Castle of Black Iron

After being told that he could sow the fiery-flame red lotus seeds in the Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie became really excited. That meant he could have one more trump card and one more resource.

Zhang Tie suddenly thought of a question, ”How long will it take a fiery-flame red lotus seed to become ripe?”

”All the silicon-based plants grow very slowly; it will take a seed of fiery-flame red lotus over 60 years to become ripe!”

Hearing this answer, Zhang Tie’s smile froze at once; however, Heller hadn’t finished what he was saying.

”But if you can input a great amount of reiki into it, you could accelerate its growth greatly and make it ripe in half a year. Based on the current reiki provision in Castle of Black Iron, if you put all the reiki into a seed of fiery-flame red lotus, you could make it ripe in about 2 years!”

Although Zhang Tie knew that the reiki in Castle of Black Iron could accelerate the growth of plants, he had not imagined that reiki could also promote the growth of fiery-flame red lotus.

”Can we create the proper underground environment for the growth of the seeds of fiery-flame red lotus?”

”Yes, castle lord, the basic energy storage that you’ve accumulated in Hidden Dragon Island could allow a small area of space and terrain creation!”

Hearing Heller’s reply, Zhang Tie instantly opened the management panel of Castle of Black Iron. After choosing the button ”space and terrain creation” on the menu, three sub-menus appeared.

— Surface Layer

— Subterranean Layer

— Subsurface Layer

Zhang Tie chose the option ”Subterranean Layer”. In a split second, a three-dimensional image that included the underground area of the Castle of Black Iron had appeared in front of Zhang Tie.

After gaining the Castle of Black Iron, it was Zhang Tie’s first time seeing the whole subterranean world of the Castle of Black Iron.

The whole Castle of Black Iron was a cube. The subterranean depth of Castle of Black Iron was about 800 m, the same as its length and width.

As Heller had added over 200,000 square meters of fresh water to the lake, Zhang Tie could see it in the holographic image of the subterranean structure of Castle of Black Iron. The soil and rock layer under that fresh water lake was only dozens of meters in depth. Compared to other original places of Castle of Black Iron, it looked very thin.

”What’s wrong with the thickness of the subterranean layer here?” Zhang Tie asked Heller.

”This is the default thickness of any new soil and subterranean layer in Castle of Black Iron. You might have not gotten enough basic energy storage to make it as thick as that of the other places!” Heller explained, ”For those living on the surface, it’s meaningless to provide them too thick subterranean layer! It would just be wasting basic energy!”

”Can I make the subterranean layer of this lake as deep as that of the other places?”

”You can have a try, my lord. As long as you have enough energy storage, you can extend the surface land or the subterranean layer of Castle of Black Iron as much as you can. If you have enough basic energy storage, you can even make the subterranean layer of each place in Castle of Black Iron as thick as 1 million km!”

Zhang Tie nodded as he sighed inside. ’For this function alone, the Castle of Black Iron would require limitless basic energy storage. Even though I am able to absorb all the sea water, Castle of Black Iron can easily consume all the basic energy. It seems to be a long-term job to accumulate basic energy.’

After inspecting the subterranean structure of the Castle of Black Iron for a while, Zhang Tie directly projected his image of the karst cave and the magma environment of fiery-flame red lotus in Hidden Dragon Cave onto that three-dimensional holographic diagram. After adjusting and measuring the current basic energy storage of Castle of Black Iron a few times, Zhang Tie finally got an image of that subterranean layer.

The entrance of the subterranean layer was close to the south-central part of Castle of Black Iron. It was only 100 m away from Zhang Tie. Being located in a pine wood, the entrance was a hill as high as 10 meters or so. A mountain cave extended 100 m underground like a spiral staircase from this entrance.

At the other end of the mountain cave, Zhang Tie opened an underground karst cave which was as large as about half an American Football field. There was an irregular magma lake as large as 2 basketball courts and some 2-m wide twisting ditches of magma were connected to that magma lake.

