Castle of Black Iron

“You really don’t need my help?” Blues seriously asked Zhang Tie after they arrived at the target place. Only after one day and eating Zhang Tie’s dried meat slices two times, Blues had already started treating Zhang Tie as his friend.

“This is the resentment between the two beasts and I, so I have to kill them by myself!” Zhang Tie revealed a smile. “Don’t worry, they were just two fish escaping from the net!”

Seeing that only six lances were left in the container, Blues nodded aware that Zhang Tie had already killed five wild wolves before. He didn’t say anything more. After all, people who dared to try the loner’s survival training should never be afraid of two common wild wolves even if they could not stand such a living environment for a long time.

Even if a LV 1 warrior would never be afraid of two wild wolves. After chatting with Zhang Tie yesterday, Blues had learned that he had already been a LV 1 warrior when he was in Wild Wolf Castle. Judging from his real strength, Blues felt that Zhang Tie was much more powerful than a LV 1 warrior. Therefore, he didn’t ask too much. Neither did Zhang Tie explain anything. After all, people all had their own secrets. Even if they were friends, they didn’t have to pour out everything.

“Watch out for yourself!”

“Fine, we’ill separate here, hope to see you again!” Zhang Tie smiled at him.

“Will you go to the Crescent Prairie after dealing with your things here?”

“Maybe!”

“I met four students from your school in the area between Wild Wolf Valley and Crescent Prairie. One tall guy among them was very sharp. If you want to compete for that recommendation chance with him, you need to do something!” Blues warned Zhang Tie out of kindness after a moment’s consideration.

In Blues’ school, as he was already a LV 2 warrior who excelled in archery, Blues was the most powerful and well-known person who nobody could match. Naturally, any recommendation chance would fall to him.

However, the situation in Zhang Tie’s school was much more sophisticated. In Blues’ eyes, that guy he had met in the area between the Crescent Prairie and the Wild Wolf Valley might be more powerful than him, which meant that that guy would be a most terrifying opponent for Zhang Tie.

Hearing Blues’ words, Zhang Tie’s heart pounded. He was almost certain that it was Glaze’s group. He had never expected them, who had disappeared about one month ago, to be brave enough to try the Crescent Prairie.

He asked some more information about their group, and earing Blues’ description, Zhang Tie was really shocked since he said that he had seen them fight a LV 3 sword-teeth lizard and even win.

Did it mean that Glaze had improved a lot in the past month? This was not good news to Zhang Tie. Thinking of Glaze’s vicious eyes, his heart sped up its beating.

“The sharp guy you had seen is Glaze. There’s a resentment between him and me. The three lackeys of his are Zuhair, Garner, and Sharlon. If you meet them again, be careful. They’re both selfish and vicious!”

“Fine, I will!”

After several more words, the two departed their own ways. Blues walked towards Wild Wolf Castle while Zhang Tie went to find the two beasts.

The place where Blues had led him to was less than 2 km away from the mountain cave where they had hidden in last night. It was a hillside covered with pine trees and cypresses in Wild Wolf Valley. Zhang Tie had already noticed this place yesterday from afar, yet he had never imagined that the two wolves could be here. The hillside was less than 13 km away from Wild Wolf Castle, a bit closer to the mountain cave than where Zhang Tie had taken shelter from rain. That day, Blues had seen the two wolves move behind the hillside and disappear. So he guessed that the two beasts lived there.

Holding a lance, Zhang Tie started to search over the hillside.

Because of yesterday’s heavy rain, the land near the hillside was muddy. Everything looked refreshed. Plants became more verdant, and the air became unprecedentedly fresh.

When Zhang Tie arrived here in the early morning, the rain drops on the weeds were yet to dry. Using the lance, he swept the weeds to clear a path while glancing over the wolf-den like mountain caves and soil caves in the woods and the hillsides. Less than 10 minutes later, Zhang Tie’s trousers had almost been fully soaked by the raindrops on the weeds and other vegetation.

He felt that the two wolves were right here, and he could definitely find them today. Besides, from the two wolves’ eyes, he also believed that the two beasts were looking for him.

