Castle of Black Iron

In the next couple of days, Zhang Tie didn’t obtain anything else, neither from that small tree nor the Wild Wolf Valley. His luck seemed to have been used up.

Since saving Bonder’s group by killing five huge wolves, and one common wild wolf, Zhang Tie had not met even one wolf in the Wild Wolf Valley for two consecutive days. Though he met other kinds of animals, such as boars, hares, pheasants, argalis, and pangolins. He even saw a fat water badger swaggering not far from him. However, Zhang Tie didn’t kill them as he was focusing on the Wild Wolf Seven-Strength Fruit, which was not even half ripe. Besides, since he had sufficient food supplies, there was no need to kill them.

Zhang Tie would never kill animals for no reason. Even if it was very easy for him to kill them—as told by his mom—he would not kill them because it was not necessary.

He could improve his strength by killing wild wolves; however, he could get nothing from killing the weak animals, even if that boar could pose a threat to him.

Several days ago, Zhang Tie had killed a huge wolf. As told by Donder, Zhang Tie had shredded its leg meat. After smoking the pieces on a pile of burning half-dried pine twigs for an entire afternoon, he hung them at the entrance of the mountain cave to dry them up.

Donder had told him that if he had no sufficient salt and spice to deal with meat, he could keep it fresh longer by smoking and drying it. Zhang Tie then tried it and testified that it was true. To tell the truth, that smoked meat of the huge wolf tasted special really and nice. Like dried meat that had been dealt with, Zhang Tie could eat these pieces directly by cutting them off. Therefore, he had enough food. What he really needed were wild wolves.

One month since the survival training started, in order to obtain more food, the other teams were becoming braver than before and were gradually venturing farther away from the Wild Wolf Castle. As a result, wild wolves’ living space narrowed step by step. The number of wild wolves was also decreasing. So it became more and more difficult to hunt them. From the beginning of the survival training to now, Zhang Tie estimated that over 1000 wild wolves had been killed by people. Even if Will Wolf Castle was filled with them before, people could hardly see any now.

Because it was more and more difficult to hunt prey, the second month of the survival training was the most testing period to the students. Thankfully, Zhang Tie had left enough food for his friends to survive the rest of the training.

Compared to food, Zhang Tie feared more about Glaze’s group since they might find Barley and Pandora trouble. Such a mean, vicious, and powerful guy was the most dangerous one.

Blues said Glaze was even more powerful than a golden wolf. Zhang Tie assumed that perhaps Glaze had hidden his real strength to a certain degree at school. Otherwise, he must have broken through in this survival training. Generally, he preferred to regard Glaze as LV 3 warrior. He should not view him as a LV 2 warrior any more.

Zhang Tie knew that others would also make progress, not only he alone. Nobody would remain unchanged. Even if Sharlon, Zuhair, and Garner, the lackeys of Glaze had ignited their Shrine burning point one day, Zhang Tie would not be surprised about it either.

Never imagine your enemy as kind as you; never imagine your enemy as the same one that you have always known. If you violated that law, it would be very dangerous for you.

Similarly, whether Glaze’s group had known that one day after he would ignite the second burning point on his spine and became a LV 3 warrior?

Therefore, after staying in the No.2 base for another two days, namely one day before the latest Leakless Fruit became ripe, Zhang Tie made an important decision—marching to the Crescent Prairie.

This morning, after the sun set up, Zhang Tie carried his luggage and arranged his equipment before leaving that mountain cave on the cliff.

It was a sunny day with white clouds all over the sky. Based on his meticulousness as a loner and the experience that had been imparted by Blues, Zhang Tie had already explored the road last afternoon and had found a new base for himself in the border between the Wild Wolf Valley and the Crescent Prairie.

As he walked forward, the terrain of the valley became increasingly broader. At the same time, the hills inside the valley gradually became sparse, the highland in the valley also became lower. As if pressed down by an invisible hand over the valley, the shrubs and arbors that Zhang Tie could see also became increasingly lower and fewer.

