The person is at Hogwarts, but the system is in Middle-earth!

Halloween Eve has finally arrived.

The entire school was looking forward to the delicious roasted pumpkins, bat decorations, and the skeleton dance troupe that Dumbledore had ordered in the Great Hall, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to face a despairing reality—they had agreed to attend Nick's 500th birthday celebration.

Lowe was, of course, among them. Unlike the dejected Harry and Ron, he looked a little too solemn.

He changed into a dark black formal robe, buttoned up tightly at the collar. Most strikingly, his nostrils were stuffed with two strips of cotton cloth soaked in some kind of green liquid, which gave him a heavy nasal voice and made him look quite comical.

"Take this, Harry." Rowe handed Harry two identical pieces of cotton cloth. "That's the entrance to the 'Path of the Dead.' Inhaling too much deathly energy will damage the soul of the living. This is a special filter I made in Herbalism class to prevent corpse poison—vinegar-soaked sage."

"I don't want this!" Harry pushed it away with a look of disgust. "It looks like a slug!"

"Suit yourself," Lowe shrugged, stuffing the cotton strips into his nostrils even tighter. "Don't blame me for not warning you. The air there... isn't breathable."

As it turned out, Lowe was right.

As they descended the stone steps into the underground classroom, the temperature plummeted. Harry felt as if he had stepped into a giant freezer. Hundreds upon hundreds of translucent ghosts drifted about in the dimly lit room.

[Warning: High concentration of necromantic energy detected]

[Current Area: Paths of the Dead]

[Environmental Assessment: Extremely Cold/Pervasive Corpse Gas]

[Mission Objective: Survive within the Council of the Dead and protect the Ringbearers from the corruption of death energy.]

Luo Wei squinted, observing his surroundings.

In his eyes, the walls that were once draped with black velvet curtains had transformed into rock walls that now glowed with green light; the floating ghosts were no longer the Hogwarts predecessors, but a group of "Oathbreakers" clad in tattered armor with distorted faces. They lingered in the cracks between the present and the shadows, awaiting some kind of redemption or judgment.

"Unbelievable," Hermione stammered, her breath turning into white mist. "This...this is truly astonishing."

"Remain calm, Elf Princess," Rowe whispered, his hand resting on his wand at his waist. "Don't look them in the eye. The undead crave the warmth of the living."

Nick floated over, wearing a tight-fitting top with a ruffled collar, his expression melancholy and solemn.

"My dear friends,"

"Welcome, welcome... It is truly comforting to see the faces of the living on the day of my death."

"It is our honor, Sir Nicholas."

Before Harry could speak, Rowe stepped forward, clenched his right fist and pressed it heavily against his left chest, then bowed deeply—the standard Gondorian salute.

May your soul find peace beyond the stars.

"We bring respect to the living, not disturbance."

Nick was taken aback, clearly unfamiliar with such etiquette, but a look of flattery immediately appeared on his translucent face.

"Oh...how...how proper!" Nick was so excited his neck skin almost broke. "Look, this is Hufflepuff manners! Thank you, Mr. Baggins. Please help yourself to...uh, the buffet."

He pointed to a long table at the other end of the room.

Harry and Ron walked over with high hopes, but even though they were mentally prepared, the sight before them almost made them throw up.

On the long table sat a moldy, hairy cake and a huge chunk of lamb offal crawling with maggots. This wasn't just spoiled; it was practically a biological weapon! Ron covered his nose, his face turning green. "I want to go back to the Great Hall... I want pudding..."

"Stop complaining, Sam," Rowe said calmly, looking at a plate of rotting fish. "For the undead, only the smell of utter decay can penetrate the boundary between life and death and be perceived by them. This is rations for the dead, not for us."

Just then, a shrill cry pierced through the music of the saw.

"I knew it! You're all laughing at me!"

A weeping Myrtle burst out from under the table, sending a plate of moldy peanuts flying everywhere. Mischievous Pikachu was right behind her, grinning mischievously as he pelted her with moldy peanuts.

"Watch out! Stone attack!"

Lowe reacted swiftly, grabbing a silver plate from the table and using it as a shield in front of Hermione. A few moldy peanuts smashed onto the plate with a crisp "clang."

[Block successful! Physical Defense +1]

Myrtle hovered in mid-air, her face streaked with tears as she looked at Rowe. She was about to explode, but seeing Rowe's menacing demeanor and the plate being used as a shield, she froze.

