Castle of Black Iron

When Zhang Tie came back to the tree with the mining basket on his back, he found that Barley, Doug, Hista, Bagdad, and Sharwin had already returned. As Leit was on duty for the second half of the night, he was tired and was currently resting under the tree.

Once Zhang Tie saw the listless faces of Doug and Sharwin, he realized that the five must have obtained nothing at all. For several green birds who lacked experience, catching prey for the first time was pretty unlikely.

Sitting under that Dragon-Claw Tree, they turned around and saw Zhang Tie’s ugly mining basket.

“You’re really going to be a miner?” Barley asked.

“Of course, look at my equipment. Oh, I encountered Glaze’s group near Wild Wolf Castle today!” Zhang Tie said.

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, the rest became nervous.

“Did they give you trouble?” Leit asked.

“They dare to push around our brother? Let’s go and find them to settle the score right now!” Doug directly picked himself up from the ground, intending to go get his weapon.

Zhang Tie hurriedly pressed down on Doug’s shoulder. “They didn’t bully me. Actually, it was me who bullied them a bit!”

“You bullied them!?” Barley cried out. “Did you wound them?”

“No!”

“Then what happened?”

At their request, Zhang Tie told them what had happened between him and Glaze’s group in the square. Hearing that Glaze’s group were chased out of the square as people threw wild vegetables and fruits at them, all the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood laughed out loudly as they rolled here and there on the ground.

Hista had even laughed so hard he began to tear up. “Haha! That’s too marvelous, truly too marvelous! I really want to see their expressions at that moment!”

“For several men to use wolf hides to make love, that’s too disgusting, too dirty! But, I like it. Hahaha...” Bagdad slapped his thigh.

“Bighead, I really haven’t seen though you. Usually, you look very innocent. I would never have imagined that you would do something like this. This move of yours is truly vicious! I’m afraid Glaze’s group wouldn’t be able to find any girls who would be willing to partner with them for this survival training. Haha! I’ve decided. In the future, if I get into a similar incident, I will use the same trick to deal with those annoying guys! This trick is cooler than slapping their face, and also lets me vent a little!” Hista obscenely smiled, causing both his eyes and his mouth to turn into arcs.

The group of brothers laughed for a long time before they, one by one, stopped smiling and got down to business.

“Take care of yourself. After this incident, I’m afraid Glaze’s group might take revenge on you more fiercely!” Seeing Zhang Tie, Barley seriously said. “Perhaps for you to be working in the mines over there is a good choice. The mines over there are not too far away from Wild Wolf Castle, and there are always people going and coming over there. Glaze’s group of four wouldn’t dare to recklessly look for you to give you trouble. However, whenever you are alone in the wild, they might try to plot against you. That Zuhair guy is definitely a poison snake who can come up with many vicious tricks!”

Zhang Tie casually shrugged his shoulders. “Forget them. Even if today’s incident didn’t happen, their group of four wouldn’t have let me off anyways. Let’s talk about something else. How were your harvests today?”

The ones who went hunting today all spread their hands with the palm side up. “Don’t mention it. We saw some preys, but before we even caught up to them, they had already escaped...” Sharwin helplessly said.

“And those wild wolves… They are too cunning. It won’t be easy at all for us to catch them. Trying to capture a boar, Bagdad almost fell into a ravine...”

“There were too many people hunting over there, so many of the prey were already scared away!”

“Bringing the “Iron Gate T21” over there is also a good option, but it’s too heavy. If we bring it with us, it’ll affect our movement. This weapon can only be used at a fixed location!”

“That’s right. Today, we met a guy who was very powerful and brought with him a bow. In just an afternoon, he was able to hunt two wild deer. From his looks, he shouldn’t be weaker than Glaze!”

Hearing their words, Zhang Tie could already imagine what they had experienced this afternoon. It was really miserable for them.

“Oh right, how was your harvest today?” Barley asked Zhang Tie as he stared at the mining basket with a slight frown. “Is there something inside?”

Hearing Barley’s words, Zhang Tie patted his head, realizing that he had forgotten that he had not yet put down his mining basket and took out the goods from within.

“I almost forgot. Tonight, I will invite all of you to drink fish soup!” Zhang Tie generously smiled...

Hearing the word “fish”, everybody’s eyes began to shine. Even in Blackhot City, fish was very expensive, and they could only eat it a couple of times a year, let alone here.

“Although you caught a fish, I’m afraid it might not be enough for the seven of us...” As he spoke to this point, his eyes almost popped out because Zhang Tie had put down the mining basket and removed everything inside, revealing three big fish wrapped in water weeds. Although more than twenty minutes had already passed since they were put in the mining basket, they were still alive. The moment they were placed on the ground, two of the fish were taking deep breaths as they flopped on the ground, while the other fish jumped once. Besides Barley, the other horny animals also stared with wide opened eyes, as they realized that the three fish together weighed at least 7-8 kg, which was enough for everyone to eat.

