Castle of Black Iron

No matter whether one was being chased by wolves or a group of people, especially when it included some LV 3 and LV 4 individuals, it would still not be a pleasant feeling. Seeing the distance between him and the other people behind him gradually narrowing, Zhang Tie was forced to use all the strength he could muster as a soon-to-be LV 2 warrior to escape.

Like a gust of wind, Zhang Tie, while carrying the mining basket, rushed towards the ore collection center below Wild Wolf Castle. At the sight of Zhang Tie dashing forward, a couple of people at the ore collection center hurriedly asked, “Zhang Tie, what are you running for?”

“Washroom!” Zhang Tie’s voice reverberated from afar.

After Zhang Tie was more than 50 meters away from them, several bodyguards who were responsible for the safety of the Samira Business Group arrived and shouted loudly, “Catch that thief! That guy ahead of us is a thief! Hurry up, catch him!”

Closely following the bodyguards of the Samira Business Group was a group of students with a great sense of righteousness. In this fashion, a great number of people rushed by the ore collection center.

“This is bad! I have to go report to the teachers of the Temporary Supervision Committee and tell them that something is happening here!” Noticing that something was amiss, a student who was acquainted with Zhang Tie told the others what he had to do before rushing towards Wild Wolf Castle.

F*ck, is that brat’s zodiac a rabbit? How could he run so fast? The group of LV 3 and LV 4 Samira Business Group warriors who were chasing Zhang Tie became shocked at his speed. Zhang Tie’s speed was nothing like the speed a normal student should have; however, no matter how fast Zhang Tie could run, there was still a sharp difference between him and the other LV 3 and LV 4 bodyguards. The distance between them gradually shrunk from 100 m to 50 m, then 50 m to 20 m...

Gritting his teeth, Zhang Tie kept dashing forward as he cursed inside, “F*ck, when I am powerful enough, I will definitely stomp you bastards to death one day!” Seeing the mining cave in front of him, Zhang Tie became excited as he increased his speed and directly rushed into the mining cave.

The sinister smile on the faces of the bodyguards of the Samira Business Group, which were becoming more and more pronounced, suddenly froze when they saw Zhang Tie drilling into the mining cave in front of them. Without any hesitation, they also hurriedly followed him in...

As Zhang Tie had gone inside this mining save several times over the past few days, he was extremely familiar with the paths inside. This time when he rushed inside, he didn’t have time to ignite a torch, so he simply stretched out his right hand to get a feel for the wall and quickly moved based on his memory without showing any signs of having slowed his steps.

Because the bodyguards of the Samira Business Group who were following him were not able to see in the darkness and were unfamiliar with the topography inside, after traversing a bit more than 20 m inside the cave, the man at the foremost front had already hit his head on the wall in a corner of the cave and made a shrill shriek.

“Quickly find a torch! Quickly find a torch! It’s too dark inside! We can’t clearly see him. The brat ran into the hole...”

Hearing the shrill shriek and the furious voice behind him, Zhang Tie, who slightly slowed down his steps, showed a trace of a cold sneer. Damn. You guys wanted to set me up, so this father will frame you back!

The path inside this mining cave was very long and was about 1 km in length. After running for about 100 m, when Zhang Tie no longer heard the voices behind him, he searched for a torch in his mining basket. After igniting it, he continued to run inside to the place where he usually mined ores and was able to hear the “crack crack” sounds made by the hoes hitting the walls. When he finally reached the mini cave on the side, he put out the torch and heavily gasped for air.

At this moment, darkness was truly the color which could protect him the most.

Zhang Tie heavily panted for roughly two minutes. After recovering his composure, Zhang Tie hurriedly closed his eyes and locked onto the mysterious arched door in his mind before entering the Castle of Black Iron.

……

Within the Castle of Black Iron, it was bright and warm everywhere...

——Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord, welcome to the Castle of Black Iron!

The same dialogue box with the same greeting appeared, but this time, Zhang Tie was not in the mood to read it in the least and instead poured out all the contents of his mining basket onto the ground. As expected, a delicate purse made from deer hide was found. As he took out the purse, Zhang Tie opened it and gave a casual glance at the contents inside. At the sight of more than 20 shiny gold coins and a handsome amount of silver coins, Zhang Tie laughed out loudly.

Throwing the purse into the sundry box, Zhang Tie thought about it twice and decided to swap his dagger with the one that Donder had gifted him. Heaving a deep sigh, he exited the Castle of Black Iron.

……

More than 10 minutes later, a great number of brilliant flames poured into the underground mines, causing it to turn particularly bright. At the sight of the burning torches, Zhang Tie sneered and began to mine for ores inside his own mining hole in the same rhythm as usual. It was only when the bright group of torches arrived at the mouth of his mining cave several minutes later did Zhang Tie put down his iron hoe. Tightening the grip on the dagger on his waist, he walked out of the hole calmly with a burning torch in hand as if nothing had happened.

“Ahyaya, what’s going on? Why are there so many people digging in the mines here today?” Looking at the burning torches moving inside, Zhang Tie looked pretty shocked and exclaimed.

“Brat, we finally caught you. Obediently let us arrest you!” said a man with a blue nose and a torch in hand. It was as if he had been ferociously punched by another person.

