Sauron immediately suspected that Kael had hidden the One Ring.
Combined with the fact that Kael already possessed the Philosopher's Stone he so desperately coveted, Sauron's interest intensified dramatically.
Saruman, standing nearby in the shadows, overheard news of the One Ring. A greedy gleam flashed briefly in his eyes.
But wary of Sauron's overwhelming presence, he carefully concealed his expression, lowering his eyes in calculated contemplation.
Sauron turned his terrible gaze toward the trembling Gollum before him. His immense will moved, and the surrounding dark power surged violently into Gollum's broken body.
Gollum's injuries rapidly repaired themselves, strength flowing back into his twisted limbs.
But simultaneously, the dark power further corrupted his already-twisted body, embedding itself deeper.
The recovered Gollum, seeing his body miraculously healed, stared with his large pale eyes filled with disbelief. He hastily kowtowed frantically, thanking Sauron with pathetic gratitude.
"I can spare your miserable life, even allow you to leave this place..." Sauron's voice carried dark promise. "But you need to help me find my One Ring. Can you accomplish this task?"
Hearing this unexpected offer, Gollum's eyes widened with shock, then delight. He nodded frantically.
"Gollum can do it! Gollum will definitely help you find the precious!"
Sauron waved his hand dismissively. Two dark guards materialized from shadows, roughly leading Gollum away.
Seeing this, Saruman frowned, looking with obvious disdain at the departing wretch. "You're sparing this pathetic nobody, letting him search for the One Ring—isn't this somewhat unwise?"
Sauron appeared supremely confident, speaking with absolute assurance. "This Gollum wore my One Ring for hundreds of years, already establishing an unbreakable connection with it. He will be drawn to the Ring like a moth to a flame, ultimately finding it, then bringing it back to me."
His burning gaze turned westward, his voice turning cold with determination.
"Last time at Isengard, our failure cost us a valuable frost dragon and dozens of evil dragons. This time there cannot be any accidents!
Let this pathetic little creature help us scout the situation first. Once we confirm the One Ring's exact location, we'll strike with overwhelming force, seizing back my Ring at absolutely any cost!"
"But even if this wretch successfully finds the One Ring, will he willingly hand it over?" Saruman remained full of doubt. "I saw greed and possessive desire burning in his eyes—once he gets his hands on the Ring again, he'll probably flee into deep mountains and hide it away."
Sauron didn't bother answering Saruman's skeptical question. Instead, he waved to summon a waiting Nazgûl, commanding, "Follow him secretly. Stay hidden in the wraith-world where he cannot perceive you. Do not alert him to your presence."
The Nazgûl bowed in acknowledgment, then faded instantly into spirit form, entering the wraith-world to follow and monitor Gollum's every movement.
Casually thrown outside Mordor's Black Gate like discarded trash, Gollum watched the Mordor soldiers turn and leave without looking back. He could hardly believe this was real, as if trapped in a dream.
"Gollum is out? Gollum is free!" He excitedly suppressed his voice, talking to himself in the darkness. "Sméagol, we're free at last!"
But before the happiness could fully settle, hearing threatening roars echoing from inside the Black Gate, he startled violently. Torture memories flooded back instantly.
Like a frightened bird, he fled westward without stopping, desperately putting distance between himself and that terrible place. He managed to catch a stray wild horse, clinging to its neck as the panicked animal galloped at full speed.
After the exhausted wild horse ran for days, finally too depleted to continue, Gollum immediately bared his fangs. Hugging the horse's neck, he savagely bit into the exposed flesh.
The wild horse struggled violently but ultimately collapsed, becoming completely lifeless.
After Gollum gorged himself on the raw meat, his two fractured personalities fell into their familiar argument.
Sméagol, retaining partial humanity, remained cowardly and timid. Thoroughly frightened by Sauron's torture, he desperately wanted to flee back to the Misty Mountains to hide safely.
The evil Gollum personality viciously scolded Sméagol's cowardice, vowing to reclaim the precious Ring for himself and then hide with it forever, never giving anyone another chance to steal it away.
From start to finish, Gollum never once considered actually returning the One Ring to Sauron as promised.
Moreover, Gollum had learned from various sources in Mordor that Kael's base of operations was at Weathertop, plus the useful information that the Shire lay west of Weathertop.
He clearly remembered Bilbo Baggins once mentioning he came from the Shire.
So Gollum's goal this time was perfectly clear—travel to Weathertop and secretly investigate whether the Ring was in the black-robed wizard's possession.
After all, he had personally heard Sauron deduce that the power preventing him from revealing One Ring information was likely enacted by that black-robed wizard.
Since the wizard had used magic to hide the One Ring's location, he had very likely seen the Ring—perhaps the Ring was even now in his hands.
As someone who had possessed the Ring for hundreds of corrupting years, Gollum deeply understood the Ring's irresistible power. He believed that once anyone saw the Ring, they absolutely could not resist its seductive magic.
So he strongly suspected the Ring might have been seized by the black-robed wizard.
When he and his cousin had first found the One Ring together so long ago, to monopolize it for himself, he had directly murdered his companion without hesitation.
Judging others by his own twisted nature, Gollum considered Kael the prime suspect for current Ring possession.
Even if the Ring wasn't in Kael's hands, he could at least gather definite information about Bilbo Baggins' whereabouts from the wizard's territory.
Time passed swiftly.
Since Kael's phoenix rebirth, several more months had slipped by.
His phoenix Animagus had completely shed its juvenile appearance, with feathers fully grown and magnificent. He had once again become a stunning swan-sized phoenix radiating power.
His human body's age had also correspondingly increased by approximately ten years through natural phoenix growth. Without consuming Aging Potion, he now appeared as a twelve- or thirteen-year-old youth.
