A burst of pure white light shot out from the staff in his left hand, neutralizing the power of the lightning.
Those chants contained numerous supernatural powers and spells, including magical barriers, holy light healing, and even the power to make enemies lay down their weapons and become enlightened.
Jiang Liu hadn't expected Gandalf to be so powerful, but he wasn't afraid. After assessing Gandalf's strength, Jiang Liu slapped Smaug's head, waking the dragon from Gandalf's magic, and roared, "Aren't you leaving? Are you waiting to die?"
Smaug was immediately awakened from the hypnotic chant, and with a flap of his enormous wings, he soared into the sky. Jiang Liu also instantly summoned a three-headed thunder dragon and attacked Gandalf.
Knowing he couldn't do anything to him, Jiang Liu had no intention of fighting desperately. In the few seconds that the Thunder Dragon blocked Gandalf, Smaug drew an arc in the sky, accelerated desperately, and then landed on the Tower of Sauron, exhaling a scorching breath!
After slaying the Thunder Dragon, Jiang Liu entered the Wizard Tower.
Gandalf narrowed his eyes and said to the elf Arwen, "Inform Aragorn to attack this evil wizard's tower!"
Chapter 288 Strength Enhancement
"Looks like we're in some trouble!"
Jiang Liu stood atop the Wizard's Tower, watching Gandalf gradually disappear into the distance, a sense of unease creeping into his heart. This Gandalf was far more powerful than the one in the original story.
Sauron laughed, “We’ll deal with whatever comes our way. I’ve already imprisoned all those slaves below. If necessary, they can serve as nourishment for the parasitic seeds. Eleven bloodthirsty treants are equivalent to eleven first-ring wizards. Gandalf may have some skill, but how many Maiar are like him! ... Moreover, when Gandalf leads his army to the city, it will take at least seven or eight days, and at most ten days to half a month. During this time, your strength should have increased sufficiently. So, right now, your priority is to digest this legacy! When he comes again, I will perish with him. Then, the sky’s the limit. Whether you continue to manage this world or return to the Wizarding World with the space fortress is not entirely up to you.”
"Eleven Bloodthirsty Treants with the strength of a first-ring wizard should be enough to give Gandalf a headache. As for improving my mental strength, I can draw on techniques from worlds like Shushan, Yangshen, and Journey to the West, but... the strength of my body is difficult to improve significantly in a short time. I don't want to undergo bloodline modification, so I'll have to work on my mental strength and elemental arrays! The rest is up to you; I'm going into seclusion!"
With the possessed Sauron guarding the Wizard Tower, Jiang Liu was extremely at ease. Although his physical body was crumbling day by day, it would take a long time before it completely collapsed.
A wizard's power comes from knowledge, but mental strength is the foundation of most wizards. Unless they abandon spellcasting and turn to physical enhancement, mental strength is not important.
However, pure body-refining wizards are not the mainstream in wizarding civilization, and very few people even focus solely on physical enhancement. Wizards even refer to this type of cultivator as knights, and they are not categorized within the wizarding system.
Because the magic that uses mental power to unleash its power, when leveraged by knowledge, will generate unimaginable destructive force.
Like the cheap teacher, although he uses bloodline modification to strengthen his body, he does not rely on his body to attack. Instead, he enhances his bloodline to cast spells. His main means is still curse-type witchcraft, such as the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and Dragon's Might.
Jiang Liu knew that to gain power in a short time, he needed to enhance his mental strength and solidify the magic array. As for the power of his physical body, Jiang Liu wasn't prepared to modify it.
After seven days of seclusion, Jiang's spiritual power surged, almost reaching the level of a second-ring wizard. This advancement was largely due to the cultivation knowledge he gained from the worlds of "Shushan," "Yangshen," and "Journey to the West." He knew he wouldn't experience such a dramatic increase in spiritual power again.
I used the crystal ball to sense it:
Mental strength: 196
Magic Power: 1762
Stamina: 12
Strength: 11
Cell viability: 19
Seven days passed, and Gandalf did not appear, nor did his army arrive.
But a storm was brewing, and an extremely heavy pressure spread above the wizard tower.
Jiang Liu was naturally unafraid. He had weathered countless storms, so why should he fear a mere Gandalf? Seeing that there was still time, he selected a burly dwarf from among the imprisoned slaves. The dwarf's arms were thicker than Jiang Liu's thighs, and he had a full beard. He was incredibly strong and physically powerful, definitely twice as strong as Jiang Liu's body.
The dwarf was taken to the laboratory. At first, he resisted, but after becoming Jiang Liu's soul slave, he could only cooperate fully in the transformation.
"What bloodline should I pair you with?" Jiang Liu looked at the dwarf, somewhat hesitant.
