This was not a rag, but a palm-sized part of a towel which was torn off by a person on purpose. What was weird was that when holding that extremely dirty rag, Zhang Tie felt a sense of familiarity. How could he be familiar with a rag found in a wolf den?
Something flashed across his mind. Zhang Tie became slightly stunned as he remembered that he had lost an old towel he'd used to clean sweat in the locker room at school. He hurriedly turned the rag over. The decorative patterns with loose lines on the back of the rag soon aligned with the decorative patterns of that towel in his memory.
A mountain cave full of dead wolves; a wolf family killed by people; his own towel rag found in the mountain cave; a towel that he had lost at school; Sharlon's sneer; Glaze's huge feet; the wolves' hatred towards him...
All of a sudden, Zhang Tie knew everything, he knew how Glaze's group had taken their revenge on him. They had stolen his towel in school, then found this wolf den in Wild Wolf Valley and killed all the female wolves and puppies before leaving this rag full of his odor. And since wolves had sensitive smell, they could find him based on the odor of the rag and the road marks set by Glaze's group using the rest of his towel.
No wonder he always felt like he was being followed those days. It was because Glaze had arranged someone to spy on his movements. That wild wolves' attack on him was not an accident at all, but a scheme, a deliberate murder using wild wolves. If it was another person, such as a common warrior who had not improved to LV 1 or even just a normal LV 1 warrior, he would definitely have lost his life when facing an attack from seven wolves at the same time.
Zerom's warning had been right. That attack was truly a scheme against Zhang Tie. These wild wolves had first found him based on the odor on the rags of his towel and chased into the deep hole. Then, they had mistaken him for a dead man and left the hole.
However, when Pandora and the other two girls were washing his clothes over the stream, the remaining four wolves, who were drinking water in the stream, smelt his odor. Otherwise, it was because of other reasons, that they had found his odor and laid an ambush near the tree house, almost hurting the three girls.
After thinking it through, Zhang Tie gradually recovered his composure. He had never imagined that his refusal to be insulted by Glaze's group, which brought them some bitterness, could lead to such a scheme against him. They were driven so crazy that they had almost succeeded.
They were truly beasts. He had mistaken them for people before. Now Zhang Tie immediately realized his mistake. As Donder had said, he should have never imagined his enemy being as kind as he was.
Zhang Tie threw away that rag and left. He knew that this rag would never work if brought to the Temporary Supervision Committee. First, he could not prove that this rag was a part of his lost towel. Neither could he prove that this rag was picked up in this wolf den, or that it was planted by Glaze's group.
Additionally, he could not prove that the wolves were killed by Glaze's group. There were too many things that could not be proved. It would look just like a man holding a rag of his lost old towel going to the Temporary Supervision Committee to charge someone with wanting to kill him. This accusation looked really stupid. Zhang Tie naturally didn't want to be called an idiot. Evidence was needed in court. If he wanted to seek revenge, he needed to provide evidence.
After leaving that hillside, Zhang Tie cast his eyes far off the Wild Wolf Valley. It was the cross area between the valley and the Crescent Prairie. According to Blues, Glaze's group was right over there.
"Glaze, you just wait for for me!" Zhang Tie mumbled. After that, he glanced at that hillside where he had revealed the scheme before walking towards the Crescent Prairie.
According to Blues, for a loner who was not powerful, the most important thing was to become familiar with the terrain and find a safe base where he could have a rest. As a loner who had the Castle of Black Iron and Manjusaka Karma Fruit Tree, Zhang Tie concluded that his base should be hidden, besides being able to let him have a safe rest! It should make it convenient for him to access Castle of Black Iron who's secret should never be exposed to the public.
Because of Glaze, Zhang Tie became more set on improving his own strength. Now, he really wanted to find a place where he could eat the second Iron-Body Fruit. Additionally, after digging in the mine for so many days, he had restored a lot of basic energy. He thought that it was time to make slight adjustments and renovate the space and terrain in Castle of Black Iron, which would provide greater assistance to the forthcoming loner's survival training.
What greater assistance? What did you need most in the wild? Of course it was water! Clean water! If he could have a clean water source in Castle of Black Iron, he would be able to greatly enhance his survivability in the wild. As a result, he would be able to do many things more conveniently.
As the entire Wild Wolf Valley looked like a trumpet, the farther it was from the the Wild Wolf Castle, the bigger and broader the valley would be. Walking towards the Crescent Prairie, Zhang Tie felt the surroundings grow gradually more and more spacious. When he passed by that mountain cave where he had hid from the rain, Zhang Tie felt like he was in a small basin.
According to Blues' suggestion, he explored the valley in an 's'-shaped route. Although this would consume more time, on the premise that he had enough time, it would help him to get familiar with the terrain as fast as possible and find all the available resources or any proper bases.
Once he found a proper base, he then could slowly explore the area within a 5 km radius around the base. As a loner, he should be familiar with the terrain like it was his own backyard.
The strength of being able to easily kill a LV 2 beast and familiarity with the terrain enabled a loner to move in Wild Wolf Castle as free as wind.
It was truly worth it to explore the Wild Wolf Valley using an 's'-shaped route. At noon, biting a ripe and yummy wild apple with three more in hand, Zhang Tie had already arrived in front of a mountain cave...