Barrow-downs, in the deepest valley of the Willow River's upper reaches.
Following the map route Tom provided, Luke walked upstream along the Willow River until he reached this place.
This is the source of the Willow River, located in the heart of the Barrow-downs.
Perhaps because of the existence of Jin Mei, who is suspected to be the River God of the Willow River, the source of the Willow River was not polluted by the dark forces on the Barrow-downs, but instead became the only pure land.
Upon arriving here, the Barrow Downs was no longer far.
After a short rest, Luke left the valley and headed straight for the Barrow Downs.
The sky above the Barrow-downs is perpetually covered in dark clouds, and the mountains are shrouded in thick fog, so even though it was daytime, there was no sunlight to be seen in the mountains, nor any insect chirping to be heard.
Even though wight would not easily appear during the day, Luke remained very vigilant. To avoid any accidents, he applied a Shield Charm to himself in advance.
With his wand, his Shield Charm was even more powerful; it had upgraded from an invisible shield to a protective barrier that offered full-spectrum protection, so ordinary attacks could no longer harm him.
Therefore, even if he intruded into the wight's lair, he had some confidence.
The Barrow-downs was once the capital of the Cardolan Kingdom after the Arnor Kingdom split. As Luke walked, he could see the ruins of ancient cities and huge broken stones along the way.
In the Second Age, the island of Númenor sank, and Elendil, as one of the survivors, came to Middle-earth and established the Arnor Kingdom, also known as the Northern Kingdom, on the land of Eriador.
However, in the year 861 of the Third Age, the Arnor Kingdom split into three kingdoms: Arthedain, Rhudaur, and Cardolan. The capital of the Cardolan Kingdom was the current Barrow-downs.
In the year 1409 of the Third Age, the Witch-king of Angmar launched a full-scale attack on Arnor. The Prince of Cardolan was killed in the defense of the capital, and Cardolan was destroyed.
Afterward, a great plague broke out, and the Barrow-downs completely transformed into a lifeless, desolate land.
The Witch-king of Angmar eroded this land with dark power, transforming the sleepers in the tombs into his minions—barrow wight—and establishing his stronghold on the Barrow-downs.
For over a thousand years, even the bravest adventurers dared not venture deep into the Barrow-downs, and even passing merchants and travelers dared not pass through at night.
Luke walked for about two hours and finally saw the Barrow Downs.
This was a hilly area dotted with massive stone tombs. Most of the tombs here belonged to the princes and nobles of the Northern Dúnedain, so they were mostly simple, unadorned stone burial mounds.
The tombs were shrouded in mist, very dilapidated and decayed, exuding a chilling and ominous aura.
Suddenly, the surrounding mist churned and grew thicker.
Luke instantly became alert, his wand in his hand eager to move.
But before he could react, a dark shadow rushed out of the mist and attacked his back with incredible speed.
"Bang!"
The dark shadow collided with an invisible barrier, and the immense recoil force bounced it away.
Luke quickly turned around and finally saw the appearance of the attacker.
It was a tall figure, clad in tattered, decaying armor, with eerie, sinister glowing eyes, and dry, gray skin tightly adhering to its skull, exuding an aura of evil and death.
It was a wight!
Luke was also startled; he hadn't expected the wight to be so fast. If he hadn't set up the Shield Charm in advance, he might have been successfully ambushed by the wight.
The wight's first ambush failed, and it charged at Luke again.
This time, prepared, Luke naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait for an attack. He raised his wand, waved it, and chanted: "Petrificus Totalus!"
The Petrificus Totalus hit the charging wight squarely, and the wight instantly petrified, its movements frozen in place.
Looking at the petrified wight, Luke didn't dare to be careless. He controlled two cleavers and slashed fiercely at the wight's neck.
"Clink." The cleavers sparked.
"Hiss!" Luke gasped, though he had long known from Tom that wight were difficult to kill, he hadn't expected it to be so tough that even cleavers couldn't cut it!
Luke, not believing it, continued to control the flying knives to chop repeatedly.
Under the dense chopping, the wight's neck finally sustained an injury, revealing black decaying flesh and pale white bones.
But before he could rejoice, a black mist surged from the wound, and then the wound rapidly healed at an eerie speed.
At the same time, the previously petrified wight suddenly became mobile again. As if it knew Luke was difficult to deal with, it didn't attack again but quickly darted into the mist and hid.
"Damn it!" Luke couldn't help but curse under his breath. Not to mention the Old Willow Tree's magic resistance before, how could a wight now also have such high magic resistance?
He roughly calculated that only four or five minutes had passed since the Petrificus Totalus hit the wight.
Being able to break free from the Petrificus Totalus in such a short time, Luke felt that this trip to the Barrow-downs was going to be difficult.
The wight disappeared into the mist and did not reappear for a long time, as if it had left.
But Luke dared not relax, because he could feel a pair of malicious eyes staring intently at him, just waiting for him to show the slightest slack before pouncing again.
The next moment, the mist surged, and the wight rushed out of the mist again, and it now had a greatsword in its hand.
The wight's speed was almost imperceptible to the naked eye; it instantly charged in front of Luke, raised the greatsword in its hand, and slashed down at the barrier formed by the Shield Charm.
The greatsword emanated black mist and ill omens, instantly cleaving through the barrier, to Luke's horrified expression.
Seeing Luke's horrified expression, the wight revealed a ferocious, triumphant grin, as if it had already foreseen tearing the opponent apart in the next second and nourishing itself with the opponent's blood.
But the next second, the wight crashed into another barrier and was heavily repelled.
Before it could get up and continue its attack, Luke's spells came one after another.
"Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus! Expelliarmus!"
The Impedimenta spell slowed the wight's speed significantly, followed by being hit by Petrificus Totalus and unable to move, and finally, the greatsword in its hand was disarmed by Expelliarmus, falling to the ground.
Having learned his lesson, Luke wouldn't give the wight another chance to break free and escape. He directly cast more than a dozen Petrificus Totalus spells on the wight and also used the Leg-Locking Curse before finally stopping.
With so many spells, this wight wouldn't be able to break free for at least an hour.
After doing all this, Luke didn't immediately deal with the wight but focused some of his attention on the greatsword.
It was this greatsword that had just cleaved open the protective barrier formed by the Shield Charm. If he hadn't valued his life and applied more than a dozen layers of defense to himself in advance, he might have truly been injured by the wight.
Luke used magic to control the greatsword to fly over, looking at the greatsword emanating black mist, but he dared not touch it with his hand.
Because the sword body was filled with an ominous aura, it was a curse, and anyone who dared to touch it with their hand would be cursed and suffer misfortune.
Luke looked at the greatsword, then at the petrified wight, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
Since ordinary weapons couldn't harm the wight at all, then using this greatsword, full of curses and ill omens, against the wight should be effective, right?
With a "whoosh," the greatsword transformed into a sword shadow, directly piercing through the wight, leaving a large hole in its chest.
The wight's aura weakened considerably, and the black mist lingering around it also faded somewhat.
"It works!" Luke's eyes lit up, and he quickly continued to stab with the sword.
As he stabbed sword after sword, the wight's emanating aura dwindled, and its dry, gray skin became festered and fell off.
With another beheading strike, the wight's head instantly separated.
Accompanied by an unwilling roar, a thick black mist erupted from the wight's body, instantly shooting skyward, exploding and dissipating in the air.
The wight's body, as if without support, directly collapsed and rapidly decayed, leaving only a pile of white bones.