Castle of Black Iron

The next morning when Zhang Tie woke up, he regretted two things: firstly, he didn’t hear his alarm clock go off and might be late for school, and secondly, he forgot to blow out the oil lamp, thus it continued to burn overnight. How wasteful!

Hurriedly blowing out the oil lamp, Zhang Tie put on his clothes. He then lowered the staircase and after walking down two steps, he realized something. He returned to his room and threw the remains of the common pyrite into a broken sundry box in the utility room before rushing downstairs.

Dad had already left for work by this time, only mom was at home. The porridge was prepared and being warmed by the water in the pot. Hearing Zhang Tie washing his face and brushing his teeth, his mom walked out of the rice brew store and helped Zhang Tie take out the breakfast from the pot. At the same time, she murmured, “Did you go to bed late last night? You should treasure your body!. Oh, I almost forgot. I already washed the underwear you hid in the drawer. Remember to take your underwear downstairs and throw them into the washing basin next time!”

Zhang Tie was rinsing his mouth, producing a “gulugulu” sound; however, when he heard what his mom had said, he instantly choked on the water. As a result, he coughed for quite a while before he was able to recover his composure. Perhaps due to choking or being irritated, Zhang Tie’s face suddenly turned red. When he couldn’t stand it anymore, he shouted, “Mom, I’ve told you more than three hundred times that I’ll wash my own clothes. Please don’t enter my room, I’m not a kid anymore!”

When Zhang Tie woke up yesterday morning, he didn’t have time to wash the pair of underwear that had traces of seminal fluid. Thus, he took it off and hid it in the drawer under the wardrobe. After he came back last night, his full attention was on the mysterious object; therefore, he forgot to wash it. When he recalled that his mom found his “secret” while she washed his underwear, he felt really shameful and wanted to hide in a hole in the ground.

“I know, our Guoguo has grown up. I brought you up, so it’s nothing strange…” Zhang Tie’s mom said without a care in the world. Zhang Tie realized that what he said just now was useless. He had no choice but to try his best to prevent it in the future. He needed to keep it a secret. Once other people knew about it, he would lose face.

Zhang Tie didn’t say anything. He wolfed down the porridge and ran out the door without even cleaning his mouth. He seemed to hear his mom’s murmuring, “Don’t run so fast when you’re full. Walk slowly…”

On the way to school, in order to arrive as soon as possible, Zhang Tie, for the first tme, spent two copper coins to take a trolley traffic vehicle for several stops. However, when he had hurriedly arrived at school, he heard the rings of the school bell that indicated that the second class was over.

Miss Daina’s class was over! As this was an even week in May, the first two classes on Friday were taught by Miss Daina, while during the odd weeks, they would be history classes.

Zhang Tie instantly became dejected. It was all his fault as he overslept.

Rushing to the amphitheater at school, as he expected, he could no longer see Miss Daina anymore. He only saw the undergraduate bachelors pouring out of the door and crowding into the washroom. Usually, when Miss Daina was in the classroom, those bachelors preferred not to leave the classroom to piss during the two hours so that they could keep looking at her attractive figure.

“Miss Daina is becoming more and more beautiful!”

……

“I met her last night in a dream!”

……

“I’ve observed her breasts for two hours, they are bigger yeah!”

……

“That round and sexy bottom is really mature, I really want to touch them!”

……

“I stood for two hours, it really was torture!”

Zhang Tie heard all talks about her when a crowd of bachelors passed by him. Nobody cared about what she taught in the biology class at all.

At last, the bachelors of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood also walked towards Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie saw them, and they also noticed Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie saw the fatty Barley winking his eyes towards him. Doug was also looking at him nervously, which made Zhang Tie confused.

“What’s up? Why are you late?”Barley patted Zhang Tie’s shoulder.

“Erm, I overslept!” Zhang Tie scratched his head coyly.

“Heh… heh… Don’t be too !@#$ing tired. If you consume too much energy, you’ll oversleep!” Hista always showed an obscene smile that was as evil as the acne on his face. Right then, the emphasized word “!@#$ing” really made people impressed.

