Chapter 1 The Sudden Attack

The scream came so suddenly, and disappeared just as abruptly, as if it had been choked off in the throat. Fang Senyan's heart leaped, and he sprang up from the alluring curves of the elf maiden. Then he heard another scream!

Elves were known as children of nature, masters of camouflage in the forest, undetectable even by the most skilled hunters. Yet, in a mere three seconds, both elven sentries had died. What kind of brutal and premeditated assault could achieve such a terrifying result?

The next moment, a tide of Orcs and Uruk-hai flooded into the small camp.

This was a fierce and cruel attack.

Swift, vicious, and sharp, like a thin, keen dagger thrusting forward!

They were attacked by Orcs, Uruk-hai, and an Uruk-hai leader.

Fang Senyan noticed that the Uruk-hai leader was exceptionally tall and strong, and beside him stood a mysterious figure shrouded in a black cloak. The figure was hunched over, wearing a mystic's robes, and held a crooked staff. Elder Shavin Thornewood, powerful as he was, was completely suppressed by the mysterious wizard. If the elven elder's magic was like starlight, the mysterious figure's power was like the endless night, suffocating!

The moment Fang Senyan saw this mysterious figure, he knew his Middle-earth journey was likely coming to an end... Others might not know, but Fang Senyan, having read the Uruk-hai Notes, had gained some inside knowledge. For a long time, Saruman, even after his fall, had pretended to be a righteous white wizard and served as the head of the powerful White Council. Because of this, his outward appearance of justice meant that Saruman had to disguise himself and hide most of his unseemly deeds from the public eye.

Therefore, Saruman, as a servant of God and a sage, used his powerful scientific and magical abilities to create several clones alchemically and magically, injecting fragments of his soul into them to act on his behalf in Middle-earth. This strategy was undoubtedly quite effective; if Saruman's own ambitions hadn't been so great, he would never have exposed himself.

... Now, the hunched, mysterious figure before Fang Senyan and the others was one of Saruman's clones. Although he only possessed a fraction of Saruman's power, he was definitely beyond their ability to resist.

Faced with the elves in the camp, the Orcs and Uruk-hai, driven by their commanders, charged forward fearlessly. For these controlled, savage creatures, death was a release, not a burden. Although this small Rivendell elven force was extremely strong in the forest, and despite Shavin Thornewood’s shock and anger as he cast a nature spell, turning five Orcs into rotten wood, he was immediately struck by a beam of bizarre paralyzing light from Saruman's clone's staff, and collapsed to the ground.

In less than half a cigarette's worth of time, the elves in the camp were annihilated. Strangely, the Orcs and Uruk-hai, known for their brutality, did not kill the survivors after gaining complete control. Instead, they merely bound the prisoners.

Fang Senyan pretended to be seriously injured, his sternum broken and unable to walk. An Orc even picked him up and carried him on its back. Aelita, the woman, had been slashed on the arm and was bleeding profusely, but an Orc actively applied medicine to her wound, seemingly concerned about the prisoners' well-being.

Fang Senyan finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was ready to return at any moment. He knew that this unusual safety hid an even greater danger! But for him, it was best to delay for as long as possible, especially with the ultimate weapon of return at his disposal. Of course, if he had the chance, he would save the elves from their plight. From the conversations of these Orcs and Uruk-hai, who seemed to belong to a tribe, he could vaguely discern that their organization was called the "Slave-Catching Team."

Next, they were escorted north. During the trek, similar slave-catching teams joined them, and the captured prisoners were of all kinds, even including Orcs and Uruk-hai!

The Orcs were likely native races, while the captured Uruk-hai were those that had been modified and had lost control, their genes defective. They had gone berserk and escaped during missions. Saruman, in order to maintain secrecy, tried to conceal any news of the Uruk-hai, so he would capture or hunt these rogue test subjects.

It's worth mentioning that the guy who tried to violate Wu Ge was also one of the runaway test subjects. His genes were already close to collapsing, and Fang Senyan's heavy injuries finished him off, so he was stabbed to death on the spot with a spear.