In contrast, the amount of herbal plants gradually increased. Later, with the exception of a few shrubs among great patches of grasslands and hills, and the two high ranges extending from the valley, he could not even see a single tall arbor in the valley anymore. All this reminded Zhang Tie that he was still in the Wild Wolf Valley. However, the increasingly lower mountain ranges told him that he would exit Wild Wolf Valley not in the not too distant time.

Such broad terrain was most dangerous to birdies who were still warriors [1]. They could hardly escape from beast attacks since the surroundings provided little to no places to aid in escaping or hiding.

Because of this, Zhang Tie mainly chose to march along the mountain slope in the southeast of the Wild Wolf Valley. Road on the mountain slope was bad. Compared to the road in the valley, it would take him more time and strength to finish the same distance, but here one could easily find dangers in advance.

When in dangers, one could have more terrain to make use of. What made one most reassured in the simplest way was that although no tall arbors could be seen in the valley, there were still some on the mountain slopes, which could work as the best shelter for one to escape from dangerous beast attacks.

Zhang Tie had practiced climbing trees many times these days.

On the way, Zhang Tie also saw some caves made by gold-eating boas. However, compared to the amount of them surrounding the Wild Wolf Castle, the closer it was to Crescent Prairie, the fewer caves of gold-eating boas there were, indicating that they posed weaker threat to other wild beasts and various mutated living beings. In other words, more dangerous living beings would exist outside. Not only dangerous living beings, even if the amount of common wild wolves would gradually increase.

Naturally, the prairie was the hunting field of wolf packs!

On the way, due to perfect vision angle from the mountain slope, Zhang Tie saw more and more wild wolf packs in the valley far in the distance, 2-3 at least, 10 at most. This made him highly spirited. He felt that the first ripe Wild Wolf Seven-Strength Fruit was greeting him.

‘All the strength of a wild wolf!’ Zhang Tie already heavily drooled inwardly.

“Help...ah...”

When Zhang Tie was less than 1 km away from the base that he had chosen after trekking for an entire morning, a wind from Crescent Prairie brought a shout for helps and groans into Zhang Tie’s ears. In the beginning, he thought it was just his imagination since he had not met a person the entire morning. But several steps further, Zhang Tie heard the voice once again. This time he realized that it was not his mind playing tricks on him, but a real voice coming from up ahead.

“Hel...p...”

Zhang Tie immediately pulled out of a lance from his lance container. Bowing his body, he became careful and walked forward stealthily. Less than 20 m ahead, he saw the guy who was seeking help in a weak voice.

At first sight, that guy was lying on the ground, but Zhang Tie didn’t go there. Instead, he squatted down and carefully searched the surroundings to confirm that there were no traps or ambushes set, and that the guy was not pretending to be wounded. Only then did Zhang Tie stood up and ran towards him.

Since he was born, Zhang Tie had seen many unlucky guys. However, this one today must have the worst luck of them all. Even Doug was not this unlucky. How bad did one’s luck have to be that he would step onto a bear trap set by another person.

On the grassland at the foot of the mountain ahead, a pioneer was lying on the ground while a basin-sized bear trap was gripping his left shin. As a result, bloodstains could be seen everywhere on the ground and his trousers. Some of them being from that unlucky guy, while the rest were from two wolves lying dead on the ground.

Zhang Tie walked over and found that guy was still with closed eyes, face as white as paper. He was at the edge of spiritual collapse, only having the last breath to say ‘help...’ using all his efforts and groan once in awhile.

Firstly, Zhang Tie checked the blood stains on the beast clip and his wounds. Judging from the dark blood stains and gore, Zhang Tie knew that it had happened more than ten hours ago. That unlucky guy’s shin was directly broken by the bear trap, while the two rows of saw teeth were tightly biting into his flesh. At the sight of the wounds, Zhang Tie was really shocked.

