Hogwarts wizards who signed in to Middle-earth.

Chapter 222 Sacrifice
Building a mental barrier is an extremely demanding task.

Dui practices the Occupation Technique every day, using his mental energy to gradually build up his brain's defenses until his mental energy is exhausted. Then he stops and follows the estate owner, Karenmir, on a tour of the vineyards.

Perhaps due to their long-term coexistence with humans, the Dovenian elves have lifestyles that are more like those of humans.

Among the elves here, the Sindar elves are the most outstanding winemakers;

The Nando elves are the best grape growers; their vines produce the highest yields and the best quality grapes.

The Avale elves are elven wine merchants, and among the three, they interact with humans more frequently, often collaborating with humans to sell wine.

The grapevines planted by the elves have long lifespans, and grapevines that are hundreds or even thousands of years old can be seen everywhere. Each vine covers thousands of square meters of land and is full of abundant fruit.

These grapevines, carefully tended by the Nando elves, are not only incredibly sweet and fragrant, but also possess remarkable magical properties that can quickly replenish one's energy.

Therefore, the wine made from these grapes can make even powerful elves drunk.

The grapevine on the Kalenmill estate is even more precious. It is said to be over 10,000 years old and is the mother vine of all the grapevines in the vicinity. Kalenmill cherishes it as a treasure.

Every year after the grapes from this vine ripen, they are all harvested and then made into wine by Karenmir himself.

The wine produced is not easily sold, but stored in huge cellars for hundreds or thousands of years, and used as gifts or to entertain distinguished guests.

Dui was fortunate enough to taste a bottle of wine that was said to have been aged for a thousand years.

The wine was rich and sweet with a strong fruity aroma, and it also had a nourishing effect on the spirit, which made Du Yi unconsciously drink a few more glasses.

Then, unsurprisingly, Dui fell into a deep sleep and remained unconscious for a full day and night before finally waking up.

When Dui woke up, he didn't have the headache that comes with a hangover. Instead, he felt refreshed and even had a noticeable increase in mental energy.

This effect surprised Dui as well.

If he could continue to grow his mental strength like this, Dui felt he could accept becoming an alcoholic.

After spending nearly a month in Dovenian, Dui finally constructed a mental fortress of Amonsur Tower in his mind, but it was still far from the more magnificent Hogwarts Castle.

Moreover, Amonsur Tower is only in its initial stages; its internal structure and functional areas have not yet been constructed.

However, such an effect was only achieved with the blessing of the Crown of Wisdom and the nourishment of the Golden Cup.

Otherwise, given Dui's own efficiency, it would take at least one or two years to build the prototype of a spiritual fortress.

And building an even larger spiritual castle would take much longer.

Having constructed Amonsur Tower with his mental power, Dui felt as if his brain was protected by a solid fortress, filling him with a sense of security.

With his current mastery of mind-blocking techniques, even if he doesn't actively resist, ordinary mental magic simply cannot break through his mental barrier. If someone were to use Legilimency on Dui, they would only feel as if they had bumped into a wall, leaving them dizzy and disoriented.

Even with Saruman's voice magic and Sauron's mental corruption, Dui was no longer as helpless as before, and could at least hold out for a few minutes.

Moreover, after the mental fortress was built, Dui found that his thinking became clearer, calmer, and more focused, and that distracting thoughts and unnecessary emotions rarely arose.

This unexpected delight pleased Dui greatly.

Having established a basic spiritual fortress, Dui had no intention of spending more time further developing and perfecting it.

Building a mental fortress of Hogwarts Castle in one's mind is a huge undertaking that requires long-term practice and accumulation; it cannot be accomplished overnight.

Dui cannot devote all his time to this, so he can only gradually accumulate and improve it.

Dui formally bid farewell to Kalenmir and prepared to go to Dongyi City to find the Blue-Robed Wizard.

As a token of his gratitude, he specially gifted Kalenmir a spatial bag imbued with a Seamless Stretch Charm.

Kalenmir was very surprised and pleased with the gift, and immediately gave Dui a dozen jars of his treasured wine, all of which were made from the fruit of the oldest grapevines.

Duy was naturally pleased with this fine wine that could nourish the spirit and gladly accepted the gift from Kalenmir in return.

Then Dui rode his flying broomstick away from Dovenian, flew over the Rune Sea, and headed east.

The vast region east of the Rune Inner Sea was the stronghold of the Dongyi people, home to numerous tribes and kingdoms. The region was generally primitive and backward, and they were constantly at war with one another.

Among them were not only followers of Sauron, but also former worshippers of Morgoth, as well as the Eastern tribes incited to rebel by the Blue Robe Wizard.

It can be said that there was war almost every day in the Dongyi region.

In order to avoid attracting attention, Dui used his Disguise Magus talent to disguise himself as a Dongyi person and traveled eastward between Dongyi tribes.

These tribes were almost all loyal followers of Sauron, and each tribe had a statue or symbol of Sauron, whether cast in iron, carved in stone, or carved in wood.

