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Kozuka-oka

In the deepest valley of the upper reaches of the Liutiao River.

Following the map route given by Tom, Dui walked upstream along the Willow River until he arrived here.

This is the source of the Liutiao River, located in the heart of Guzhonggang.

Perhaps because of the existence of Jinmei, who is suspected to be the river god of the Willow River, the source of the Willow River was not polluted by the dark power on the Ancient Tomb Hill, but instead became the only pure land.

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

After resting briefly, Dui left the valley and headed straight for the ancient tombs.

The sky above the ancient mound is shrouded in dark clouds all year round, and the mountains are shrouded in mist. Even in the daytime, there is not a ray of sunlight to be seen in the mountains, nor can a single insect chirp be heard.

Even though the corpse demons wouldn't easily appear during the day, Dui remained extremely vigilant. To avoid any accidents, he cast an Iron Armor Spell on himself beforehand.

With the wand, his armor spell became even more powerful, upgrading from an invisible shield to a protective barrier that could protect him from all directions, making him impervious to ordinary attacks.

Therefore, even when he broke into the lair of the corpse demon, he had some confidence.

Kozuka Hill was once the capital of the Kingdom of Kadolan after the Kingdom of Arno split. As Dui traveled along the way, he could see the ruins of the ancient city and huge rubble.

During the Second Age, the island of Númenóre sank, and Erendir, 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.

However, in the year 861 of the Third Age, the Kingdom of Arnor split into three kingdoms: Azerdan, Rudol, and Kadoran. The capital of the Kadoran kingdom is now known as Ancient Hill.

In 1409 of the Third Age, the Witch-King of Angmar launched a full-scale attack on Arnor. The prince of Kaldoram was killed in the defense of the capital, and Kaldoram was destroyed.

Then a great plague broke out, and Kozuka Hill was completely transformed into a lifeless and desolate place.

The Witch-King of Angmar corrupted the land with dark power, transforming the sleepers in the tombs into his minions—the Tomb Wraiths—who now dwell atop Tomb Hill.

For over a thousand years, even the bravest adventurers dared not venture deep into the ancient mound, and even passing merchants dared not cross it at night.

After walking for about two hours, Dui finally saw the ancient tombs.

This is a hilly area filled with huge stone tombstones. Most of the tombs here belong to the kings and nobles of the northern Dunedan people, so they are mostly simple and unadorned stone mounds.

The tomb was shrouded in mist, extremely dilapidated and decaying, exuding a cold and ominous aura.

Suddenly, the surrounding fog churned and thickened.

Dui instantly went on alert, his wand itching to strike.

Before he could react, a dark figure burst out of the mist and attacked his back with lightning speed.

"Bang!"

The shadowy figure crashed into an invisible barrier, and the enormous recoil sent it flying.

Dui quickly turned around and finally saw what the attacker looked like.

It was a tall man, dressed in tattered and decaying armor, his eyes gleaming with an eerie and sinister light, his gray, withered skin clinging tightly to his skull, exuding an aura of evil and death.

It's an ancient tomb corpse demon!

Dui was also taken aback. He hadn't expected the corpse demon to be so fast. If he hadn't set up the Iron Armor Spell in advance, he would have been ambushed by the corpse demon.

The corpse demon, having failed in its first sneak attack, charged at Dui again.

Now prepared, Dui naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait for others to attack. He raised his wand, waved it, and chanted, "Petrify them all!"

The petrification spell struck the charging corpse demon directly, instantly turning it to stone and freezing it in place.

Seeing the petrified corpse demon, Dui dared not be careless. He controlled two cleavers and slashed fiercely at the corpse demon's neck.

"Clang." The cleaver sparked.

"Hiss!" Du Yi gasped. Although he had known from Tom that the corpse demon was hard to kill, he did not expect it to be so tough that even a cleaver could not cut it!

Dui, refusing to believe in superstition, continued to slash with the throwing knife.

Under the relentless hacking, the corpse demon's neck was finally slashed open, revealing black, rotting flesh and stark white bones.

But before he could rejoice, a surge of black energy erupted from the wound, and then the wound healed rapidly at an eerie speed.

At the same time, the petrified corpse demon suddenly regained its mobility, as if it knew that Dui was not easy to deal with. Instead of attacking, it quickly darted into the mist and hid.

"Damn it!" Du Yi couldn't help but curse under his breath. He hadn't even mentioned the old willow tree's magic resistance before, but how come a corpse demon also had such high magic resistance now?

He roughly calculated that only four or five minutes had passed since the petrification curse was cast on the corpse demon.

Dui felt that his trip to Kozuka Hill was going to go wrong, given that he had broken free of the petrification curse in such a short time.

The corpse demon vanished into the mist and did not reappear for a long time, as if it had already left.

But Dui dared not relax, because he could feel a pair of malicious eyes staring intently at him, ready to pounce again if he relaxed even slightly.

The next moment, the mist surged, and the corpse demon rushed out of the mist again, this time with a greatsword in its hand.

The corpse demon's speed was almost impossible to detect with the naked eye. In an instant, it rushed in front of Dui and raised its greatsword to slash at the barrier formed by the Ironclad Curse.

The greatsword, emanating a dark and ominous aura, cleaved through the barrier in an instant, much to Dui's horrified expression.

Seeing Dui's terrified expression, the corpse demon revealed a ferocious and triumphant smile, as if it could already foresee that it would tear the other party apart in the next second and use the other party's blood to nourish itself.

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

Before it could stand up and continue its attack, Dui's curse struck again and again.

"Obstacles everywhere! Petrify them all! Eliminate your weapons!"

The Obstruction Curse slowed the ghoul to a crawl, followed by a Petrification Curse that rendered it immobile. Finally, a Disarming Curse caused the greatsword in its hand to slip from its grasp and fall to the ground.

Having learned his lesson, Dui wouldn't let the corpse demon escape again. He immediately unleashed over a dozen petrification spells on the corpse demon, followed by a leg-locking spell, before finally stopping.

With so many spells cast, the corpse demon has no chance of escaping within an hour.

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

It was this greatsword that just cleaved through the protective barrier formed by the Iron Armor Curse. If he hadn't valued his life and applied more than a dozen layers of defense to himself beforehand, he probably would have been injured by the Corpse Demon.

Dui used magic to control the greatsword to fly over, but when he saw the greatsword emitting black energy, he dared not touch it with his hands.

Because the sword was filled with an ominous aura, a kind of curse, anyone who dared to touch it would be cursed and suffer bad luck.

Dui looked at the greatsword, then at the petrified corpse demon, and suddenly his eyes lit up.

Since ordinary weapons can't hurt the corpse demon at all, this greatsword, which is full of curses and ominousness, should be useful against it, right?

With a "whoosh," the greatsword transformed into a sword shadow, piercing straight through the corpse demon and leaving a large hole in its chest.

The corpse demon's aura weakened considerably, and the black mist surrounding it also faded somewhat.

"It works!" Dui's eyes lit up, and he quickly continued to strike.

With each thrust of the sword, the corpse demon's aura dwindled, and its withered, gray skin began to rot and fall off.

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

With a roar of unwillingness, a thick black aura erupted from the corpse demon's body, instantly shooting straight into the sky and exploding and dissipating in the air.

The corpse demon's body collapsed as if it had lost its support, and quickly decayed, leaving only a pile of bones.