Chapter 425: The Culprit
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Zhang Tie flashed across the ranges of the Grey Hill like wind. He didn't feel fatigued at all. After eating 9 seven-strength fruits of demon rats, Zhang Tie found that his explosiveness and resistance had greatly increased. As a result, he could now run almost for a day at a cruising speed of 30 km/h and still maintain a powerful fighting strength.
At this speed, Zhang Tie had run over 60 km on the undulant hill in 2 hours since he left Crell.
The huge black eagle had long disappeared in the air. It could reach a very great height like Crell's eye in the sky. Crell said that he could sense whatever the huge eagle could see through his spiritual energy, which really made Zhang Tie admirable.
With that huge eagle, Zhang Tie and Crell greatly improved their working efficiency on Grey Hill. As they've agreed to transfer message through that huge eagle, the moment Zhang Tie raised his head and watched the flying trace of the huge eagle in the air, little did he know what Crell was going to express.
The wind blowing over the Grey Hill brought some strange sound, hearing which, Zhang Tie slightly changed his moving direction. After running another 2 km, Zhang Tie encountered the first huge pack of iron-teeth hyenas today.
60-70 iron-teeth hyenas were surrounding a team of people on a hillside while over 10 dead iron-teeth hyenas were lying on the ground sparsely. Some people were covered with blood stains; some were heavily wounded. After losing their consciousness, they had to be carried by others.
Those cunning iron-teeth hyenas were circling around those people. Seeing people moving back or standing still, those iron-teeth hyenas followed up instantly. Seeing people moving forward, those iron-teeth hyenas moved back immediately. In this course, as long as anyone became careless, some iron-teeth hyenas would instantly charge towards him and gave him a fierce bite.
In the wild, nobody could survive the "wheel war" of a huge pack of iron-teeth hyenas.
Zhang Tie didn't know how long those iron-teeth hyenas had chased after these people. At the sight of these people, Zhang Tie knew that they might be too exhausted. Many people could barely wave their weapons.
Facing this situation, Zhang Tie instantly rushed forward with 2 short javelins like seeing a feast.
The moment Zhang Tie appeared, he had seen some exterior iron-teeth hyenas pouncing towards him.
Zhang Tie only used one action with his short javelins——poke!
In a split second, 2 shadows of short javelins flashed by the air, causing an air-breaking shrill sound, "Hugh". In only 2 minutes, the 7-8 iron-teeth hyenas had already fallen down the ground with bloody holes on each of their bodies. Each hole passed through the heart. What a sharp counterattack!
Seeing what Zhang Tie had done, those people being surrounded finally became spirited as they knew that a powerhouse, their savior, had arrived.
"Brothers, hold on, someone has arrived to save us!" A head-like guy raised his arm and screamed loudly as he poked his long sword into an iron-teeth hyena's body.
Zhang Tie moved so fast that he moved close to those people in a wink. However, he didn't dash into the circle right away; instead, he just slaughtered those iron-teeth hyenas outside the circle.
Iron-teeth Hyenas were surrounding those people while Zhang Tie was surrounding around those iron-teeth hyenas.
In a blink of eye, over 10 iron-teeth hyenas had fallen down the ground as their hearts were poked through by Zhang Tie with his sharp, short javelins.
Iron-teeth hyenas were smart. Realizing that Zhang Tie's fighting strength was irresistible, they escaped in all directions at once. Zhang Tie chased after them for a few steps and killed some more before stopping and walking towards those people.
In a couple of minutes, Zhang Tie had made another iron-teeth hyena half-ripe. Therefore, he felt pretty good. Actually, Zhang Tie had slowed his speed just now. Considering the benefit of the seven-strength fruit of the king demon rat and that there were only 3 seven-strength fruits of iron-teeth fruits available, Zhang Tie wanted to wait for the seven-strength fruit of the king iron-teeth hyena. If possible, a seven-strength fruit of the king iron-teeth hyena was more beneficial than some seven-strength fruits of common iron-teeth hyenas.
This was also one reason for him to stay with Crell. If he wanted to find the king iron-teeth hyena, he had to depend on fortune; however, if he stayed with a wild patron, he would have a greater chance to meet a king iron-teeth hyena.
The wild patron wanted to find the culprit of the animal tide who could control so many iron-teeth hyenas; according to the knowledge about animal controller that Zhang Tie had learned from the "Great Wild Sutra", if there was a king among the iron-teeth hyenas, that king iron-teeth hyena was probably staying with that animal controller.