“Your face seems pale today, did Hista hit the mark? I’ve experienced the benefits of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood, so you must have had a hard time sleeping last night!” Leit gave him a surreptitious wink.

“What did Miss Daina teach today?” ignoring the two, Zhang Tie turned to Sharwin. Among the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood, Sharwin was the only one who paid attention in Miss Daina’s class and was really good at making notes; therefore, he would always be laughed at by others.

“Simple treatment with rotten vine and the living habits of man-eating spiders. I can lend you the notes if you want!”

“Ok, let me have a look!”

“Hurry up, I can’t stand it anymore!” Bagdad urged. They then rushed into the washroom. However, Doug evidently slowed down. Seeing them leave, Doug silently drew Zhang Tie aside.

“Let’s be friends!” these words made Zhang Tie tremble.

Noticing Zhang Tie’s expression, Doug realized that his words were not precise enough, “Oh, no, I mean let’s be at peace!”

“At peace?” Zhang Tie gazed at Doug, “What do you mean?”

“If you don’t tell Bagdad about what happened to me yesterday, then I’ll forgive you about the vomiting thing. You know, I was seen by many people that day, so some guys have already started to call me the Monster Mucilage!” Doug dejectedly twisted his face.

Zhang Tie finally knew why Doug was cold to him for the past week. What a narrow-minded guy! “If anyone dares to call me the ‘Monster Mucilage’ at school and in front of Miss Daina, I swear I’ll beat them up until even their mothers won’t recognize them” Doug added.

“Well, let’s be at peace. I will not tell anyone about what happened yesterday!” Zhang Tie became generous since he didn’t want to give back the money. “But what will I say if Hista asked about you?”

“Tell them I entered and did her for three hours! I’ve already talked about this with Barley”

“Ok, you did her for three hours. Additionally, when you left, she felt reluctant to send you off. She then kissed you and asked you to come visit her next time!”

“Good brother!” Doug patted Zhang Tie’s shoulder excitedly as if he had met a bosom friend.

Zhang Tie could only succumb to him.

The next morning class was the carpenter class. For the next two hours, all the bachelors in Zhang Tie’s class would use the two-man saws to saw the wood in the practice workshop at school. Until the bell rang, they continued to saw wood until even their hands were swollen.

The classes in the afternoon were physique training and testing. As usual, Glaze would always attract all the attention. He renewed his records on the deep squats and the maximum continuous armor piercing strikes he made one week ago to 320kg and 123 attacks respectively. Even the instructor thought that Glaze was a natural born fighter.

Compared to the glorious Glaze, the achievements of most students in the Hit-Plane Brotherhood were as plain as the airport landing areas before the Catastrophe. Only Bagdad ranked in the top twenties in the 100m dash with a time of 10.8 seconds in the afternoon and became the only shining light in the Hit-Plane Brotherhood. As for the other members, take Zhang Tie for example, he had no records at all, as the instructor only recorded the achievements for the top 3 in each 100m dash. However, Zhang Tie’s achievements were always below tenth place. His best achievement was ninth place with a time of 11.6 seconds, while the record for third place of the group was 11.2 seconds. There were even four or five people ahead of Zhang Tie. Evidently, his record was nothing special in the group of undergraduate bachelors. As for the fat Barley, he definitely had one of the worst time among the group of undergraduates with a time of 13.7 seconds, though he was never ashamed of his record.

After the physique training class, Zhang Tie got his latest personal data:

Zhang Tie

100m——11.6s

Bench press——90kg

Deep squat——170kg

Explosive punch——right punch, 240kg; left punch, 190kg

Legs’ maximum stamping explosive——270kg

Maximum continual breaking-armor pricks——48 pricks

Endurance: 4

In the age dominated by fighting force, Zhang Tie’s achievements were as miserable as the 15-year-old youth. Before the first strand of meditation fire was ignited in the burning point of the Shrine, the physical difference between professional fighters and the average person of the same age was decisive and rarely overcome.

“I should ignite the meditation fire in my Shrine as soon as possible!” the 15-year-old teenager thought to himself urgently...