As time went on, surprisingly, not only Song Ge and the other women were not violated (she had already prepared to commit suicide), but all the prisoners were well taken care of.

After another two days of walking, the temperature began to drop rapidly. Each prisoner received a beast hide coat to keep warm, and the Orcs even ate the leftovers of their scraps. If it weren't for the fact that each prisoner was closely guarded, they would almost have thought they were invited guests. However, this illusion was quickly shattered by a harsh reality:

An injured elf could not withstand the arduous trek, and his condition continued to worsen. Before he breathed his last, his body was devoured ravenously by the greedy Orcs. The unlucky fellow's head was chopped off and offered to the Uruk-hai leader in charge. The creature held the head contentedly, sucking on it as if a human was holding a coconut with a straw.

Their long trek continued for two and a half days (Fang Senyan breathed a long sigh of relief: dragging on for so long was truly unexpected). Finally, they arrived among the snowy peaks in a frozen world, in the deepest part of the Misty Mountains. Everyone was surprised to discover that in this cold place, the Uruk-hai, who usually gathered in small groups, had even built a very large settlement, almost a city. A large number of caves had been dug out. From a distance, the entire mountain was covered with black dots, like an eerie white honeycomb, vast, strange, and filled with immeasurable danger.

"My heavens!!" Elder Shavin Thornewood couldn't help but exclaim, "This must be the deepest part of the Misty Mountains that the legends speak of! It's said to be a death zone where you can only enter and never leave, but now it seems to be the birthplace of the Orcs and Uruk-hai!"

At the heart of this settlement was a small wizard's tower. The wizard's tower had an eerie feel. The dark wizard's tower door seemed like a bizarre eye, and standing at the door was the mysterious wizard himself. He had now removed his black cloak and mask, revealing his face to everyone.

Deep wrinkles crisscrossed the wizard's face. His eyes had begun to cloud over, and he seemed to be entering the decline of old age, but pure magical power surrounded him like a tangible substance. Even a glance from him gave one the feeling of being unable to look directly at him, as if the eyes were being cut!

His strength could only be described in four words: unfathomable! However, sometimes knowing too much is not necessarily a good thing. The unfathomable sea was, to Fang Senyan at this moment, no different in essence from a bathtub... This was like jumping off a fifty-meter cliff versus jumping off a five-hundred-meter cliff – the result was the same. Perhaps it was Fang Senyan's nonchalance that attracted the wizard's attention. He looked over, his withered lips did not move, but an aged voice suddenly came from his abdomen:

"Oh? You actually carry a faint glimmer of destiny (Legendary rating +1)."

Fang Senyan shrugged and said bluntly:

"Hearing you say that, should I feel honored or insignificant?"

The wizard gave a dry, hoarse laugh:

"To me, who has created the perfect creature, the Uruk-hai... you... are not worth mentioning!"

Then the wizard looked at Aelita, his expression somewhat puzzled:

"You woman... why do you carry a scent that disgusts me?"

He stretched out his withered, claw-like fingers and reached toward Aelita's head. Aelita immediately began to convulse violently, and then, before everyone's eyes, the woman's clothes quickly turned to ashes, scattering bit by bit, revealing her naked body. Surprisingly, her body was covered in scars, but they were all old, as if she had been subjected to very severe torture before.

The wizard's eyes shot out beams of tangible light, scrutinizing Aelita's body. Wherever his gaze fell, the blood vessels in Aelita's body seemed to bulge out one by one, forcibly forming blue textures on the surface of her skin.

When the wizard examined Aelita's right arm, the poor woman let out a piercing scream. That arm suddenly burst open with a "pa-la" sound. Amidst the splattering blood and flesh, a crystalline, six-sided ice crystal flew out, about to soar into the sky.

As a result, the wizard pointed his finger backhandedly, freezing the ice crystal in mid-air, and then casually threw a bottle of deep black medicine at it in the air, forming a dense black cloud of smoke that enveloped it. After a few minutes, the smoke dissipated, and there was nothing left in the air.