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.
Having dealt with the undead, Luke breathed a sigh of relief.
But it also made him more vigilant; the commotion just now was so loud that it likely woke up other undead in the Barrow-downs.
He had to act quickly.
He immediately followed the information Tom provided and continued forward, constantly paying attention to the tombstones he passed.
The inscriptions on the tombstones had been corroded to the point of being illegible, and Luke's purpose for this trip was to find the tomb of a prince.
That was the last prince of the Kingdom of Cardolan, who unfortunately died in the defensive battle against the Witch-king of Angmar and was finally buried in the Barrow-downs. Tom said that his tomb contained the sharp blade Luke was looking for.
However, before Luke could find the prince's tomb, the Hogwarts Sign-in System reacted first.
"Hogwarts Sign-in System: Locating Barrow-downs. Sign in?"
"Sign in!"
"Sign-in successful! Congratulations on obtaining the Dark Arts book, 'Curses and Counter-Curses'!"
A book with a cover depicting a twisted, pained human face appeared out of thin air.
Dark Arts book? Luke was also surprised; he hadn't expected to get this from the sign-in.
However, he couldn't spare the time to flip through the Dark Arts book now, as the surrounding mist suddenly became very dense, accompanied by the sound of something breaking out of the ground.
Clearly, undead had emerged, and more than one.
Uneasy, Luke cast over a dozen more protective spells on himself, then gripped his wand tightly, ready to defend against any undead that might rush out of the mist. At the same time, the corpse creature ancient sword floated beside him, ready to shoot out and pierce an enemy at any moment.
The next moment, the mist surged, and a strong wind swept through as a undead attacked first.
As expected, it was bounced back by the magic barrier and, before it could land, was struck by Luke's Petrificus Totalus.
Before Luke could cast another spell, three more undead rushed out of the mist, each holding a great sword imbued with curses and ill omens.
The undead were incredibly fast, reaching Luke in the blink of an eye, cleaving through one layer of the magic barrier with a single sword strike, and attempting to continue their attack.
"Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus!" Luke reacted swiftly, unleashing several spells in quick succession.
But these undead had clearly become smarter; except for one that was struck and petrified, the other two knew to dodge, quickly avoiding the spells.
However, before the two undead could gloat, the corpse creature ancient sword controlled by Luke turned into an afterimage, instantly piercing through the body of one undead.
The undead's body stiffened, and the next second it was struck by Luke's spell, its great sword disarmed.
The remaining undead couldn't escape; the disarmed great swords became Luke's most potent weapons, surrounding it from three sides with flying swords, instantly impaling it like a skewer. It, too, met the same end as the other undead.
After dealing with the last undead, Luke quickly cast several more Petrificus Totalus spells on it and the other undead to prevent them from breaking free again.
Then, just like with the first undead, he used their own swords against them, continuously hacking away at the undead' health bars with the corpse creature ancient sword. Finally, with several plumes of black mist shooting skyward, the undead fell lifelessly, quickly turning into piles of white bones.
Luke collected the corpse creature ancient swords. He had intended to speed up the process, but upon seeing some jewelry and accessories among the undead' burial goods, he paused and wrapped all the jewelry in old clothes.
He didn't touch them with his hands at any point, as these jewels, like the great swords, were cursed.
After securing the jewelry, Luke continued his journey without delay until he finally stopped before a tall tomb constructed of white marble.
"This must be it!" Luke looked at the map Tom had given him; the marked location was a white marble tomb.
The inscriptions on the tombstone had been corroded by time and were illegible, but the grand scale of the tomb still indicated the noble status of its occupant.
The entrance to the tomb was broken and blocked by many loose stones. Luke spent some effort to move these stones, revealing a dark and deep cave entrance.
"Sigh, I never thought I'd have a day where I become a tomb raider!" Luke sighed, then resolutely entered the tomb passage.
The tomb passage was spacious, wide enough for one person to walk upright. Luke waved his wand, and a ball of light flew from the tip, hovering in front of Luke and illuminating the entire passage.
Around Luke, four corpse creature ancient swords circled, ready to strike any undead that might rush out.
The tomb passage was long and winding. Luke walked for quite a while before finally arriving at the burial chamber.
The burial chamber was very spacious; apart from a stone coffin placed in the very center, there was nothing else.
What surprised Luke was that since entering the tomb, he hadn't encountered any attacks from undead.
This unusual situation didn't make Luke relax; instead, he became more vigilant.
He looked at the stone coffin.
Since there were no undead in the burial chamber, the only possible hiding place was this stone coffin.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The stone coffin lid slowly moved. Without giving whatever was inside a chance to jump out, Luke immediately cast several Petrificus Totalus spells into the gap of the stone coffin. Only after confirming that the contents inside couldn't move did he completely remove the stone coffin lid.