He no longer frequently consumed Aging Potion unnecessarily, only taking it when dating Arwen to appear properly mature. Normally he simply appeared in his youthful form around the castle.
Castle servants and the two mayors who regularly reported work progress had gone from initial shock to genuine awe at witnessing Kael's continuous changes, only sighing admiringly at their lord's divine nature.
Recently, Kael had again successfully created additional Felix Felicis.
Besides needing backup supplies of Felix Felicis for emergencies, he also wanted to compensate Arwen and Gandalf for the potions they had sacrificed to help him.
Felix Felicis's powerful luck-granting effects had enabled both Thorondor's Thunderbird transformation and Kael's phoenix transformation to complete smoothly without catastrophe.
Such miraculous supernatural luck proved divine medicine for avoiding disasters and achieving seemingly impossible goals.
The only unfortunate limitation was that Felix Felicis absolutely could not be consumed excessively. Minor overconsumption caused dizziness, reckless behavior, and dangerous arrogance. Severe overconsumption caused addiction, even death.
Moreover, Felix Felicis produced strong tolerance effects—excessive consumption significantly reduced its benefits until they disappeared completely.
Professor Slughorn had only dared drink Felix Felicis three times in his entire long life.
Kael had now consumed it twice for major transformations. To avoid becoming dangerously arrogant, he could at most drink it two or three more times safely.
This limitation existed even though his physical constitution was considerably stronger than normal wizards.
Felix Felicis took extremely long to create properly. By the time Kael successfully completed this new batch, the year 2948 was already half over.
Only three months remained until his and Arwen's long-anticipated wedding.
Kael directly gave Arwen one full vial of the new Felix Felicis—enough for twelve hours of luck.
He also prepared to send Gandalf a six-hour dose as promised.
But Gandalf wasn't currently at Weathertop, traveling elsewhere on his mysterious business. So Kael simply mailed the Felix Felicis via owl post.
Just as Kael busily prepared for the upcoming wedding celebration, late one night below the mountain, a small twisted figure secretly approached the Black Lake under cover of darkness.
Gollum used the pale moonlight to see, his huge luminous eyes staring intently at the magnificent castle on the mountain across the dark lake, filled with desperate longing.
He looked toward the only bridge leading to the castle, but the bridge entrance had many armed militia guards on constant patrol, blocking any possibility of crossing openly.
Gollum had lingered here for several frustrating days, hiding in nearby caves during the daytime, then secretly emerging at night to eavesdrop on residents' conversations, desperately trying to find opportunities for infiltrating the castle.
Finally he discovered that fishermen regularly caught fish on the Black Lake, so under cover of darkness when surrounding residents were deeply asleep, he quietly crept to the fishing boat dock.
As the moon became blocked by thick clouds, Gollum quickly reached the dock, finding a small unattended boat.
Looking left and right nervously, he untied the rope with nimble fingers, then paddled awkwardly with his hands, sitting hunched in the small boat while quietly approaching the opposite shore.
The lake surface mist rose thick and concealing, making it impossible to see surroundings clearly. Gollum proceeded very carefully, deeply fearing alerting something dangerous.
Initially everything went smoothly enough, but after crossing halfway across the lake, Gollum's keen senses detected something massive hidden beneath the dark lake surface. He instantly froze, not daring to move, fearfully watching the water.
But after a long tense time passed with no movement, Gollum grew bolder. He resumed paddling cautiously, letting the boat continue slowly forward.
Seeing the opposite shore getting tantalizingly closer, Gollum's twisted face already showed desperate hope.
But the next second, the boat began slowly moving backward, growing farther from the opposite shore despite his efforts.
Gollum noticed this terrifying abnormality immediately. His huge eyes showed a horrified expression, his body curling defensively in the boat, trembling violently.
Simultaneously, beneath the boat's bottom, a giant tentacle had attached itself to the hull, treating it like a toy, accelerating its movement across the water surface.
After playing with its prey sufficiently, several huge tentacles suddenly emerged from the lake, wrapping powerfully around the small boat and lifting it high into the air.
At the same time, the giant kraken's massive body also surfaced from the dark lake, its intelligent eyes playfully staring at the captured boat.
Gollum, seeing the enormous octopus before him, showed absolute primal fear.
The next second, the tentacles wrapped around the small boat began tightening relentlessly. The boat made unbearable creaking sounds under the pressure and then directly broke apart into scattered wood pieces.
Gollum was wrapped and squeezed by one powerful tentacle, his huge eyes seemingly about to pop out from the crushing pressure, his face showing an agonized expression.
Just as the giant octopus opened its massive beak to eat this pathetic little creature as a midnight snack, something unexpected happened. The kraken's body suddenly froze, instantly releasing terrible, pained screams. It threw Gollum away violently while thrashing. Simultaneously, its underwater body began bleeding deep blue blood that dyed the lake surface an eerie blue.
Gollum didn't understand what had happened. When thrown into the water, he relied on his skilled swimming abilities, desperately swimming back toward shore, escaping that terrifying giant octopus.
In the castle high above, sleeping Kael was instantly awakened by Kraken's anguished wail echoing from below the mountain.
He quickly Apparated directly to the lakeside.
Seeing Kraken struggling continuously in the lake, surrounded by spreading blue blood—obviously seriously injured—his expression immediately became grave with concern.
"Diffindo!"
Kael waved his wand forcefully. The lake water was separated cleanly by an invisible magical force, revealing Kraken's complete massive body.
Kael came swiftly to Kraken's side, seeing a deep gash on its abdomen continuously bleeding blue blood—the wound appeared to have been cut by an extremely sharp blade.
What made Kael frown even more gravely was that the wound carried powerful curse magic and dark corrupting aura.
While constantly corroding Kraken's body tissues, it also actively prevented the wound from healing naturally.