Castle of Black Iron
chapter-37

It was an extremely fierce kick. However, Zhang Tie had long been prepared and instantly avoided it by leaning his body. As a result, the kick didn’t hit him. Before he had time to rejoice, Zhang Tie noticed a punch rushing towards his chest. At this moment, Zhang Tie intended to test the kid’s strength by grabbing onto his arm. A muffled sound was heard from the armored arm of Zhang Tie. He felt a strong impact on his arm, causing his arm to become numb. Being forced to take a few steps back, Zhang Tie was surprised at the strength contained within that punch. It almost matched his own strength. Zhang Tie never realized that this kid, who was two years younger than him, was so powerful. Given the strength of that punch, Zhang Tie knew that the kid was slightly more powerful than him and was slightly weaker than Bagdad.

Even then, fighting him alone, Zhang Tie was not afraid of him in the least. After all, he was a couple of years older than this kid, meaning that he at least held the advantage in height and weight. However, if he could only be beaten and not retaliate, then the result would be obvious.

Although the thick armor uniform could lessen the impacts from his enemy’s attacks, it also affected Zhang Tie’s agility. Several fighting moves later, Zhang Tie’s response was delayed by the uniform, and as a result, the kid took this opportunity and directly kicked Zhang Tie in the chest, sending Zhang Tie through the air before landing on the ground.

Zhang Tie felt dazed and suffocated. Panting, he picked himself up from the ground after quite a while. At the same time, Zhang Tie saw Mary wiping the sweat off the kid with a towel and kissing his face while the kid still displayed an arrogant face as he drank water and glared at Zhang Tie in contempt.

“I thought you would be powerful, but you’re just trash!”

Zhang Tie felt like he would lose face if he argued with such an innocent kid. Should I tell you that I’m only here to be beaten to ripen the Iron Body Fruit? You’re actually here to serve me. Hah, what a nice feeling…

“Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree, I love you!” Zhang Tie shouted inwardly…

Under the head protector, Zhang Tie forced an ironical smile. As he was focused on helping the Iron Body Fruit ripen, he didn’t care about being beaten at all. After standing up, Zhang Tie slightly moved his limbs and took a few deep breaths. Besides the pain from his chest, everything else felt fine. Once again, he bent his index finger towards that kid.

“Come on, baby!”

……

The anger on the kid’s face flashed instantly. He put down the bottle of water and rushed towards Zhang Tie once again. Seven or eight minutes later, Zhang Tie was sent flying by a leg-sweep and fell onto the ground miserably. It took him half a minute to pick himself back up. At this moment, the kid was already panting.

“Come on, baby!”

More than twenty minutes later, the kid broke Zhang Tie’s guard and seized the opportunity to quickly throw out four or five consecutive punches towards Zhang Tie’s chest. As a result, Zhang Tie was hit and was forced five steps back. Soon after, the kid shouted as he elbowed Zhang Tie’s stomach using a bow step[1]. Zhang Tie directly felt blood rushing to his neck, and the vessels around his neck were painful and swollen. Aside from this, his eyes were dazed

As his stomach was soft, Zhang Tie wasn’t sent flying; however, he felt as if he was stepping on a marshmallow and had to kneel down. At the same time, Zhang Tie felt a gust blowing over his ear. In a split second, he used what Anuo taught him and instinctively used his arms to protect his head.

“Bang!” The moment Zhang Tie responded, a muffled sound reverberated. At the same time, Zhang Tie felt a powerful kick and instantly fell onto the ground. He rolled several times on the ground before stopping two meters away, losing the power to move.

Once again, Zhang Tie saw the kid heavily panting and sweating all over. He was staring at Zhang Tie, who was lying on the ground. A fight like this meant a huge physical exhaustion to both the attacker and the defender.

In the Iron Thorns Fighting Club, there were only a few training partners who fully worked as flesh-bags like Zhang Tie. As training partners, besides being beaten, they were sometimes here to assist the members improve their fighting techniques. Additionally, training partners could exchange their experiences with one another. In fact, a senior training partner was a mentor who could help guests of the club improve themselves. During training, training partners could find the mistakes of the opponent, like the weaknesses of his attacks, wasted movements, problems in attack rhythms, and possible defects that might arise from mental preferences. The guests were able to benefit from these experiences and improve their fighting techniques. Golden training partners usually got along well with the experts of the fighting club and were one of the most important figures in the fighting club. As Zhang Tie was new here, he was not eligible to meet the top figures in this industry. Moreover, the opponent today was invited by a woman who was specifically here to give him trouble. Naturally, he would not show sympathy. As a result, the fight today was a little bit harder… If it was not Zhang Tie but someone else, they would have long been defeated. Even if they weren’t defeated, they would still feel the obvious frustration and hopelessness that came after being beaten repeatedly by a kid.

