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Chapter 22: Ancient Barrow Mound

Ancient Mound Hill,
In the deepest valley in the upper reaches of Liutiao River.

Following the map route given by Tom, Dui walked upstream along the Willow River and came here.

This is the source of Liutiao River, located in the heart of the ancient mound hill.

Perhaps due to the existence of Jinmei, the suspected god of Willow River, the source of Willow River was not polluted by the dark power of the ancient tomb hill, but instead became the only pure land.

After arriving here, we are not far from the ancient tombs.

After a short rest, Dui left the valley and headed straight for the ancient tombs.

The sky above the ancient mound is always covered with dark clouds, and the mountain is shrouded in fog. Even if it is daytime, there is still no sunlight in the mountain, and no insects can be heard.

Even though corpses rarely appeared during the day, Dui was still very vigilant. To avoid any accidents, he cast an armor spell on himself in advance.

With the magic wand, his Armor Spell became even more powerful. It was upgraded from an invisible shield to a protective shield that could provide all-round protection. Ordinary attacks could no longer hurt him.

So even if he broke into the lair of the corpse demon, he still had some confidence.

Barrow-Down was once the capital of the Kingdom of Cardolan after the split of the Kingdom of Arnor. Dui walked along the way and could see the ruins of the ancient city and huge rubble along the way.

In the Second Age, the island of Númenor sank, and Elendil, one of the survivors, came to Middle-earth and established the Kingdom of Arnor, also known as the Northern Kingdom, on the land of Eriador.

But in 861 of the Third Age, the Kingdom of Arnor split into three kingdoms: Arthedain, Rhudaur, and Cardolan. The capital of Cardolan is now the Barrowdown.

In 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.

Then a great plague broke out, and the Barrow-Downs became a lifeless and dead place.

The Witch-king of Angmar used dark power to erode the land, transforming those who sleep in the tombs into his minions - the Barrow Wights, who lingered on the Barrow-downs.

For more than a thousand years, not even the bravest adventurers dared to go deep into the ancient tomb mound, and even passing merchants dared not pass through at night.

Dui walked for about two hours and finally saw the ancient tombs.

This is a hilly area covered with huge stone tombs. Most of the tombs here are those of the kings and nobles of the northern Dunedain, so most of them are simple and unpretentious tombs and stone mounds.

The tomb was shrouded in mist, and was extremely dilapidated and decayed, exuding a cold and ominous atmosphere.

Suddenly, the fog around us rolled and became thicker.

Dui was instantly on guard, the wand in his hand ready to move.

But before he could react, a dark shadow rushed out from the fog and attacked his back at a speed that could leave a trace.

"boom!"

The black shadow hit an invisible barrier and was bounced away by the huge reaction force.

Dui turned around quickly and finally saw the attacker clearly.

He was a tall man wearing tattered and decayed armor, his eyes flashing with a strange and eerie light, his gray, dry skin tightly attached to his skull, and he exuded the aura of evil and death.

It's a tomb monster!
Dui was also shocked. He didn't expect the corpse demon to be so fast. If he hadn't set up the armor spell in advance, he would have been successfully attacked by the corpse demon.

The corpse demon failed in its sneak attack and rushed towards Dui again.

This time, Dui was prepared. He wouldn't just sit and wait for others to attack. He raised his wand and chanted, "Petrify all!"

The corpse demon that rushed over was hit by the petrification spell, and the corpse demon was instantly petrified and stood still in a frozen position.

Looking at the petrified corpse, Dui did not dare to be careless. He controlled two bone-chopping knives and chopped them hard at the corpse's neck.

"Ding." The boning knife created a burst of sparks.

"Hiss!" Dui gasped. Although he had known from Tom that the Corpse Demon was hard to kill, he hadn't expected it to be so tough that even a cleaver couldn't cut it! Dui refused to believe it and continued to slash with the throwing knife.

Under the intensive hacking, a wound was finally cut on the corpse's neck, revealing the black rotten flesh and white bones.

But before he could be happy, a black gas gushed out from the wound, and then the wound healed rapidly at an incredible speed.

At the same time, the originally petrified corpse suddenly became mobile again, as if it knew that Dui was not easy to deal with, so it did not attack again, but quickly rushed into the fog and hid.

"Damn!" Dui couldn't help but curse inwardly. Not to mention the old willow tree's magic resistance before, how come a corpse demon now also has such high magic resistance?
He roughly calculated that only four or five minutes had passed since the petrification spell began to cast on the corpse monster.

Being able to break free from the petrification curse in such a short time, Dui felt that this trip to the Barrow Mound would not go smoothly.

The corpse demon disappeared in the fog and did not appear again for a long time, as if it had already left.

But Dui did not dare to relax, because he could feel a pair of malicious eyes staring at him, waiting for him to relax a little before pouncing on him again.

The next moment, the fog surged, and the corpse demon rushed out of the fog again, with a big sword in his hand.

The speed of the corpse demon was almost impossible to capture with the naked eye. It rushed in front of Dui in an instant, raised the sword in its hand and slashed at the barrier formed by the Iron Armor Curse.

The greatsword exuded a dark and ominous aura, and instantly split the barrier in front of Dui's terrified expression.

Seeing Dui's terrified expression, the corpse demon showed a hideous and complacent smile, as if he had already foreseen that he would tear the other party to pieces in the next second and nourish himself with the other party's blood.

But the next second, the corpse demon hit another barrier and was bounced back heavily.

Before it could stand up and continue attacking, Dui's spells came one after another.

"There are many obstacles! Petrify them all! Delete your weapons!"

The obstacle spell slowed down the corpse demon's speed, and then it was hit by the petrification spell and could not move. Finally, the greatsword in its hand was thrown out of its hand by the disarming spell and fell to the ground.

Having suffered a loss once, Dui would not give the corpse a chance to escape again. He cast more than a dozen petrification spells on the corpse, and then used a leg-locking spell before stopping.

With so many spells, this corpse demon will not be able to break free within an hour.

After doing all this, Dui did not deal with the corpse demon immediately, but instead focused some of his attention on the big sword.

It was this big sword that split the protective barrier formed by the Iron Armor Curse just now. If he hadn't cherished his life and applied more than ten layers of defense to himself in advance, he would have been injured by the corpse monster.

Dui used magic to control the big sword to fly over. Looking at the big sword emitting black air, he did not dare to touch it with his hands.

Because the sword is filled with an ominous aura, it is a curse. Anyone who touches it will be cursed and suffer bad luck.

Dui looked at the big sword and then at the petrified corpse, and suddenly his eyes lit up.

Since ordinary weapons can't hurt the zombies at all, using this cursed and ominous sword to deal with the zombies should be useful, right?

With a "whoosh" sound, the big sword turned into a sword shadow and directly pierced through the corpse monster, leaving a big hole in the corpse monster's chest.

The corpse demon's breath became much weaker, and the black air surrounding it also became lighter.

"It works!" Dui's eyes lit up and he quickly continued to replenish his sword.

As the sword stabbed down, the aura emitted by the corpse demon was almost gone, and its dry gray skin began to fester and fall off.

With another sword strike, the corpse demon's head was instantly separated.

Accompanied by an unwilling roar, a thick black gas burst out from the corpse monster's body, instantly rushing straight into the sky, exploding and dissipating in the air.

The corpse demon's body seemed to have lost its support and fell down directly, quickly decaying, leaving only a pile of bones.

(End of this chapter)