Castle of Black Iron

Chapter 24: Merit Value

Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey

——Castle of Black Iron

——Length: 1 Krosa

——Width: 1 Krosa

——Spiritual Energy：0.7

——Merit Value: 35

——Basic Energy Storage:0.2

——Special Output: Void

Zhang Tie was not startled by the growth of spiritual energy, as the sprouted potatoes could grow day by day, which would result in them providing more and more spiritual energy. The peak of the growth of spiritual energy would come when all the seeds sprouted later on. There was no change to the other attributes except for merit value. He remembered that the number of merit value was 3 this morning; therefore, he tried to input two merit value points into the mutation and evolution of potatoes. As a result, only 1 merit value point was left by then. How could it increase by so much within only half a day? To answer this question, Zhang Tie opened the log for merit value.

——On the afternoon of February 14th, 889th year of the Black Iron Calendar, Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord helped his mom make rice brew, which lessened his mom’s load and made her comfortable. As a result, merit value was increased by 1.

——On the evening of February 14th, 889th year of the Black Iron Calendar, Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord sent rice soup to the orphanage and donated 10 copper coins. As a result, many people benefitted from you. As a result, merit value has been increased by 32.

——On the evening of February 14th, 889th year of the Black Iron Calendar, when Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord returned home, he took the initiative to clean his house, wash bowls, and sweep the floor, which made his family members pleased.

Seeing the sharp increase in merit value, Zhang Tie thought for a while and moved his eyes to the words to the beginning of the log:

“Do good deeds and destroyed evils——the largest mercy in the human world; worship the gods and love people——the nearest staircase to the heaven; lucky people, please show the mercy of the creator to the secular world so that those gods could understand you; please receive the most sincere pleasure and thanks presented to you by hundreds of millions of people; please end those evil souls and endless darkness to make yourself a light and when You are a light, you are definitely walking on the light and a magnificent road are paved on your foot!”

Although he was confused at some parts, reading the paragraph and peering at the sharply increased merit value made Zhang Tie greatly inspired. He now had a deeper understanding of how to gain merit value. Although he was not able to eliminate evil, he could still do something good, whether it was small or big. He could gain merit value points by making others happy, more or less. “Haha, Nice! I love you too much….”

Remembering the numerous “fruits” that grew behind the small tree, Zhang Tie laughed out loudly. If the Castle of Black Iron turned into a woman and appeared in front of him, he would definitely kiss her for a long time…

After sowing the seeds, he checked the basic attributes of the Castle of Black Iron. He then ran towards the Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree and circled the small tree a few times. Being stunned, he gazed at a twig on the strange tree.

He remembered that there was nothing on that twig. However, a light blue grape-sized fruit was now hanging on it. The moment he wanted to touch it with his hand, a line appeared in front of him.

——Leakless fruit is in production and is currently inedible. Once the unripe leakless fruit leaves the Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree, it would directly turn to gas and disappear. 124 hours left before it becomes ripe…

After reading the line, Zhang Tie instantly pulled back his hand. He recalled that when he found the Castle of Black Iron for the first time, the manjusaka tree asked him to choose whether to use his leaked energy to produce the leakless fruit or not. Is this that leakless fruit?

It took 168 hours to produce a leakless fruit, which was a week. This meant that by next Friday, the small fruit would be ripe. At this moment, although couldn’t wait to eat the fruit to test its effects. He also knew that a watched pot would never boil; he had to control his desires. He circled the tree a few times and even touched the various strange leaves before sitting down on the nearby soil. With his hands supporting his jaw, he became absent-minded. After more than an hour’s work, looking at the barren land, he felt that it was really boring, although it was honestly strange at the start. Now, he could only slowly wait until he recovered a little bit of his spiritual energy. In here, it was a nice place to do exercise and run; however, he was truly tired today and didn’t feel like running at all. He didn’t know if dad and mom had returned or not. They should not have returned this early since it was a Saturday and his dad would take a rest on Sunday. If it was like usual, they would come back late.

What should he do then? Just sit here and do nothing while waiting for his spiritual energy to recover? Otherwise... meditate? Zhang Tie burst into laughter at his thoughts. Hahaha… no kidding, how could a commoner of Blackhot City know how to enter meditation, a senior technique and skill? There might be someone in Blackhot City who knew how to increase spiritual energy through meditation, but it was monopolized by a few people and was something that commoners could never touch. Captain Kerlin said that the minorities who knew how to increase spiritual energy through meditation had various backgrounds. Even Captain Kerlin himself didn’t know about it, let alone others.