“What do you mean by ‘obediently let us arrest you’? Who the f*ck are you? I am mining here as usual, so why are you telling me to ‘obediently let us arrest you’? Zhang Tie gave a strange look before suddenly cursing loudly and ferociously.

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, the faces of the men with the burning torches in hand suddenly twitched.

“Brat, you’re still going to argue? Just now, it was obviously that you were the one who had stolen my purse. We chased you from the square of Wild Wolf Castle all the way to here, yet you’re pretending that nothing has happened? Everyone here could testify for us!” another guy with a burning torch in hand said. This was exactly the person who had bumped into Zhang Tie in the square of Wild Wolf Castle.

“I stole your purse?” Zhang Tie jumped up from the ground. “I could steal your mom, your grandma, your sister, but I would never steal your purse. Although we are not in Blackhot City now, I could still report you to the Temporary Supervision Committee for slander!”

“Don’t talk crap with him. Just take him down first!” said the guy with the broken nose.

“Who the hell dares to touch me!?” Zhang Tie instantly pulled out the dagger from his waist and ferociously glared at the people who wanted to move forward, causing them to be startled. They never expected Zhang Tie would use his weapon to fight back. After pulling out his dagger, Zhang Tie changed his expression and shouted towards the other horny students who had followed them in, “Fellow students, I am Zhang Tie, a student from Seventh National Male Middle School. Since these guys are disturbing my survival training by framing me for stealing a purse and are trying to forcefully arrest me, a bit later, if I stab them to death, then please be my witness. This is the only thing I can do to protect myself. Is there any brother among you that could help me go fetch the Temporary Supervision Committee!?”

Some students who had followed them in the hole immediately became flustered. “Aren’t we here to capture a thief? Why does he look so confident?”

“Didn’t you steal a purse in the square just now? We heard their shouts to capture a thief, so we followed them in. If you weren’t the one who had stolen the purse, then why did you run?”

“I had a stomachache just now and needed to go to the washroom. That’s why I quickly ran back just now...” Zhang Tie explained as if it was true.

Seeing the “fact” having deviated so much from the “script”, the group of people from the Samira Business Group became anxious, and one of the men had surged forward towards Zhang Tie and placed his hands onto Zhang Tie’s shoulders, aiming to directly take Zhang Tie down.

Seeing that guy confidently attacking him, Zhang Tie’s eyes flashed with an icy glint. Instead of retreating backwards, Zhang Tie moved forward and directly stabbed his dagger towards the throat of that person as his blade shone in a shiny, icy light.

Including all the other miners and the other bodyguards of the Samira Business Group, Zhang Tie’s move had startled everyone. Such a move was truly sharp and ferocious. With his eyes fixed on that person’s throat, Zhang Tie’s move was extremely fast and precise. This simple set of gestures and basic dagger training were something that he had learned at school and was used with a sense full of unspeakable sharpness, braveness, and valor. The series of consistent moves could never be completed by a normal student; it was similar to the moves used by a veteran soldier on the battlefields who have been used to fights where one move would determine life and death.

The moment Zhang Tie moved, the face of the bodyguard from the Samira Business Group who had tried to take him down twitched. Zhang Tie’s reaction reminded him of the master sergeant that had taught him how to fight when he had just joined the army. Any move and fighting skill used by that master sergeant would be both aggressive and frightening. At this critical moment, that bodyguard had no time to change his move. Reluctantly, he lowered his body with his face facing the sky, resulting in a sharp breeze from Zhang Tie’s dagger closely flying over his forehead...

Such a series of risky moves made everyone else exclaim...

“Watch out...”

Soon after the exclamations of the onlookers, Zhang Tie didn’t pull back his right hand and had instead surged forward in front to the center of that person, using his left hand to complete a Hammer Punch, a skill from the Iron-Blood Fist Skill repertoire, onto that person’s stomach.

Hammer Punch was a very powerful skill that turned the impact of a punch to be one akin to a blow from a hammer.

With a sound of a “Bang!”, the man, who was off balance, was hit and was sent flying three meters back before falling onto the ground at the place where he had started his attack on Zhang Tie.

All of a sudden, the entire mining cave became extremely silent; at this moment, even the sound of a needle falling onto the ground could be heard. Aside from the “Zi Zi” sounds that came from the burning torches, nothing else could be heard. Everyone was staring at Zhang Tie with wide opened eyes as if they had seen a ghost. Among the onlookers, there were even some who couldn’t believe their eyes and began to rub their eyes to make sure that what they had just seen was true. “Was what we saw just now real? How could a student attending the survival training beat a Samira Business Group bodyguard, who’s at least LV 3, and send him flying backwards? Are you kidding me?” The onlookers couldn’t believe their eyes., and at the same time, Zhang Tie also became slightly excited, as the moment he fought back against the bodyguard, he had realized that what he had practiced in the Trouble-Reappearance Fruit had finally shown its effects. It seemed that the dagger training he had done at school over the past three years had greatly improved after repetitive practicing in the Trouble-Reappearance Fruit. The moves that could only be described as normal were now ferocious and an applicable fighting skill. Luckily, what he could do in the Trouble-Reappearance Fruit could replicate in reality...