The weekend that followed was utterly uneventful.
After school on Friday, Zhang Tie went to the Iron Thorn Combat Hall again and served as the lowest-grade human punching bag. But compared with two days earlier, Zhang Tie had now reached the strength of a Level One Battle Soldier, and dealing with that obnoxious little brat named Andrew Beneta had become much easier. During the sparring session, Zhang Tie could sometimes take a little control of the rhythm, deliberately letting Beneta's blows land on body parts he had chosen himself. Of course, more often than not, Zhang Tie still made a show of being knocked down by the little brat, just to satisfy his vanity. Then, as soon as he got back up, he would say, "Kaman, you coward!"—provoking the brat until his eyes turned red and he charged at him again.
To other people, working part-time at the Battle Hall was a miserable chore. To Zhang Tie, however, it was turning into a fun game—he not only got paid, but could also speed up the Iron Fetus Fruit's ripening. What was more, as he kept taking beatings in real fights, Zhang Tie discovered that his fighting instincts were steadily improving. His footwork was more nimble, his reactions quicker, and his judgment of his opponent's intentions more accurate. As the one doing nothing but taking hits, he could sometimes even take control of the rhythm of the fight.
That One-Eyed Dragon really had done him a good turn! Zhang Tie felt delighted.
Perhaps because he had done so well these past two times and hadn't embarrassingly passed out again, Zhang Tie felt that his standing at the Battle Hall had risen just a little. At least those two bastards in the equipment room had stopped making fun of him and betting on when he would pass out again. As he was leaving the Iron Thorn Combat Hall, Manager Baker even offered him a few words of encouragement, then settled his wages for the week—three silver coins and forty copper coins in all. It was the first money Zhang Tie had ever earned in his life.
He clutched the money tightly in his pocket, and by the time he got home, it had grown warm from the heat of his hand. When he handed it to his mother and saw the surprise on his parents' faces, Zhang Tie felt an unusual sense of fulfillment. The sum was small, and in the end his mother took only two silver coins, saying she would save them for him and let him keep the rest as pocket money. But this was the first time Zhang Tie had contributed to the family through his own sweat and labor, and his heart swelled with happiness and pride.
On Saturday, Zhang Tie continued helping his mother make rice wine at home. With his future sister-in-law there to help, he had much less to do. She was hardworking, clever, and good at managing a household. There were no rumors of bad behavior about her, either. Over the past few days, Zhang Tie's family had gradually accepted her, and she was slowly becoming part of the household.
As he watched his mother patiently teach his future sister-in-law the Zhang family's rice-wine-making craft, Zhang Tie was overcome by a sudden sadness—his mother was growing older, while he had less and less time left at home...
The lives of ordinary folk were always tangled up with too much sweetness and bitterness. That same Saturday, when Zhang Tie rode his ugly tricycle to the rice shop again, he discovered that rice prices had gone up once more. A 25-kilogram sack of ordinary rice had risen by another three copper coins, to four silver coins and sixty-one copper coins a sack. Zhang Tie checked several other places, and the prices were the same. What was more, he found that other foods had also risen slightly in price. Sugar had gone up even more. Compared with rice, the price of coarse sugar had climbed by over ten percent per kilogram since the previous week, and now cost more than one silver coin and ten copper coins per kilogram...
There was no choice; he had to grit his teeth and buy it. The Zhang family would have to raise the price of their rice wine. If they didn't, they couldn't keep the business going. But once they raised the price, sales would surely fall, and the little family business would be far less helpful in covering their expenses.
When she heard the news about rising grain prices, his mother's expression barely changed. But in Zhang Tie's eyes, the crease between her brows seemed to deepen.
On Saturday night, Zhang Tie planted a large patch of pumpkins in the soil of Castle of Black Iron. The pumpkin seeds had come from the insides of pumpkins his family had bought and eaten some time earlier. His thrifty mother hadn't wanted to throw them away, so she'd washed them and left them to dry in the courtyard. Once dried, the seeds could be roasted in a pan to make fragrant, delicious pumpkin seeds.
This time Zhang Tie planted a lot of pumpkins, a full two handfuls—two or three hundred seeds in all. Rising grain prices were one reason. Another, more important reason was that Zhang Tie had discovered that Castle of Black Iron seemed especially suited to growing plants. In just one week, all the seeds he had planted inside had sprouted, including the ones Mother Theresa had given him. Every plant was thriving—almost too well. The potatoes and corn he had planted first were growing especially fast. The bare Castle of Black Iron was beginning to show a little vigorous life, and the Spirit Qi Value inside it was rising rapidly every day. By that Saturday, it had overtaken its earlier pace and climbed above 70.
After throwing a bag of household sweepings into the Pool of Chaos and gaining a pitiful 0.1 basic energy, Zhang Tie finished clearing land inside Castle of Black Iron and checked on the little tree again. The Iron Fetus Fruit's ripeness bar had reached halfway. It looked like he could enjoy it after taking two more beatings, and the second Flawless Fruit would likewise be nearly ripe by next Thursday night. The little tree had now become Zhang Tie's greatest source of confidence as he struggled to make his way in this era.
