Castle of Black Iron
Castle of Black Iron - Chapter 32: Mysterious Knowledge

Seeing the bastards of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood pointing at him with an obscene snort after class, Zhang Tie instantly knew that they had already known about the matter of being a flesh-bag. Although Zhang Tie didn’t know how these bastards found out, Zhang Tie could feel it instinctively and precisely.

After the two classes, the group of horny students crowded into the washroom and then talked as they laugh outside the classroom in the hallway. In the morning, the feeling of the sunlight on the human body made one feel comfortable, thus the students pushed each other in the hallway for a bit of that sunlight, as if they were moldy salty fish. Seeing Zhang Tie walking in their direction gloomily, the bastards of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood started to pretend to avert their gaze. They raised their heads and looked up at the clouds in the sky, pretending as if nothing had happened. Every one of them seemed like a poet. F*ck! Zhang Tie guessed that they must be boisterously laughing under their stern expressions.

“Just laugh. Stop pretending, it must be hard for you!” Zhang Tie passed by and said lightly. Hearing this, those bastards couldn’t stand it anymore and burst out into laughter simultaneously.

“Brother, what unpleasant thing happened last night? Tell us and let us be happy. Hahahaha…”

“Bastards, you knew something was wrong yesterday, so why didn’t you tell me? I was almost beaten to death last night…” Zhang Tie instantly grabbed Hista’s collar as he pretended to be furious.

Hista hurriedly raised up his hands. “Who told you to brag yesterday? Bagdad had long guessed what would happen to you, but he thought you were too arrogant, so he didn’t tell you. Do you remember what you had said yesterday?” Hista started to act like Zhang Tie as he said with an obscene smile, “Alas, you know my greatest weakness is my soft-hearted nature and being unable to see others embarrass themselves. I didn’t promise him until Captain Kerlin begged me for a long time. My popularity is really high, I’ve done too many good things. Alas, even becoming close with beauties and high compensation fell upon me. Besides, I can also strengthen my body…”

Thinking of his performance in front of these bastards and their laughter, Zhang Tie blushed. The old saying from the Chinese clan that “people should not be too arrogant, otherwise you will be hit by lightning bolt” was really right! He only pretended a little bit yesterday, yet he already got what he deserved.

Zhang Tie stared at Bagdad, who shrugged his shoulders naturally. “Captain Kerlin is a part-time coach at the Iron Thorns Fighting Club. Previously, he used to introduce our fellow elder students to the part-time jobs in that place, and all the part-time jobs were being beaten by small kids from rich families.

“Why didn’t I know about this?” Zhang Tie asked dejectedly.

“This isn’t a secret at all, but you didn’t pay attention to the information concerning the Iron Thorns Fighting Club. Those kids have strict requirements for their training partners. Being limited in height and body development, their training partners should not be adults and neither should they be kids of the same age, as they would not be able to stand their fierce punches and kicks. This job is better suited for people like us. We are slightly older and stronger than those rich kids; however, as we’ve not yet ignited the Shrine burning point, it’s not possible for us to completely defeat them…”

“What? We can’t beat them?” Hista asked curiously.

“Of course not. If we were stronger than them, how could they kick you over so easily?”

“We’re just training partners, so why do we have to be beaten by those kids?”

Crossing his arms, Bagdad sneered, “This is the distinction between us and those rich people. Although a stronger person could be their training partner, they don’t really need such a person. Do you know why? It’s because those rich people hope that their kids could easily beat us while they are still young. They need their kids to consolidate confidence and mental advantage. Their Qi field could weaken their opponent’s confidence. As if facing an enemy, they would naturally like to be in an advantageous position, hence even though you may reach the same level as him in the future, you would still not be his match. There are many details concerning this, making it rather abstruse. This is a mysterious theory that I have heard from a person in the fighting club.”

Zhang Tie heard this theory for the first time. He was rather surprised about it; however, he also felt that it might actually be true. Otherwise, why wouldn’t the fighting club find a young man who was the same age as Zhang Tie that had also ignited the Shrine burning point? It was possible for them to find many people who met this description in Blackhot City. Glaze, for example, was already a LV 2 fighter. What made Zhang Tie even more surprised was that this knowledge was mysterious, meaning only a few people could learn it and was something that most commoners did not know about. Mysterious knowledge was very expensive and included most cultivation skills and fighting skills. It was said that before the Catastrophe, human society’s mysterious knowledge system had already been well developed. Some of them were called “intellectual property protection”, some were called “patents”, while other mysterious knowledge was only privy to those from mysterious religious groups such as the group who knew about the functions of the crystals. Whereas, nowadays in the Age of Black Iron, most mysterious knowledge belonged to certain groups, various industrial associations, religious groups, various trade unions, various schools, etc. As the foundation and surviving assets of this age, mysterious knowledge was not something that commoners could come into contact with. Although the skill required to use an abacus was not very important, strictly speaking, it was still considered a form of mysterious knowledge that had been popular within Chinese clan. Before Donder taught him this skill, Zhang Tie was warned to not pass them to alien clans. If he violated the agreement, it might bring extremely serious consequences.

In the Age of Black Iron, besides resources, once you master a valuable skill or mysterious knowledge, it was possible to become rich and powerful within an area in a short period of time. Of course, you might also be a thorn in the eyes of others due to the mysterious knowledge and may turn into a corpse one day. Mysterious knowledge was related to money. When you monopolize mysterious knowledge and skills, you also occupy the most of the profits accrued from them. This mysterious law seems to have not changed in the slightest, even prior to the Catastrophe.

“Resign as early as possible. You might suffer mental trauma if you are always being bullied by those kids. By then, it would be really hard for you to become a powerful man!” Bagdad suggested sincerely.

