Chapter 76: Achievements
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
Zhang Tie's actions were fast and had enough strength. He was also the first to act. In contrast, the three girls were weaker and were slower to act. As the difficulty of picking pine cones was higher than peaches, they were on even grounds. There were at least 70-80 pine cones on the tree. Not intending to show even the slightest bit of courtesy, Zhang Tie's two hands, which were as nimble as a monkey's, grabbed the bigger ones. Seeing Zhang Tie's attitude, the girls, one by one, began to grit their teeth. Although the pine cones they got were smaller, what irritated them more was this annoying guy, who ignored their charm, as he grabbed the pine cones in front of them, treating it as a big deal.
Seeing the two parties moving faster and faster and becoming increasingly more ferocious, Wood, who stood to the side, touched his head and became really speechless. It seems that he finally knew why Zhang Tie had been kicked by that girl. He was not like a gentleman in the least when in front of girls—he completely deserved it!
After a short while, under their collective efforts, all the pine cones on the tree, with the exception of the last, medium-sized pine cone that hung on a twig, were picked off. At the same time, Zhang Tie and that blonde-haired girl both stretched out their hand, intending to grab it. The instant the girl's finger touched the pine cone, it suddenly disappeared right in front of her eyes; Zhang Tie had directly broken the twig, snatching the pine cone away.
Watching Zhang Tie slowly remove the twig from the pine cone and casually throwing it into the ugly mining basket on his back, all three girls stood up and glared at the ruthless guy, Zhang Tie, who lacked any traces of being a gentleman.
"What's your name?" The blonde-haired beauty glared at Zhang Tie. "If you offend us, you will be the enemy of us, the Rose Association!"
"I'm Zhang Tie..." Seeing the angered look on the three girls, not knowing why, Zhang Tie felt the discomfort in his heart disappear and arrived a certain conclusion—if one was not feeling well, one could transfer their discomfort onto others, and thus immediately allowing the self to feel better.
"Good, I've remembered you!" After she finished speaking, the blonde-haired girl wanted to leave.
"You better not miss me..." Noticing that they were leaving, Zhang Tie hurriedly shouted.
"Hmph… Hmph…" A girl with freckles on her face raised her chin and gave a proud smile. "You rude guy, it's already too late for you to apologize to us. We from the Rose association are not that easily bullied!"
"No, I think you misunderstood. My meaning was you better not miss me, and especially do not dream of doing those disgusting and terrifying things to me in your dreams when you miss me!"
Hearing Zhang Tie's words, the girls gaped as their faces turned pale. After glaring at Zhang Tie and calling him a bastard, they turned around and immediately left...
Zhang Tie realized that his heart finally felt refreshed. This depression transfer method was really useful.
At this time, Wood, who was standing by the side, raised his thumb towards Zhang Tie. "Brother, I think I understand now…"
"What have you understood?" Zhang Tie curiously asked.
"My mom had told me that what men were afraid of the most was being unable to leave an impression in the mind of the woman they liked. For a man to succeed, if they could not cause the woman to fall in love with them at first sight, then the best alternative was to make that woman hate them during the first encounter. A woman's heart is very miraculous. Even though they might hate you at first, they might very well fall in love with you later. Weren't you using this method?" Seeing Zhang Tie's shocked expression, before Zhang Tie was even able to open his mouth, Wood hurriedly stopped him and patted his shoulder. "No need to deny it. We are both men. I understand!"
...
Afterwards, working together with Wood for another two hours, they were finally able to divide the pine tree into three sections. Zhang Tie obtained more than 250g of pine resin and more than 10 kg of firewood, which were enough to make five or six torches. Zhang Tie put them into his awkward mining basket and left the forest of pine trees.
...
While Zhang Tie was busy chopping the pine tree, Glaze' group had stealthily slid back to their base. Since Glaze felt that he was stronger than the others and wanted to show off, the four of them had set base at a location that was 10 km away from Wild Wolf Castle. The four had set base in a natural mountain cave on a cliff that was 6 m above the ground. In order to enter the cave, they would have to climb down a vine of the tree above the cliff. Although it was far from Wild Wolf Castle, they would not be threatened by common beasts here. This could be considered a decent location.
The atmosphere in the mountain cave was depressing. It was dead silent. This time, Glaze did not lose his temper nor did he shout loudly; instead, he calmed down expressionlessly. However, the more silent Glaze was, the more the other three felt uneasy.
After being silent for a long time, Glaze finally opened his mouth, "Zuhair, if I stealthily enter Zhang Tie's base and chop off his head, do you think there'll be a problem?"
Hearing Glaze's question, the other three quivered at the same time as they felt a terrifying and cruel air from Glaze's calm tone.
"Since the conflict between him and us have been made public today, everyone knows that you want to kill him. So, if you kill him during the survival training, you would be the first to be suspected and would definitely be investigated by the Temporary Inspection Committee. The four leading teachers in the Temporary Inspection Committee are all great and fierce. I also don't know what means they would use to investigate you. If you go kill him, it would be difficult to ensure that you haven't left any evidence!" Zuhair forcefully swallowed his saliva and glanced at Glaze as he chose his words carefully. "Today's conflict was completely out of our expectation. If things went according to our original plan this afternoon, then he would be suffering for the next couple of days. We only need to slightly adjust our original plan, and we would be able to kill him. These past few days, we have already found a wolf den. Luckily, Zhang Tie chose to be a miner alone. Not only is Zhang Tie looking for his own death, but the Gods have even gifted us such an opportunity. He's definitely dead this time. For the next couple of days, I will stealthily follow him and grasp his habits. Afterwards, we can carry out our plans against him!"
"That Burwick should also die. Anyone who blocks my path ahead should die!" Glaze ferociously said.
"That Burwick is more cunning than Zhang Tie. Ever since we arrived at Wild Wolf Valley, he has already made precautions against our revenge. Right now, he has a certain degree of influence and has more than 200 people on his side. These past few days, they have been practicing how to hunt prey. At any time and any place, there would be a large number of people around him, making it hard for us to find an opportunity to kill him. If we really want to deal with him, we will have to think of another way. According to the usual arrangement of survival training in the past years, there would be a competition between students from different schools. If Burwick wants to stand out in the final competition, he has to get a good rank. When the time comes, you just need to find an opportunity to pretend to make a mistake and heavily wound or kill him, but..." Zuhair stopped talking...
"But what?"
"Burwick is already a LV 1 fighter, and he's not much weaker than you. He is also cunning and good at hiding his real strength. If you fight him in the ring, he might find a way to escape."
"Not much weaker than me?" The corner of Glaze's mouth raised into a cold smile. Glancing over the three in the cave, Glaze asked, "Do you think only others will improve or hide their strength, and I will stay a LV 2 fighter forever?"
"Glaze, you..." Sharon showed a face of surprise...
"At most, it will take me two weeks to ignite the second burning point on my spine. Once I do that, I will become a LV 3 fighter..." Glaze's eyes seemed to shine with ghost fire. "In the final competition, I will definitely find an opportunity to kill Burwick. The moment I start to control my own fate, you will also start to control your own fates with my favor..."
They no longer talked about Zhang Tie. Previously, when Zhang Tie went against them at school, Zuhair had already thought up of a fierce plan to take revenge on Zhang Tie during the survival training. After today's incident, they were more determined to take revenge on Zhang Tie. A few of them didn't even think Zhang Tie would be able to defend against their revenge. In their eyes, Zhang Tie was just a rude and brainless, trivial figure who dared to go against them and sought his own death, while Burwick was the one who could really threaten Glaze's position at school. At school, there were even rumors that some teachers thought that Burwick was better than Glaze. Once Burwick found an opportunity to stand out in the survival training, he would be able to obtain a recommendation. Certainly, Glaze would not allow for such a thing to happen.