Illuminated by the Lumos spell, the undead lying in the coffin revealed its face: hideous and ugly, with dry, decaying skin tightly clinging to its skull, and a pair of cold, bloodthirsty black eyes flickering with eerie, faint light.
Had it not been for Luke's Petrificus Totalus, it probably would have rushed out of the stone coffin to harm him the moment the lid was opened.
Moreover, this undead's attire was different from the previous undead he had seen; it wore a silver, gem-encrusted crown on its head, was adorned with many precious jewels and accessories, and a chilling great sword was placed on its chest.
"Alas, to find no peace even after death, what a pitiful fellow!" Luke felt sympathy for this undead in the coffin.
As far as he knew, this undead should be the last prince of the Kingdom of Cardolan, who was killed in the defensive battle against the Witch-king of Angmar, and whose corpse was then turned into a undead by the Witch-king of Angmar—truly tragic!
"Never mind, since I'm such a good person, I'll help you find release!" Luke said, then first disarmed him of his great sword, and then, controlling the five corpse creature ancient swords, gave him the 'myriad swords piercing the heart' service.
But just as Luke was about to finish off the undead, a burst of dark power erupted from its body, instantly breaking free from the spell's restraint.
The undead's eyes turned blood red, burning like hellfire, emitting an evil, negative power that could induce fear, despair, unconsciousness, and even death.
The undead's angry eyes stared fixedly at Luke, and a dry, hoarse, chilling voice emanated from its throat: "Who are you? How dare you strike down the servant of the great Witch-king!"
Enveloped by the dark power, Luke felt a suffocating sensation, and a strong wave of negative emotions surged within him. He was involuntarily surrounded by fear and despair, and the several corpse creature ancient swords he controlled swayed precariously.
Luke bit his tongue hard, the intense pain temporarily freeing him from these negative emotions. He then waved his wand with the rhythm of conducting music, and golden musical notes popped out from the wand tip, as cheerful music echoed through the burial chamber.
The joyful emotions brought by the music magic instantly suppressed the negative power emanating from the undead.
Taking advantage of the undead's momentary Stunned, Luke once again unleashed his full power, "Petrificus Totalus!" A dazzling white light struck the undead, petrifying it once more.
Then, without giving the opponent time to break free, the five corpse creature ancient swords delivered the final blow, directly piercing through the undead's head.
Unwillingness flickered in the undead's red eyes, then completely extinguished, leaving only a chilling voice echoing in the burial chamber: "I'll remember you, Wizard…"
The black mist within the undead dissipated, and its corpse instantly decayed into a pile of white bones.
Luke didn't take the wight's last words to heart; who couldn't utter threats?
Moreover, he guessed that the one controlling the wight to speak was probably the Witch-king of Angmar, the chief of Sauron's nine Nazgûl.
Being targeted by the other party, Luke felt no pressure; after all, he couldn't appear before him immediately.
Having dealt with the wight, it was now time to collect the spoils.
Luke, without any aversion, collected the jewelry, ornaments, and crown from the wight's body, then discovered four daggers near its feet.
The daggers were forged from unknown materials; after a thousand years, there wasn't a trace of rust, still gleaming silver and emitting a chilling sharpness.
Luke controlled one of them and chopped at the corner of the stone coffin; it was like slicing tofu, effortlessly cutting off a piece of the hard stone coffin with one stroke.
Luke was delighted; this was exactly the tool he wanted for carving tree hearts.
However, looking at these four daggers and then at the tomb chamber, Luke suddenly realized something.
He remembered that in the future, the four-person Hobbit team of the Ring, after leaving Tom's home, also encountered wights and were captured by them into a barrow. At the brink of death, they relied on singing to summon Tom for rescue, who then gave them the four daggers from the barrow.
Could it be that he had taken their opportunity in advance?
But even if so, Luke didn't care; what was in his hands now was his.
Having obtained the items, Luke didn't linger and turned to leave the tomb chamber.
However, upon reaching the outside, Luke also took a sharp breath.
Because outside, there were hundreds of wights densely packed together, and as soon as they smelled a living person, they swiftly attacked Luke.
Luke had no doubt that this was the Witch-king of Angmar's doing; he had clearly awakened these wights with the intention of keeping him in the Barrow-downs.
Luke now only wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible, so he didn't wish to entangle himself with the wights.
"Lumos Maxima!" A huge orb of light shot from the tip of Luke's wand; the orb was extremely dazzling, illuminating the entire barrow with bright light.
The wights stirred uneasily; although this Magic light wasn't as fatal to them as sunlight, their instinctive fear of light still slowed their advance slightly.
Luke, protected by a Shield Charm, while also controlling several wight ancient swords to clear a path, didn't stop his steps and walked straight down the northern mountain.