“Grab them. We’ll clean them in the stream over there. After we remove their scales and innards, we can boil them in the pot...” Zhang Tie hurriedly grabbed the most lively fish, while the other two fish were consecutively grabbed by the other two drooling, horny animals.

Barley had also grabbed one of the fish. When he saw the golden line on the back of the fish, he exclaimed, “No way! It’s a golden threadfin bream!”

“You know this fish? We can’t eat it?” Zhang Tie became worried. If these fish couldn’t be consumed by humans, he would be mocked and called a big head by the others.

“Haha! This is the best freshwater fish we can enjoy in Blackhot City. Brothers, we will have a luxurious supper tonight...” Barley laughed out loudly.

Hearing Barley’s words, everybody cheered up. After realizing that they would have fish to eat tonight, the depressed guys immediately became spirited. Just for a few fish, they began to delicately distribute the work that needed to be done. Some boiled water, others added firewood to the fire, while the others killed the fish. All in a sudden, the tree base was brimming with joy. While cleaning the fish in the stream, Doug made a mistake and let the fish slip out of his hand. The moment the fish into the water, it had tried to swim away. Thankfully, the stream was neither wide nor deep; it was only about 20-30 cm in depth. After the collective, hasty efforts of a few people, they were finally able to capture that fish. Although most of their clothes had been soaked, they all still felt very happy.

“Don’t throw away the innards. Cover them with tree leaves and leave them to me. I will use them!” Seeing that Leit was about to throw them away, Zhang Tie hurriedly stopped him and grabbed some large tree leaves to wrap the innards of the fish.

“This stuff can’t be eaten. Why do you want to leave them?” Doug curiously asked.

“We can’t eat them, but that doesn’t mean other animals can’t!” Zhang Tie showed a mysterious smile...

……

After being cleaned, the golden threadfin breams were cut into pieces and placed into the pot with boiling water. Sharwin fetched a hand full of wild pepper and sprayed them inside along with a bit salt. Soon after, when the water in the pot was boiling again, the aroma of fish soup drifted out from the pot, causing everyone to drool. The color of the fish soup had turned into a milky color. When the others saw it, their appetite greatly increased, and they all forcefully swallowed their saliva.

Everyone greatly enjoyed this supper. Every one of them hated for it to end as they all licked their bowls clean. Three fish were used to cook the pot of soup, and in the end, not a single drop of soup or a single piece of fish was left. That golden threadfin bream was truly delicious. With the exception of Barley, this was the first time the others had eaten something this delicious.

After eating to their fill, everyone sat around the campfire and chatted. To sate their curiosity, Zhang Tie told them everything about trapping the fish, including the principle behind it and the location. Hearing that Zhang Tie could easily capture fish with such a method, every member’s mouth gaped.

As he moved the firewood under the huge pot to improve the roasting of the pine cones, he imparted to the others his method of trapping fish. He had buried those pine cones under the ash from the firewood. Once firm pine cones were heated, they would expand and thus expose the pine nuts inside. Zhang Tie picked a well-roasted pine cone and threw it to Doug. Drooling, Doug opened the pine cone and started to chew on the pine nut as he mumbled:

“Bighead, so to say, does this mean that even if you don’t do anything, you would still be able to easily get 1 kg of food every day?”

“Haha, if I get less than 1 kg of fish a day, then it will belong to me, but if I get more than 1 kg of fish a day, then I will share the rest with you guys. It isn’t just me who has enough food, but everyone!” Zhang Tie explained as he smiled. “Actually, I think we should still think over it. There are still many kinds of hunting methods. For example, Glaze has a powerful fighting force, so he directly catches his prey. There’s also that bowman that you guys saw. He’s extraordinary at archery, so he uses his bow to shoot his prey. Then there’s Burwick. I heard that there are many people around him, so he takes advantage of their large numbers to catch prey. We can definitely learn from them. If we want to gather food and catch prey, then we have to use our strengths. None of us brothers could match Glaze when it comes to fighting strength, and neither could we match the number of people by Burwick’s side. Since we are new here, we need to take some time to adapt to the environment and accumulate experience. I think we can take advantage of the time the others are using to adapt to the environment to try out some special methods!”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, everybody’s eyes began to shine.

“What do you think is the best method for us to use to hunt prey?” Leit asked.

“Others are using archery, their fighting strength, and the advantage in numbers. How about we try laying traps?” Zhang Tie suggested...