After checking his wounds, Zhang Tie moved his eyes onto the two dead wild wolves. After simply touching their stiffness, Zhang Tie only gained more proof for his initial thought—this unlucky guy was lying here since last night.

Zhang Tie could even imagine what had happened here at that time—that guy must have wandered into the Wild Wolf Valley last night out of some reason and absent-mindedly stepped onto such a disgusting bear trap. As a result, he fell down and screamed miserably, which attracted the two wild wolves. Thankfully, he killed them. After that, he just lay on the ground overnight. Fortunately, he was still alive until now, although only with the last wisp of breath.

Zhang Tie looked around and found nobody else. That guy just lay there alone. At the same time, some black points were flying high in the sky, eagles or vultures.

If he didn’t save him today, this guy would hardly live through tonight. He might be eaten before dusk. On the way here, Zhang Tie had seen more than one wild wolf wandering around. Judging from this guy’s current situation, he would definitely be killed by another attacker, whoever it was.

“Hel...p...” almost in a coma, that guy mumbled once again. Wordless, Zhang Tie scratched his head and glanced at that 20 or so years old face again. He then thought back to how his mom had cried at the sight of the photo of his eldest brother and sighed. ‘I will help you...’

After taking off his luggage and lance container, Zhang Tie put them on the grass to the side and carefully helped that guy sit up. He kept the stranger’s upper body straight and let him sit close to his legs. After that, he carefully took away the dagger from the guy’s hand. He didn’t want to be scratched by accident when the guy regained consciousness. If that happened, he himself would be the most unlucky guy.

After one night’s struggle and losing a great amount of blood, that guy looked like white paper, and his lips were covered with white rips like crops that had not been watered for several years. Lifting him up with one hand, Zhang Tie took off his kettle from his waist and opened its lid. He then moved that kettle close to that guy’s mouth and let him sip a mouthful of water.

The water inside the kettle originated from the quality mountain spring in the Castle of Black Iron. This was the best water that Zhang Tie had ever drunk since he was born. It was crystal clear, sweet, and smooth. From the moment he drank a mouthful of this kind of water, he had kept drinking it the past few days.

Only ten seconds after sipping a mouthful of water, that guy’s vitality and instincts seemed to have been reawoken. He started to murmur out of consciousness, “Water... water... water...”

Zhang Tie then slowly fed him more, afraid of him suffocating if he took too much. After drinking several mouthfuls of water, the guy’s throat started to quiver. Then, he started to drink faster. Not until he finished drinking half of the water in the kettle did Zhang Tie move it away from his lips, waiting for him to recover his physical strength and consciousness.

Only after one minute, did this guy finally open his eyes. After glancing at Zhang Tie, he immediately closed his eyes. More than 10 seconds later, he opened his eyes once again. Meeting Zhang Tie’s eyes once again, he slowly uttered in a hoarse voice, “Thank you...”

Seeing that guy recovering his consciousness a bit and already knowing that Zhang Tie had helped him, Zhang Tie finally let out a sigh. If he could wake up, everything could be easily dealt with. Besides opening his eyes, judging from his raising chest, this guy could also breathe a bit more smoothly now. So his life might have been saved.

Like teachers had said, water was really the source of life which could never be replaced. Without water, no living beings could survive.

Letting him sit against his leg, Zhang Tie planned to let him recover his physical strength for a bit.

Only after two minutes, the guy seemed to have recovered some more.

“Do you have some more water...”

Zhang Tie then passed his kettle. This time, the guy could already hold the kettle by himself. While he was gulping down the water, Zhang Tie flicked the kettle at the guy’s waist over. The empty sound drifted in his ears, making him speechless again—what an unlucky guy! After finishing drinking his water, he then stepped onto a bear trap, and had struggled for the whole night. No wonder he was so thirsty.

[1] One is a warrior until LV 6. After that, he would be a fighter, then a knight.