...
When Zhang Tie with his awkward mining basket finally returned to the trap that he had set in the hidden stream, it was already afternoon. The afterglow from the setting sun started to scatter off Wild Wolf Valley. Seeing that none of the traps he had set in the forest were able to catch prey, Zhang Tie was slightly disappointed.
On his way back, Zhang Tie had paid attention to whether he had been followed by the others or not. During this time, he pretended to be wandering about in the forest. Seeing that nobody was following him, he stealthily slid to that stream.
When he arrived at one side of the stream, Zhang Tie was still somewhat nervous. After all, this was his first attempt. He was not sure that he could capture fish.
After taking a deep breath, Zhang Tie moved away the twigs that sat above the pond. The scene in front of him immediately surprised him. There were eight fish joyfully swimming in the pond, five of which were grass carps. The other three were much longer than a chopstick, and each weighed at least 2 kg. On their jet black backs, one could see two pale golden lines. Seeing all of this, Zhang Tie became really excited...
Chapter 77: Golden Threadfin Bream
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
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...
Chapter 78: Trap Game
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
In any country, region, or time, education would have its natural defects and weaknesses. Education was designed for the interests and demands of the rulers. Since the rulers of Blackhot City required the schools to raise soldiers, farmers, and workers to support the operation of the city, most of the courses at school reflected this; they were related to and taught the basics required for those jobs, thus the students would never have the opportunity to learn to create traps that could capture low-level beasts.
Even in the eyes of many teachers, creating and setting traps was not a skill that was necessary to be imparted at school, as the beasts that could be trapped were just worthless, low-level beasts like tigers and wolves. People above LV 5 could already easily deal with those low-level beasts, even to the point of just tearing them by hand. Therefore, there was no need to set traps at all. If they had free time, it would be better spent in practicing cultivation, striving to ignite as many burning points in their body as possible. Not to mention that hunting was not a skill that was of importance in the eyes of the rulers of Blackhot City. In this age, personal fighting strength was king, while the other skills were not worth mentioning.
As a result of their education, almost no student in Blackhot City, perhaps even in the Andaman Alliance, placed much importance to it. In fact, most of them knew nothing about traps. From Zhang Tie's memories, throughout his entire time at school, it seemed that it was only in last year's survival class did the teacher casually mention that it was sometimes effective to set traps in the wild; however, this was something that few students would pay attention to.
Using traps was something used by those low-level pioneers who explored the wild. Naturally, they would not catch too many people's eyes. Had Zhang Tie not worked at the grocery store, he too would not have learned about traps. Coming to Wild Wolf Valley this time, Zhang Tie realized that he could really put the traps to use here...
If he had not caught those golden threadfin breams earlier, Zhang Tie wouldn't have the confidence to encourage the others to set traps. Those golden threadfin breams made Zhang Tie realize that the knowledge imparted unto him by Donder was rather valuable, at the very least during this survival training. Although they could learn a lot from the education provided in Blackhot City, they could learn much more from outside the high walls of Blackhot City.
In the eyes of the other members of the brotherhood, who had never learned about trapping skills, trapping was a difficult and mysterious skill that would only be used in boring knight novels, where they were all brimming with killing tricks that would frighten people and cause them to be muddleheaded. However, in the end, knight novels were completely fabricated by guys with too much time. After hearing Zhang Tie's explanation, everybody understood. In fact, everybody could grasp a powerful trapping skill——digging a hole! A 5 m deep pit was already able to trap most of the fierce beasts and common animals in Wild Wolf Valley. If any beast falls into the pits, they would become live targets for the brotherhood, as any member of the brotherhood could just use the "Iron Gate T21" that Barley had brought to shoot it to death.
...
As usual, Zhang Tie woke up a bit later than 6:00 am the next morning. The entire Wild Wolf Valley was still fast asleep, with the exception of a couple chirping birds and insects. Sharwin was still on duty. Zhang Tie climbed off the tree and walked to the stream to wash his face and rinse his mouth. Afterwards, Zhang Tie replaced Sharwin, letting him go sleep. Sitting by the tree hollow, he took the "Iron Gate T21" and waited for the other members to wake up.
It was the fourth day since they had arrived here. Zhang Tie carefully stared at the "Iron Gate T21". Compared to the various portable bows that were created by the people before the Catastrophe, "Iron Gate T21" was much more powerful. Zhang Tie had learned that the era before the catastrophe was a time when people used weapons with gunpowder and had too many powerful weapons to choose from, thus they did not pay much attention to the development of weapons that did not utilize gunpowder. However, in this age when weapons that did not use gunpowder became prominent in wars, development that once had nothing to do with weapons with no gunpowder were applied to them, resulting in them gradually becoming extremely powerful.
Using a light, complex pulley-based bow as an example, when compared to the traditional manual bows, the largest advantage it had was the hydraulic sliding rod, which was used to pull the string back into the proper position. Although it was similar to a jack[1], it was much more complex than it. Using this hydraulic device, a commoner would be able to pull the string back, putting it at the position for launching the arrow; in contrast, without the device, a strong person would have to use more than 200 kg of force to do the same thing. The addition of the hydraulic device and the standard arrow container, which was developed based on the cartridge holder used in gunpowder-driven weapons before the Catastrophe, caused this bow to be about 30 kg, making it much heavier than common machine bows; however, this increase in weight also meant that it was more powerful. Theoretically, if the "Iron Gate T21" was in the hands of someone with great strength, he could possibly shoot well over 120 arrows a minute.
In contrast, people like Zhang Tie and the other members of Hit-Plane Brotherhood could only shoot out at most ten arrows a minute using this bow. In the previous two nights, although he had adjusted the tension to be ⅛ of the original, Sharwin still needed to pull the hydraulic sliding rod eight times for it to succeed. And even Bagdad felt pain in his hand after two attempts when he had adjusted the tension to ⅕ of the maximum. This morning, Zhang Tie had stealthily adjusted the tension to ⅕ of the maximum, and like Bagdad, he only succeeded after two attempts with his left arm and hand feeling pain after.
After two attempts of using the "Iron Gate T21", Zhang Tie confirmed two things. First, his strength was almost equivalent to the dark-skinned Bagdad. Second, The Iron Gate series of bow were amazing killing machines. As this bow was just a light one, Zhang Tie found it difficult to imagine the strength of a heavy bow of the same series.
Before the other members woke up, Zhang Tie played with the bow, trying to get used to it as he practiced by visualizing an abacus. Ever since Zhang Tie could visualize an abacus that was capable of doing seven digit calculations, he began to practice visualizing one for eight digits. Recently, whenever he had free time, he would practice eight digit calculation. If he wasn't disturbed, he would spend two minutes to visualize an eight-column abacus in his mind and would slowly carry out eight digit calculations...
After Zhang Tie's spiritual energy surged seven times, all of his senses had become sharper. After each time he practiced , Zhang Tie was able to see a slight increase in spiritual energy that had been brought about by visualizing that golden abacus. Although he didn't know the reason, it still made him really excited. He had even begun to think about how he should share this method with his elder brother and Donder. After that incident about Huck and Snade, Zhang Tie always felt that he owed Donder. He could probably return the favor by telling him this secret, an effective method to increase spiritual energy. As Zhang Tie had never heard about this before, he believed that this was a great gift to show his sincerity to Donder. Since Donder had told him not to share the abacus skill with foreign clans, Zhang Tie didn't want to violate Donder's rule; therefore, he could not temporarily share this method with the other members of the brotherhood.
About 1 hour after Zhang Tie got up, Barley and the other members climbed out of tree hollows one by one. Having not even washed his face, the moment Barley saw Zhang Tie sitting in that pit, Barley was pretty surprised. "Wasn't it Sharwin's turn to keep watch last night? Where'd he go?"