However, lying on the ground, Zhang Tie was not thinking about that; instead, he was thinking about the kid’s kick. After recovering his composure, Zhang Tie realized that he should not have covered his head with his arms to prevent from that kick, but rather he should have withstood it with his shoulders or his back, which were the places on the human body that could take the most beating. When met with an unavoidable attack, you have two choices — the positive choice was to hide or to defend, while the negative choice was to intercept the attack. With a different choice, you would face a different result. However, hiding and defending were the natural instincts of human beings. Without experience or training hard, it was impossible to alter this natural instinct in front of a life or death situation.

Thinking it through, Zhang Tie slowly picked himself up. “I have benefitted from those kicks. The Iron Body Fruit in the Castle of Black Iron should be ripe soon! Haha, I really can’t wait for it. Come on! More kicks! You are working for me, but I will not pay you! I’m not mistreating him like what a boss did to a child laborer. Haha…

Different perspectives on an event may lead to completely different feelings, which would cause different attitudes and bring different results, forming different fates. At this moment, due to the existence of that small tree, Zhang Tie had a stronger mental fortitude than others, who would normally be afraid of those terrifying attacks. Though, at this moment, Zhang Tie had yet to realize this.

Zhang Tie felt like he could derive pleasure from watching others work until they’re tired. Like an immortal spring in the desert, this job made him energetic, rather than feeling pessimistic and frustrated.

After Zhang Tie recovered his strength, Zhang Tie slowly picked himself up. Twisting his neck and body, Zhang Tie bent his index finger towards the kid and Mary.

“Come on, baby!”

……

Several minutes later, Zhang Tie was knocked over once again. Then he stood up again in an optimistic and absent-minded manner…

“Come on, baby!”

……

“Come on, baby!”

……

Outside the ring, Mary became increasingly frightened whenever she saw Zhang Tie constantly being knocked over and picking himself up in an absent-minded manner. It seemed that Zhang Tie was addicted to being beaten and even grew increasingly aggressive after being beaten. Besides his increasing aggression, in Mary’s eyes, Zhang Tie’s face gradually became more and more ferocious and looked much more stubborn than before.

……

Zhang Tie didn’t know how many times he had tried to pick himself up. He felt pain all over. Finally, he was no longer able to stand. He simply sat on the ground, panting for air.

As his body was sweating all over, Zhang Tie’s clothes fully stuck to his skin.His sweat had also entered his eyes, causing his eyes to become hot and blurry. Trying to wipe his sweat, Zhang Tie attempted to undo the damned head protector that almost broke his neck; however, he was unable to touch the thin string on the back of his head. At this moment, Zhang Tie even found it difficult to lift up his hand.

A bottle of water rolled towards Zhang Tie’s feet. Zhang Tie reluctantly glanced at that kid, who was also threw himself onto the ground, as his face turned slightly pale. His sweaty hair stuck onto his head. The kid was drinking a bottle of water like a fish as he looked at Zhang Tie in an indescribable manner that lacked any trace of arrogance. Behind the kid, Mary was giving him a restorative massage. She didn’t even look at Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie then also took the glass bottle of water. He opened the glass lid and intended to have a drink; however, he realized that he had not even undone the head protector. As there were only several rows of holes for breathing over his mouth and he was already too weak to undo the head protector, he covered the glass lid cooly.

The two simply stared at each other as they gasped for air. After a while, that kid staggeringly picked himself up and recovered his arrogance. “Remember my name. Beneta, Andrew Beneta. I swear that I’ll beat you so ferociously that you won’t be able to get up next time. I won’t stop until you apologize to Mary…”

The kid then left the room with Mary. Seeing Mary’s back, Zhang Tie couldn’t help but flirt with her. “Sister Mary, don’t forget our appointment!”

Mary’s back quivered, seemingly as if she would fall down...

“Are my words that powerful?” Zhang Tie intended to scratch his head curiously but found his fingers touching the thick leather layer. “F*ck! Who invented such a head protector...”

————

Bow step — a martial skill by bending your knees to form a bow for the benefit of attacking the opponent.