Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie didn't know how long had he slept. When he opened his eyes, he felt agile and energetic both mentally and physically like waking up from a nap in the order of his mom at weekends when in Blackhot City.

He got up quickly and put on his clothes. After that, he left the only 2-storey cabin in Castle of Black Iron.

Zhang Tie found it was already afternoon.

With a smile, Heller saw Zhang Tie walking out of his cabin.

"Did you sleep well, Castle Lord?"

Zhang Tie forcefully swung his arms as he felt that all the pains had relieved, "How long have I slept?"

"36 hours!" Heller replied precisely, "I had kept Castle of Black Iron in the state of darkness so that your preliminary recovery body could help you recover faster. With the help of all-purpose medicament, although just being 36 hours, your recovery effect was equal to 1 week's recovery effect of commoners!"

Looking at those old scars over his arms, Zhang Tie kept silent. "At the critical moment, my preliminary recovery body would always take effect greatly. I've done really right by setting earthworms free." Zhang Tie determined that after he reached his target in Ice and Snow Wilderness, if Hanna's family didn't fulfill the appointment, he would go to Blapei once again and set free earthworms himself. If it improved to medium recovery body, it would have a greater effect in saving his life. "Besides Blapei, I could also inquire whether people in other places also breed earthworms. I can set free more earthworms at the same time so that I could update to medium recovery body as soon as possible."

At the sight of Heller's respectful and solemn look, Zhang Tie became embarrassed.

"Erm...I will take care next time. I've not imagined that b*stard could attack me with his secret weapon before I escaped to the riverside!"

"Even though an earthworm or an ant has its special feature, not to mention a LV 10 strong fighter. Facing such a great opponent, the safest way is to boom him into pieces with your javelin after eating enough seven-strength fruits. Additionally, to be honest, although you've already selected a way to escape, the river is indeed far away from where you hunt those iron-teeth hyenas. Facing such a great opponent, I suggest you to narrow the safe distance within 3-5 km!"

Zhang Tie accepted Heller's suggestion modestly. This crisis was the best warning for his excessive confidence. Zhang Tie thought that Dawson could not catch up with him with the help of rapid moving skill; therefore, he dared to hunt iron-teeth hyenas at a place far away from the riverside. Additionally, he felt that he could enter Castle of Black Iron at the critical moment. Furthermore, he was not using his true name and face. Even if he had been seen by Dawson, he could change his look. In this way, Dawson could never find him. However, Zhang Tie had not imagined that he almost bid farewell to Castle of Black Iron in this crisis.

"Heller, which secret weapon did he use to strike me? It's very sharp! How could it influence my spiritual energy? I could not have it back in over 10 hours!"

"That's a rune weapon. Besides weakening your battle Qi, it could make your spiritual energy unstable and void. If not having eaten so many Iron-body fruits, it might have penetrated through your body! You have to especially take care of yourself when you encounter him next time!"

Iron-body fruits reminded Zhang Tie of something instantaneously, "I should have some new seven-strength fruits after killing so many demon rats!"

"Why not take a look?" Heller smiled.

Zhang Tie hurriedly rushed towards the small tree. At the sight of it, Zhang Tie bounced happily.

"Ha...ha...That's great! Crisis brings me bliss..." Zhang Tie burst out into laughter as he danced like a lunatic. He found 8 seven-strength fruits in shape of demon rats were hanging over on the small tree. They were so cute! "I'm rich..."

"Although demon rats are not as powerful as wild wolves or iron-teeth hyenas, this kind of mutated rats are huge. They are not weaker than a common dog. Additionally, this animal could not match wild wolves and iron-teeth hyenas on speed and agility. Therefore, the seven-strength fruits of demon rats must contain such special features."

Like how he obtained the ability to run constantly at a high speed after eating wild wolf's seven-strength fruits, "I should be able to improve my abilities on some special aspects with these seven-strength fruits."

"Castle Lord has killed 367 demon rats in total. Therefore, there are 8 demon rats in total, 7 of which have been ripe and edible..."

Hearing Heller's explanation, Zhang Tie hurriedly rushed towards that cabin on his side.

Seeing this, Heller was startled, "Castle Lord, what are you going to do?"

"I will find a rope and kill all the other demon rats outside in case of more dangers. I remember that those demon rats lived in a nearby mountain cave!"

...

So many items were piling in the cabin. Zhang Tie searched over them for a short while before found 2 pioneering kits which he bought in Blackhot City. After opening 1 of them, Zhang Tie found what he needed, an iron claw and a rope longer than 60 m.

After fastening the rope on the iron claw, Zhang Tie left Castle of Black Iron and reappeared on the stone in the middle of the pond in a split second.

Although it was daytime outside, Zhang Tie could barely see any light. Because of the vapour from all the ponds, a thick mist had formed above the serene valley. The rolling mist gradually faded away covering the whole sky and making it a cloudy day.

The corpses of demon rats were still floating over the pond. Only after one more day, Zhang Tie had already smelt a vomiting odor due to the high temperature here.

Holding his breath, Zhang Tie started to observe the surroundings. He noticed a bulged rock on the cliff being not far from the bank. There were so many cracks around the rock, where he could have his iron claws on. Therefore, he threw his iron claw towards there immediately.

Although it was over 50 m away, the iron claw hit the target right away. The opening angle bar had firmly tucked into the cracks. Holding the rope, Zhang Tie swung himself forcefully and fell on the ground steadily after flying over dozens of meters' of water.

After putting away his rope and iron claw into Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie took out his double-carp sword and walked in a nearby mountain cave.

If those demon rats lived in smaller holes, Zhang Tie could only wait here; however, as they lived in that mountain cave, Zhang Tie didn't care to take a look inside.

The mountain cave was about 3.5 m in height. Some twigs were lying disorderly at the entrance. Because of the poor light outside, the inside of the cave became darker. Being daytime, Zhang Tie could still barely see inside with his naked eyes.

Zhang Tie revealed a faint smile as he injected some spiritual energy into his eyes. Right now, the dark vision started to take effect. Everything in the mountain cave became bright.

He then entered the mountain cave. The inside space of the mountain cave was pretty large. Amazingly, Zhang Tie found that it was very orderly inside. Someone seemed to have lived here before. There was a pond on the plain ground. Furthermore, Zhang Tie even saw some stony stages and a stony table over 20 m away from the mountain entrance.

"Someone lives here?" Zhang Tie's heart pounded as he held his double-carp swords tightly. Under the curiosity, Zhang Tie started to fumble towards the deep inside.

When he came in front of that stony table, Zhang Tie touched it and found the dirt over it was 1.5 cm in thickness. Seeing this, Zhang Tie knew that someone might have lived here before. However, the people had left for a long time.

Walking upstairs, Zhang Tie continued to dig deep in. Only after a few steps, he had encountered a demon rat. At the sight of Zhang Tie, it instantly uttered a shrill sound, "Zhi...zhi..." The sound of the demon rat drifted far away in the quiet mountain cave. Hearing this warning, all the other demon rats in the cave started to reply, causing the mountain cave noisy right away. The squeaks grew louder and louder.

Along with a sword Qi, a 6-m long agile golden carp struck past that demon rat, cutting it into two halves at once.

Having been totally recovered, Zhang Tie could easily deal with all of them with double-carp swords.

A great number of demon rats poured out of the deep inside. There were hundreds more. After seeing their public enemy, their eyes turned pretty red. No matter how they identified Zhang Tie, from his look or through his special odor, the moment they saw Zhang Tie, they charged towards him immediately, aiming to engulf Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie responded with a smile...