Chapter 63 The Ringwraith Appears

Next, Fang Senyan took Wu Ge around, with the old guide accompanying them, pointing out the locations of several famous battles. If he hadn't mentioned it, Fang Senyan wouldn't have known that this small place had seen the fall of four kings and had been contested by the Dark Lord and the Middle-earth forces for hundreds of years! Countless warriors had fallen here, so the appearance of undead was not surprising.

Once oxen and horses are exhausted, they need at least two or three hours of rest to fully recover their strength. Otherwise, carrying heavy loads again will seriously affect their health and easily lead to injury or disability. Therefore, many caravans, once they arrive here after noon, generally won't leave. Because by the time the oxen and horses, exhausted from pulling uphill, have fully recovered, it's already three or four in the afternoon. How far can they go then?

At this moment, a member of the caravan rushed over, shouting in panic:

"Something's wrong, the packhorses have gone mad and run away!"

Hearing this news, the old guide's expression changed drastically, and he hurried back. Fang Senyan and the others couldn't continue wandering around and rushed to catch up. They saw a chaotic scene where the packhorses had been resting. Even the area where goods were unloaded was a mess. There was also a horrific trail of blood on the ground.

After some questioning, they learned that a member of the caravan, in an attempt to subdue a crazed packhorse, had grabbed the reins, only to be dragged at least seven or eight meters, crashing into a rock. His condition was unknown.

These packhorses had been domesticated for a long time and were usually very docile. No one knew why they had suddenly gone mad. The caravan boss, Gutters, was guarding the other half of the goods below Fengyun Peak, leaving the old guide in charge of the situation. For a time, everything was in chaos. Some people went to chase the packhorses, some treated the injured, and some busied themselves collecting the goods.

After thinking for a while, Fang Senyan felt that the packhorses couldn't have gone mad suddenly. He focused his suspicions on what the packhorses had eaten while resting. The hay and salt were brought by the caravan and could be ruled out. Fang Senyan checked the spring and found it clear, cold, and gurgling. It was impossible to poison it, and more importantly, people had also drunk from this spring and seemed fine.

Then... Fang Senyan went directly to the place where the packhorses had been lying. The people who grazed the packhorses had led them to the nearby hillside, where the grass looked relatively lush. Fang Senyan, holding Wu Ge's hand, had just approached the area when Wu Ge told him that the place made her feel very uncomfortable, and even the plants on the ground contained a sense of madness.

Fang Senyan looked at the grassland that had clearly been grazed by the packhorses and frowned. He noticed that the soil was very new. He immediately took a shovel from the nearby debris and started digging vigorously. Under Fang Senyan's full force, the surface soil was quickly excavated, and then, with another shovel, he revealed a pale, half-rotten palm!

Soon, the caravan members gathered around with surprised expressions. Fang Senyan dug out a total of sixteen corpses from the soil! More importantly, more than half of these sixteen corpses hadn't rotted, so they clearly recognized them as their companions, acquaintances who had been drinking, chatting, and joking with them just a few months ago……….

An invisible terror spread among the caravan members, but at this moment, the old guide stood up, his face gloomy. He walked over and unceremoniously rummaged through the corpses, as if the pungent smell didn't exist. After a while, he said:

"They have knife and sword wounds on their bodies, but the cause of death for everyone is the same—poisoning! It is because of the poisoning that the toxins in the corpses permeated the soil. The grass that grew was eaten by the livestock, causing the packhorses to go mad."

The old guide's words immediately stabilized the morale of everyone. They also came over to take a look and found that the corpses' faces were dark green, and their expressions were grimacing in pain, which did indeed look like they had died from poisoning.

The merchants traveling in Middle-earth face many dangers, so these caravan members are all top-notch in terms of courage and ability. What they fear most is an irresistible, mysterious force. Hearing that these people were poisoned before being killed, they naturally regained their courage.

Fang Senyan remained silent on the side, seemingly agreeing with the old guide's point of view. At this time, someone brought back the crazed packhorses, and the others went to help. The old guide frowned and walked to Fang Senyan, worried.

"Thank you."