"What...what are you doing?" Myrtle asked, sobbing.

Luo Wei put down the plate and stared seriously at the famous crybaby. Under the system's filter, she wasn't a chubby girl ghost wearing glasses, but a vengeful spirit (Banshee) bound to painful memories, her body shrouded in a cursed black mist.

"I'm on the defensive, ma'am," Rowe said earnestly. "Also, may I ask you a question?"

Myrtle hovered a little higher, wary. "What do you want to ask? How did I die? I knew it, that's all you care about!"

"No," Lowe shook his head, "What I want to ask is, when you faced death... what did you see? A pair of yellow eyes? Or endless darkness?"

This was the information that Lowe had been trying to confirm. If it was a basilisk, Myrtle, as a direct victim, should have had some recollection of it, even if she hadn't seen the whole thing.

Myrtle was stunned. Usually, people would just laugh at her or avoid her because she was too sensitive. No one had ever spoken to her in such a...as if they were asking for war secrets.

"I...I only remember seeing a pair of huge, frighteningly yellow eyes," Myrtle's voice trailed off, her body trembling slightly, "The feeling...it was like my soul was instantly ripped out."

[Clues Updated: Medusa's Gaze / The Curse of the Evil Eye]

**[Current Assessment: Lethal Line-of-Sight Attack]**

Luo Wei's pupils contracted sharply. Just as expected.

"Thank you for the information, madam." Rowe nodded solemnly. "Your sacrifice will not be in vain. We will find the murderer."

"The murderer?" Myrtle hadn't even reacted yet.

Harry suddenly grabbed Rowe's arm.

"Love!" Harry exclaimed, his face pale and eyes wide. "Did you hear me?"

"What did you hear?" Hermione asked. "If you mean the sound of that saw..."

"No! That voice!" Harry cried out, his eyes becoming vacant, as if listening to some whisper only he could hear. "That voice is back... tearing... killing... killing them all..."

Warning: Dark language fluctuations detected.

[Source: Unknown / Inside the wall]

[The status of the person observing the precepts: their spirit is being eroded (Sanity -5)]

Rowe instantly threw away the silver plate in his hand and gripped the wand handle with his other hand.

"It's moving!" Harry yelled, rushing towards the door without thinking. "It's going to kill someone!"

"Keep up with him!" Rowe yelled at the bewildered Ron and Hermione. "Don't let him get separated! He's being summoned!"

The three stumbled and fell out of the cold underground classroom and returned to the lobby. Meanwhile, the Halloween party in the auditorium was still in progress.

Harry didn't stop; he ran wildly down the marble stairs as if pulled by an invisible thread.

"Harry! Wait!" Ron called out breathlessly from behind.

"Shh!" Harry stopped abruptly in the second-floor hallway, listening intently. "It went that way...it smelled blood..."

Lowe pressed himself against the wall, breathing rapidly. He heard no sound, but in the system's view, he saw a chilling scene.

In the shadows beyond the reach of the dim torchlight, eerie, faintly glowing red marks appeared on the wall. These were no ordinary marks...

[Trajectory of a high-risk organism detected]

[Type: Giant Reptile/Ancient Myriapoda]

[Warning: Predators are nearby]

"This way." Harry turned a corner.

Rowe drew his wand and pulled a handful of lime powder from his robe pocket with his left hand.

"Hermione, Ron, back to back!" Rowe whispered the order. "Protect Harry. Whatever you see, whatever you do, don't look into its eyes! Reflect it with a mirror!"

"What mirror? What are you talking about?" Ron was terrified.

Just then, they turned a corner.

On the wall ahead, a row of torches flickered in the draft. Between two windows, on the rough stone wall, the writing that had appeared last week remained—the place where Mrs. Lorris had been attacked.

But the difference is that the previously faded writing is now seeping blood again, and below it, a new line of blood-written words has appeared.

"Here again..." Hermione covered her mouth. "Just like before..."

"No, it's different." Luo Wei stepped forward, and in the system's view, new writing was burning.

"Last week's was just a warning," Rowe said coldly, "but this is a formal declaration of war."

In Luo Wei's system vision, the new line of blood-red characters was twisting into a line of Mordor runes emanating black energy:

The secret chamber has been opened. Beware of those who oppose the heir.

[For that nameless darkness, a sacrifice is offered.]