Castle of Black Iron

With a crispy sound ”Pah...” on Huwen’s back, Huwen uttered a shrill cry. At the same time, a bloody mark appeared on his back even being covered by his shabby clothes.

The rock almost fell from Huwen’s hands. Zhang Tie, on his side, hurriedly stretched out one hand and took it steadily.

”You b*tches, don’t dream about killing time. Hurry up. Clean out this region...” the slave supervisor swore loudly while standing on a piece of rock, ”If not find those escaping b*tches for me, all of you have to keep working here till death...”

Zhang Tie turned around and threw a glance at that slave supervisor. The slave supervisor instantly slashed Zhang Tie while glaring at him, ”Brat, if you look at me one more time, I will dig out your eyes...”

Zhang Tie trembled. However, that whip was nothing serious for Zhang Tie at all. Over the past one month, Zhang Tie had eaten three more iron-body fruits after being hammered constantly by the crew members of the Idiots. Now, Zhang Tie felt that his strike-resistance ability had intensified a lot.

Zhang Tie could stand being whipped when in Heavens Cold City, not to mention now. The penalty which was unbearable for others was just like being patted by flyswatter for Zhang Tie.

It was not the right moment to argue with these scumbags. Zhang Tie didn’t speak as he just lowered his head and continued to pretend to forcefully carry that 50 kg’s rock and dropped it off that slope over there like the others.

”Thanks...” Huwen drew in a cold breath.

The two people walked to that slope and dropped it off there. Huwen threw a glance at that slave supervisor in the distance and that guy didn’t pay attention to them; therefore, he stealthily took out of a kettle from his clothes and passed it to Zhang Tie, ”Drink some, it’s already over 10 hours, but you’ve not even drunk a bit...”

”Thanks, I don’t need it...”

”Ah, you’re really strong...” Huwen threw an admiring look at Zhang Tie as he rapidly opened his kettle and had a small mouth of water. After seeing some human captives, who wore human teeth, walking towards them, he hurriedly hid his kettle and continued to walk towards that pile of rocks in the distance with Zhang Tie.

Those human captives who wore human teeth walked towards here with some smaller rocks. Although they were also doing labor work, they could have some special treatment. Sometimes, they could even take a rest. Additionally, those slave supervisors would rarely slash them.

”Stay away from these people...” Huwen whispered to Zhang Tie when those guys who wore human teeth passed by, ”They have started to eat human fleshes and become wild beasts. As long as they could survive, they would do anything. Once these people become slave supervisors, they will treat us more acrimoniously than demons...”

Zhang Tie nodded. As long as some people succumbed to evil, they would be the accomplices and thugs of evil. They would further show the dark side of their personalities. Demons and b*stards of Three-eye Association had been used to classify human captives and make them fight each other so as to weaken their own fighting strength.

Under the intensified ruling of slave supervisors, human captives had been working over 10 hours. However, they still didn’t find any hidden underground tunnel or ground crack. Zhang Tie found that all the demonized puppets had rushed into those dark caves to seek for those missing human captives.

Zhang Tie knew that they could never find those missing people in the underground space. This was a good news for Zhang Tie. At least it meant that nobody had found what he did.

As demonized puppets left in large groups, the camp of demonized puppets became relatively vacant. Before leaving here, Zhang Tie had determined to give those b*stards of Senel Clan a surprise.

...

Fiery mushroom looked like an average mushroom on the ground. Being red all over, the fiery mushroom was like a little scarlet umbrella. In this underground space, especially those wet and backlit places such as the gaps between rocks, as long as the conditions fit, they would sprout from underground in 1-2 days.

Previously, there were too many fiery mushrooms in the underground space; now they gradually disappeared. The most important reason was that human captives would pick up all the fiery mushroom regardless of their size. Even those fiery mushroom which was not ripe yet had been picked up, causing them to lose the ability to reproduce anymore.

One hour later, after moving a piece of rock, Zhang Tie saw a red canopy in the soil.

