Castle of Black Iron

Each of Zhang Tie’s nine javelins in the metal container on his back was close to 130 centimeters in length. Besides being used for throwing, the metal javelins could also be used as short spears in close combat.

At this moment, noticing that more than twenty demons were rushing towards the five people, Zhang Tie waved his spears, one in each hand. In a wink, he had made ten heads explode.

Zhang Tie moved so swiftly and directly. Facing those demonized people, he only made one movement——prick!

Each time he pricked, his short spear would cause a low, wind-breaking sound, ”Sss, sss”, which suggested his terrifying speed at close quarters. However, to respond to the power of his short spear moves, the heads of the demonized people being pricked all exploded like broken watermelons, sprouting brains backwards.

Although those being killed were demonized people, judging from their looks and clothes these demonized people were all once commoners in Heavens Cold City, including common businessmen, citizens, students, housewives, the old and the young.

The demonized man that Zhang Tie had just exploded was around forty years old and was still wearing a postman’s clothes, with a visible yellow Chinese character, ”邮”, on the left breast of his blue uniform. Below that character for ”mail”, Zhang Tie peered at his official identification photo and his name——Gu Anming（谷安明[1]）.

Compared to that official identification photo, Gu Anming didn’t look like how he looked one week ago any more. Instead, his bulging eyes were filled with a bloody, killing intent. His face looked grim and twisted and a fishy, stinky liquid was flowing out of the corners of his mouth. Gritting his teeth with fury and evil, he was charging at Zhang Tie while waving his limbs. As was expected, he exploded from the impact of Zhang Tie’s short spear before he drew too close.

After Zhang Tie made Gu Anming’s head explode, the remaining demonized people in his group cried out with jarring screams. Hearing this, Zhang Tie changed his facial expression immediately as he pricked another head swiftly and told Zerom’s group, ”They are calling their partners, we have to get out of here as soon as possible!”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s warning, Jordan swung his huge ax and chopped off two demonized people’s heads, sending them flying in the air. Zerom and Shrek also each killed one respectively. After that, they followed Zhang Tie and rushed into an alley on the side.

While being protected by them in the middle, Professor Simon started to pant. After running less than 100 meters, Zhang Tie saw an opening rice store. He then ran inside at once.

Followed by the other four guys, the moment Jordan went to shut the door, he was stopped by Zhang Tie, ”No need!”

”What if those demonized people rush inside?”

”No problem. If we close it, we might arouse their attention. Follow me upstairs, and be quiet!”

Hearing the screams and disorderly footsteps from outside, they hurriedly followed Zhang Tie up to the second floor of the rice store.

They were in a small warehouse where someone had lived before. It seemed that chaos had happened here as things were strewn everywhere. Many rice bags were broken. There were even some blood stains on the floor. However, nobody was inside. The moment Zhang Tie had come upstairs, he pulled closed the curtain there. Standing close to the windowsill, he made a gesture to tell the others to be quiet. Therefore, everybody slowed their breathing.

Shrek was on high alert above the entrance of the stairs and watched the gate downstairs. If any demonized people rushed inside, he would find out first.

The screams of demonized people were drawing closer and closer. It was really noisy in the alley on one side of the rice store and on the other side from the street outside. Hundreds of demonized people rushed by, followed sparsely by many more. From the source of the sound, they knew that those demonized people were rushing towards the place where they’d fought just now.

Professor, Jordan, Zerom and Shrek all changed their facial expressions slightly. If they had stayed half a minute longer there, they would have been surrounded by the demonized people. Although normal demonized people had the same fighting strength as a commoner person’s, they were all painless and dauntless. If Zhang Tie’s group were to be surrounded by them, nobody knew what would happen.

They had been in Heavens Cold City for over two hours, during which period they had experienced six fights. As a result, they gradually came to understand how terrifying those demonized people were.

Like piranhas or army ants, as long as they locked onto their target, those demonized people would all attack together. Unless they were all killed, they would never stop. When being surrounded by demonized people, as long as one was troubled by a demonized person for over 2 seconds, more of them would take the chance and crowd up. In two seconds...four seconds...six seconds...eight seconds...they would gather until they covered you and gnawed you, leaving nothing at all. Any powerful fighter would be frightened facing such an attack.

With a sound downstairs, a demonized person walked in. Seeing this, Shrek made a gesture towards them to tell them to hold their breaths.

Jordan then clenched his ax...

Zerom narrowed his eyes as he changed the position of his long sword...

Professor Simon seemed to be praying as he drew something on his chest...

Zhang Tie gazed at the foot of the stairs...

Over ten seconds later, the sound downstairs drew farther away, while the screams outside also faded. Several minutes later, after those noises disappeared, everybody finally let out a breath.

Shrek then jumped from his position at the stairs and walked towards the other people, throwing himself onto a rice bag. Zerom watched outside carefully from the windowsill. ”Those demonized people have gone, only leaving a couple of them wandering in the alley!‘’ he said.

”Professor Simon, why didn’t they call their partners the moment they saw us instead of doing that when they only had one or two left?” Shrek asked.

”After losing the guidance of their parent puppet worm, all the demonized people have poor organization. They are not even as smart as spiders or ants. When they caught sight of us, they took us as their food and target. We made them excited, just like how those stupid animals are when they notice their food and mates. Of course, they would not share their food with others!”

Hearing Professor Simon’s explanation, Jordan quivered all over. ”Professor Simon, could you change the metaphor. We are their food, but what motherf*cking mates? Who wants to hug those guys in a bed?”

Professor Simon then revealed a smile in an embarrassed way. Ignoring Jordan’s qualms, he said ”Only when they’ve confirmed that they have no chance of eating us would they then send an SOS to their own kind!”

”Before coming to Heavens Cold City, I even thought they could speak. It’s really out of my imagination that they could only scream!”

”Language is a very advanced function in the human brain. It requires a very high level of intelligence. Although those puppet worms can control one’s actions by living in their brains, they cannot control people’s language function. The reason lies in the very low intelligence of puppet worms themselves. They cannot deal with the sophisticated functions of the language area in human brains, not to mention comprehending human language, logic and contents or exchange by language!”

While they were talking in low voices, Zhang Tie was furrowing among the things in the room. He found some dried fruits and passed them to the other people, saying, ”Eat some first to regain your physical strength. We might face more battles like this later on!”

When they entered Heavens Cold City, it meant they’d entered the battle field. Of course, Zhang Tie would seize any chance to recover his physical strength and spiritual energy, and maintained them in their optimum states. This was a battle field survival skill that he’d learned in Iron-Blood Camp. Besides fighting on the battle field, they needed more strength to persist.

”How long from here to the nearest camp of the former city guards?” Zerom asked Zhang Tie after a short thought.

Zhang Tie pointed at a direction outside the window, ”We need to pass two streets. It’s about 1000 meters away from here. Now, only a few demonized city guards are wandering in the city, while 90% of the rest of the demonized city guards are gathering around the inner city of Heavens Cold City, where the parent puppet worm was killed...”

”I don’t think we can continue like this. It’s too dangerous, especially for Professor Simon!” Zerom said as he drew on the floor with his long sword. ”How about this? We will find a place within this region to settle down Professor Simon first. Then two of us stay with Professor Simon to protect him while the other two go outside to catch two demonized city guards. The advantage of this method is that we could reduce our chance of exposure. Additionally, those going outside could get out of danger with their own fighting strength more quickly...”