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Chapter 1088 The Long Journey Home

The morning light shone through the crystal windows of Minas Tirith, casting colorful spots on the account book. Zhao Wuji put down his feather pen and rubbed his sore wrist. The parchment was densely packed with the details of income and expenditure for the past six months, and the last number made him feel depressed:

[Current gold coins: 427]

[Average daily income: about 300 gold]

[Expected time to achieve the goal: 5 years and 2 months]

The tip of the feather pen spread a blot of ink on the word "5 years". Five years. It was enough time for a baby to grow into a child, for a new city to rise from the ground, and for the real world in memory to become unfamiliar. The sound of celebration came from outside the window - today was Aragorn's coronation.

"System, is there any way to speed it up?"

[Conventional approaches have been optimized to the limit] The system's voice is rarely warm, [but it is detected that you are holding a special item: a thank you letter]

Zhao Wuji took the parchment out of his breast pocket. After six months of wear and tear, Peter Jackson's signature was still clear, but other than that, there was nothing special. He turned the paper over in the sunlight and suddenly noticed a row of almost invisible tiny incisions on the edge of the signature - like a modern barcode.

"This is."

[Not a creation of this world] System confirmed, [Function unknown, it is recommended to keep it properly]

The bells of the coronation ceremony rang, and Zhao Wuji hurriedly put away the letter and put on the standard armor of the Gondor guard. This new outfit cost him 50 gold coins, but it was worth it - as a ceremonial guard, he could stand in the front row of the White Tree Square and observe the most grand ceremony in Middle-earth up close.

When Aragorn stepped into the square wearing the crown of stars, the sunlight just penetrated the clouds, giving him a golden outline. Zhao Wuji knelt on one knee as instructed by the system, but glanced around from the corner of his eyes - Arwen's double stood in the shadow of the column, with the evening star necklace around his neck flashing a strange light.

[Non-plot item: Replica of Dusk Star Necklace (elven craft), estimated value 8000 gold] The system immediately marked it.

After the ceremony, Zhao Wuji did not leave with the team, but went around to the backstage area. While waiting for Arwen's double to remove her makeup, he noticed that she was struggling to unfasten the clasp of her necklace.

"Need help?" He stepped forward.

The female elf looked up at him. Looking closely, Zhao Wuji found that there were fine lines at the corners of her eyes, and a few strands of silver were mixed in her long light golden hair. This was far from the image of Arwen who was eternally youthful.

"The buckle is deformed," she smiled tiredly. "It takes a long time to fix it every time."

Zhao Wuji took out a pair of micro-pliers from his tool bag, a delicate tool he made from oak teeth. After three adjustments, the necklace fell off.

"I'll give it to you." the elf suddenly said.

Zhao Wuji was stunned: "This is too expensive."

“I can see you’re a real collector.”

The necklace was cold to the touch and heavier than expected. The female elf looked back one last time before leaving: "You know what? Sometimes I think you are very good."

This sentence hit Zhao Wuji's chest like an arrow. When he came back to his senses, the necklace in his hand suddenly became slightly hot - the system popped up a series of garbled prompts:

[Unconventional energy fluctuations detected across boundaries]

After nightfall, Zhao Wuji studied the two elven items. When the Evening Star Necklace touched the Lothlorien gold coin, something incredible happened - the runes on the surface of the gold coin floated into the air, forming a miniature star map, in which three stars were particularly bright.

“This is the navigation coordinates?”

[Unknown location marker] The system has returned to stability. [The elf ruins that did not appear in the movie are presumed to be deleted scenes.]

This discovery made Zhao Wuji unable to sleep all night. The next morning, he came to the market with dark circles under his eyes and began to implement the "farewell tour" plan that he had been planning for weeks. A gold-plated sign was set up in the most conspicuous place:

"Middle-earth Legends: The Ultimate Auction"

——Only this day, witness history——

The first batch of items on display were ordinary spoils of war: an orc tooth necklace, a stone from Helm's Deep, and a torn cloak from a Rohan cavalryman. But Zhao Wuji made up a story for each item: "Helm's Deep cornerstone stained with the blood of the Ringwraiths" and "a damaged cloak from Eomer's personal guard." The price tripled, but they were still sold out.