After realizing that he could solve many problems if he stayed with Crell, Zhang Tie became utilitarian. Of course, although he was utilitarian, his deeds were also useful to counter the culprits. As for those culprits who aroused troubles everywhere at the arrival of the 3rd holy war, Zhang Tie always hated them deeply, not to mention that those culprits might be related to demons.
Therefore, strictly, although Zhang Tie was selfish to stay with Crell, he was also doing this for the world to a certain degree. Zhang Tie had not felt how great he was; after all, based on his status and his relationship with grandma Teresa, he was not qualified to be a devoted follower of the Patron School of Gaia. He was half a devoted follower at most.
Being covered with the blood of the hearts of iron-teeth hyenas, Zhang Tie walked towards those people who were attacked just now. Watching the blood dripping off Zhang Tie's short javelins, those people became awful and nervous.
There were 12-13 people in total. Based on Zhang Tie's fighting strength, he could easily kill them all. As it was in the wild, they had to be meticulous about Zhang Tie.
"Hoy!" Before Zhang Tie moved closer, one of them had shouted towards Zhang Tie.
Hearing this strange name, Zhang Tie became slightly stunned. He then glanced over those people carefully. This time, he found some familiar, fatigued looks although being covered with dust and blood stains. What a coincidence! They were low-level soldiers of Adelais Business Group.
Hearing this sound, some became perplexed; some changed their faces greatly. They were not watching Zhang Tie with amazing, surprising or shocking looks; instead, they looked fearsome. Although they had slightly loosened their grips, they instantly became nervous once again as they held fast their weapons like how they were facing those iron-teeth hyenas.
Seeing their response, Zhang Tie understood it right away. His public status as a criminal might have been exposed by Dawson or that barber in Eschyle City soon after he left Adelais Business Group. But Zhang Tie didn't care about that.
In order to ease off their tension, Zhang Tie stood still 10 steps away from them. He inserted his short javelins into the ground and held them by hands.
"I think we should call you Peter Hamplester!" When the others were in a panic, a 60 years old man with a wound on his leg walked out of the crowd in clothes which were remarkably different from that of other soldiers. He took off his luggage from his back and intended to give it to Zhang Tie by 2 hands, "Thanks for your help, you've saved our lives. Here's our compensation. There are more than 700 gold coins inside and some previous herbal medicines which are worth about 2000 gold coins! Our Adelais Business Group always appreciate our helpers! Of course, we will not forgive our enemies!"
Zhang Tie responded with a smile. What an interesting old man! Given from his neutral attitude, Zhang Tie knew that he was an influential figure in Adelais Business Group, "What's your name? What's your position in Adelais Business Group?"
"I'm Marney, the charger of Adelais Business Group's herbal medicine collection center on Grey Hill!"
"When I was in Eschyle City, I truly killed a person. But he was a lackey from Demon Snake Island. As I've bred enmity with people from Demon Snake Island, I have been traced by them the moment I disembarked. That b*stard wanted to kill me; therefore, I killed him. Thanks to your business group, I exited the Eschyle City in case of many troubles. We're squared up!" Zhang Tie smiled, "Put away your luggage. I'm neither a honorable person nor a bandit!"
Hearing Zhang Tie's words, although they didn't know whether Zhang Tie was telling the truth, they became relaxed evidently. They knew that if Peter was going to kill them, none of them could survive the next sunrise, even if Adelais Business Group would revenge for their death. Given Peter's fighting strength, they knew that he was at least LV 8 or LV 9. By contrast, they were only LV 2-LV 5. Additionally, they were too fatigued and covered with wounds. Zhang Tie could easily kill them all like slaughtering animals.
Marney let out a sigh evidently as he carried his luggage once again, "For that you are wanted, we cannot help you; but we can relate your words to the police station in Eschyle City!"
"Thanks!" Zhang Tie shrugged. As long as he left Eschyle City, he would not care about that he was wanted or not, "Why are you here? Adelais Business Group should not dispatch the director of their herbal medicine collection center on Grey Hill to pick up herbal medicines here!"
"We escaped from our base on the lakeside of Huyrto Lake!" Marney sighed.
"You escaped from the Maple Leaf Castle on the lake side off Huyrto Lake?" Zhang Tie blinked his eyes with a surprising look, "Can you tell me why?"
"It's the animal tide, a powerful animal tide!" Marney's face turned pale once again while the others also looked panic, "At the beginning, we had over 40 people; but now, we are only left with these!"
"You mean iron-teeth hyenas could destroy your base?" Zhang Tie asked out of curiosity.