It wasn’t a big hillside. After less than 20 minutes, Zhang Tie suddenly smelt a faint odor of rotten meat which was completely different from the surrounding fresh air of the woods. The smell disgusted him. Driven by curiosity, he moved to where the smell was coming from. More than ten steps later, he found the origin of the smell of rotten meat - a hidden mountain cave behind several cypresses 30 m away from him.

It was unknown whether because of the loud noise of his footsteps or some other reason, the moment Zhang Tie saw that mountain cave, a wolf with a circle of brownish red fur and a defected ear walked out of the mountain cave. Being alert, it glanced in the direction where Zhang Tie stood. Soon after, their eyes met and turned red with resentment.

Making a terrifying sound in its throat, the wolf crouched down and exposed its sharp canines. When that wolf released a terrifying growl, its companion rapidly ran out of the mountain cave. They both became alert. After glancing over the surroundings, they confirmed that nobody else but Zhang Tie was here. In a split second, they fixed their glares on him, eyes turning red.

‘F*ck’, Zhang Tie swore inwardly.

He was still confused as to why they glared at him so. He could never think make it out when had he angered them. A doubt was born in his mind that the wolves here were mad. Were there mad ones even among wild wolves? Zhang Tie didn’t know if it was true, but he knew that the two wild wolves had to die today.

“This father is the victim, don’t you know...” Zhang Tie angrily shouted out at the top of his lungs. Before the two wolves could charge at him, he had already surged forward, towards them.

The great disparity between Zhang Tie, a LV 2 warrior, and the two wild wolves, which had not even reached LV 1, determined that the battle of life or death would come to an end in an extremely short moment no matter how big the resentment between them was.

Seeing Zhang Tie surge towards them, the two wolves also rushed forward. However, that moment, Zhang Tie threw his lance. As a result, as fast as a lightning bolt, it directly penetrated through the heart of the second wild wolf and nailed it to the ground, the arrowhead burying itself one foot into the ground.

The front wolf, which had a defected ear, didn’t stop due to its partner’s death. It didn’t escape either, instead, it sped up towards Zhang Tie without any hesitation. Jumping up from the ground, it stretched its claws towards his chest while its sharp canines aiming to bit his neck. That wolf was trying his utmost to do harm to Zhang Tie.

Nevertheless, Zhang Tie didn’t even dodge. He just stretched out his hands and caught the wolf’s claws. With a sound of ‘Ka Cha’, the pair of forelimbs of the wolf were broken, causing it to whimper in pain. Closely after that came another sound of ‘Ka Cha’, which instantly stopped the transient yet painful whimper. This was because after breaking its claws, Zhang Tie pushed its jaw upwards, breaking the neck.

He completed that series of movements fast and without any mistakes. If Captain Kerlin had seen this, he would have raised his thumb to praise him.

Zhang Tie was successful this time because he had fought against the three wild wolves numerous times in the Trouble-Reappearance Fruit during the past days. Countless deaths and constant pain had made his skills of fighting wild wolves to be practical and ferocious.

He loosened his grip, and the last dead wolf fell onto the ground with a sound of ‘Pa Ta’.

The whole process took less than four seconds.

After the last wolf was killed, Zhang Tie felt that the stone suspended in his heart was finally removed. He became fully relaxed and would never have to worry about the two beasts finding trouble with people beside him anymore.

After doing this, Zhang Tie intended to leave. However, the stimulative smell from inside the mountain cave triggered his curiosity again, making him confused as to why the two wolves would live in here.

After thinking for awhile, Zhang Tie covered his mouth using his sleeve and pulled the lance that had nailed the other wild wolf out of the ground. With lance in hand, he bravely entered the mountain cave, aiming to check out what had happened inside.

It was full of dead wolves, big and small. The corpses had already rotten, and were covered with worms. After a quick glance, Zhang Tie judged that they were killed by people. One puppy’s head was even stomped on. After checking the place where the puppy was killed, Zhang Tie found a clear footstep which was half an inch in the ground. It was a huge. He compared it to his own and found that the footprint was at least three sizes larger than his.

The inside of the cave was very disgusting, so after glancing over it as fast as possible, Zhang Tie intended to exit. However, before he exited, his eyes became solemn. He bent over to pick up a rag. Holding it, he immediately walked out of the cave.

After he was far enough away from the disgusting wolf den, Zhang Tie took several deep breaths. However, when his eyes fell onto that rag, his face gradually turned solemn...