"I got up early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I let Sharwin go back and get some nice rest!"
Hearing Zhang Tie's words, Barley became silent and rapidly climbed off the tree. He then went to the stream and washed his face and mouth. Followed by Barley, the other guys also woke up one by one...
After everyone made preparations, with the exception of Sharwin, who was staying in the base, the others all went to see how Zhang Tie trapped the golden threadfin breams.
Ensuring that nobody followed them, the group of five carefully followed Zhang Tie up the stream to the place where Zhang Tie had set the traps. Before arriving at the location, they were already stunned by the sight before them—there was a shoal of fish bigger than the size of an adult's palm surging in the water 2 m away from the mouth of the stream. This scene was also somewhat out of Zhang Tie's expectation. Zhang Tie hurriedly approached the pond and silently uncovered the twigs on it...
Like a bowl of treasure, the number of fish in the pond had increased over the night. Inside the pond, there were at least five golden threadfin breams that were not smaller than the ones from yesterday and at least ten other fish that varied in size. At the sight of the fish, everybody became excited...
Barley felt that his decision of having Zhang Tie join the Hit-Plane Brotherhood was the best decision he has every made. Although Bighead looked pretty average at school, but at the critical moment, he was reliable and brought many surprises; he really makes people admire him...
[1] Jack - A device used to lift heavy objects
Chapter 79: Being A Bit Famous
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
The first rain of June abruptly came. The sky was still clear two days ago, but on the evening of the same day, the sky became covered with dense clouds as heavy rain fell. It continued to rain until last night.
Since it rained most of yesterday, most students chose to stay in their bases, and so did the members of Hit-Plane Brotherhood. Barley fetched a set of cards, and those guys spent the entire day playing cards in the tree hollow. That was a marvelous feeling. While it was heavily raining outside the base, they really enjoyed themselves in the tree hollows. Besides the sound that came from the raindrops falling onto tree leaves, no other sounds could be heard, as the insects and the birds had already hidden themselves. They could no longer hear the chirping of cicadas and birds. As the animals had already hidden themselves in such weather, naturally, it was not that easy to hunt them.
On the eighth day since the start of the survival training, god then allowed them one day of break...
In the past eight days, the tree base had been further renovated. When they had free time or had no firewood to burn, they further expanded the previous three levels of space, resulting in each of them having more space to sleep. They also hung a bamboo curtain, which they obtained by exchanging it for food with the girls, outside each of the tree holes. In addition, they also gathered several old vines, and in one night, wove them into a simple vine ladder for them to climb up and down. On the third floor, they expanded several pits and moved in some soil, wildflowers, and green plants from the valley to make the tree base more pleasant.
In the area under the tree, they dug a pond that was about 2 m2 and filled the bottom of the pond with pebbles and broken stones. They then dug a small ditch that was longer than 30m and cut several pieces of bamboo. Using the bamboo, they split the ditch from the middle and placed the pieces of bamboo inside, effectively creating a miniature water diversion system, which they used to start cultivating fish in the pond.
Although the water in the pond could easily seep into the ground, with the fresh water constantly flowing in, the depth of the water in the pond remained above 50 cm at all times, which was sufficient for the shoal of fish to survive.
After such renovation, the tree base had become completely different than before. A couple of days ago, they successfully invited a group of female students to visit their tree base and ate roasted fish together. As expected, with such an appealing tree base, those girls were greatly amazed, so much that they even entered the tree base to have a look. After those girls returned to Wild Wolf Castle, they began to tell the other girls at Wild Wolf Castle, thus causing their tree base to be well known among girls. Many girls started to learn of the male students who lived in a huge tree base and farmed fish inside a pond under the tree, and they knew if they were to visit, they would be able to drink delicious fish soup and eat roasted fish. Besides, it seemed that those male students worked hard and were able to hunt other beasts. Generally speaking, those boys were always able to obtain a sufficient amount of food. Once they set out to hunt, they would always return with something...
In order to allow the brothers of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood to not leave empty handed, Zhang Tie taught them how to dig those traps. In the recent days, under the collective hard work of the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood, Barley and the rest had dug two traps that were deeper than 6m at a location about 5 km away from the tree base. These two traps, in addition to the fish trap that Zhang Tie made and the other traps made from twigs and stones to create small preys, greatly improved the living standard of the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood. On the sixth day since the start of the survival training, they had successfully captured a wolf by placing the fish innards that oozed a fishy and terrible odor in the first pit. It was finally miserably shot to death by "Iron Gate T21". On the same day, the members of Hit-Plane Brotherhood also enjoyed roasted wolf meat for the first time and acquired their first wolf hide in this survival training. After experiencing the success of the traps, every one of them thoroughly enjoyed setting traps. If it were not for the rain, they would have already made a third deep pit.
After they succeeded with their first trap, their tree base gradually became more and more famous. After feeling satisfied physically, the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood started to dream about women. In the past couple of days, they had often frequented Wild Wolf Castle to pick up girls. Some of them had even successfully convinced some girls to work together to get through the survival training. For the girls, aside from having to return to Wild Wolf Castle each evening, they were free to do whatever they wanted. Realizing this, those male students worked harder. Many teams had gradually entered deeper into Wild Wolf Valley, as it was truly a paradise for beasts there. Naturally, they would be able to capture more difficult preys there.
Wild Wolf Valley was naturally the paradise of wolves. In this age, even the species of wolves are categorized differently than the most universal categorization of animals. Wild wolves were the most common type, which did not differ to the wolves before the Catastrophe. According to the most universal classification of animals, wild wolves were categorized as Level 0 living beings, whose fighting force was equivalent to a common human soldier. A Huge Wolf was a Level 1 living being that had physically evolved and mutated after the Catastrophe and was much larger than the normal wolf. The Huge Wolf was much more fiercer, stronger, and more agile. A Golden Wolf was a Level 2 living being which had further evolved and mutated from a Huge Wolf. A Golden Wolf looked brilliant as it shone with gold all over and was also larger than a Huge Wolf. It was said that a matured Golden Wolf could easily kill three LV 1 human fighters. Above the Golden Wolf were the Level 3 Bloody Wolf and the rarely seen Level 4 Shadow Wolf, which was said to be the top of all the beasts and magical beasts that had been seen in Wild Wolf Valley in the past few decades. Actually, people had rarely seen beasts above Level 2 in the past decade, which was why Wild Wolf Valley was selected as the location for the survival training of the students of Blackhot City.
Zhang Tie heard that no beasts above Level 4 were found in Wild Wolf Valley because there were once many Gold-Eating Boas here. Although those Gold-Eating Boas had been exterminated, their high-level Qi still lingered in this valley. The more advanced the beast or magical beast were, the more sensitive their Qi would be and the farther the beasts would stay away from them.
On the sixth day since the start of this survival training and also the day before it started to rain, the team headed by Burwick from Seventh National Male Middle School besieged and killed four Huge Wolves. That was the first time for students to have hunted four Level 1 magical beasts at once. Burwick greatly shocked Wild Wolf Castle this time. A large number of female communities and teams requested to cooperate with Burwick. Compared to Glaze, who was hapless these days, Burwick really obtained a good reputation this time.
One week after the survival training started, the excellent figures from the different schools also gradually stood out.
When Burwick's group gained the four Huge Wolves, a male student from the another school who excelled in archery, the one Barley had mentioned to Zhang Tie, became well known as "Bowman Blues". In contrast to the achievements acquired by Burwick, which was obtained through a group effort, "Bowman Blues" from Second National Male Middle School" climbed atop a tree alone and shot two Huge Wolves to death. Compared to Burwick, Blues was an individual with more heroism and easily aroused the adoration from the girls. As a result, "Bowman Blues" also became Mr. Perfect for every girl.
