Castle of Black Iron

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It was always heard across the Wild Wolf Castle that Archer Blues had an eccentric personality and liked to move alone. Before encountering him, Zhang Tie also thought that the gossip was true; however, after encountering him, he found out that Blues was just a bit more introverted and was not good at human relationships, yet he was not bad. Although he was not good at speaking, as long as the topic was what he liked or knew, he would always feel pleasant to communicate with. One of such topics, for example, was how to face a loner’s survival training.

Blues imparted many experiences about loner’s survival training to Zhang Tie. For example, many people thought that people who completed loner’s survival training would drift around casually like the wind. But actually, it wasn’t true. Real loners always had fixed bases. Especially 20 km away from Wild Wolf Castle, loners’ moving radius would not be over 5 km away from their base.

During survival training, loners should firstly find a safe base instead of prey. Especially for students attending this survival training who had poor strength, it was of great significance for them to find a safe base where they could have a good night’s sleep. This was almost the key point for a person to complete his loner’s survival training.

After fixing the base, the loner should find a few more bases based on this one. This way, the loner could constantly expand his moving radius. Therefore, the public opinion that loners all chose to stay wherever they wanted was actually a misunderstanding.

“If we casually chose bases like what the public thought, we, Lv 2 or Lv 3 warriors, at most would hardly stick to three days in the wild. If you didn’t fix a base before you moved, even if you were lucky enough not to meet any high-level beasts who might kill you, how would you sleep at night?

“You have to be alert when you sleep, however if you cannot sleep well for three consecutive days, your spiritual energy will be exhausted, and your physical strength and ability to respond would decline. If you continued your loner’s survival training in this state, you would commit a chronic suicide. If you didn’t have a fixed base before moving, you would definitely become sick overnight in such a heavy rain. You could not stand that state for a long time...”

After hearing Blues’ experiences, Zhang Tie realized how stupid he was to sleep on the stones in the wild. He thought all loners acted like that, but it wasn’t so. According to Blues, he should have firstly went to find a base after he started the loner’s survival training yesterday, instead of seeking the two beasts which had caused him to have no place to stay in the evening.

What he did yesterday was mostly dangerous and stupid. At the beginning, Zhang Tie had thought that it was a bit of a waste of time to seek for a base so meticulously, but he soon realized that it was actually the most time-saving and efficient way to seek for a base before moving. The more safe bases he could found, the freer he would be. No matter where he was, he should in one hour be able to reach a safe place to take a rest and recover physical strength as well as escape from such a bad weather. Only in this way could he constantly proceed with his loner’s survival training.

When he spoke, Blues even used a twig to draw a map on the ground and told of all the proper bases that he had found in the Wild Wolf Valley to Zhang Tie, enabling him to take a rest in the nearest one. Blues had prepared dried grass and wood in all the above bases. If Zhang Tie had to take a rest in these bases, he was only requested to supplement the dried grass and wood after consuming them in case Blues needed to use it later.

“Do you usually go to the Crescent Prairie alone?”

Given Blues’ tone, Zhang Tie became curious.

“These days, I’ve been wandering in the area between Crescent Prairie and Wild Wolf Valley. Compared to Wild Wolf Valley, Crescent Prairie is more dangerous because it has more wild and magical beasts. Additionally, wild wolves there are always in packs of dozens, or even hundreds of individuals. There are also huge wolves, golden wolves, huge boas, sword-teeth lizards, horn crocodiles, man-eating vultures, and various LV 3, LV 4, and even above LV 5 mutated magical beasts in the Crescent Prairie. Do you know gold-eating boas?”

“Yes, I do!” Zhang Tie nodded.

“Due to the remaining smell of the super magical beasts like gold-eating boas in Wild Wolf Valley, magical beasts above LV 2 don’t dare to draw near to it. When you are in the area between Wild Wolf Valley and the Crescent Prairie, if you meet some beasts that you cannot deal with, you just run into Wild Wolf Valley as fast as possible. Without any special reason, those magical beasts above LV 3 would never follow you in. When you arrive at the Crescent Prairie, you will find that the entire Wild Wolf Valley is our safe area...”

“So why did you come back today?”

“I don’t know why, but yesterday, many people flowed into the Crescent Prairie, many of which were low-level pioneers seeking golden wolves and goose-neck grass. I heard that Blackhot City released a mission, and someone was purchasing the two items at a high price. Six gold coins for one grown-up golden wolf and 80 silver coins to two gold coins for one goose-neck grass. I went to supplement some necessities back in Wild Wolf Castle before returning to the Crescent Prairie to take a chance!”