It would be impossible to light the burning points in the Shrine. Thinking for a while, he suddenly patted his head, “How could I forget this? I got the book . No matter what, I have some time to practice it now. Why not test it out now?”

Zhang Tie instantly moved. He quickly recalled the relevant content that he had recited more than ten times over the past few days from . He could fully understand it. Zhang Tie sat down with his legs crossed and hands naturally on his legs. He kept his eyes slightly closed. After a short while, he recovered his composure. He didn’t know why, but he calmed down faster than before.

After calming down, Zhang Tie started to form an abacus in this mind according to the skills he learned from . This was the most important step and was the foundation of . After forming the abacus in his mind, he could make quick mental calculations. If you had to ask for a single line to explain the principle of , it would be the following: Replace your hands with your consciousness, use the abacus in your mind. That was all.

What made Zhang Tie puzzled was that the book required him to form a golden abacus in his mind. It should be brilliant. However, the reason for it was not mentioned. Zhang Tie couldn’t figure it out and neither did he feel like exploring it. He just felt like it was just the way it was supposed to be.

According to , Zhang Tie should imagine the abacus from outlines to details and from simple to complex. He should firstly imagine a rectangular abacus frame, then a horizontal beam within the frame, and then three vertical beams, which represented the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations within three-digits. When the entire image is stabilized, he started to imagine the upper bead between the first vertical beam and the farthest left frame, then the four lower beads between the first vertical beam and the farthest left frame. After that was the upper beads between the second vertical beam and the first vertical beam. Next was the lower beads between the second vertical beam and the first vertical beam, followed by the upper beads between the third vertical beam and the second bead. And then the lower beads between the third vertical beam and the second vertical beam...

The first time, the moment he imagined the upper beads between the first vertical beam and the farthest left frame, the entire image in his mind broke apart...

The second time, the same thing happened...

The third time, he finished imagining the first lower bead between the vertical beam and the farthest left frame...

The fourth time, he finished the second lower beam between the first vertical beam and the farthest left frame...

……

Even Zhang Tie didn’t know how many times he had failed. After another four attempts, the poor abacus with three vertical beams was finally imagined successfully and seemed stable. What’s 125 plus 579? Spinning his brain, he moved the beads to the right places on the abacus in his mind, and it turned into a readable number — 704.

What’s 18 multiplied by 39? He recited the formula and moved the beads to the correct places… 702!

What’s 987 minus 789? He recited the formula and moved the beads to the correct places... 198!

Zhang Tie laughed out loudly. He was happy and tested it a few more times. As a result, he could calculate in his mind on the abacus faster than before. How about 56 multiplied by 29? He recited the formula and moved the beads to the correct places. The golden abacus shook and suddenly disappeared in his mind.

Zhang Tie opened his eyes. As the last calculation result surpassed the domain between the three vertical beams on the abacus, the image exploded like a steam boiler that couldn’t handle the high pressure.

“The book was really valuable,” Zhang Tie reconfirmed its value. He never thought that he could gain such a treasure.

“Alas, what time is now? If dad and mom returned, it would be bad!” abruptly remembering it, Zhang Tie quickly stood up. He made no preparation, and neither confirmed whether his spiritual energy had recovered. With eyes closed, he locked onto the door between his brows with his consciousness and said to himself, “Exit” ...

The next moment, Zhang Tie appeared in the washroom room of his courtyard. Along the light of the oil lamp, he saw that the door of the washroom was still locked. He heaved a deep sigh. If his parents came back and found him not there, and yet the washroom was locked from the inside, they would shout from outside the door. If they got no response, the door would have long been kicked open. He opened the door of the washroom and slid out to look around. It was only 11 pm, the gate of the house was still locked from the inside. Thankfully, they hadn’t returned.

Standing in the pitch black courtyard alone, Zhang Tie stared at the stars in the sky. He patted his chest and comforted himself, “I’d better be more careful when I access the Castle of Black Iron. If this happened again, my secret might be found by others. I’d better learn to save my spiritual energy.” Zhang Tie reflected, but then suddenly became still. “How could my spiritual energy recover so fast?”