Castle of Black Iron

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...