The wights were unwilling to give up and followed him like shadows, but it was still daytime, and the further they moved from the Barrow-downs, the weaker the influence of Dark power became. Ultimately, the wights could only let out unwilling roars, then watched helplessly as Luke departed.
Luke walked for several hours and finally arrived on the main east-west road north of the Barrow-downs.
The East-West Road is one of the most important paths in the Eriadore region; from Luke's current position, heading east, the nearest human settlement is the town of Bree. Heading west, one would pass through the Old Forest and Xiong Lu Area, then cross Brandywine Bridge, entering the Shire.
Luke glanced eastward, then turned and walked west.
He wasn't in a hurry to sign in at Bree yet.
But before that, he had to sunbathe the items he brought out from the Barrow-downs.
So he laid out the five wight ancient swords, four daggers, and the jewelry and ornaments from his cloth bag on the ground, allowing the sunlight to shine upon them.
Under the sun's rays, the curses and ominous powers carried by these items were purified by the sunlight, dissipating as wisps of black mist.
The daggers among them showed no change, still sharp and gleaming, shimmering with silver light under the sun.
The jewelry and ornaments were like cleansed of their dullness, becoming even more dazzling and brilliant.
The only pity was that the five wight ancient swords, after being purified of their curses and ominous power, became dilapidated and lost their Magic-breaking potency.
After the purification was complete, Luke repacked his belongings and set off on his return journey.
It had been over half a year since he transmigrated to Middle-earth, and he planned to return to Hobbiton for a visit.
Having been out for so long, he wanted to return to where he first arrived to rest for a while, and the large pack of pipe-weed he bought for Bilbo hadn't been given to him yet; he couldn't let it go to waste.
Of course, most importantly, the time for the Dwarves' expedition to the Lonely Mountain was not far off.
It was now January of the Third Age 2941, and he remembered that Bilbo joined the Lonely Mountain expedition that very year, officially embarking on his adventurous journey.
If he didn't want to miss it, he had to meet up with Bilbo before then.
Luke walked westward, and as he walked, he summoned the Magic book he had obtained from signing in at the Barrow-downs.
Looking at the grimacing, pained human face carved on the book's cover, Luke raised an eyebrow. It truly lived up to its name as a Dark Arts book; just the cover was so terrifying, and he was even more curious about its contents.
Opening the book, Luke read carefully, and the more he read the bloody, evil contents, the more surprised he became.
Curse Magic is a type of Dark Arts; although not as quick-acting or powerful as other Dark Arts, it is the most evil and irreversible kind.
For example, the curse Lord Voldemort placed on the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor caused every Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor who took the position to suffer misfortune within a year, ranging from severe injury to death!
Even Dumbledore, known as the most powerful Wizard, couldn't undo it.
There were also the most tragic Maledictus in the Magic world, who were also cursed, and the curse would be inherited through bloodlines; anyone afflicted by the curse would gradually lose their humanity over time, eventually becoming animals without thought or reason.
And the process was irreversible.
And in the book "Curses and Counter-Curses," many cursing methods were recorded, such as creating voodoo dolls, then placing personal items of the person one wished to curse onto the voodoo doll, which could then be used to control the life and death of others;
One could also cast curses on names, photos, etc., causing the target to unknowingly fall into weakness or nightmares, eventually dying from weakness.
One could even cast curses on objects, thereby causing those who touched them to suffer a painful death, and so on.
Furthermore, the strength of a curse entirely depended on the caster's malice and the amount of Magic power.
Once a curse was cast, it was practically impossible to undo.
Therefore, in the Magic world, curses were strictly forbidden; if caught, the consequence was lifelong imprisonment in Azkaban.
Closing the book, Luke took a deep breath.
It truly lived up to its name as the most evil Dark Arts; the bloody illustrations in the book made Luke feel a wave of physical discomfort.
Some of the most evil curses even required human lives and blood as a price to be successfully cast.
However, even so, Luke never thought of not learning it.
In his philosophy, he might not use curses, but he couldn't not know them.
Should he encounter a critical situation, this would be his ultimate trump card and method.
Especially the voodoo doll among them, Luke desired it greatly; it was simply an excellent item for harming others. As long as one had the target's photo, hair, nails, clothing scraps, or even just their name, it could be used to curse the other party, causing the cursed person to suffer harm.
It could also be used to transfer harm, or even make the other party irrepressibly infatuated with oneself.
Luke even thought that if he had a voodoo doll, like when the Witch-king of Angmar uttered threats in the tomb chamber earlier, he could just cast a curse directly; no matter how far away you were, he could instantly kill you.
However, given the Witch-king of Angmar's current Nazgûl state, he didn't know if he counted as alive? And he wondered if a curse would even work on him?
But thinking about the materials for making voodoo dolls, Luke felt troubled again.
According to the book, the raw material for making voodoo dolls required the Magic plant Mandrake from the Magic world.
But where would he find Mandrake in Middle-earth?