Golden wolf was a LV 2 living being which was more valuable than other LV 2 living beings. It was valuable because of the following three reasons: first, capturing one alive would be many times more difficult than killing one. The most valuable part on a dead golden wolf would be its fur, which was about dozens of silver coins. Second, there were other higher level magical beasts in the Crescent Prairie which meant other potential dangers when you tried capturing golden wolves there. And third, the lords in Blackhot city became anxious since Samira had messed it up.

They needed these items. Realizing that they could not save their gold coins anymore, they released missions again and let those people who wanted to make money to make their way there at the risk of losing their own lives. The prices weren’t high, only average.

From this, it could be seen how bad Samira was. He had only provided one gold coin to those idiots for one golden wolf and one goose-neck grass, ignoring the life or death situations they migh encounter. That was really a dark-minded man...

Zhang Tie estimated that Blues had not been back in Wild Wolf Castle for many days and might not know what had happened around it, so he told him all about it, including the crisis facing Blackhot City and what had happened to Samira’s Business Group. The latter had not surprised Blues a lot, however, the sudden crisis facing Blackhot City and the sharp deteriorating situation in Andaman Alliance really shocked him for quite a while. It was similar to how the others had responded upon hearings this particular news.

After learning about it, Blues became a bit lost. He then became silent, seemingly thinking about something.

“Sometimes, personal strength is limited and cannot solve all the problems. I have several good brothers back in Wild Wolf Castle. If you have any trouble and need any help, you can go to them. Just tell them you’re my friend, and they’ll definitely help you...”

Zhang Tie then told Blues of where the tree house was situated and the names of the other members of the Brotherhood. He even told him the name of Peter who was working in the Iron Melting Workshop.

He did all this because he liked this guy named Blues and felt that he was a good man. That was karma between people. As for Burwick, no matter how good he was described or how well he did, Zhang Tie just could not feel comfortable around him, instead being unable to wait to stomp on his head ferociously.

In contrast, Zhang Tie felt that Blues was similar to the other members of the Brotherhood and those guys in the Iron Melting Workshop like Peter who were easy to get along with even if they had only met for a short time. At least he was not afraid of being set up by him.

Therefore, Zhang Tie concluded that most people admired by others were not good. Look at Burwick for an example, he was sunny, handsome, open-minded, generous, and had leadership in others’ eyes. However, in truth, he was just a person who only wanted to climb upwards by playing tricks and stepping on others’ heads. In fact, he usually thought about making profit of sacrificing others.

On the other hand, Blues was known as a guy who was arrogant and an indifferent loner. However, he was actually just a social recluse who had few friends and was a bit introverted. He didn’t shut himself off at home but in the wild. Zhang Tie guessed that this guy must have used that to practice his archery to this level.

As for Zhang Tie himself, how was he known in the Wild Wolf Castle? Love Saint or Accosting Expert? Or a scumbag and beast in Miss Qili’s eyes. But God blessed him. When the other students attending this survival training had bid farewell to their status as virgins one by one, Zhang Tie himself was still one. He had not even circumcised. If he was called beast and scumbag, Grandma Teresa would be the first person to disagree. So would the brats in the Orphanage.

Maybe the only one who was similar to how he was described in gossip was Glaze.

Therefore, when he hid in this mountain cave, Zhang Tie came to a conclusion that could influence the rest of his life - before you testify it by yourself, you should not easily trust in others’ gossip about someone. Some gossip might be true, however, some others might be completely opposite.

A man kind-hearted in people’s eyes might be an extremely vicious villain in reality, a god’s pious servant in gossip might be extremely lecherous in reality, an arrogant man might merely be introverted, while a bad guy who was known to indulge in making love to many women might be a coy virgin and an able youth who sent rice soup to an orphanage by tricycle each week.

If so, then what if well-known terrifying old virgins like Miss Qili were thirsty women who deep in their inner hearts extremely desired for a man’s love, concern, the battle and conquest? What if they truly hated men, being afraid of them and awed at the same time? What if they were truly jealous about boys being kind and intimate to girls?

Or they might only be a group of poor women who didn’t know how to seduce men or express their desires. Being icy might be their disguise to test out their man’s dedication and give vent to their inner dissatisfaction? What if someone praised them as beautiful and enchanting women or bravely gave them a Pandora-type hot kiss when seeing them next time?

Zhang Tie was suddenly startled by that thought...

But to tell the truth, Miss Qili did really have a pair of long and sexy legs!

It didn’t stop raining until late night. Because it was already so late when the rain stopped, Zhang Tie gave up on his plan to find the two beasts during the night. Instead, he patiently waited for daybreak.

On the second morning, after putting on the dried clothes and his package, Zhang Tie asked Blues to lead him to the place where he had seen the two beasts.

It was time to end the resentment between him and those beasts...