At noon, he showed off the intermediate collection: Mithril rivets from Moria, arrowheads from the Battle of Black Gate, and fragments of the Witch King's armor from Angmar. These genuine spoils of war attracted nobles to fight for them. A piece of Witch King's armor the size of a fingernail was sold at a sky-high price of 5000 gold. "Finally, the treasure of the town." Zhao Wuji lifted the red velvet cloth to reveal the elven Evening Star necklace, "a blessing from the last princess of Lothlorien."

The crowd exclaimed. A buyer wearing a silver mask directly offered 30000 gold coins, but Zhao Wuji shook his head: "Not for sale, just for display." He needed to keep the mystery of this item in preparation for the final chapter.

After the auction, the gold coin balance soared to [612]. Zhao Wuji felt inexplicably empty. He wandered aimlessly in the city and unknowingly walked into the civilian area. After the war, the area was still devastated, and the wounded and sick were groaning in the temporary medical shed.

"Please, doctor." A peasant woman stopped a passing doctor, "My daughter has had a fever for three days."

The doctor shook his head helplessly: "The herbs are all used up. Let's try our luck at the Yashidon Temple."

Zhao Wuji stopped. He remembered that Yasedon was the medical center of Gondor, but the current situation was obviously ten times worse than it appeared. A thought suddenly struck him - would it be against the rules to use modern medical knowledge to improve the medical conditions here?

"System, if I only teach basic hygiene knowledge——"

[The medical system belongs to the basic setting of the world view] The system interrupted him, [any improvement will be regarded as plot interference]

"Even if I could save one child?"

[Even an Ant] The coldness of the system made him feel cold in his heart.

Zhao Wuji still followed quietly to Yashidon. The temple was filled with the smell of rotten meat and herbs, and the beds were arranged like a battlefield. In the corner, he saw a little girl who was no more than five years old, her cheeks were burning red, and her breathing was like a bellows.

"Sepsis," the monk on duty said wearily, "needs elven herbs or..."

"Or alcohol disinfection." Zhao Wuji blurted out, "or boiling bandages."

The monk looked up in surprise: "Do you know Eastern medicine?"

Just as Zhao Wuji was about to explain, a sharp pain suddenly exploded from his temple - the system's punishment came quickly and fiercely. He staggered and held onto the wall, his vision darkening.

[Final Warning] The system's voice is like a knife cutting, [next time it will be directly wiped out]

As he stumbled out of the temple, the setting sun dyed the White City blood red. The little girl's face lingered in his mind. Zhao Wuji suddenly realized that although he lived in this world, he was always a bystander, and he could not change even a speck of dust, which made him sad.

Back in the store, he mechanically counted the gold coins and played with the Evening Star Necklace. The necklace once again reacted to the elven gold coins, projecting a star map that was clearer than last night—the three brightest stars were arranged in a triangle, with a tiny light spot in the center pulsating like a heartbeat.

"System, if I go to this place"

[Out of consultation range] The system was abnormally silent for a moment, [but a weak resonance was detected with the coordinates]

Zhao Wuji sat up straight. He took out the thank-you letter and carefully approached the star map. When the edge of the parchment touched the light spot, the barcode at the signature suddenly emitted a blue light and projected a line of English in the air:

“Final scene: Elven sanctuary, take 47“

“Last scene: Elf Holy Land, Article 47”? Zhao Wuji’s heartbeat accelerated. This is the term, clearly pointing to a certain filming location. He hurriedly turned out his notebook and looked up all the records about the Elf Ruins.

When the midnight bell rang, he finally found the key on the secret map given by Dwalin - there was a place marked as "Well of Light" by dwarven runes on the west side of Moria, and the terrain was completely consistent with the star map.

"System, if I find this 'Well of Light'"

no respond.

"system?"

Still silent. Zhao Wuji then noticed that the system's response had become slow since the Twilight Star necklace was activated. At this moment, the gold coin numbers on the interface even showed slight snowflake interference.

Outside the window, a full moon hung in the direction of Mordor, like an eye in the darkness. Zhao Wuji carefully wrapped the necklace, gold coins and letter together and hid them in a secret pocket next to his body. At this moment, these three items seemed to have some mysterious connection.

He blew out the candle and whispered to himself in the darkness: "It seems time to go to Moria."

The sound of banquet singing can be heard in the distance - Frodo's birthday celebration has begun. According to the plot, this is the end of the story of The Lord of the Rings.