Castle of Black Iron

“Damn, I must be mad...” On the way, Zhang Tie mumbled this sentence for more than 50 times. However, he was driven by that idea to run towards that riverside where he had killed the wild wolf yesterday.

It was the second morning, and Zhang Tie had gotten up earlier than before. Not until he had arrived at the riverside where he had killed that wild wolf yesterday did the skyline start looking a bit white. However, the valley was still a bit dim. The two moons in the sky were like two silver plates, completely round: one big, the other small. Using them as well as the stubborn stars that felt reluctant to disappear, Zhang Tie could approximately judge the paths in the valley.

At this hour, most other students attending this survival training wouldn’t have even gotten up, or had just done that. With the exception of Zhang Tie, no one else would appear in this place more than 10 km away from the Wild Wolf Castle for no reason.

Zhang Tie ran over here from ‘No. 2 base’, getting the lower part of his trousers wet from the dew on grasses and leaves in the process.

He came here with his lance container on his back and dagger and long sword on his waist. Upon arriving, he squatted down at the riverside and carefully observed his surroundings to make sure that nobody else was around and that no dangerous aquatic beasts like crocodiles were in the river.

After that, he came to the red willow which was close to the place where he was killed by the wild wolves yesterday in the Trouble-reappearance Scene. Next to the red willow, Zhang Tie put away his lance container and hung it onto the willow. Then he undid his long sword and took off his shoes, trousers, and other clothes. With a dagger in hand, he jumped into the river, nude.

The river felt icy in the early morning. The moment Zhang Tie’s feet touched the water, his whole body quivered, and goose bumps rose all over his skin.

“Damn, I must be mad...” Zhang Tie mumbled and waded towards that place where he was killed by that wild wolf in the Trouble-reappearance Scene.

As the riverbed was covered with mud, when water level reached Zhang Tie’s thighs, it became very difficult to move, especially for him who waded through while searching for something in the mud using his feet.

That place was only 10 m away from the riverside. When he arrived there, Zhang Tie slowed his pace and slowly searched for that sharp item in the area. Five minutes later, he finally felt the same thing that he had encountered in the mud yesterday.

He tried to move it using his feet, but unexpectedly, it was very heavy. A part of it seemed to be buried in the mud. Zhang Tie carefully explored it using his feet and felt that is shaped like an ox-horn. However, it had to be heavier than that since he could not grab it out of the water using his feet.

Zhang Tie threw his dagger onto the bank, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath before lowering himself into the muddy water. After touching that thing using his hands, he exerted his utmost effort to pull it out.

It was very heavy, at least more than 20 kg in weight. It was a bit lighter in water, but after taking it out, the weight increased for Zhang Tie.

There was truly something in the river; and it really seemed like an ox horn! Zhang Tie’s heart pounded. Before carefully observing the item in his hand, he first washed that thing in the water to make it a bit cleaner. After that, he waded back towards the bank.

When he was about to get ashore, Zhang Tie put it beneath the red willow. After landing, he found a puddle with cleaner water beside the red willow and started to clean the mud off his body. While doing so, he found two pieces of ‘mud’ tightly stuck to this skin, which could not be washed off. Touching them, Zhang Tie was startled by their softness. It wasn’t mud at all!

He hurriedly beat them. However, he could not beat them off. He then pinched one, aiming to pull it off his skin. Unexpectedly, that thing kept sucking his skin even when Zhang Tie had extended its body to 10 cm long.

“Ah...”

Zhang Tie became restless and started to shout loudly. After increasing his pulling force, he immediately tore that soft thing off and threw it onto the ground, then did the same to the other one. Seeing them still moving on the ground while the places where he was stung had small wounds and were bleeding, Zhang Tie felt goose bumps rise all over once again.

He then instantly checked his body, especially his bottom and the surroundings of his p*nis. Thankfully, no more were found. He then hurriedly put on his clothes, finally recalling that the soft thing must be a leech. Damn, it felt more horrible being stung by leeches than being bitten by two huge wolves. These mollusks were really terrifying.

With face turning a bit pale, Zhang Tie hurriedly put on his clothes, and carrying his lance container, long sword, and dagger, took up the ox-horn-like thing from near the tree root. After confirming that nobody was around, he took a better hold of it and accelerated towards his No. 1 base.

Zhang Tie moved so fast that before dawn fell, he had already arrived at his No. 1 base. It was a mountain cave drilled by a gold-eating boa. From the natural mark system at the entrance, he knew that neither people nor animals had entered since he had left.

Reassured, Zhang Tie arrived at a hidden place inside the cave according to his memory and feeling instead of using a torch. After fixing on that marvelous arched door in his mind, Zhang Tie entered the Castle of Black Iron.

——Handsome and Magnificent Castle Lord, welcome to the Castle of Black Iron!

This was the same greetings that Zhang Tie could hear everyday whenever he entered the Castle of Black Iron. By the time the words started to disappear, Zhang Tie had already put down his equipment. Holding a strange ox-horn-like thing, he came to the side of the pond and squatted down. He then grabbed a handful of grass and started to clean the item using them.

After cleaning off the mud using crystal spring water and grass, Zhang Tie could finally see its original look.