Of course, there were more excellent figures among the four schools...
The blacksmith workshop in Wild Wolf Castle gave off black smoke around the clock. The cutleries and the swords as well as some of the productive tools made in the workshop had already been placed on the square for sale. In the same workshop, it was said that someone had already started to build the model of the first steam machine.
There were also two female students who were excellent characters. It was rumored that there was a girl who showed her superb skills of identifying and finding plants, as she had already easily found a 100 kg root of a kudzu vine buried in the soil. Another girl displayed her amazing ability of implementing administrative management, as she well organized all the items in the inner castle of Wild Wolf Castle. There was even one girl who was a LV 1 fighter, was even braver than most boys, and had already gone hunting with several friends, causing the other male students to be embarrassed.
Those elites gradually showed off their talents, leading to this survival training becoming more and more boisterous.
Compared to those glamorous figures, Zhang Tie's miserable life as a miner had seemingly just started. Two days ago, he went to dig traps with the other members of Hit-Plane Brotherhood. Yesterday, he took a break due to the rain. According to the regulations, if Zhang Tie wasn't able to submit more than 300 kg of iron ore today, then he would not be permitted to be a miner anymore.
Therefore, the morning after the rain stopped, under the blessings and condolences of his brothers, Zhang Tie, once again, looked like a miner that was destined for the job. After checking his equipment, he silently carried that ugly mining basket and set off on his trip alone.
"That is too miserable!" The other members of Brotherhood sighed at the sight of Zhang Tie's back...
Chapter 80: Skyrocketing Basic Energy Storage
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
The rain finally stopped last night. As a result, the morning air in the valley was pretty good. Zhang Tie seemingly could even smell the fragrance of the roadside grass. However, the path in the valley became very muddy and slippery this morning as a result of the rain, thus one may easily slip if they didn't pay attention to the condition of the path. Zhang Tie had no choice but to slow down his walking speed towards the mine that was several kilometers away.
Soon after Zhang Tie left the tree base, he had already encountered two groups of students hunting for food, with each group consisting of more than ten people. When Zhang Tie passed them, those guys, at first, gave a look of amazement at his mining basket, but soon after, they cast a glare of contempt at Zhang Tie before raising their heads and striding away proudly...
In the past couple of days, Zhang Tie had already become immune to those contemptuous glares. Unknown when he had read it, Zhang Tie remembered a certain sentence—a man who couldn't stand being alone would never grow up. In his current situation, for Zhang Tie, the current situation allowed him to grow alone.
Growing along with Zhang Tie's heart was the Castle of Black Iron.
After the past couple days of hard work, Zhang Tie had already accumulated 2000 basic energy storage by throwing baskets full of stones and iron ores into the Pool of Chaos within the Castle of Black Iron. The amount of basic energy storage in the Castle of Black Iron was several hundred times more than that before the start of the survival training. After having been converted into basic energy storage, the stones and mined ores quickly increased the strength of the Castle of Black Iron. With the amount of basic energy storage presently available in the Castle of Black Iron, it could already be used to make some slight changes to the topography of the Castle of Black Iron, for example a small pool However, Zhang Tie was currently not satisfied with just that amount; he wanted to accumulate more basic energy storage and then make a final decision once the survival training was over.
In addition to the increasing basic energy storage, the aura value in the Castle of Black Iron has also been rapidly increasing. Zhang Tie had found that all the seeds gifted by Grandma Teresa had already sprouted and were growing well. In addition to the seeds from Grandma Teresa, the potatoes, niblets, sweet potatoes, and the pumpkins in his own land were all growing nicely as well.
Zhang Tie didn't know why, but in the past few days, he felt as if he was being followed on his way to the mines; however, this morning, the feeling of being followed was gone. This made Zhang Tie curious about whether he was going crazy again, but in the end, he didn't think too much about it.
After the first rain in June, the valley had been covered with dandelions overnight. White hairy spheres of dandelions had already broken out from the ground one by one, seemingly waiting for the arrival of a gust of wind. At the sight of the cute dandelions, Zhang Tie felt pretty good. Without hesitation, he casually picked ten of the white hairy spheres from the dandelions and tossed them into his mining basket.
...
Half an hour later, Zhang Tie arrived at the nearest mining cave, which was only a bit more than 200m away from Wild Wolf Castle. Many people had already been here to mine, and there was a small, rusty half-complete track, which was once used to transport carts, on the ground covered in weeds outside the mining cave, seemingly as if it was telling him that this place was once prosperous. This mining cave might have been very important in the past, but now it was just an abandoned place used by the unlucky students to do labor work in exchange for food.
As it was too close to Wild Wolf Castle, it was easily noticed by the female students. Not many male students chose this mining cave as their base, as they were afraid of losing face under the gazes from the female students, thus this mining cave was not as lively as the other ones.
Recently, there has been many new faces entering this mine to work, while many old faces would disappear. Zhang Tie guessed that there were more than ten people, including himself, who constantly came to this mine to work every day. Most likely because this job was not something to feel honor from and all the people who mined here were either introverted or didn't feel like talking, Zhang Tie had not even made a single bosom friend after working here for a while. However, this truly made Zhang Tie reassured; he could do whatever he wanted alone in the mining cave without having to worry about the others.
There were many broken stones on the ground outside the mines, making it easier to walk since there was less mud. The entrance to the mines was large, measuring up to dozens of square meters. After arranging his equipment at the entrance of the cave and cleaning off the mud on his shoes using a rock, Zhang Tie took out a torch and a hoe before lighting up the torch as he held it while entering the mine...
Although it was still daytime, after walking for a dozen meters in the cave and taking two turns, it was hard to see anything in front of him. If Zhang Tie didn't have a torch, he would not be able to venture deeper at all. Thankfully, the road ahead was flat without too many obstacles, thus Zhang Tie continued to venture deeper on the jet black path.
The illuminating torch and Zhang Tie's footsteps shocked several bats inside the cave, leading to the bats flapping their wings and making a loud noise. This would always frighten people entering the cave for the first time, and Zhang Tie was no exception. However, after having accessed the mine several times, Zhang Tie had become accustomed to it.
The illuminating torch cast Zhang Tie's shadow onto the mining walls. As he walked forward, his shadow on the walls also accompanied him. Each time Zhang Tie entered, he could not help but peek at the jumping shadows on the walls of the mine that were brought about by the shaking of the illuminating rays from the torch. Besides his shadow, there were also many strange marks that were circular and similar to tire marks on the yellowish walls and the ground of the mine. Zhang Tie was sure those marks were not left by humans. Every time he saw those marks, Zhang Tie would think back to the legend of the Gold-Eating Boas told by Sharwin that happened at this place three decades ago. Walking down the hole that stretched underground with walls covered in weird marks and had a diameter of three to four meters, whenever Zhang Tie thought about how the exaggeratedly terrifying boas that could engulf everything it met that used to climb in this tunnel, he would always feel terrified, feeling as if there were monsters in the pitch darkness staring at him. Although he knew it was just his imagination, Zhang Tie would always accelerate his footsteps whenever he passed by those strange tunnels.
Faintly hearing the sounds of hoes knocking at ores in front of him, Zhang Tie slightly calmed down. After walking several hundred meters in the cave, he finally arrived at the other end of this tunnel, revealing a spacious area in front of him. This area was even larger than the city square of Blackhot City and looked like a natural karst cave. Zhang Tie only saw a few dim lights in the entire underground space. , which came from the torches of the people who had arrived before him; however, in this pitch darkness, the burning torches were just like dim oil lamps and could only brighten a small area. The sounds of knocking at ores constantly reverberated in this space. The sounds that reverberated inside this huge mine seemed to spread both far away and close. For people who had walked through the meandering tunnel, they would definitely let out a sigh of relief and would feel happy at the sight of the lights in the pitch darkness and upon hearing the reverberating knocking sounds—well, at least that held true for Zhang Tie...
