Hogwarts wizards who signed in to Middle-earth.

Chapter 195 Mysterious Formation
Dui, who was flying south at the time, was unaware of the matter of Osankta.

He flew over the Rohan Pass and saw the white mountain range stretching to the south in the distance.

The White Mountains run east to west, located between Gondor and Rohan, with Rohan to the north and Gondor to the south.

Dui's destination, the Path of the Dead, is Mount Devimoberg in the White Mountains, which is the entrance to the Path of the Dead.

He first flew to the top of a cliff located at the southern end of Cibian Valley on the north side of the mountain range.

A treacherous path winds its way up from the bottom to the top of the cliff, its main body carved out of the cliff face.

At every bend in the road stands an ancient human-shaped statue. These stone sculptures are clumsy and massive, all depicting figures sitting cross-legged with their arms crossed. Due to the erosion of time, their facial features are no longer discernible, leaving only empty eye sockets, exuding a strange and eerie atmosphere.

At the top of the cliff, however, there was a meadow with an ancient path in the center and irregularly shaped standing stones on both sides.

This is a natural sacrificial site, with the grassy area at the top of the cliff serving as an open-air altar. Apart from the standing stones and statues on both sides of the road, there are almost no other obvious man-made religious buildings.

And this is the Black Barbarian Shrine, the path to the dead.

The exact date of the Black Barbarian Shrine's construction is unknown, but it is known that it existed before the arrival of the Númenóreans in Middle-earth, or even as far back as the time of Morgoth.

There is no definitive answer as to who is being worshipped.

However, Elrond had once told Dui that he suspected the Black Barbarian Shrine was likely a place of worship built by the conquered natives for Morgoth when he ruled almost the entire continent.

This place was gradually abandoned after Morgoth was defeated and banished to the void.

Dui landed on the Black Barbarian Shrine at the top of the cliff.

He wanted to see if he could complete the check-in process here as well.

[Hogwarts Check-in System: Location: White Mountains - Black Shrine, Check-in required?]

As soon as Dui landed, the system responded immediately.

Without hesitation, Dui replied, "Sign in."

[Sign-in successful! Congratulations on obtaining "Those Ancient Sacrificial Magic"!]

Dui looked at the magic book in front of him, which depicted a naked man hanging on a cross on its cover, and couldn't help but feel surprised and curious.

The cover is so iconic; if he weren't certain it was a magic book, he would have thought it was a book from a church in his previous life.

He curiously opened the book and began to read.

His expression immediately grew more and more surprised.

The sacrificial magic within it all took him by surprise.

Among them was the magic Voldemort used to resurrect himself: bones from his father, flesh from his servants, and blood from his enemies, to complete the sacrificial ritual for resurrection.

In addition, there are some bloody sacrificial magics, such as killing an animal as a sacrifice to heal the sick or injured; or even more bloody sacrifices of people to gain wealth, fortune, power, etc.

Dui even saw a love sacrifice magic: that is, a person voluntarily gives up their life and soul in exchange for the powerful protection of their loved one.

This love sacrifice magic reminded Dui of Harry Potter's mother, Lily Evans.

She sacrificed her life to leave a powerful protection for Harry Potter, successfully deflecting Voldemort's Killing Curse and causing Voldemort to lose his body and retreat weakly to the Albanian forest.

That's how Harry Potter earned the title of savior, and how he later defeated Voldemort several times, ultimately leading to his death.

Thanks to the blessing of the Crown of Wisdom, Dui quickly finished reading and memorizing all the contents of the book.

After reading it, he immediately put the magic book away.

While the sacrificial magic here has its unique aspects, it is far too bloody and extreme, frequently involving the sacrifice of life, soul, and magic power, making it even more evil than the magic in "The Secrets of Cutting-Edge Black Magic".

I really don't know how Lily Evans found this spellbook and even learned that sacrifice spell from it?

Although he found it bloody and the price too high, Dui didn't avoid it at all costs. He thought that if he had time, he might be able to capture a few orcs or dire wolves to try out the sacrificial magic and see if it would work.
After all, the benefits he would receive after the sacrifice were somewhat tempting.

Having completed the check-in, Dui mounted his flying broomstick and prepared to leave.

But when he was halfway up in the air and looked down unintentionally, Dui froze, his flight halting.

He noticed that the standing stones and statues below were arranged in a very regular pattern, as if they were arranged in a kind of formation, somewhat similar to a sacrificial formation he had just seen in the book.

It was only because there were no signs of magical fluctuations here that he was somewhat hesitant to confirm.

Driven by curiosity, Dui landed again and came to a stone statue. He examined it carefully with his wand, but there was still no reaction.

"Could it be that I guessed wrong?" Dui asked, somewhat puzzled.

But he didn't give up. He looked at the lower half of the statue that was buried in the mud, waved his wand, and tried to reveal the entire statue.

