Soon after Zhang Tie left the tree house, he met two teams of participants who were preparing to go hunting today. Each team had more than ten people. When Zhang Tie passed by them, those guys glanced at Zhang Tie's mining basket in amazement. They then glanced at Zhang Tie with a hint of disdain in their eyes before raising their heads and striding away proudly...
In the past two days, Zhang Tie had already become immune to these disdainful gazes. Zhang Tie couldn't remember when he had seen a sentence — — A man who could not bear loneliness would never grow up. For Zhang Tie, the current situation was a process of growing up in loneliness.
What was growing up was the Castle of Black Iron and Zhang Tie's gradually growing heart.
After several days of hard work, the basic energy storage value of the Castle of Black Iron had already reached 2000. Compared to the dozens of basic energy storage value before the survival training, the difference between the two was like the difference between heaven and earth. This was the result of Zhang Tie's labor during this period. After throwing baskets after baskets of stones into the Pool of Chaos, the stones and ores that had been converted into basic energy rapidly strengthened the Castle of Black Iron. With this amount of energy storage, Zhang Tie could actually make some small terrain modifications in the Castle of Black Iron, such as making a small pool. However, Zhang Tie was not satisfied with this amount. He planned to accumulate more and make a decision according to his needs after the survival training.
Besides the basic energy storage, the aura value in the Castle of Black Iron was also rapidly increasing. All the seeds given by Grandma Teresa had germinated and were growing well. The potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and other grains in Zhang Tie's private plot were also growing well. Now, the Castle of Black Iron was no longer a barren land; instead, it was covered with scattered, vigorous greenery. The vigorous greenery brought vitality to Zhang Tie, making him feel very good whenever he entered the Castle of Black Iron. Taking advantage of this survival training, Zhang Tie had been exchanging his food for the wild fruits that the girls had collected. As long as there were seeds, Zhang Tie would bring them into the Castle of Black Iron and scatter them on the ground. In the past few days, Zhang Tie could remember that he had scattered more than ten kinds of wild fruit seeds, most of which were pine nuts. Zhang Tie had scattered several mu of pine nuts in the Castle of Black Iron. There were also some plant seeds that Zhang Tie couldn't even name. When he saw plants that had blossomed or fallen fruits on the road, Zhang Tie would casually pick them up or throw them into his mining basket. After entering the Castle of Black Iron, Zhang Tie would casually throw those unknown seeds onto the ground. He didn't care whether they would grow or not.
He didn't know whether it was an illusion or not, but when he came to the mine two days ago, Zhang Tie always felt that he was being watched on the way back and forth in the morning and evening. However, this morning, when he was on the way to the mine, he didn't feel that he was being watched and followed. This made Zhang Tie feel a bit strange, wondering whether he was being neurotic again. However, he didn't think too much about it.
After the first rain in June, dandelions grew everywhere in the valley overnight. The white hairy balls of the dandelions scrambled to show themselves from the grasses, seemingly waiting for the arrival of a strong wind. Seeing these cute dandelions, Zhang Tie was in a good mood. On the way, he casually picked more than ten hairy balls of dandelions and threw them into the mining basket on his back.
… …
Half an hour later, Zhang Tie arrived at an iron mine cave that was the closest to the Wild Wolf Castle. This mine cave was only 200 m away from the Wild Wolf Castle. Many miners gathered in this mine cave to work. On the ground covered by weeds outside the mine cave, there was a rusty, half-dismantled, small mining cart track, which seemed to be telling the former prosperity and boisterousness of this place. This mine cave might have been very important in the past, but now, it was just a place for some unlucky students to exchange for food.
As it was too close to the Wild Wolf Castle and right under the eyes of the girls, perhaps they were afraid of losing face, none of the boys chose to set up a camp in this mine cave. As a result, the mine cave became much quieter.
