What made Zhang Tie so eye-catching was that there was a swollen bump on his forehead.
All the other guys were surprised about the bump on Zhang Tie's forehead. They had seen people being cramped, drowned, beaten by sea serpents, and being stung by sea urchins which caused their legs to be swollen to the size of their waists, but they had not seen a single person coming out of the sea with a bump on their forehead.
"What's up with that bump?" Wei Wu asked Zhang Tie out of curiosity when he saw Zhang Tie smirking from time to time although having a bump on his forehead.
"I swam too fast and hit a rock at the bottom of the sea." Zhang Tie answered honestly.
Hearing Zhang Tie's words, everybody else exchanged glances with each other and burst out laughing. Wei Wu laughed so heavily that his belly even cramped, "Aiyo[1], I wouldn't have imagined that you are that funny..."
How fast would a person have to swim to hit a rock in the sea? The reason was really awkward despite being very humorous.
Everybody thought that Zhang Tie didn't feel like telling the truth and therefore fabricated a reason. After laughing for a while, the other guys didn't ask him anymore.
Zhang Tie then also laughed as their responses were within his expectations.
After exchanging the navy-blue iron ores for 15 silver coins in the Hidden Dragon Palace, Zhang Tie immediately left the Palace without eating supper.
If he went to the fish market after supper, it would be too late for him to buy sand-scale fish as many booths would have been closed by then. Therefore, Zhang Tie directly went to the fish market.
Today, Zhang Tie came to the fish market in the wharf several hours earlier than that yesterday. The fish market was several dozens of times more boisterous than the day before.
All the booths were still in business in the fish market. Many people were trading near the places where the fishing boats were anchored on the wharf. There were so many passers-by over the wharf, making it very lively.
Dozens of sea products were sold in the fish market, such as marine fish, sea cucumbers, sea shrimps, sea crabs and sea snails. There were 7-8 kinds of shrimp in different shapes and sizes. Zhang Tie could only identify 5-6 kinds of sea products among them, even including sand-scale fish that he learned of yesterday.
For Zhang Tie who was born in Blackhot City and had been familiar with markets from a young age, of course, the boisterous atmosphere of the fish market brought him a sense of nostalgia.
Zhang Tie walked through the fish market in an agile manner as he glanced at the booths on both sides one after the other. After a rough circle around the fish market, he became thrilled as he found 10 more booths that sold sand-scale fish. Each booth would sell this kind of worthless fish more or less in barrel or basin.
At the sight of this scene, Zhang Tie didn't hesitate anymore as he rapidly walked to the booth where he bought the sand-scale fish yesterday.
"Boss Zhu, here are the stone-tiger fish today, I've prepared them all for your hotel...ha, as we're familiar with each other, I will just take 20 silver coins from you for 1.75 kg of them..."
The moment that booth owner fished a trade, he had found Zhang Tie standing in front of him.
"Argh, I've got fewer sand-scale fish today, you only need to pay me 85 copper coins for them!"
"No change, 1 silver coin is alright. If you can provide me more next time, I can pay you less." Zhang Tie smiled as he took out of 1 silver coin and passed it to him.
"Ha, little brother, you are so generous. Okay, If I get more, I 'll only ask for 1 silver coin from you next time!" The booth owner took the money as he replied happily.
"Okay, as usual, I will use your barrel for awhile!" Saying this, Zhang Tie had already taken the barrel which contained sand-scale fish.
"No problem, just take it and bring it back to me before I leave."
Zhang Tie nodded as he lifted the barrel with sand-scale fish and ran towards the seaside in the distance. A short while later, after setting free those sand-scale fish, he returned to the booth with an empty barrel. He then bought all the sand-scale fish on the other booths and put them all in the barrel before running towards the seaside and once again set free the sand-scale fish.
Sand-scale fish were really cheap. It took Zhang Tie only 12 silver coins to buy all the sand-scale fish in the booths.
Today, he had set free almost 10 times more sand-scale fish than yesterday. Zhang Tie was filled with pleasure inside. He had not imagined that he could practice in such way.
As so many people were in the fish market, almost nobody noticed a juvenile who lifted a barrel of sand-scale fish and ran here and there. Therefore, Zhang Tie finished his job in public.
After sweeping all the sand-scale fish in the fish market, Zhang Tie sent the borrowed barrel back before heading back to Hidden Dragon Palace. It took him over 1 hour to finish the job. When he returned to the Hidden Dragon Palace, it was supper time in the Zhixing Department.