He flipped through a notebook and said, "For the first bloodline modification, let's choose something easier. Since your power is your main attribute, let's fuse with the bloodline of the Stone Giant! My cheap teacher obtained the Stone Giant's bloodline first and has the deepest expertise. Moreover, he also has a few Stone Giant bloodline potions, which will save me the time of adjusting the potions."
Stone giants are a branch of giants, possessing the ability to control rocks. Their usual method of attack is to condense a giant rock ball and launch it at enemies like a catapult. If a stone giant has a strong bloodline and is talented, they can also master the ability to create rock skin and even petrifying rays.
Moreover, the giants naturally possess extremely strong strength and physique, coupled with the spellcasting bloodline that controls rocks, which is why Sauron took a liking to them and incorporated them into his own bloodline.
Now, Jiang Liu is going to integrate this bloodline into the dwarf in front of him.
Jiang Liu has a high level of understanding of the Five Elements. His true body possesses the Life-Creating Cauldron Body, which combines the Five Elements. He only has a mere earth-type rock bloodline. He can understand it roughly by using his spiritual power to sense it. With his cheap teacher's extremely detailed notes, Jiang Liu immediately knows how to strengthen his bloodline and how to fuse it with the dwarf's bloodline.
If it were entirely based on Jiang Liu's comprehension, it would naturally take time and several or even dozens of experiments to succeed. However, having inherited the old man's insights into bloodline modification, the possibility of failure is very low.
After guiding the bloodline fusion with his mental power, he threw the dwarf into a high-concentration culture solution to recover.
Not satisfied, Jiang Liu thought for a moment and then chose a tall, slender elf. Seemingly knowing he couldn't escape death, or perhaps instilled by the horrors of Sauron's bloodline modification experiments, this handsome elf was filled with primal fear, and he bit off his own tongue and committed suicide.
Jiang Liu immediately felt a sense of unease. He knocked one of the female elves unconscious, dragged her away, and left. Why these two elves? Because, in Jiang Liu's perception, they were very close to the natural elements.
In short, these two are the most gifted at spellcasting among all elves. Of course, in Jiang Liu's opinion, the combined talent of the now-departed Arwen is still inferior to that of these two elves.
Dwarves have enhanced the bloodline of the stone giants.
The elves, naturally, sought the bloodline of the tree people.
After completing the transformation of the female elf, Jiang Liu was also somewhat exhausted. Prolonged and highly precise use of mental energy, even with nearly 200 points of mental energy, was taking its toll. Moreover, he had just split his soul twice in succession to control this dwarf and elf.
By the time he had meditated and recovered enough, the dwarves and elves had already woken up.
With their souls controlling them, the two had no chance to resist. They simply stood silently in the laboratory, experiencing their newly acquired power.
As for names, Jiang Liu was too lazy to come up with any, so he simply called them Dwarf Number One and Elf Number One.
Just as Jiang Liu was about to see what abilities the two had acquired, Sauron walked over and said in a deep voice, "They've arrived! Gandalf's army has come!"
Under the leadership of the messenger Maiar, the various races of Middle-earth began to unite in rebellion against the tyrannical rule of the wizards.
A single spark can start a prairie fire, or... it can be nipped in the bud!
Chapter 289 The Enemy Approaches the City
Where there is oppression, there is resistance!
Middle-earth was oppressed by wizards for nearly forty years, and by three wizards at that.
Three wizards, three wizard towers, and numerous wizard apprentices ruled the vast world of Middle-earth.
The dwarves were driven to mine ore, and when the annual supply of metal was insufficient, the lives of the dwarves were used to make up for it. After thirty-eight years, the mines were exhausted, and the mining of mithril and pure gold became less and less, while the dwarf population also declined year by year, to the point that less than one-tenth remained compared to forty years ago.
The elves, too, lost their home—Rivendell. The third-ringed wizard, the elemental wizard Lyra, built a wizarding tower in Rivendell. Under the influence of dark magic, beautiful Rivendell, the elves' home, was transformed into a terrifying dark forest.
Grot of the Mechanical Heart conquered Gondor and ruled the human race with construct robots.
Sauron, on the other hand, required a large number of slaves for his experiments, making him even more infamous.
After thirty-eight years of rule, Middle-earth once again welcomed the Maiar, messengers of the gods. Hope arrived, and rebellion began.
"Has he arrived? We've been waiting for him for a long time. I heard that Grote of the Mechanical Heart contacted you! He also discovered the anomaly in Middle-earth?" Jiang Liu stood atop the towering Wizard Tower, looking down to the northeast, where a massive army was rushing towards the Wizard Tower like a flood.
Soren gazed into the distance and said, "His construct... well, the drones spotted the army heading this way and asked if we needed support. That guy isn't as strong as my cheap master, but his robot army is formidable, unlike Soren, who's all alone."
