Chapter 171: Incurable
Regarding the magic that can free people from Sauron's beliefs, Alatar did not say much, and Levi did not delve into his little secret.
As the three of them continued to move forward, soon a city appeared at the end of the horizon.
The capital of the Khanates.
Compared with the capital of Dongyi, this city seems a bit simple. The city walls are built with a mixture of wood, earth and stones, and many houses are covered with hay.
This may be related to the local climate.
Just as Alatar had said, the sun here was very strong and the land was covered with a layer of sand.
"Wait, what is that?"
Levi walked quickly towards a stretch of sand.
"cactus?!"
"Oh, yes, this is a local specialty. Do you like it?"
“I quite like it.”
Pop.
This cactus was pulled out by its roots, and after passing through the synthesis table, it was "standardized" into a square cactus.
"Do you want me to help you find more?" Seeing Levi's excited look, Farodan mentioned.
"No, one is enough."
Apart from anything else, this trip is worth it just for finding the cactus.
However, when he officially entered the city, Levi realized that he had thought too little.
"What is that?"
He pointed to a group of people who were covering themselves tightly with white sheepskin towels.
"Caravans from the southern Harad region, crossing the desert to obtain the wealth of the east."
Levi moved closer to take a look.
This one glance made him completely excited.
"rum."
The merchants mentioned that they had rum among their goods.
The main raw material for making rum is sugar cane.
"Would you like to try our fine rum?"
"No, I'm more curious about the taste of sugar cane than the rum."
"You want sugar cane?"
The merchant asked curiously and said, "We usually don't sell this kind of stuff. It's not valuable and hard to store. The road to here is long. Even if we load the freshly picked sugarcane onto the truck, it will go bad before it's transported here."
“Like this.”
The merchant took out a small piece of sugarcane whose color looked a little off and there was a piece missing from it, obviously it had been bitten.
"You reminded me. I was just about to throw this garbage away."
As he spoke, the businessman took out several more pieces of sugarcane from the cart.
"Hey, this piece seems to be edible?"
As the merchant said this, he was about to peel apart the piece of sugarcane.
"Wait, sell it to me!"
Levi quickly stopped him.
"You want to try it?"
The merchant stopped and said, "How about this, just give me two cents, or if you buy something else, I will give this to you as a gift."
Considering the long distance of transportation, this request is not excessive.
A moment later, Levi met the two with a piece of almond candy, a specialty of the South.
Fortunately, among the several pieces of spoiled sugarcane given to him by the Harad merchant, there was a good piece that could be used to standardize it into special sugarcane that could grow when planted by the water.
Cactus, sugar cane.
I got two very useful things right away.
Levi was becoming more and more excited about this city covered with yellow sand, where Harad merchants or nomads often came from the desert.
We have such a big harvest just after entering the city. There must be more southeastern specialty crops in the city that are not available in western Middle-earth.
"Did you finish your shopping?"
Alatar said hello and continued walking towards the city center with Levi and Farodan.
"Are you curious about the intelligence in the south?" asked Farodan.
"One thing, mainly I'm interested in the specialties there."
"specialty…"
Farodan recalled and said, "I heard that there is a prairie further south of the Harad Desert, and further south of the prairie is a jungle where jungle people live. Both on the prairie and in the jungle, there are many animals and plants that we have never seen before."
Levi's eyes lit up.
“That’s great.”
“But it’s far away.”
Farodan reminded: "According to what those Harad people said, the distance from Harad to the jungle they mentioned may be several times farther than from the roadside fort to the lonely mountain."
“That’s far enough…”
Levi opened the map and took a look.
Middle-earth, to completely light up this continent, even he would have to ride a fast horse for many years without sleep.
"Wait, what are you doing?"
Just as he was thinking about it, Farodan suddenly said something.
Levi looked to his side.
Alatar took off the tattered cloak he used for camouflage, revealing the sea-blue robe underneath, and walked openly on this land.
If it were in Dongyi, the guards and crowd nearby would have surrounded us long ago.
But here——
"Don't worry, I told you, this is our territory."