In the past few days, there would be many fresh faces coming here to mine every day, while many old faces would disappear. After observing for a while, Zhang Tie found that there were only more than ten people here, including himself. Perhaps because this job couldn't bring them any sense of honor, those who decided to mine here were all introverted and reticent. After working here for a few days, Zhang Tie didn't even make a single friend. However, this was exactly what Zhang Tie wanted. It would be better if no one paid attention to him here. Thus, Zhang Tie pretended to be introverted and reticent as he silently worked in the mine cave.
There was a large area of abandoned gravel outside the mine cave. On rainy days, the gravel made it easier to walk around the mine cave. At least, there was not much mud on the ground. The entrance of the mine cave was very large, covering dozens of square meters. Zhang Tie rested at the entrance of the mine cave for a while before stepping on the mud on his shoes. After that, he took out a torch and a pickaxe from his mining basket. After lighting the torch, Zhang Tie held it up and entered the mine cave...
Even though it was daytime, after walking dozens of meters into the mine cave, especially after making two turns in the tunnel, it became so dark that one couldn't even see one's own fingers. Without a light source, one would not be able to enter at all. Thankfully, the ground of the tunnel was flat and there weren't too many obstacles, which made it easier to walk through the pitch-black tunnel.
The light of the torch and Zhang Tie's footsteps startled the bats at the entrance of the mining cave. The bats flapped their wings loudly in the pitch-dark mining cave, scaring people who came here for the first time. When Zhang Tie came here for the first time, he was also startled by the bats, but he got used to it after coming here for a couple of times.
Each time he came here, Zhang Tie would stealthily glance at those weird walls in the mine. There were so many strange marks like tire prints on the yellowish-brown walls that densely covered the entire mine. Zhang Tie was sure that they were not man-made. Each time he saw those marks, he would think of the legend about the Gold-Eating Boa that Sharwin had told him about 30 years ago. Walking in the smooth, round tunnels with a diameter of 3-4 m, Zhang Tie would always shudder at the thought of the extremely huge boa that could eat anything that had crawled in these tunnels dozens of years ago. It seemed that some monster was always gazing at him in the dark tunnels. Although he knew that it was just a psychological effect, Zhang Tie still couldn't help but speed up his pace each time he passed by those strange tunnels...
Hearing the faint clanking sounds coming from the front, Zhang Tie's heart calmed down a bit. It was the sound of pickaxes hitting ores. After walking for several hundred meters, Zhang Tie came to the end of the tunnel and saw a huge space in front of him. This space was even larger than the public square of Blackhot City. It looked like a natural karst cave. Several faint torches could be seen in this pitch-black underground space. Those were the torches that the people who had come here earlier had inserted into the mines. In this dark place, the torches' light became as inconspicuous as an oil lamp. The sound of pickaxes hitting ores could be heard one after another in this space. The echo effect in this huge mining cave made the sounds sound both distant and close. For those who had walked through the long tunnel, they could see the light spots in the darkness and hear the sounds of pickaxes hitting ores. At the same time, they would let out a sigh of relief and feel happy. At least it was so for Zhang Tie …
The place where Zhang Tie usually dug was a bit more hidden than the others. It was another tunnel in this underground mining space. Inside the tunnel, even if he lit a torch, he would not be able to see much light from the outside. Additionally, there were several forks and turns inside the tunnel, which seemed to lead to further underground. This was really an ideal place for Zhang Tie.
Coming to the place where he usually dug ores, Zhang Tie set up an inconspicuous mechanism at the entrance of the tunnel using several pieces of broken stones. This mechanism could alert him that someone was coming from behind. Only then did Zhang Tie completely relax.
After inserting the torch into the crack of the wall of the tunnel, the light of the torch immediately illuminated the dozens of square meters in the tunnel. Placing his mining basket on the ground, Zhang Tie poured out the spare torch and dandelions from the basket. He then untied his dagger, kettle, and dry rations from his waist. After drinking a mouthful of water, Zhang Tie picked up his pickaxe and exerted his full strength, starting to join the chorus of pickaxes in this underground karst cave!
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