“He’s been eyeing the mithril mines of Kael’thas-d’Om for a long time. If your body perishes with Gandalf this time, he’ll definitely try to seize Kael’thas-d’Om.” A huge, dark metal arrow appeared in Jiang Liu’s hand—the very same black arrow that had wounded Smaug. “The dwarves must have secretly hidden a large amount of mithril and pure gold. Moreover, this black arrow contains meteorite iron and a small amount of Western cinnabar aura. If there’s enough, it’ll be enough for me to forge a flying sword. I can’t let him get it. The third-ringed mechanical wizard, the Mechanical Heart… I hope he doesn’t get in my way!”
"My body is getting weaker and weaker. You'll have to figure out how to deal with Grote yourself! And be careful of Lydia in Rivendell. In Sauron's memory, that woman is not someone to be trifled with!"
The two stood atop the wizard's tower, coldly watching the army gather.
"Treemen, there are still treemen! It seems the wizards didn't wipe out the treeman race more than thirty years ago! Eight treemen in total, it seems all the remaining treemen have been mobilized. The army of elves, dwarves, humans, even hobbits have joined the battle. Heh, and there's also an army of orcs, it seems our Saruman has been reborn."
"It's all or nothing. The fact that they've managed to gather tens of thousands of soldiers, fully equipped, suggests they're going all in!"
"Gandalf is in the open, but Maiar must be lurking in the shadows. Is Saruman among them?"
"Huh, a giant eagle? The brown-robed Redagast is on the back of the giant eagle king, Wind King Guanhe. So, there are already three Maiar!"
"I'll activate the fortress's destructive cannon and fire it once to see just how powerful Maya really is!"
Before long, the army arrived at the city gates.
The power of hatred is immense, and it is a global hatred.
Jiang Liu's composure stemmed from the destructive cannon atop the Wizard Tower. In an instant, energy began to gather at the top of the tower; from a distance, the light at the top...
The awns were even more intense than the summer sun.
Not to mention ordinary people, even Gandalf wouldn't dare to look directly at them.
"The Wizard Tower's Destruction Cannon? Damn it, how could he possess such a weapon? Even lesser gods fear such a weapon. Saruman, let's join forces!"
The wizarding civilization is invading Valinor, and as the Maiar, the messengers of the gods, they are naturally aware of this powerful weapon. Even gods would be severely injured or killed by this light.
"God bless humanity! Divine protection!"
Chanting arose above the army, and behind Gandalf emerged another Maiar, clad in white robes and with white hair. The two chants overlapped, and a semi-transparent eggshell appeared above the army, with what seemed to be mysterious writing and patterns flowing across it.
However, the light from the wizard's tower did not fall; instead, it rose towards the sky.
"His target is the Wind King, Redagast!" Gandalf roared.
Saruman slammed his cane on the ground and gritted his teeth, saying, "He's cunning indeed. Redagast's strength doesn't lie in defense. Hopefully, he can dodge it!"
A massive white beam of light pierced the clouds and tore through the sky, imprisoning a gigantic eagle within. On the eagle's back sat an old man in a brown robe, enveloped in a radiant aura, his face contorted in a ferocious grimace as he desperately parried the attack.
"Even a fourth-ring wizard wouldn't dare to easily withstand the disintegrating beam of the Destruction Cannon with their body. You, Maiar, will be utterly annihilated!"
Soren sneered, the pillar of light flashed briefly, and then dissipated.
But looking at the sky again, there was no giant eagle, no other object.
One of the Maya was reduced to nothingness by the destructive cannon, even its soul perished, and even if the gods wanted to resurrect it, they could not do so.
"Ridagast, he's dead just like that?!"
Before the battle even began, the death of a Maiar sent the army's morale plummeting.
"Once the wizard's destructive cannon is activated, it will cool down and will no longer pose a threat. I will lead the vanguard and today we will capture this wizard's tower and begin the liberation of Middle-earth."
Gandalf, mounted on his white horse, began to rally the troops. Saruman chanted continuously, and halos of light enveloped the army.
With various buffs applied and fueled by their hatred for wizards, the army began their assault on the tower.
Aragorn, the human commander, pointed his sword at the wizard's tower. He was clad in full armor, leaving only gaps for his eyes. The sword in his hand was burning, clearly some kind of magical artifact.
The Elven prince Legolas Greenleaf commands the Elven archers, a small number, but each one carries a black arrow capable of killing Smaug.
The dwarven siege machinery began to operate.
Jiang Liu looked at the army below the tower. The most eye-catching ones were the eight treants. They seemed to have received some kind of buff, and they strode towards the wizard tower.
The ground was shaking, and countless vines were arching over the ground like giant dragons, trying to destroy the foundation of the wizard's tower.
The most reckless of all were the orc troops, clad in tattered leather armor and armed with only one weapon, who charged toward the wizard's tower.