The Dongyi people, regardless of age or gender, were all fanatically superstitious about Solon, regarding him as a god.

They even built a black altar.

As expected, the sacrifices were made from living people. When tribes fought each other, the prisoners captured became sacrifices. Their skulls became the foundation stones of the altar, their hearts were thrown into the sacrificial fire, and their blood was used as ink to draw the dark spells of Mordor.

The bloody and evil sacrificial scene caused Dui, hidden in a secluded corner, to frown deeply. Looking down at the crowd below, caught up in the revelry, their faces contorted with rage and fanaticism, Dui's disgust was palpable.

He initially wanted to intervene and save those who were to be sacrificed, but after using Legilimency, he realized that these people were beyond saving.

These Dongyi people who were sacrificed also sacrificed others, but today they were defeated because they were not as skilled, and thus became sacrifices.

After discovering this situation, Dui completely turned a blind eye.

What alarmed Dui even more was that these sacrifices were not without effect.

As the ritual is completed, Sauron's statue will emit an evil power that will infuse the crowd present, causing everyone to become frenzied and abnormally excited, as if they were on drugs, and their bodies will become stronger.

The Dongyi people called it "the blessing of the gods".

But in Dui's view, those who received the "blessing" were merely further corrupted by evil forces, transforming into something neither human nor ghost, and ultimately becoming evil creatures completely controlled by Sauron.

They didn't actually become stronger; rather, those evil forces gained temporary strength at the cost of consuming their life force.

Dui, unwilling to look any further, prepared to leave the tribe and continue his journey eastward.

But just then, a sharp, piercing scream came from afar.

Dui's expression changed slightly, and he looked in the direction from which the sound came with a look of surprise and suspicion.

Then they saw a giant black creature resembling a pterosaur appear in the distant sky, flying towards the tribe.

“Fallen flying beast!” Dui said solemnly in a low voice.

When the tribe saw the Fallen Flying Beast, they were not alarmed, but instead cheered with joy: "It's the messenger of the gods! The messenger of the gods has arrived!"

A Ringwraith rode atop the Fallen Beast.

Dui saw that it was the Ringwraiths arriving and felt a sense of foreboding.

His coming to the East must not be discovered by the Ringwraiths, otherwise it will cause unnecessary trouble and attract Sauron's attention, which would be disastrous!

However, the Fallen Beasts arrived too quickly. If they were to use Apparition to leave now, the commotion caused by Apparition would surely attract the attention of the Ringwraiths.

Moreover, his current illusion spell can deceive the vision of the Eastern Barbarians, but it cannot fool the Ringwraiths.

Therefore, Dui could only break the illusion spell, disguise himself as an Eastern Yi person, and hide among the crowd.

The next second, the Fallen Beast carried the Ringwraiths to the altar.

The Fallen Flying Beast emitted a putrid stench and released a terrifyingly evil aura. With a sweep of its long tail, it sent several Dongyi people flying, crashing heavily onto the stone platform, their fates unknown.

But the surrounding Dongyi people paid no attention to this, looking at the Ringwraith on the back of the fallen flying beast with awe and fanaticism.

The fallen flying beasts began to devour the offerings on the altar, while the Ringwraiths bowed before Sauron's statue, then stretched out their illusory hands through the statue's chest, tearing out wailing undead.

These spirits are the spirits of those who were recently sacrificed, as well as the spirits of those who were sacrificed before.

The Ringwraith is like a void black hole, greedily devouring all the dead into its body until not a single one remains.

The people in the tribe, however, did not find this strange, clearly having long been accustomed to it.

The Ringwraith, having devoured hundreds of undead, let out a satisfied groan as if it had eaten its fill, then turned its empty eyes toward the Dongyi people below.

"Your offerings have satisfied me, and as a reward, you will be blessed!" the Ringwraith said in a sinister voice that seemed to come from the depths of hell.

Upon hearing this, the anxious crowd below immediately became excited and enthusiastic.

Then the Ringwraiths released dark power, turning into black mist that surged down towards the crowd below. Everyone rushed to absorb the black mist, afraid of being a step behind the others.

Those corrupted by the power of darkness have gray skin, eyes filled with evil and madness, altered appearances, and twisted minds.

These people have different physical appearances due to varying degrees of corruption by the dark power.

The deeper the corruption, the more the body withers, becoming less like a living person, and after death, the soul will become an evil spirit controlled by the Ringwraiths.

But clearly, these people, who have long been corrupted by darkness, do not care about this, and even crave it.

In their view, this was a gift from the "messenger of God" and their "God".

Just as the Dongyi people were frantically absorbing the power of darkness, Dui in the crowd cursed his bad luck in secret.

He naturally couldn't allow these dark forces to enter his body; he could only choose to resist.

Such an action would be very conspicuous in the eyes of the Ringwraiths.

"You're not from here!"

The Ringwraith instantly locked onto Dui, its empty eyes shooting out red light and unleashing a suffocatingly terrifying aura.

(End of this chapter)