”The magma lake looks too white; it indicates a high temperature. However, seeds of fiery-flame red lotus are only suitable to grow in magma under 800 Celsius degrees!” Heller explained as he instantly adjusted the temperature on the holographic image. Then, Zhang Tie noticed that the magma turned a bit redder while the temperature stayed at 617 Celsius degrees.

After doing this, Heller nodded.

— As the completeness of your illusion on the details of the subterranean layer is lower than 8%, do you allow the system to start the casual natural creation law to fix up the rest? After the system completes the construction, you can adjust it by hand, my lord!

— Agree or disagree?

Zhang Tie chose ”Agree”.

In a split second, all the obscure parts on the three-dimensional holographic image became clear and alive.

— As a new subterranean layer has been opened, it can contain minerals. Do you want to have mineral resources in the new subterranean layer, my lord?

— Yes...No!

’Minerals?’ Zhang Tie was startled by this information, ”Argh, if that’s the case, can I form any mineral in the subterranean layer that I want? What if I get a gold mine or crystal mine here?”

”It’s not that simple!” Heller shook his head, ”The varieties of mineral resources that can be created in the subterranean layer of Castle of Black Iron through the space and terrain creation function are only limited to the kinds of minerals that have been absorbed and dissolved by the Pool of Chaos. Additionally, when the system forms special minerals, it will consume a lot of basic energy, merit value points and aura value points. Based on the current situation of Castle of Black Iron, we cannot afford that at all.”

After choosing ”Yes”, Zhang Tie found that the system could only produce pyrites and crystals of poor quality, which had been thrown into the Pool of Chaos when he attended the survival training in the Wild Wolf Valley.

After forming a narrow strip of pyrite, the basic energy storage, merit values and aura values of Castle of Black Iron had turned red.

Compared to forming a pyrite mine, crystal mine required huge amounts of merit value points and aura value points.

’F*ck!’ Zhang Tie swore inside as he completely gave up the unrealistic idea of forming rare minerals in the Castle of Black Iron.

Zhang Tie had deepened his understanding of the Castle of Black Iron. Everything that he gained here was due to karma — as a man sows, so does he reap.

This round of space and terrain creation requires the following resources:

Basic energy storage: 713698

Aura value points: 35190

Merit value points: 4822

— Do you want to create it?

— ’Yes’ or ’No’

— Yes!

’This round of space and terrain creation will start in half a minute. It will take 18 seconds, during which period, you cannot leave Castle of Black Iron, my lord.’

— Count down: 30...29...28...27...26...

”I remember that when I created that spring last time, I was asked to leave Castle of Black Iron. Why not this time?” Zhang Tie asked Heller. The creation of that spring was still shocking him until now. He recalled that when he came back in Castle of Black Iron after half a minute, he saw a sweet and crystal spring, which was dreamlike.

”Because the Castle of Black Iron and Castle Lord are one. The energy fluctuation frequency, due to the creation of space and terrain in the Castle of Black Iron, would stabilize your spiritual energy. When your spiritual energy was low, it would be very dangerous for you to experience the space and terrain creation in Castle of Black Iron. If your spiritual energy resonates with the energy frequency arisen from space and terrain creation, your head might be exploded!”

”What about other living beings in the Castle of Black Iron? Won’t they suffer a head explosion then?”

”No, they won’t. This resonance only exists on you!”

Zhang Tie understood it. At the same time, he was extremely curious about how this round of space and terrain creation would be completed in Castle of Black Iron. He then walked out of the lab and watched that pine wood 100 m away in the south of the lab.

...

Count down: 5...4...3...2...1.

Then, the whole Castle of Black Iron became dark at once. Closely following that, the colorful fog surrounding the space of Castle of Black Iron started to brighten up. In just a few seconds, the colorful light had become so dazzling that Zhang Tie had to close his eyes while covering them with a hand.

With his eyes closed, Zhang Tie could felt that the whole space was filled with light. Meanwhile, his spiritual energy started to surge, causing his ears to ring and experience acousmas.

When he felt the colorful, dazzling light had disappeared, he opened his eyes — the terrain of the pine wood 100 m away had changed while one 10-m high hill appeared over there with a pitch-black cave...