Chapter 171: Incurable
Alatar did not mention much about the magic that could free people from Sauron's faith, and Levi did not delve into his little secret.
As the three of them continued to rush, a city soon appeared at the end of the horizon.
The capital of the Khand people.
Compared with the capital of the Dongyi people, this city is really a bit simple. The city walls are built with a mixture of wood and earth and stone, and many houses are covered with hay.
This may be related to the local climate.
As Alatar said, the sun here is very hot, and the land is covered with a layer of sand.
"Wait, what is that?"
Levi quickly approached a piece of sand.
"Cactus?!"
"Oh, yes, this is a local specialty species, do you like it?"
"I like it very much."
Snap.
This cactus was pulled out by the 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 excitement, Farodan mentioned.
"No, one is enough."
Apart from anything else, this trip is worth it just to find the cactus.
However, when he officially entered the city, Levi realized that he still thought too little.
"What is that?"
He pointed to a group of people who covered themselves tightly with white sheepskin towels.
"A caravan from the southern Harad region, they crossed the desert just to get the wealth of the east."
Levi approached and took a look.
This one look directly made him excited.
"Rum."
The merchants mentioned that there was rum in their goods.
And the main raw material for brewing rum is... sugar cane.
"Do you want to try our premium rum?"
"No, I'm more curious about the taste of sugar cane than rum."
"You want sugar cane?"
The merchant asked curiously, and said, "We don't usually sell this kind of thing. It's not valuable and hard to store. The road to here is long. Even if we load the freshly picked sugar cane onto the truck, it will go bad before it's transported here."
"Like this."
The merchant took out a small piece of sugar cane that looked a bit off in color, with a piece missing, obviously having been bitten.
"You reminded me that I was just about to throw away this garbage."
As he spoke, the merchant took out several more pieces of sugar cane from the truck.
"Hey, this piece seems to be edible?"
The merchant was about to peel off the piece of sugar cane.
"Wait, sell it to me!"
Levi hurriedly stopped him.
"Do 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'll give you this as a gift."
Considering the long distance of transportation, this request is not too much.
A moment later, Levi met the two with a piece of southern specialty almond candy.
Luckily, among the several pieces of spoiled sugarcane given by the Harad merchant, there was a good piece, which could be used to standardize it into a special sugarcane that can grow by the water.
Cactus, sugarcane.
Two very useful things were obtained as soon as they arrived.
Levi is more and more looking forward to this city full of yellow sand and Harad merchants or nomads from the desert.
This is such a big harvest just after entering the door. There must be more southeastern specialty crops in the city that are not available in the western part of Middle-earth.
"Are you done with the tour?"
Alatar said hello and took Levi and Farodan to the center of the city.
"Are you curious about the information in the south?" Farodan asked.
"One thing, mainly I'm interested in the specialties there."
"Specialties..."
Faloddan recalled, saying, "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. There are many animals and plants we have never seen on both the prairie and the jungle."
Levi's eyes lit up.
"That's great."
"But it's far away."
Faloddan reminded, "According to what those Harad people said, the distance from Harad to the jungle they mentioned may be several times farther than from Roadside Castle to Lonely Mountain."
"That's really far enough..."
Levi opened the map and took a look.
Middle Earth, to completely light up this continent, I'm afraid even he would have to ride a fast horse for many years without sleep.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Just thinking, Faroddan suddenly said.
Levi looked to his side.
Alatar took off the tattered cloak used for camouflage, revealing the sea-blue robe underneath, and walked openly on this land.
If it was in Dongyi, the guards and people next to him would have surrounded him long ago.
But here——
"Don't worry, I said, this is our territory."
The residents around were not very curious about the old man in the blue robe, and some of the guards even bowed slightly to greet him when they saw him.
But only some of them.
The other part passed by with their eyes closed, as if "I saw it but I will pretend not to see it."
For these people, Alatar did not care too much.
Not long after walking, he took Levi and the others to the largest hall in the city.
"My lord."
The guards guarding the door bowed and saluted——towards Alatar.
Alatar nodded and walked in with big strides, but the two people behind him were not so smooth, and the guards stopped them.
"You need to put down your weapons in front of the king's hall." He said.
But before he started to search, his action was interrupted by the voice in front: "That is my distinguished guest, 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 if they were slow, they noticed that the atmosphere here was a little unusual.
"It's been a long time since I last saw you, the king of Khand."
In the hall, Alatar greeted the rather strong leader of Khand on the throne.
"Ah... wise wizard, you came at the right time, I have some... some questions that I need you to answer..."
The king's face was pale, and he tried to get up, but it seemed quite strenuous, which formed a sharp contrast with his strong body.
Anyone who saw him at first sight would think he was sick.
However, Alatar looked accustomed 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 getting up. He shook his head and almost lay 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 pace of the Dongyi and Mordor armies, and they will not be able to successfully assemble in a short time."
"Ah... so... very good."
A hint of excitement flashed in his turbid eyes.
Although, he himself didn't know what he was excited about.
"Alatar."
In the hall, Levi couldn't help it. He called him by his name and asked on the spot: "Is this the way you said that the ruler of this area can get rid of Sauron's control?"
"This method doesn't look very glorious, and it's really not that good."
"Why do you think so?"
Alatar opened his arms and answered as a matter of course:
"Look, Levi, the king of Khan, after my arrival, he no longer surrendered to the enemy, but mustered the courage to resist those forces that dared to oppress them!"
Levi shook his head:
"So, what you call 'get rid of' is to let him change 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 scene. All I did was to make him more obedient to his heart..."
The long sword cut out from the inventory, and Levi stepped forward:
"You are terminally ill, maybe you need someone to help you wake up."
"I really shouldn't expect Saruman to teach you anything good."
Alatar obviously didn't agree with this. He raised his head, looked down at the figure under the steps proudly, and said:
"Legends of the West, in your opinion, what is good and what is bad?"
"Just because you are afraid of something, you have to give up its power?"
"In my opinion, that is a cowardly act."
A cloud covered the scorching sunlight, and the king's hall fell into darkness for a short time.
In the shadow, the blue-robed wizard's voice was sonorous and powerful:
"This is just a reasonable use of power."
Thanks to Wuyan乀 for the 2,000 points reward, thanks to the friends who voted for the recommendation and monthly tickets, thank you for your support!
————
ps.
In the earlier settings and some letters, Tolman said that the two blue robes who went to the east might eventually fall into the slaves of Sauron like Saruman.
However, according to some later narratives, if it were not for the continuous activities of Alatar and Palandu in the east, Sauron would have united more eastern allies, so they might not have fallen.
As for the reason why the two blue robe wizards did not return to Valinor after Sauron's complete defeat, no one knows.
(I seriously suspect that Tolman, the pigeon king, simply did not think of how to fill this hole)
After thinking for a long time, I still take an intermediate state of "being corrupted but still maintaining a just goal".
In addition: Since it is not very rational to change the map and start again, I will quickly transition to write more main lines and main contents later,
——
Whether it is good, bad, controversial or questioned, the future is always full of uncertainty, waiting for challengers to change.
May all good luck favor those who are strong and willing to fight.