“I will consider it; however, I have to finish 600 hours first…” Zhang Tie mentioned the contract on purpose with a sad expression. The huge penalty of 10 gold coins made everybody gape instantly.

“What motherf*cking mysterious knowledge!? Could it match the Iron Body Fruit that is going to ripen on my Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree?” Given the name of the fruit, Zhang Tie had already known that it was really motherf*cking great. However, what he needed to do was to be constantly beaten by kids to form that fruit. People will pay me as they risk their lives to help me form an iron body from the fruit. What a splendid thing! Zhang Tie felt no failure at all.

The moment Zhang Tie rolled his eyes and planned to brag about how Mary praised him so as to rouse those bastards, the whole hallway calmed down. Zhang Tie turned his head and saw Miss Daina entering the amphitheater with a mould of a snail in hand. They stared at her for a few seconds before glancing at each other. In an instant, they all poured into the amphitheater at a speed that was even faster than when they had rushed into the washroom previously. Everybody strove to occupy the front seats near Miss Daina.

In the Seventh National Male Middle School, if it was a class taught by Miss Daina, every horny student would take the initiative and pour into the classroom before the bell rang. The best seats in the first row were naturally occupied by Glaze and his followers. In contrast, the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood occupied the seats in the middle row, which could be considered neither good nor bad.

Noticing that everyone had entered the room, Miss Daina started class immediately. She took up a stick of chalk and scribbled two words on the blackboard.

——Blood Clan!

Miss Daina glanced over them with her beautiful eyes. At this moment, all the horny students sat straight like erecting javelins, showing a stern expression and a desire for knowledge.

“Dear students, for today’s class, I want to talk you about the Blood Clan. The Blood Clan in our age is different from those before the Catastrophe. As described in artworks, mythologies, and legends, the ones before the Catastrophe were vampires that could change into bats; however, they didn’t really exist. The Blood Clan in the Age of Black Iron, however, refers to the mutated, wild living beings and the aliens that emerged after the Catastrophe. The two are completely different from each other. The Blood Clan we usually talk about have the following traits: Firstly, from their appearance, they are always red all over, as if they were covered in blood, and could be easily identified in the wild. Secondly, every living being from the Blood Clan likes fresh blood. They are carnivores and the most dangerous killers in the wild. Any animal with blood would be considered food for them. Thirdly, every animal from the Blood Clan would greatly change physically after the mutation. If they mutate, they would develop some weird abilities that could make them even more dangerous and harder to deal with. Now, let’s take the blood snail as an example. Blood snails are the most common species in the Blood Clan. I will teach you how to handle this thing if you ever encounter it in the wild…”

Watching her tender and beautiful face as he listened to her fabulous voice, Zhang Tie gaped. In reality, they didn’t care about what she was talking about. For most people, once they could see Miss Daina standing over there and listen to her voice, they were already content.

It was said that a very bad event once happened in class that made Miss Daina extremely angry; therefore, an extremely strange rule, a rule that was considered the strangest rule within all the schools in Blackhot City, was made in the Seventh National Male Middle School — all students in Miss Daina’s class must put their hands in a visible place. Hence, whenever her gaze swept through the students in her class, all the horny students would sit straight like a well-behaved baby. With hands overlapped on their desks, the student looked desiring for knowledge. After a while, the sound of swallowing saliva spread throughout every corner of the classroom. Besides that sound, there was also the sound of a knocking that was similar to the sound produced by the knocking between a wooden fish1 and stick while a piece of cloth was between them. All in all, there were various sounds and various phenomena. Miss Daina’s classes would always make Zhang Tie hallucinate due to the excitement. Right at this moment…

Miss Daina, in a short skirt, sat on the rostrum as a section of her plump and snow white thigh became exposed. The buttons of her upper outer garment couldn’t cover her plump breasts as they dazzled the students. At that moment, only Zhang Tie and Miss Daina were in the classroom. Calling Zhang Tie to go in front of her, Miss Daina lowered her body and tried her best to push her breasts into a ravine that caused people to become awed. Then she pressed down Zhang Tie’s head into the ravine and gave an obscene smile. Before Zhang Tie was suffocated by that mass of snow white, Miss Daina pushed Zhang Tie away and stretched out two of her beautiful fingers, taking out of a slim pipe as she started to blow out pink bubbles one by one. The pink bubbles flew in the air and exploded on Zhang Tie’s face, causing Zhang Tie to be completely intoxicated…

“Baby, do you want to give it a try?” Miss Daina showed a seducing smile and curved one of her fingers towards Zhang Tie…

……

“I will!” Zhang Tie stood up abruptly, which really startled the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood. It was close to the end of the class when Miss Daina would ask if the students had any question. Zhang Tie’s sudden reaction almost shocked those beside him to death.

In a split second, everyone in the classroom cast their eyes on Zhang Tie. As a result, Zhang Tie felt hot all over. Glaze, who sat in the front row, turned back to cast a contemptuous look at Zhang Tie. Glaze had already prepared two questions concerning blood snails and pretended to be a well-behaved student, in an attempt to talk with Miss Daina for a while. However, before he was able to stand up, Zhang Tie’s voice had taken away his chance. By the time Zhang Tie had stood up and shouted, he had already become completely clear-minded. Peering around at the thorny looks, Zhang Tie was suddenly sweating all over.

“That male student, do you have any questions about this class?” Miss Daina asked seriously.

Thankfully, Zhang Tie was smart. Almost at the same time, he thought of a question that was somewhat related to this class.

“Miss Daina, I have almost remembered everything that you’ve taught in this class, but I have a question on other types of living beings. I want to know whether you can help me answer it!” Zhang Tie fabricated a question…

Wooden Fish, a Buddhist instrument that is normally knocked on by monks and nuns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooden_fish