As usual, Zhang Tie chose a place that was more isolated and subtle to do his mining work; the place he chose to work in was in another tunnel that was artificially made in the underground space. Even if he were to light his torch, he would not be easily noticed by others within that tunnel. In addition, there were several other intersections and turns inside this tunnel that seemingly led deeper underground. Therefore, that was a pretty ideal place for Zhang Tie to do whatever he wanted.
Arriving at where he usually worked, he set up a small trick at the entrance of the tunnel using several broken stones. This small trick would alert him if anyone entered the tunnel. After placing the stones at the entrance, Zhang Tie was able to completely relax.
Fixing the torch into a crack on the wall of the mine, dozens of square meters of space before him were illuminated. He placed his mining basket on the ground and poured out the spare torches and dandelions from within. He then removed the dagger, the kettle, and the dried ration from his waist. After drinking some water, he took up his hoe and began to work hard to gather the required amount of ores, joining the other sounds of knocking and forming a chorus in the underground karst cave!
Unknownst to Zhang Tie, who was mining in the cave underground, a messenger falcon had brought the latest news from Blackhot City to Wild Wolf Castle. The news it brought was a big event that had happened in Blackhot City yesterday, and that big event was rightly related to the letter Zhang Tie had sent. After a week of brewing, the storm in Blackhot City shook the entire Andaman Alliance, while the storm from yesterday seemed to symbolize the arrival of a greater storm...
Chapter 81: The Storm in Blackhot City
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
Under the highest tower in the outer castle of Wild Wolf Castle was a conference room, which was where the members of the Temporary Supervision Committee worked. As there was still an army residing within Wild Wolf Castle, every three days, the Blackhot City Military would use a messenger falcon to send a military notice to the castle, so the army stationed in the castle would be up-to-date with the current events in Blackhot City. After Wild Wolf Castle became the base for the students participating in the survival training, the recipients of the notice changed from the army to the members of the Temporary Supervision Committee and the students who were attending the survival training.
Today, after having received and read the letter from Blackhot City that was brought by the messenger falcon, the teacher's face instantly turned pale. He then immediately summoned all the teachers and directors from every school attending the survival training in Wild Wolf Castle and loudly read the notice presented by the military of Blackhot City in the conference room...
Before listening to the contents of the letter, the people in the conference room were all relaxed; however, upon hearing the contents, all their faces turned blue. As a result, the conference room was filled with a solemn air and sound was no longer heard anymore. At that moment, if a needle were to fall onto the ground, the sound would be clearly heard by everyone...
The day before yesterday, Wild Wolf Castle welcomed the first rain of June. On that very day, a big event also occurred in Blackhot City—the military of Blackhot City abruptly dispatched a large amount of soldiers to besiege the residence of the Niumuen Business Group on Bright Avenue of Blackhot City and forcefully carried out an investigation, using the excuse of searching for criminals. However, the forced investigation was met with a counterattack from the guards of the Niumuen Business Group. As expected, the guards of the Niumuen Business Group were completely cracked down and was completely purged by the iron first of Blackhot City's military. However, not only did the following investigation of the Niumuen Business Group's residence reveal that the fleeing fugitives were not there, but it also revealed something much more frightening. From the indisputable evidence and the interrogation of the director of the Niumuen Business Group of Blackhot City, a huge conspiracy was revealed—the Niumuen Business Group had colluded with the Red-scarf Burglars in an attempt to look for an opportunity for the bandit group to wipe out the major clans that controlled the Coal, Steel, and Iron Federation of Blackhot City.
Blackhot City officials had already delivered the news of this event to the Andaman Alliance last night, greatly shocking them. In the same evening after having received the notice, using its name, the Andaman Alliance submitted its strongest protest to the Norman Empire's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in hopes to receive a reasonable explanation for the event that transpired in Blackhot City and the Andaman Alliance. However, as the Norman Empire chose to remain quiet even until this morning, Blackhot City started to shut down all the industries and business groups of the Norman Empire within its territory, effectively stopping all business with the Norman Empire...
The arrival of the Red-scarf Burglars once again increased the tension in the atmosphere and caused the Blackhot City Military to raise its alertness to Level 1: Preparation for war...
The conference room in Wild Wolf Castle was filled with a weird and solemn air, as the actions of the Norman Empire made everyone breathless. In the eyes of Blackhot City and the Andaman Alliance, the Norman Empire was truly a strong force. There was truly a great gap between the military forces of the two parties: Blackhot City had a military consisting of 50,000 and the Andaman Alliance had an army of 400,000 soldiers, while just the common soldiers on the northern border of the Norman Empire numbered 3 million. If the two parties were to start a war, just the army stationed at the northern border of the Norman Alliance alone could already wipe out the Andaman Alliance. Over the past few years, the major reason that the Andaman Alliance could stay in a peaceful state with the Norman Empire was not because the Andaman Alliance was strong, but rather because of the conflicts and contradictions between the Sun Dynasty and the Norman Empire. The Norman Empire and the Sun Dynasty were both crazy, and when two crazy men stared at each other with the Andaman Alliance sitting between them, neither party would want to make the first move that would start the war. This situation remained unchanged for dozens of years. Blackhot City, who benefitted from this situation, was able to develop well in the past few decades. Now, it seems that one of the two crazy guys had become impatient...
"Do we need to release this news to the students?" one of the teachers sitting at the round desk made of pine wood thought for a while before finally proposing the question.
"I think it's unnecessary to tell them, as they will naturally know of it when they finish the survival training. Let 'em enjoy this temporary time of happiness..." Hearing his words, everyone else in the conference room stared at the kind-looking teacher. The teacher who just spoke gave a casual smile. "Everyone, there has been peace in Blackhot City and the Andaman Alliance for dozens of years, so why would the Norman Empire decide to start a war at this point in time? As we all know, since several weeks ago, the prices of strategic materials in all the countries of the Blackson Human Clan Corridor has been slowly rising. What does this mean? I think we all know the answer to this. Naturally, Blackhot City and the Andaman Alliance are not worth all the countries in the Blackson Human Clan Corridor launching a war for."
Hearing his words, Captain Kerlin frowned. Although Captain Kerlin knew that that teacher's words contained something unusual, as he was neither highly intelligent nor excelled at analysis, he wasn't able to fully comprehend the meaning behind them. "Gerom, you're saying… a big war will break out..."
"I didn't say anything." After looking around, Gerom gently sighed. "We are all small figures and are not able to make the big decisions. It's just that I remembered the end of the second holy war between humans and demons. It seems that more than 170 years has already passed…"
Holy war!
As if a -50 degrees celsius breeze had swept the room, the two words instantly froze the conference room. Hearing those two words, even Captain Kerlin's face turned pale...
...
This morning, Zhang Tie was not happy at all; not only was he not happy in the slightest, he was even depressed to death. Nobody would be happy if they spent their entire morning digging 300 kg of ores before carrying them using a mining basket as they walked 1.5 km to submit them in various locations several times. As the amount of iron in the ores varied from 50% and 60%, it was quite heavy for Zhang Tie to carry, as it would contain almost 200 kg of iron ores each time. For the students attending the survival training, it was impossible for them to carry 200 kg while walking a distance of 1.5 km. Let alone 200 kg, it was even difficult for them to carry 100 kg. For those who were able to carry 50 kg of ores while traversing a distance of 1.5kg, being able to return was already considered good enough. Although it was not difficult for one to dig ores and possibly even obtain up to several tons a day, the real test of strength was if they were able to bring the ores to the correct place.