Before Zhang Tie moved, Huwen and the other human captives on one side had already charged at those fiery mushroom and foisted them into their mouths. Huwen also crammed one in his mouth and started to chew it hurriedly. By the way, he passed one to Zhang Tie.

”Hurry, eat it...”

Watching them engulfing the fiery mushroom, Zhang Tie also put one in his mouth after a second. It tasted as bitter and cold as unripe bagasse.

”You b*stards, keep doing your work...” seeing the chaos over here, a slave supervisor instantly rushed towards them with a kurbash and slashed them crazily.

...

After another 7-8 hours when above 80% of human captives didn’t even have the strength to walk no matter how crazily they were slashed by slave supervisors, the bitter labor work finally came to an end.

Although many human captives escaped, which infuriated those people of Senel Clan, in order to keep the rest human captives alive, they had to let them take a rest after gaining no achievement.

Zhang Tie then returned to a mountain cave with over 40 human captives including Huwen. Lying on the ground, they could only pant.

The others didn’t care about having one more person inside the cave. It seemed that the population here always changed.

Zhang Tie felt these mountain caves were like underground cells in Blackhot City. The air in the cave was polluted and smelt weird. Some red lights of lava river were reflected on top of the inside of the cave, causing a little brightness in the cave.

After resting for a while, some people who had recovered some physical strength struggled to fumble out of the mountain cave to seek for food. Some of them took out some weird, dried food from their clothes and started to eat them.

Watching a person on his side forcefully chewing a mouse’s tail, Zhang Tie almost vomited.

After resting for a while, Huwen also left the mountain cave. He then fetched a bottle of water from a water source outside the cave.

Huwen also went out to find some food. When he came back, given his look, Zhang Tie knew that he had gained nothing. Thankfully, he had eaten some fiery mushroom several hours ago and didn’t feel hungry now.

Zhang Tie felt the fiery mushroom which tasted like bagasse started to ferment and expand in his stomach, making him feel full. However, he didn’t get too many nutrients.

”Peter, do you think there’s indeed a secret tunnel or ground crack here?” Huwen asked Zhang Tie.

”Maybe!” Zhang Tie replied briefly, ”No matter what, they had left out of here!”

”If we find any clue, never expose it...” Huwen whispered.

Zhang Tie nodded as he stared at him.

”We could find a fewer fiery mushroom and edible things here. I wonder whether we can survive tomorrow!” Huwen said in a pessimistic mood.

”You don’t believe that you could survive on?”

”Unless being demons’ lackeys and wild beasts who eat human fleshes, nobody else could leave here.” Huwen urged as he took out of a small piece of black-brown thing to Zhang Tie, ”I prepared it for myself. As I’ve got one, you can take this one!”

”What’s this?”

”An arrow-poison mushroom. I found it several days ago by chance. It contains extremely toxic muscarinic substance and a hemolytic toxoid. As long as you eat a small piece of it, you will die in a few minutes. Additionally, after you die, your corpse will also contain the extremely toxic substance. Those beasts will not eat your corpse. Therefore, you could remain complete after death. When you have to die, take one bit of this, and you will suffer less pain.”

”How do you know that?” Zhang Tie asked Huwen out of curiosity.

”I was a botanist...” Huwen revealed a bitter smile.

Zhang Tie took that dried thing and rubbed it into pieces in front of Huwen before blowing them off...

”You...” Huwen glared at Zhang Tie.

”I promise, you will not have to use this, neither will I!”

”How?” Huwen watched Zhang Tie like watching aliens.

”Do you believe in miracle?”

”Miracle had died since we were taken in here!”

”Perhaps, when you open your eyes after you fall asleep, you will see a miracle; you should never lose your hope and dream!”

”Sleep, save some strength for tomorrow...” Huwen let out a sigh as he huddled up on the ground.

Zhang Tie also laid there. After swallowing some all-purpose medicament and water from Castle of Black Iron, he silently closed his eyes to recover his physical strength and spiritual energy. Meanwhile, he filled those god’s runes in his mind so as to maintain his optimal state. He then just waited for most of them to fall asleep...