In the following days, Zhang Tie kept practicing the same way. In the daytime, he would go pick up navy-blue iron ores. After that, he would run to the fish market to buy sand-scale fish and set them free. Each day, he would improve. In the evening, he would practice the movements of Iron-Blood Fish Skill back in the Zhixing Department so as to prepare for forming Iron-Blood Battle Qi.
After setting free sand-scale fish, the Fruits of Redemption improved Zhang Tie's ability day by day as his cold-resistance and sensitivity towards water flow increased day by day...
1%——11%——18%——36%——45%——57%——65%——72%——81%——
When his physical abilities increased, Zhang Tie became more adept at using the direct transportation ability of the Castle of Black Iron in the sea. It was becoming increasingly simpler for Zhang Tie to take a breath in the sea. Additionally, he could better use the counterforce as a driving force to swiftly move in water. Especially the second skill, Zhang Tie had almost forgotten the original intention of this skill was to increase the basic energy storage of the Castle of Black Iron. He started to practice this skill purely by regarding it as one of his abilities.
When Zhang Tie swam through the deep sea every day, the Iron-Body Fruit on the small tree in the Castle of Black Iron riped rapidly. After eating this Iron-Body Fruit, Zhang Tie obviously felt the effect of the Iron-Body Fruit——before eating it, Zhang Tie could already dive to a depth of almost 100 m; after eating it, Zhang Tie could easily break through 120 m in the sea on the second day.
The deeper he dived, the greater the pressure from the seawater he would have to endure, which increased the tempering of Zhang Tie's body and a faster growth speed of the Iron-Body Fruit. As a result, the newly growing Iron-Body Fruit could allow Zhang Tie to challenge deep seas.
Zhang Tie's cultivation then started to enter a benign circulation.
Taking the sea as a hammer and taking himself as iron. Zhang Tie formed a generous mood in his mind. Each night when he practiced in a Trouble-Reappearance Situation in his room, Zhang Tie would set a target for himself to challenge the life limit in the ocean by losing his life once. After Zhang Tie experienced the endless coldness, darkness, pressure and finally lost his mind due to "death" in the sea each day, he would feel as though he was being reborn the next day he woke up. By then, he would gain a wholly new self, who would have less fear about the ocean.
During these days, the news on his bet with the others had spread in the Hidden Dragon Palace. They were all wondering who dare to bet with 300 gold coins that he could definitely form the Iron-Blood Battle Qi, which was the secret fighting skill of the imperial households of Norman Empire.
Everybody, after hearing this news, would feel that Zhang Tie must be mad. But Zhang Tie was not mad; instead, he performed as normal as usual. Therefore, the eyes of the surrounding people became strange.
Along with the bet was Zhang Tie's two comments on girls in Hidden Dragon Palace. The first comment was——all the girls were born to be narrow-minded and crazy. The second comment was——boys had 12 zodiacs while girls only had 1, their zodiac is a spinning top. With the two comments and Zhang Tie's previous performance which was exaggerated among girls mouth by mouth, Zhang Tie had completely become the public enemy of the girls of the Hidden Dragon Palace in less than two weeks.
These days, when he ate in the canteen, Zhang Tie had already felt girls in the Zhixing Department were showing the whites of their eyes in a killing intent. When Zhang Tie poured out the two "famous comments", many boys who went to pick up navy-blue iron ores in the Iron Ores Beach had heard them. Therefore, Zhang Tie didn't know which bastard had spread his comments into the girls' ears to make the situation worse.
'F*ck!' Zhang Tie could only swear inside.
This morning, when Zhang Tie cleaned his mouth and washed his face and headed for eating breakfast, he was blocked by a great number of girls by the entrance of the canteen.
They looked so furious. The moment he saw them holding him back on the way and glaring at him with eyes as sharp as knives and arrows, Zhang Tie's heart instantly pounded as he knew that they must come here to find him trouble.
"Zhang Tie, we have something to you about. Are you brave to answer us!" A level 6 elder sister who looked 1-2 years elder than Zhang Tie walked towards Zhang Tie and put it straightly in a cold manner.
Zhang Tie carefully glanced over that plump girl and estimated that the size of his breasts was 34D. He then forcefully swallowed his saliva and showed a righteous expression.
"I'm sorry, I've not accepted so many girls' proposal for very long time. I've not imagined that although being that low-key, I am still that eye-catching. As I'm paying all my attention to cultivation and learning, I have no time to care about love affairs. Please bury your words in your mind like burying a beautiful and fragrant seed. Don't say it out loud. Please take it as a beautiful memory of your youth, how about that?"
In a split second, the girls became really dumbfounded by Zhang Tie's words. Soon after that, their cherry faces turned pale...
[1] Aiyo, when one's belly cramps, he will utter that sound, "aiyo".