The old guide was obviously thanking him for not exposing some of the falsehoods in his words. Fang Senyan took a deep breath and said:

"We're in big trouble if we don't leave immediately."

The old guide's face was pale. Yes, he was right. The cause of death for these people was indeed poisoning, but the poison couldn't have entered their bodies for no reason. Usually, they would have either taken poison, or the weapons that cut them would have been poisoned. Unfortunately, the reason for these people's poisoning was neither of those. It was because they had inhaled terrifying poisonous gas!

If Fang Senyan remembered correctly, this should be the Ringwraith's special ability, Dark Breath. In the elven texts, these powerful creatures have other invisible and deadly weapons. Aura of Fear perpetually surrounds them, surrounding creatures are affected (except for certain powerful creatures), and their breaths (referred to as Dark Breath) are highly toxic.

Victims of the Dark Breath or Dark Shade fall into endless despair, nightmares, and coma, even leading to death. Only a plant called Kingsfoil (ahthelas) can be used to counter this effect.

Looking at it now, it was definitely not without reason that Gandalf the Grey was attacked here. It was very likely that the Dark Lord had once again set his sights on this strategic location and was slowly deploying his forces, possibly hiding an army of undead here to attack the three important locations of Rhudaur, Cardolan, and the Shire at a critical moment!

At this time, Gutters also rushed over after hearing the news. Upon hearing this, he said very decisively:

"Then what are we waiting for? Forget the goods, let's leave immediately! My dwarven friends asked me to take care of you, so your safety must be the priority today."

Hearing Gutters' words, Fang Senyan couldn't help but think highly of him. One must know that merchants pursue profit, but Gutters was able to abandon this batch of goods that could bankrupt him without hesitation. He was very decisive, so he nodded and said:

"Alright, let's leave immediately. However, although your packhorses have all been found, they are likely in a state of frenzy and cannot be ridden."

"Then kill them all!" Gutters waved his hand forcefully. "And get moving quickly."

Four hours later,

Everyone was already panting heavily from exhaustion.

In such a short period, the lightly equipped caravan had traveled at least fifty kilometers away from Fengyun Peak. Everyone saw the sudden and strange events there, so they had no objection to the boss's decision to abandon the goods and flee for their lives.

The sky darkened at this time, and everyone felt unusually tired. Even though they were caravan members who were used to hardship, traveling such a long distance in a short time was an extreme effort. So they found a sheltered place, lit a bonfire, and began to devour their dinner. Although Gutters was still eating meat and drinking wine in large gulps, he couldn't hide the loneliness in his expression.

In fact, this was human nature. No one could remain indifferent when they saw their career destroyed out of thin air.

However, about an hour after they rested, Wu Ge suddenly frowned and grabbed Fang Senyan very seriously.

"I feel it... powerful evil is slowly approaching us."

Fang Senyan smiled and said:

"Don't worry, I'm by your side."

Wu Ge smiled at him:

"I've been looking forward to fighting alongside you for a long time."

As she spoke, she took out her staff and began to chant natural spells—of course, just for show. For a Dawn Elf and the holder of Vilya, who released supportive spells, Wu Ge could cast instantly. However, she was now playing the role of a human mage, so she couldn't be too outrageous.

"Might of the Ox."

"Barkskin."

"Haste."

Amidst the flashes of light green, one by one, group supportive spells fell on everyone. Of course, only Fang Senyan and Jiao Shi were qualified to enjoy the blessings of the Dawn Elf.

After doing these things, Wu Ge took out a scroll in a pretentious manner. In fact, the scroll was useless, and she tore it up after chanting for a while. Two beams of light suddenly shot from her hands towards two large trees in front.

The two trees swayed and stood up from the ground, their branches twisting together, becoming second-tier legendary treants. These treants have a certain summoning time limit and are completely puppets. Of course, their power is definitely not comparable to War Treant Faramir.

At this time, the sound of clear hooves came from a distance. The sound of those hooves trampling on the ground sounded like bones being crushed.

Immediately afterward, a large number of skeleton soldiers emerged from the darkness! Behind the skeleton soldiers, there was a tall and terrifying figure riding a nightmare beast!

Fang Senyan and his group were finally overtaken by the Ringwraith who had been rushing over all night!