Zhang Tie kept working for the entire morning. Although he had only finished two-thirds of the mission today, Zhang Tie, as a Level 1 fighter, already felt fatigued all over; his body felt weak. After submitting the batch of ores that weighed over 70 kg, Zhang Tie received two packages of dried rations. Throwing himself onto the ground under the shade of a pine tree, he did not feel like picking himself up from the floor again.
After this experience, Zhang Tie swore that he would dig in the mines every day regardless of the weather. Since he had to submit a minimum amount of ores each day, he realized he would truly be tortured to death if he had to finish three days worth of work in one day.
Much like outside, there were small iron tracks which once allowed the usage of mining carts inside the mines; however, there was clear evidence that the iron tracks had been destroyed by some bastards. As a result, all miners had to walk approximately 0.5 km inside the tunnel, which sharply lowered the transportation efficiency.
Like before, the guys who wanted to try out mining had already decided to leave after just the morning, and many people were reluctant to try it again for the second time.
Leaning against a tree, Zhang Tie was drinking water and eating the dried ration. With slightly narrowed eyes, Zhang Tie looked up at the two happy squirrels on the tree. These days, the squirrels seemed to have noticed that a group of uninvited guests was stealing their pine cones, thus the two began to move the pine cones into their own tree hollow. They were even more diligent than Zhang Tie. Seeing the two busy squirrels, Zhang Tie became somewhat embarrassed, as he was one of the uninvited guests who had taken their pine cones, yet he was not even as diligent as a squirrel...
...
On the first day after the rain stopped, all the students began to be busy once more. It seemed that it was hard to associate the survival training with the word "happiness". At a location 10 km away from mine where Zhang Tie was, as Zhang Tie leaned against a tree as he ate his dried rations, Glaze and his followers were doing something that was even harder to associate with the word "happiness"...
A cave within a mountain had already been filled with blood. After killing several female wolves, who were feeding pups, using his sword, Glaze swept through the 20 odd pups who were barely as big as a newborn dog. As the last pup wanted to bite at his heel, Glaze ferociously stomped down onto its head, smashing it into pieces. Only at this moment did the sad howls within the mountain cave finally stop.
The instant the growls stopped, Sharon and Zuhair rushed in. They carefully avoided all the blood on the ground. Much like Glaze, Sharon's and Zuhair's skin had turned a pale green, seemingly as if a strange fluid had been pasted on them.
"Hurry up, let's go. We won't have time to leave if the other wolves return..." Sharon urged.
"Glaze, your shoes have been dyed with wolf blood. You should throw them away. Otherwise, the wolves would come and look for you. Now, everybody should hurry up and leave this place. We should clean off the mixture of bitter taro roots and blood wolf flowers from our bodies. That way, nobody would know that we were responsible for this..." At the sight of the pup who had its head crushed under Glaze's foot, Zuhair cried out as he awkwardly took out a bag that was sealed in waterproof cloth. Opening the bag, Zuhair picked up a small piece of a towel using his two fingers and threw it on the ground.
After looking at the blood from the pups that stained his shoes, Glaze cursed and then quickly left the wolf den that reeked of death with Sharon and Zuhair.
"Have you finished your job?" as they left, Glaze asked Zuhair.
"Trust me, I have already arranged the other pieces of his towel on the way. Those wild wolves will definitely find Zhang Tie on his way back to his base if they follow the odor trail created by the pieces from his towel. Wild wolves are both cunning and good at bearing grudges..." Zuhair smirked. "A common soldier has nothing to do with us if he was engulfed by a pack of wild wolves!"
"Hahaha..." Glaze and his followers laughed out loudly...
Two hours later, all the male wolves hunting outside returned to their den. The instant they entered, their low howls started to reverberate throughout the entire valley...
Chapter 82: Physical Limit Breakthrough
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
The ore collection center of Wild Wolf Castle was at the foot of a relatively flat hill south of Wild Wolf Castle. There was an iron rail that spanned hundreds of meters long down from the top of the hill to the collection center. The other end of the iron rail was the raw materials field of the iron smelting workshop in Wild Wolf Castle. The steam engine attached to the wheeled vehicle provided it enough energy so that it could pull carts filled with iron ores from the foot of the hill to the top using steel wires that were as thick as a baby's arm. Thanks to the iron rail and the vehicle that made use of the steam engine, iron ores could be easily brought into Wild Wolf Castle. If not for them, Zhang Tie really wondered whether there would be any person willing to dig in the mines, as they would have to walk a distance of over 1.5 km in order to reach this location while carrying the iron ores. In order to get here, he would have to walk up a slope and would most likely be tired to death after doing so.
Although some people would be able to accomplish such a feat, others would find it difficult to do the same.
At noon, after raining for a day, the sun finally rose, and it gradually became hot again. Due to the rain, the valley was still rather damp, but under the scorching sun, the water began to evaporate and rise from the ground. In a short period, the entire valley became a huge steaming cage that made people breathless.
Under such a high temperature, it became a huge test as to whether Zhang Tie would be able to traverse a distance of over 1.5 km while carrying more than 100 kg of iron ores on his back. On the way there, Zhang Tie gritted his teeth as he oozed sweat all over and felt as if his shoulder was burning because his shoulder constantly rubbed against his mining basket. On average, he would have to take a rest after walking every 200 or 300 meters. Finally arriving at his destination, when Zhang Tie placed his mining basket on the scale, it made a "Kuang!" sound. Upon hearing a different sound drifting from the scale, the other male students couldn't help but stare at the number displayed on the scale.
118 kg!
"Brother, nice work. You are the first to carry over 100 kg of iron ores at once. It seems you were born to do this!" Hearing his words, Zhang Tie did not feel like uttering a single word; he only rolled his eyes. Right now, he was extremely tired and wanted to take a rest for half an hour. Zhang Tie didn't have the strength to think about whether that guy was praising him or criticizing him. At the same time, the male student took out a notebook. After peering at the number displayed on the scale and checking the quality of the ores brought by Zhang Tie, he started to record the numbers in the notebook.
"Along withs this basket… how many kilograms of ores have I carried here today?" After panting for a quite while, Zhang Tie asked.
"Including this time, let me have a look..." Taking the notebook, the male student lowered his head and checked the record. "You are Zhang Tie, right? You brought in 76 kg the first time, 78 kg for the second time, and 69 kg for the third time. This time, you've brought 118 kg. Let me calculate it..."
"341 kg..." The instant the male student told Zhang Tie of the weight of the iron he had brought the third time, Zhang Tie had already visualized a seven column abacus in his mind, from which poured out the final result.
After calculating it with a pen, that male student got the same result as the one Zhang Tie got. Slightly amazed, he stared at Zhang Tie, but in the end, he didn't put too much thought into it.
"Right, it's 341 kg. This is the record for the most brought in. Since you didn't come in for the previous two days, you have just finished the amount needed for the past three days of required work..."
"Is there a reward for the highest record?" Zhang Tie casually asked.
"There is!"
"What is it?"
"You will be allowed to continue this promising career..."
Hearing this answer, Zhang Tie's face slightly turned dark before beginning to laugh. He didn't expect this guy to have a sense of humor.
Seeing them pouring his iron ores into the mining vehicle, Zhang Tie casually prattled with them and took a rest. Based on the weight of his iron ores, Zhang Tie received 0.35 kg of dried rations. Afterwards, bringing with him the dried rations, Zhang Tie carried the ugly mining basket and climbed to the top of the mountain, arriving at the square outside Wild Wolf Castle.
After having removed the 100 kg burden and taking a break, Zhang Tie gradually recovered his strength and realized that he was much faster than before. This time, since he successfully surpassed his own physical limit and was able to create a record among the group of unlucky fellows, Zhang Tie was in a good mood and felt a bit pleasant. It seemed that what Donder had said was true—people were always forced to conquer difficulties before they were able to succeed. That was really sincere saying that was often seen in Chinese texts.