It was an aqua blue horn as long as 40 cm, with metal texture and luster, and circles of flowing cloud-shaped floral grains. Although similar to a part of a broken spearhead, Zhang Tie could confirm that it was not an ox horn.

It was both beautiful and heavy, radiating unusual charm from its bright color and its texture or natural-born mysterious floral grains. Playing with the item in his hand for quite a while, Zhang Tie couldn’t figure out what it was.

‘Maybe, when I become rich and can buy a big house for my parents, I’ll place it at home. Judging from its color and floral grains, it could be used as a nice ornament. Mom will love it!’ Thinking of this, Zhang Tie casually threw it aside.

That was Zhang Tie’s personality. If he couldn’t figure it out now, he would never waste time on it as he could use this time to improve his current strength.

Thinking of how to improve his strength, Zhang Tie thought back to what had happened in the Trouble-reappearance Fruit. He could finally confirm that everything in there was real. Maybe Trouble-reappearance Scene was a mirror that could reflect everything in the real world.

And for a mirror, a tree was no different from a gold mountain as it was not creating but reflecting. Anything inside the mirror was just a projection from the real world. As such, since a weird item was in the mud in the real world, it also exited in the Trouble-reappearance Scene. That was how it went. Perhaps such a weird item was nothing different from a roadside stone or a tree in the Trouble-reappearance Scene. It just exited there, like everything else in the real world.

Thinking back to the leeches sucking his blood just now, Zhang Tie suddenly thought it through. He finally understood how Trouble-reappearance Scene worked—besides spiritual creatures, everything inside it was no different from the real world. In the Trouble-reappearance Scene, even if a single ant or leech doesn’t appear, it’s only because they weren’t killed. Except for spiritual creatures, everything else that exists in the real world also appear in inside, even if it had not been sensed or seen by Zhang Tie.

Therefore, besides allowing Zhang Tie to fight various living beings, Trouble-reappearance Fruit also presented him with each detail of the real world, enabling him to be familiar with the ‘battlefield’ where he had fought the other living beings before. Thinking about it, if an item buried in the mud could be presented, then what couldn’t?

Something related to the Trouble-reappearance Scene flashed across Zhang Tie’s mind, yet he didn’t catch it. He only felt a trembling inside for a split second. Scratching his head, Zhang Tie tried to remember it for a quite while, but failed. After that, he stopped bothering himself about it. The sudden discovery of the delicate link between Trouble-reappearance Scene and the real world was already a great achievement today, so Zhang Tie was really satisfied.

Therefore, he felt really excited and highly spirited. Before leaving the Castle of Black Iron, he realized that his body still smelt of mud and fish. He must have not cleaned it off well at the riverside. So he took off his clothes again and took another cool bath in the pond.

After cleaning himself, Zhang Tie sensed a sharp smell. Picking up his clothes, he smelled sweat on them. After counting carefully, he realized that he had not changed his clothes for over a week. Although a loner, he was still a man who had to eat, sweat, empty his bowels, and sleep. No matter how handsome the loner was, he would not look clean after wearing his clothes for over one week and would smell weird.

So if a loner didn’t wash his clothes for over a month, he then wouldn’t need to hunt any more as prey would have already been scared away by his weird odor from several hundreds meters away. Let alone prey, even people would prefer to stay at least five meters away from him as his weird odor would kill everything.

Zhang Tie really didn’t want to be a ‘loner’ that smelled weird. He didn’t like that, and thought that no girl would like that, either...

Thankfully, Zhang Tie had prepared more than one set of clothes and shoes for this survival training. The clean clothes were in the Castle of Black Iron at this time. Being naked, Zhang Tie lowered his head and stared at his ‘fully-fledged little bird[1]’. ‘Trust me, there are a great amount of girls waiting for you. For your sexy happiness, I will try my best to keep clean and cool. We will not go anywhere else this morning before washing clothes and cleaning ourselves, how about that?’

After saying that, Zhang Tie held his little bird and shook it in a lecherous way. At the same time, he changed his voice to a younger brother’s. ‘Fine! But I really miss Alice and Beverly these days, I want to do disgusting and terrifying things with them. I want to play with their small golden fishes[2], what should I do then?’

Zhang Tie changed to his own voice. “Trust me, as long as I grow stronger and more powerful, they will not leave me. So they’ll belong to you sooner or later; their small golden fishes will also belong to you sooner or later!”

Thinking of their small golden fishes, Zhang Tie’s small bird expanded immediately, seemingly waking up in a split second.

‘Come on, then!’ Zhang Tie changed to the same tender voice. ‘I will, beauty is the source of happiness!’

After living alone for one week, Zhang Tie gradually got used to talking to himself. As long as nobody was around, he would not mind talking to his ‘weird bird’ to improve his own mood and relieve his tension. If he was noticed doing this kind of weird behavior by other hypocrites, Zhang Tie’s pervert’s and leecher’s status would never be wiped off for the rest of his life. However, in the Castle of Black Iron, he did not have to worry about that at all...

[1] Fully-fledged little bird refers to his genital covered with pubic hair.

[2]Small golden fishes refer to the tongues of the girls.