The ground, under the influence of magic, continued to churn outwards, and Dui's expression grew increasingly surprised.

It turns out that only a small section of the stone statue was exposed above ground. Below the ground, in addition to the body of the statue, there was a stone base connecting to it.

It took digging a pit almost three meters deep to expose the complete stone statue.

But what caught Dui's attention was not the statue itself, but the fact that at the bottom of the pit, there was a hard black stone slab.

Moreover, there are grooves with mysterious patterns on the black stone slab.

Seeing this, Dui became even more curious. He took out his staff, chanted a spell, and struck the ground heavily.

The ground was like water being hit by a huge rock, instantly creating waves in all directions. Thick grass and soil were pushed outwards, like a landslide, with several meters of muddy ground sliding towards the cliff and falling to the bottom.

The ground at the top of the cliff was abruptly lowered by several meters, and the original grassland disappeared, revealing a huge, carved black stone ground.

It turns out that the accumulation of dust over countless years has covered the Black Barbarian Shrine, preventing people from discovering its true appearance.

Dui cast a spell, stirring up a fierce wind that swept away the dust and grime from the ground.

On the black stone ground, there were intricate and mysterious long grooves, which looked like interconnected small ditches, forming a pattern similar to the veins of the human body.

Those standing stones and statues are like nodes and hubs.

Due to the ravages of time, these networks have inevitably suffered some damage.

"Recover as before!"

Under the effect of the restoration spell, the damaged ground patterns were quickly restored.

Once the complete pattern appeared, Dui finally confirmed that it was an array.

Looking at this ancient formation, Dui was unsure of its purpose, but remembering that Elrond had mentioned the Black Barbarian Shrine might be related to Morgoth, he cautiously refrained from attempting to activate it.

Although Morgoth has been defeated and banished to the void outside the world of Ardar.

But as the once most powerful Vera, Dui dared not have any connection with him whatsoever.

So he simply wrote down the pattern of the formation on parchment, intending to show it to Elrond when he returned.

But just as he finished drawing the pattern and was preparing to destroy the formation...

A crow suddenly swooped down and crashed to the ground, dying a gruesome death.

Dui was a little taken aback.

The next second, the cawing of a flock of crows came from the distant sky.

Then, to Dui's astonishment, they all seemed to go mad, hurtling towards the ground at an accelerated pace, quickly staining the ground blood-red.

The crow's blood flowed into the grooves in the stone slabs of the ground, spreading rapidly in all directions as if it possessed a will, trying to fill all the grooves.

The previously still formation suddenly began to emit magical fluctuations, and an evil aura began to spread within it. Even the stone statues seemed to come alive, their empty eye sockets appearing to hold a chilling gaze.

This sudden turn of events made Dui very uneasy.

Without hesitation, he unleashed a powerful spell in an attempt to destroy the formation.

"Thunderbolt explosion!"

A dazzling spell shot towards the array, carrying immense explosive destructive force, striking the black stone ground and the statue.

But to Dui's surprise, the spell that was supposed to blast this place to ashes had no effect when it landed in the formation. Instead, the formation absorbed the spell's power.

The formation instantly seemed to receive a huge boost, and its activation speed increased.

The sky above the Black Barbarian Shrine was covered with dark clouds due to the influence of the formation, as if a storm was about to break!

Dui's expression changed drastically. He dared not use magic attacks anymore, but seeing that the dangerous formation was about to be activated, he decisively shouted, "Sword of Flames!"

The flaming sword instantly appeared in his hand.

He grabbed the flaming sword, charged directly at the formation, and forcefully plunged it into the ground.

The stone slabs on the ground cracked, and the scorching flames released by the Blazing Sword burned the ground. The power of the serpent venom, the light of Eyarendil, and the power of the Ring of Qi contained within the sword were also eroding the formation.

The formation came to a sudden stop, like gears getting stuck.

The clash between the flaming sword and the array's power resulted in a brief pause.

Upon seeing this, Dui immediately pulled out the divine spear Aiglos from his spatial bag and forcefully plunged it into the ground.

The divine spear was sharp, instantly piercing through the hard black stone, and then unleashing powerful destructive force.

Crack! Cracks spread rapidly across the ground from where the spear had been inserted, growing larger and larger.

Finally, the floor shattered into pieces, and the patterns of the array broke.

The power of the formation could not be sustained and vanished instantly.

The dark clouds in the sky gradually dispersed, and the sun shone down again.

Dui breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Fortunately, the activation of the formation was successfully interrupted; otherwise, who knows what terrifying things might have happened?
He pulled the divine spear and the flaming sword from the ground, then looked at the array patterns on the ground and began to destroy them directly.

After erasing all the grooves and patterns, they also destroyed the standing stones and statues.

Only after assuring that no one could restore him did Dui feel relieved and mount his flying broom again, heading towards the Path of the Dead.

(End of this chapter)