As the sun had risen again, the square became more boisterous than before. Compared to the empty and shabby appearance that was here before, there were now some simple trading booths that could also be used as shelter in the square. At these booths, some of the female students would sell the wild fruits and vegetables that they had picked in the valley and would trade them for other food. At the other end of the square, the male students, as usual, grouped together as they showed off their "muscles" and the prey they had caught. Over time, they would find an opportunity to chat with girls. These days, more and more female students had begun to form solid teams with the male students. No matter whether they were male or female, after some time and after understanding each other, they became rather bold.
"Do you need blueberries or hawthorn fruits?" A voice from a booth to the side attracted Zhang Tie's attention. Turning around, Zhang Tie saw a male student shaking his head and walking away, while the owner of the booth, a female student, looked disappointed as she hugged her legs and sat on the ground. In front of the girl was a lotus leaf on which were a pile of unripe wild blueberries and hawthorn fruits that amounted to less than 0.25 kg. Much like the bashful female owner of the booth, the pile of blueberries and hawthorn fruits looked average. Although they were clean, they were not attractive at all and were not able to arouse the "appetite" of the horny students.
As Zhang Tie remembered that he had not spread the seeds of blueberries and hawthorn fruits on the soil in the Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie walked over and squatted in front of that poor girl's booth. "What do you want in exchange for these fruits?"
Hearing Zhang Tie's voice, the dejected girl raised her head up from her knees. Although she had freckles on her face, she looked clean and had an average figure; however, she had a pair of blue eyes that were crystal clear, much like a stream of water. She was just like an ugly duckling dwarfed by the brilliant beauties around her.
"0.25 kg of dried rations for both the wild blueberries and the hawthorn fruits. Ah, if you just give me 0.2 kg of dried rations, you can take them away. I'm also willing to trade for 0.1 kg of meat." Feeling that Zhang Tie was slightly glancing over her body, the girl sitting on the ground leaned a bit more forward, hiding her chest behind her knees.
"Gulugulu" Clear growling sounds drifted from the stomach of that girl into Zhang Tie's ears. At the same time, the girl lowered her head in embarrassment.
"Fine, I want them all..." Zhang Tie casually took out 0.5 kg of dried rations from his food container. After thinking for a short time, he added 0.05 kg of dried beef to the dried rations.
"This… this… is too much!" The girl was surprised; her pair of beautiful blue eyes gazed at Zhang Tie without blinking, seemingly as if she wanted to find something on Zhang Tie's face.
"Hmm… I am a disciple of the Guardian God School. During this survival training, I want to collect some seeds from various plants. As you can see from my looks, you should know that I dig in the mines and have no time to do this. If it's convenient for you and as long as it's safe, could you please collect some seeds for me? Whatever they are, I'll exchange food with you. The extra food is paid in advance." Zhang Tie casually said.
"Really?" The girl's eyes instantly became shiny.
Smiling, Zhang Tie put away the two piles of slightly unripe fruits and then pushed the dried rations and dried beef in front of the girl. His actions were more persuasive than any words. Seeing his actions, the girl firmly took the food, seemingly as if she feared Zhang Tie would change his mind.
"What's your name?"
"I am Zhang Tie!"
"After I collect seeds, how will I find you?"
"I come here often, so you don't need to come look for me. I'll come look for you!"
As he said this, Zhang Tie picked himself up and took away those fruits. After seven or eight steps away, Zhang Tie heard the timid voice from the girl behind him. "I am Pandora..."
Zhang Tie turned around and showed a smile to the girl. He then picked up a hawthorn fruit and stylishly tossed it into the air, letting it fall into his mouth; however, upon biting it, Zhang Tie instantly frowned, as it was really sour. What a failure! Seeing Zhang Tie's expression, Pandora giggled. Almost at the same time, she hurriedly covered her mouth with her hands, as she realized that she was the one who had sold him the hawthorn fruit. Raising her head to look at Zhang Tie again, she realized the black-haired adolescent with the mining basket on his back was waving at her before gradually disappearing among the crowd...
"Zhang Tie..." Pandora muttered this name several times.
...
After finishing today's work, Zhang Tie felt relaxed all over. Whistling, he began to climb down the mountain while eating the sour blueberries and hawthorn fruits. He then returned to the place where he had dug in the mines. As there were still four or five hours before he would leave the mine, he could casually spend them to do whatever he wanted. At this time, the hidden mining tunnel had become the best place for him to practice cultivation. In addition, after working in the morning, there were fewer people inside the mines, and the knocking sounds became sparser.
Sitting down on the relatively clean ground in the mine as he crossed his legs, Zhang Tie entered the cultivation state. As he had just finished carrying over 100 kg iron ores to the right location, he currently felt that he was in the perfect condition, as he felt relaxed and full of strength all over. Zhang Tie had once heard that every time a person broke through their physical limits, they would see a better effect when cultivating. At this moment, he decided to give it a try for the remaining hours...
Chapter 83: Attack of the Wild Wolves
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
For the entire afternoon, Zhang Tie was practicing cultivation inside the mines. He felt as if time had flown really fast during the process!
When he walked out of the mining cave, the afterglow of the setting sun had already covered the entire Wild Wolf Valley with a golden color. With narrowed eyes, Zhang Tie peered over the peaceful and beautiful valley. Only after a while was Zhang Tie's able to gradually adapt to the scenery before him.
Currently, he was feeling pretty good, seemingly because of the effects of today's cultivation, which changed the color of the burning point at his rear end to a slightly red color; he never felt better. If it were not for those sparsely lit torches that reminded Zhang Tie that it was already almost dusk, Zhang Tie would have wanted to stay another several hours inside the mine to increase the amount of basic energy storage in the Castle of Black Iron.
Before leaving the mine, Zhang Tie sat in the mining tunnel he had dug in and entered the Castle of Black Iron once again. The whole process only lasted less than three minutes. Entering the Castle of Black Iron with Zhang Tie were the seeds of wild blueberries and hawthorn fruits. After rapidly running a lap around the Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie had casually spread the seeds onto the ground and checked the second Leakless Fruit before promptly exiting.
There was another 56 hours left before the second Leakless Fruit would become ripe. Seeing its progress, Zhang Tie felt very satisfied. However, at the same time, he felt a tinge of regret when he looked at the progress bar of the Iron Body Fruit, as it had remained unchanged. The progress of the Iron Body Fruit had probably stalled as he hasn't been to the fighting club to be a flesh bag for the past couple of days. After gazing at that unripe Iron Body Fruit for a while, Zhang Tie suddenly came to the conclusion that he was really impatient and began to curse himself inwardly.
At this moment, those horny male students at Wild Wolf Castle were pretending to be gentlemen despite thinking of dirty things as they invited girls to have supper with them. Over the course of a week, some of the horny male students had already become well acquainted with the female students as they climbed down the mountain hand in hand while chatting happily with each other. This truly made Zhang Tie unhappy and uncomfortable. At the sight of such students, he could only touch his nose and forced a self-mocking smile before heading for the tree base.
On the way back, Zhang Tie was thinking about the achievements of Barley and the other members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood, wondering if they had successfully invited a group of girls to visit their tree base. Everything he had learned before the start of the survival training regarding the dangers in this place had already been forgotten by him. Zhang Tie himself was most likely the last person who would encounter any danger as a miner, despite having broken two records since the start of the survival training. Even if he met a wolf, would they really be able to pose any danger to him?
In the valley, as he thought of wolves, a pleasant smile drifted onto Zhang Tie's face as a night breeze blew past it. If he were to truly meet a wolf at this moment, he would only regard himself as lucky and treat it as another gift from god. Despite it being a dagger, it was still a weapon; as a LV 1 fighter with a weapon, dealing with a wild wolf was as hard as carrying 100 kg of iron ores and walking a distance of 1.5 km. Although it was somewhat hard work, it still wasn't dangerous...
