived. Aside from losing his towel, which he had always used for the past three years to wipe his sweat and wash his face after training at school, after having placed it in his locker, nothing else happened. It was already old enough and even had some holes on it. Zhang Tie wondered who would be interested in that broken towel. Besides being a bit dejected, Zhang Tie didn’t think too much about it.

These days, the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood discussed about how they would help Zhang Tie lose his virginity. It seemed that besides Zhang Tie, all the other horny students were talking about ending their own virginity, many of which had already taken action. Since the survival training would soon start, do you really want to die as a virgin? This slogan was much more effective than any other reasoning at the moment. Nobody, including Zhang Tie, wanted to keep their virginity. As the education system had separated the males from the females, the horny students could only seek help from a “professional” to solve this problem. It seemed that it had already become a tradition.

So because of this, those prostitutes had good business on the last week of school. As dusk soon fell and the roadside lamps were lit, groups of horny male students from Blackhot City’s twelve male middle schools appeared in this place which they rarely visited. At this time, all the small hotels in Blackhot City were filled with pimps and prostitutes.

On his way home from Bright Avenue, Zhang Tie had already encountered several groups of these horny students. They appeared on the street in groups of two or three. They would always be looking around, and the moment they found the sexy prostitutes wandering under the light of the roadside lamps or the ones who stood on the sides of the street when dusk had fallen, they would pluck up their courage and stride forward. After idly chatting with them for a while, they would pull the hands of the one they fancied the most and would either disappear into the dark alleys or would head to a small hotel together.

It’s shameful to die as a virgin!

That’s why Zhang Tie also anticipated the ending of his virginity tomorrow after school. This benefit of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood provided by Fatty Barley was really attractive!

According to the schedule, the first Iron Body Fruit would be ripe today!

With one of his pockets filled with parasol seeds, Zhang Tie went back home excited. After finishing supper, Zhang Tie washed the bowls and the chopsticks as usual. The moment Zhang Tie prepared to chat with his dad and mom, his dad stealthily pulled him into the courtyard behind the kitchen. Before Zhang Tie opened his mouth, his dad tossed at least six or seven silver coins into his hands…

“Dad, what’s this for…” Staring at the heavy silver coins, Zhang Tie was surprised…

“Shh…” His dad told him to lower his voice as he carefully looked at the door. At that moment, the voices of his mom and his soon-to-be sister-in-law drifted over. “These coins are your pocket money for this week. I have been saving them up secretly, so don’t let your mom know…”

Zhang Tie scratched his head and was puzzled. “Dad, seven silver coins is too much. I don’t need that much. Are you ok…”

His dad stretched out his hand and flicked away Zhang Tie’s hand that had been placed on his forehead. He became a bit furious and glared at Zhang Tie. “Boy, you should know that even though I am old now, I was also young before. Humph… humph… remember it. Choose the younger ladies with lustrous skin and eyes. They are healthier even though they would cost you one or two more silver coins…” his dad warned him, “Remember, don’t let your mom find out!”

After saying that, his dad made a coughing sound before showing his stern look once again. He then left the courtyard, leaving Zhang Tie standing in place as his mouth gaped while holding a handful of silver coins…

After quite a while, Zhang Tie finally figured out what his dad meant before forcefully gulping his saliva. “Are you kidding me? Dad gives me money to sleep with whores… ‘Choose younger ladies with lustrous skin and eyes. They are healthier even though they would cost you one or two more silver coins…’ That’s really… really mother*cking great, dad!”

Zhang Tie almost burst into tears from the actions of his dad. His dad was truly considerate.

Because of what had just happened, whenever he spoke with the other family members at home, he would feel a bit weird. Thus, after tell his mom about the situation at school and how beautiful and comfortable the bathroom paved with mosaic in the fighting club was, Zhang Tie left.

……

After washing his feet and brushing his teeth, Zhang Tie went back to his bedroom and entered the Castle of Black Iron.

——Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord, welcome to the Castle of Black Iron!

Whenever Zhang Tie read this line, he would always feel much better.

These past few days, Zhang Tie had noticed something—although nobody dug pits to sow seeds and nobody provided fertilizer for the seeds, the plants would still be rather vigorous everywhere. That meant that those seeds got along well with nature. The seeds with good quality would be able to survive by rooting themselves into the ground, while the seeds with bad quality would wither away. It would only take Zhang Tie a little bit of time to sow the crops. For the seeds of plants, he could just scatter them about. It was simple, convenient, and highly efficient. If they could survive in the wild, there was no reason for them to die here in the Castle of Black Iron. In addition, the conditions in the Castle of Black Iron seemed more suitable for plants to grow than that in the wild.

After thinking it through, Zhang Tie broke the shells of those parasol seeds and scattered them about onto a patch of land in the east. Then, he walked over to that small tree.

Similar to how it smelled when the Leakless Fruit was ripe, when Zhang Tie walked over to the small tree, the fragrance of a fresh fruit drifted towards him.

At that moment, two cute fruits were hanging on the Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree; one in red, and the other in silver.

Zhang Tie checked the Leakless Fruit first.

——27 hours left before the Leakless Fruit becomes ripe!

A line of words appeared in front of Zhang Tie and disappeared after a while. Zhang Tie grinned. “One Leakless Fruit a week—life with the Leakless Fruit is truly marvelous.” Then, Zhang Tie moved his eyes onto the diamond-shaped, silver-colored fruit that was slightly bigger than a walnut—the Iron Body Fruit. When Zhang Tie put his hand over it, another line appeared.

——The Iron Body Fruit has become ripe. Usage: Pick and directly eat it. Notice: The fruit cannot be taken out of the Castle of Black Iron. After twelve hours of having been picked off the tree, its energy and vitality will gradually decline.

Looking at that line of disappearing words, Zhang Tie smiled…