Marney let out a long sigh...
...
In the next few minutes, Zhang Tie figured out what happened.
Huyrto Lake was in deep Grey Hill. In order to collect the precious herbal medicines and other specialties on Grey Hill, some chambers of commerce and business groups in Eschyle City founded Maple Leaf Castle there as their common material warehouse and personnel transfer center.
The Maple Leaf Castle was safe in the previous animal tides. However, the Maple Leaf Castle was broke in by the animals this time.
Marney and Adelais Business Group didn't know why. When they were sleeping soundly several hours before dawn, their Maple Leaf Castle had been covered by iron-teeth hyenas. They were awakened by those people's shrill cries in the base. Being flurried, they fought those wild beasts right away.
Because there were too many iron-teeth hyenas, the Maple Leaf Castle was lost. Therefore, they chose to break out. As a result, over half of the 40-odd people had been killed on the way here. If not Zhang Tie, they might also be eaten soon by those iron-teeth hyenas.
"Aren't there any senior fighters in Maple Leaf Castle? With a couple of senior fighters, even a wooden camp could not be broken by those iron-teeth hyenas!" Zhang Tie replied.
"In order to deal with the animal tide on Grey Hill, Eschyle City has dispatched a small team of bear-killing fighters to sweep those iron-teeth hyenas on the Grey Hill. Each chamber of commerce had dispatched some fighters above LV 6 in the base. However, when the animal tide broke out, these people had disappeared. Even those who could fight with their weapons, they became very flurried. In a wink, they had been covered by those iron-teeth hyenas!"
Hearing this reply, Zhang Tie narrowed his eyes at once, "Where's the Maple Leaf Castle?"
"It's 50 km away. There's a lake over there, which is easily identified!" Marney said as he pointed at northwest.
"You'd better leave here as fast as possible. Walk towards east from here. As I've cleaned the iron-teeth hyenas on my way here, there is only few left. As to whether you can return to Eschyle City, it depends on you!" After saying this, Zhang Tie drew his short javelins out of the ground and dashed towards northwest. In a wink, he had been 100 m away.
Seeing Zhang Tie disappearing, the remaining people of Adelais Business Group exchanged glances with each other and hurriedly escaped towards east.
After running dozens of minutes, Zhang Tie saw some columns of heavy smoke in the far. The huge eagle was hovering above there, which looked like a black spot in the far...
Zhang Tie also noticed Crell who was leaping between twigs like a leopard at a very amazing speed. Needless to say Zhang Tie also rushed over there.
...
10 minutes later, Zhang Tie and Crell almost arrived at Maple Leaf Castle at the same time.
The Maple Leaf Castle was a camp circled by 3-m high wooden barriers. All the rooms inside were made of wood. They found the ground of the castle was covered with incomplete human bodies and many times more dead iron-teeth hyenas. Besides, those rooms were burning ferociously.
Nobody was alive in Maple Leaf Castle. Numerous iron-teeth hyenas were still wandering across the castle, tearing apart those dead human bodies and eating them. At the sight of Zhang Tie and Crell, many iron-teeth hyenas slowly surrounded them.
"In the name of Gaia, the mother of land, please drive away all the wild beasts on the wildness!" Crell roared as his hair moved slightly; meanwhile, a 30-cm long deadwood-like eccentric walking stick slid into his hand from his sleeve. He inserted that small walking stick into the ground at once. In a split second, the great pack of iron-teeth hyenas which were going to surround them with red eyes shrieked miserably like flurried rabbits and escaped with lowering tails. As a result, all the iron-teeth hyenas inside the base were driven away.
Crell's deed really broadened Zhang Tie's vision. This method was very similar to that of the Section "Amulet" in the "Great Wild Sutra". If Zhang Tie wanted to drive away these LV 1 iron-teeth hyenas, he should at least enter the 2nd storey of the "Great Wild Sutra". As Zhang Tie didn't reach this level, he could not compare which secret animal controlling skill was sharper. Zhang Tie thought that the "Great Wild Sutra" would take him less time; however the effective range of the Section "Amulet" on the 2nd storey was not as large as that of Crell.
Seeing so many iron-teeth hyenas, Zhang Tie really wanted to slaughter them all.
They then went inside the Maple Leaf Castle.
Soon after they entered, Zhang Tie had seen a broken defense. He walked over there and took a careful look. After that, he made a conclusion, the defense was broke in by people forcefully.
Crell also noticed that as his eyes turned gloomy, "I smell the odor of that animal controller!"
...