However, danger would always arrive before one has become well-prepared. It would appear before you like a collapsing mountain, and if you were to make a mistake, you might be broken into pieces.
20 minutes after Zhang Tie left the mining cave, Zhang Tie had already walked several kilometers. Just as he passed by a small patch of grassland and was about to walk through it, Zhang Tie suddenly stopped.
At that moment, his heart suddenly began to pound heavily while blood all over his body rushed to his head. In a split second, Zhang Tie felt dazed and worried as his face turned pale.
Blood sense!
The same blood sense he felt when he encountered Huck and Snade.
This grassland was only half a person tall and was more than 30 m away from Zhang Tie. Beside that grassland was a path which Zhang Tie used to walk on everyday. Facing the breeze, the grass were swaying in a manner akin to wheat waving in the wind, seemingly as if something was hiding within.
Zhang Tie instantly became covered in cold sweat, as he had realized that something terrifying was staring at him within the grass. Zhang Tie didn't know whether the thing hidden in the grass was man or animal. At the same time, the first thing Zhang Tie thought about was Glaze's group, wondering whether they had set an ambush and were waiting to kill him over there.
Slowly putting down his mining basket, Zhang Tie took out the hoe from within the basket. At the same time, he pulled out the ordinary dagger which his elder brother had gifted to him in hopes that he would protect himself with it. As for that poisonous dagger gifted to him by Donder, Zhang Tie had already placed it in the Castle of Black Iron.
With two weapons in hand, Zhang Tie slightly recovered his composure. Widening his eyes, he gazed at that patch of grassland, wanting to see through what was hiding inside. If it was Glaze's group, Zhang Tie swore inwardly that he would definitely beat them fiercely...
The breeze gradually became heavier while the grass was still swaying. However, at this time, Zhang Tie saw something that were akin to rocks in the grass, which changed the form of the grass as they swayed. Before his spiritual energy had sharply increase, Zhang Tie would never have noticed such minute details; however, after his spiritual energy sharply augmented, he was easily able to capture such a slight change. Forcefully swallowing his saliva, Zhang Tie slowly moved backwards; however, the moment Zhang Tie moved backwards, those hidden rocks also moved forward, splitting the grass as they moved towards Zhang Tie step by step.
Then, a wolf drilled out from the grass with eyes fixed on Zhang Tie...
A wolf? Soon after, Zhang Tie slightly became relaxed, but at the sight of the other six wolves who drilled out from the grass, his tension once again intensified...
With red eyes, all seven wolves only glared at Zhang Tie. After looking straight into the eyes of those wolves, Zhang Tie could already feel their mood. They did not show a greedy expression like the one that would be present when they're hunting, but instead, they showed hatred—a hatred so deep that they would not let him go even after draining the last drop of his blood.
Why do these wolves hate me? Zhang Tie was completely dumbfounded. At this moment, the only thing he knew was that he would probably lose his life this time. Seeing them gradually bare their snow-white fangs as they lowered their bodies, when Zhang Tie heard ��gulugulu" sounds drifting from the inside of their throats, Zhang Tie could feel all the fine hair on his body standing on their ends...
Zhang Tie instantly turned around and started to run. At that moment, he spent every single bit of effort to stride forward. Zhang Tie's mind was as clear as a crystal; various information flashed in his mind at the same time...
Currently, he was no less than 30 m away apart from the wolves. If he didn't spend every ounce of his effort into escaping, then with his current speed, he would only have a bit more than 20 seconds before they caught him, as he was not their match in terms of speed with his current capabilities...
Once they caught up, he would have less than 30 seconds to choose between life and death choices. Within those 30 seconds, he could only try his best to kill one or two wolves; however, the time it took him to do that was enough for the remaining wolves to tear through his stomach or crush his throat. The moment he was knocked down against those wolves, he would be doomed ...
If he wanted to enter the Castle of Black Iron, he needed at least ten seconds—no, nine seconds. In order to enter, he would need to be calm, which meant that he could not be disturbed during the nine seconds before he entered the Castle of Black Iron. Obviously, he did not have enough time at this instance, and the Castle of Black Iron would not be able to help him get out of his current predicament...
As there was nobody nearby, Zhang Tie realized that nobody would be able to save him within 50 seconds, thus he only had one choice: he had to disappear from the sight of those wolves within the next 20 seconds since he would be killed the moment they caught up...
He could neither run as fast as the wolves nor could he rely on other people. His last beacon of hope was to take advantage of the topography and trees 200 m behind him.
The best terrain to take advantage of would be water, assuming it was present. Unfortunately, there was no water nearby; however, luckily, there were many trees behind him. The fact that he was not the least bit good at climbing trees implied that he wouldn't be able to reach a safe height. At this moment, the last choice appeared in his mind, one which might be his last beacon of hope.
The train of thoughts almost flashed in Zhang Tie's mind within 0.1 second. Within such a short period, Zhang Tie had already determined his final plan to escape. If it were the others, 90% of them would choose to escape towards the direction of Wild Wolf Castle, where it was populated, dreaming about a slight chance of surviving against the pursuit of the wolves; however, Zhang Tie realized that this choice would not work for him—if he chose this option, he would die within fifty seconds. The other 10% would just escape without knowing the direction, as they just wanted to stay away from those wolves, resulting in most of them dying even faster than the other 90% who would die within fifty seconds. Zhang Tie didn't choose this option either. Instead, he chose to rapidly run towards a specific place for the last beacon of hope...
Certainly, it was not enough to just escape. He would never give up, not even losing a bit of hope. As an adolescent with great ambitions in the new age, he could not follow the masses and just wait for death; therefore, the moment he turned around to escape, Zhang Tie used all his efforts to shriek loudly, creating a really terrifying shriek.
"Help..."
Such a voice shocked numerous birds in the valley, causing them all to fly away...
After such a high-pitched shriek, Zhang Tie used all of his strength to run, closely followed by the seven red-eyed wild wolves. They gradually narrowed the distance between them and Zhang Tie.
...
As expected, the last "help" was heard by more than thirty male and female students who were roasting meat on the top of a hill more than three hundred meters away. In a split second, they hurriedly took up their weapons and ran out of the woods. One of them was that red-haired beauty who had previously kicked Zhang Tie. From the top of the hill, they witnessed the "final seconds" of Zhang Tie in this world...
The wolves had finally caught up with Zhang Tie, and some of them charged at him, yet their attacks were avoided by him. As if he had an eye on the back of his head, the moment a wolf jumped into the air towards him, he would swiftly move to the side while raising his dagger and slashing the stomach of the wolf. Another wolf charged at him, yet its lower jaw was ferociously smashed by a hoe, causing it to give a miserable howl that was even more high-pitched than Zhang Tie's "help" that had drifted to their ears. Meanwhile, another wolf had already fiercely bitten Zhang Tie's shin, pulling him down onto the ground. As the other wolves pounced towards him, the youth instantly stabbed out his dagger at the wolf that was biting his shin. Pulling away the wolf using one hand, he jumped into a jet black hole beside him...
The decisiveness and braveness of Zhang Tie's "final seconds" deeply shocked those boys and girls who stood on the top of the hill. Seeing Zhang Tie jumping into that bottomless hole, tears began to drip from the faces of many girls. Among them, only Kristine could recognize that boy who was fighting wolves using his hoe.
Perhaps I shouldn't have kicked him while we were in the square even though he had thought about doing that with me in his mind...
Thinking about this, Kristine slightly felt guilty. As a breeze blew over her face, the girl suddenly felt a slight chill on her face...
For the commoners, they were in an age where youth was as short as the morning dew, while life was as short as a straw.