The residents around were not very curious about the old man in the blue robe, and some guards even bowed slightly to greet him when they saw him.
But it's only part of it.
The other part walked by with their eyes closed, as if saying "I saw it but I'm going to pretend I didn't see it."
Alatar didn't care too much about these people.
Not long after walking, he brought Levi and the other man to the largest hall in the city.
"grown ups."
The guard at the door bowed and saluted - to Alatar.
Alatar nodded and walked in with big strides, but things were not so smooth for the two people behind him, as the guards stopped them.
"In front of the King's Hall, you must lay down your weapons," he said.
But before he could start to search, he was interrupted by a voice in front of him: "Those are my distinguished guests. Don't be rude to them."
The guard took a deep look at the blue figure in the hall and retreated silently.
Levi and Farodan looked at each other.
Even though they were slow, the two noticed that the atmosphere here was a little unusual.
"It's been a long time since we last met, King of Khan."
Inside the hall, Alatar greeted the sturdy Khan leader who was sitting on the throne.
"Ah... wise wizard, you came at the right time. I have some... some questions that I need your answers to..."
The king's face was pale. He tried to stand up, but it seemed quite strenuous, which was in sharp contrast to his strong body.
Anyone who saw him for the first time would think he was sick.
However, Alatar acted as if he was used to it. He stepped up the steps leading to the throne step by step, stood beside the king, and asked softly:
"What is it, my respected king?"
The king gave up trying to get up. He shook his head, almost lying on the throne, and said in a weak voice: "Sauron... He sent an envoy to tell me that if we don't surrender, he will kill all of us..."
"Don't worry, my king. We have slowed down the Easterlings and the armies of Mordor. They will not be able to successfully gather in a short time."
"Ah... that's good."
There was a glimmer of excitement in his cloudy eyes.
Although, he himself didn't know what he was excited about.
"Alatar."
In the hall, Levi couldn't help himself. He called him by his name and asked, "Is this the method you mentioned that can free the ruler of this area from Sauron's control?"
"This method doesn't seem very glorious, and it's really not that good."
"How do you know?"
Alatar opened his arms and answered as a matter of course: "Look, Levi, the king of the Khans, after my arrival, he no longer surrendered to his enemies, but took the courage to resist those who dared to oppress them!"
Levi shook his head: "So, what you mean by 'get rid of' is to change him from being controlled by Sauron to being controlled by you?"
"control?"
"No, no, no, please don't use that word at this time, at this moment, in this situation. All I did was to make him more obedient to his heart..."
The long sword cut out from the inventory, and Levi took a step forward: "You are terminally ill, maybe you need someone to help you wake up."
"I shouldn't have expected Saruman to teach you anything good."
Alatar obviously did not agree with this. He raised his head, looked down at the figure at the bottom of the stairs with pride, and said, "Legends of the West, in your opinion, what is good and what is bad?"
"Just because you are afraid of something, do you have to give up its power?"
"To me, that's cowardly."
A cloud covered the scorching sunlight, and the king's hall fell into darkness for a short time.
In the shadows, the blue-robed wizard's voice was sonorous and powerful: "This is just the rational use of power."
Thanks to Wuyan乀 for the 2000 points reward, and thanks to the friends who voted for recommendations and monthly tickets. Thank you for your support! ————
ps. In earlier settings and some letters, Thor said that the two blue robes who went to the East might eventually become slaves of Sauron like Saruman.
However, according to some later narratives, if it were not for the continued activities of Alatar and Pallando in the East, Sauron would have united more allies in the East, so they may not have fallen.
As to why the two blue wizards did not return to Valinor after Sauron's complete defeat, no one knows.
(I seriously suspect that it was just that Tolao, the pigeon king, simply didn’t think of how to fill this hole)
After thinking for a long time, I decided to adopt an intermediate state of 'being corroded but still maintaining a just goal'.
In addition: Since it is not very sensible to change the map and start over, I will quickly transition to writing more main lines and main content.
——
Whether it is good, bad, controversial or questionable, the future is always full of uncertainty, waiting for challengers to change it.
May all good luck favor those who are strong and willing to fight.
(End of this chapter)
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