After leaving Castle of Black Iron and returning to his little room, Zhang Tie was about to practice when he heard a long, shrill alarm faintly sounding outside the window. At night, the hand-cranked fire alarm could be heard from far away. Zhang Tie hurried to the attic window and opened it to look outside.
In the pitch-black night sky, a bright blaze lit the distant heavens red. Judging by where the fire was, it seemed to be in Black Flame City's old residential district near the train station, a place crowded with all sorts of people. The faint sound of commotion carried over...
Whose house had caught fire? That was the only question the fire near the train station left Zhang Tie with, and he forgot about it almost as soon as it crossed his mind. He shut the little attic window, picked up the crystal from the windowsill, and sat on his bed to practice.
Once he had ignited the Divine Palace Bright Point, he only needed to enter a meditative state to feel a "tiny point" vibrating near his anus, by the tip of his tailbone. It seemed to resonate faintly with the Divine Palace Bright Point. That was the next target Zhang Tie needed to overcome: his first Spinal Bright Point. According to the teacher's explanation in Friday's natural history class, this point was the 1 in the second number of the Fibonacci Golden Sequence. The next was 2, then 3, then 5, then 8... There were thirty-four of these bright points running along the spine, corresponding to the human body's thirty-four vertebrae. The Divine Palace Bright Point held many mysteries no one could explain, but the function of the Spinal Bright Points was just like that of the spine: they were the support and source of a person's strength. Igniting each bright point along the spine could greatly increase a person's stamina and strength. That was why Gelis's physical stats at school could surpass those of every other student...
With the strength of his mind and will as he meditated, the energy gathered outside by the crystal passed through the Divine Palace Bright Point and flowed to the point at the tip of his tailbone. After more than two hours, all Zhang Tie had managed was to brighten that point slightly, revealing a grain-of-rice-sized red light in his consciousness. Compared with the Divine Palace Bright Point, which now burned like a raging fire, it was nothing at all. It was the difference between a tiny firefly and a blazing bonfire. For most people, training each bright point was a slow and strenuous process...
On Sunday afternoon, Zhang Tie stayed home to mind the shop as usual. His parents put on new clothes and gathered up some things, then went out with his future sister-in-law. Zhang Tie knew what they were going to do without being told. That evening, his mother and future sister-in-law came back, both looking relieved and at ease. Zhang Tie knew that his future sister-in-law's place in the family was now more or less settled. Starting that day, the Zhang family raised the price of each bowl of rice wine by one copper coin. They had announced the increase in advance, but business at the shop still went quiet all at once. The day's sales were only a little more than half of what they had been before.
"Mom, where's Dad? Didn't he come back with you?" Zhang Tie asked, puzzled to see only the two women return.
"Your dad had something to take care of. He'll be back a little later," his mother said mysteriously.
That evening, just as they were getting ready to eat, his father came home with a long object wrapped in cloth. As soon as he saw Zhang Tie, his father smiled and unwrapped it. Before Zhang Tie's eyes appeared a slightly curved longsword, its blade sheathed in a pitch-black scabbard.
"Ah, a Black Flame Breaking Edge Sword..." Zhang Tie cried out. He leaped over as if he'd spotted a treasure and snatched the sword from his father's hands. With a clang, he drew it from its scabbard, revealing a sharp two-handed sword in his grip. Zhang Tie gasped when he saw his own name—Zhang Tie—engraved on the blade near the hilt. It was a gift from his father.
"You'll be going on the school's wilderness trial next week, so this is Dad's gift to you. Ahem... cough, cough..." His father looked a little embarrassed. "It's an ordinary Refined Steel Breaking Edge Sword made by Black Flame City's armory. Its craftsmanship is a little rougher than the standard-issue weapons used by Black Flame City's military, and the scabbard is only made of ordinary Iron Wood. You know Dad doesn't have much money, so I could only..."
"I love it. Thank you, Dad!" Zhang Tie threw his arms around his father, interrupting him before he could finish, and kissed him on the cheek. He was already delighted with the gift. Zhang Tie knew very well how much these ordinary-material Breaking Edge Swords made in Black Flame City cost—they usually went for more than one gold coin. For his family, that was already a considerable expense.
Seeing how happy Zhang Tie was, his father's face broke into a relieved smile...
"You two, if you don't come eat now, the food will get cold..." His mother called out from the side, sounding dissatisfied as she desperately tried to downplay the moment...
In this era, many people received their first sword from their fathers or older brothers. To receive a sword from one's father or elder brother was not only to receive the blessings and care of one's family; it also meant that the person holding the sword would have to rely on it to fight for a living from then on. This was the unavoidable fate of many men and many families in this era!
With only one last week of school left, fifteen-year-old Zhang Tie calmly accepted the lot fate had assigned him. He now had the first sword of his life, engraved with his own name...
Thanks for your support, everyone. There'll be another chapter at nine!