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After bidding farewell to the ghosts, Kael returned through the Paths of the Dead and emerged from the Dark Door on the northern side of the White Mountains.

Feeling the sunlight and fresh air, Kael couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Though this journey through the Paths of the Dead had some complications, it was relatively successful overall.

However, the atmosphere in the Paths of the Dead was too oppressive and terrifying. Skulls and bones everywhere, completely a land of death.

Someone with less courage would probably be scared to death.

Not to mention those ghosts. They were like living bugs. Physical attacks were completely ineffective against them, and even magical attacks that had impact were useless.

Since they weren't dark evil spirits or demons, even the Patronus Charm and Eärendil's Light could only drive them away but couldn't cause fatal damage.

If there were only a few hundred or thousand ghosts, he could barely handle them, but there were hundreds of thousands of ghosts there!

At the time, Kael had been prepared to immediately use Apparition to leave the Paths of the Dead if he couldn't persuade the ghosts.

Due to Isildur's curse, the souls of these mountain folk remained in the mountains after death. If not for being unable to summon them to leave, these ghost armies alone could have swept across Middle-earth unopposed.

Leaving the Paths of the Dead, Kael didn't use Apparition but mounted his flying broomstick, heading toward Edoras, the capital of Rohan.

Edoras was also situated near the White Mountains, not far from Dunharrow.

Kael planned to check in there along the way and see if he could encounter Gandalf.

But just as Kael was preparing to depart, the sky suddenly darkened.

Kael looked up strangely and found the sky filled with dark clouds.

The next second, a thick bolt of lightning instantly struck down from the clouds.

And its target was directly at Kael.

The lightning's speed was extremely swift, almost too fast for an ordinary person to react.

Fortunately, Kael wore the invisible Crown of Wisdom on his head. In that instant, his brain operated at super-speed, reacting within a thousandth of a second.

Just as the lightning was about to strike him, Kael disappeared from his flying broomstick using Apparition.

The broomstick he couldn't take with him was directly blasted to pieces by the lightning.

The next second, Kael appeared on a nearby mountainside.

He looked at the lightning that had appeared out of nowhere, his expression uncertain with surprise and suspicion.

A coincidence? Absolutely impossible!

Someone was definitely controlling that lightning!

But who was attacking him, and why? Kael fell into constant speculation.

But without giving him more time to think, another bolt of lightning struck down the next second.

However, this lightning didn't strike Kael but directly hit the mountain peak, causing tremendous vibration.

The White Mountains got their name because the high peaks had year-round glaciers and snow that never melted.

As lightning struck the peak, glaciers cracked, and the entire mountain shook.

An unprecedented, terrifying avalanche erupted from the peak, sweeping down the mountain with overwhelming force.

Kael took a sharp breath and immediately used Apparition to leave.

When he reappeared, he was several hundred kilometers away outside the mountains.

Apparition was, after all, short to medium-range teleportation magic. This was currently his maximum teleportation distance.

"They shouldn't be able to catch up now, right?" Kael muttered to himself.

But the next second, lightning instantly struck down from the sky again.

"Protego Maxima!" Kael raised his staff, casting the strongest defense with full power.

A dazzling white light shot from his staff tip, forming a solid magical barrier above him.

The thick lightning instantly struck the magical barrier, erupting with incredibly brilliant light and deafening crashes.

The lightning spread rapidly across the magical barrier, constantly making sizzling sounds, with the air filled with the smell of ozone.

Under the lightning's burning, the magical barrier was continuously corroded with holes, which Kael quickly repaired with his magical power.

Finally, when the lightning was exhausted, Kael gasped and lowered his staff. The magical barrier could no longer be maintained and completely collapsed.

Only the area previously covered by the magical barrier remained intact, while hundreds of meters around had become scorched earth.

Kael didn't use Apparition again but looked up at the sky, shouting coldly.

"Saruman, I know it's you! Why are you attacking me? Aren't you afraid of Gandalf and Lady Galadriel finding out?"

There was still no response from the surroundings.

"Saruman, you think I'm helpless just because you won't respond?"

He took out a palantír from his space bag and directly located Saruman's position.

The image of Orthanc Tower immediately appeared in the crystal ball.

It was a strangely shaped tower formed by four massive polyhedral stone columns joined together, with the top split into separate pointed peaks as sharp as spearheads. Between the stone columns was a narrow platform with a polished smooth floor carved with many mysterious runes.

Saruman stood on the platform at the top of Orthanc Tower, holding a staff in one hand and a palantír in the other.

"Who is it?" Saruman seemed to sense something and angrily shouted at the sky.

Then the next second, the perspective in Kael's palantír switched to the angle between the two palantíri.

Saruman's face appeared in the palantír. He feigned surprise, frowning as he questioned. "It's you, that boy who follows behind Gandalf. Why are you spying on me?"

Kael was almost amused by Saruman's shameless attempt to shift blame.

He sneered. "Saruman, honest people don't do underhanded things. I seem to have no grudge against you. Why did you ambush me?"

Saruman flatly denied it, letting out a contemptuous cold snort. "Nonsense! Why would I attack an unknown nobody like you? Besides, I'm currently in Isengard. How could I attack you from thousands of miles away?"

"Boy, you rely on a palantír to spy and offend me, and now you're falsely accusing me of wanting to attack you. Even Gandalf cannot stop me from teaching you a lesson, you unreasonable brat!"

As he spoke, his eyes suddenly became very sharp and penetrating, falling on Kael through the crystal ball.

"Let me see what secrets you have, brat, that you dare to rank yourself with us and call yourself a black-robed wizard!"

Kael instantly felt a powerful mental force emerging from the palantír, trying very roughly to invade his mind and spy on his memories.

If successful, Kael would not only have all his secrets stolen but might directly become an idiot.

Kael was furious. While resisting this mental force with all his might, he quickly took out the star-glass vial.

The brilliant light of Eärendil covered all vision. Saruman on the other side of the palantír was caught off guard. His eyes, which had been trying to spy on Kael's memories, were instantly blinded by the light, tears streaming down.

"Legilimens!" Kael immediately cast a spell at Saruman through the palantír.

When two palantíri were connected, they could not only see each other but even conduct mental communication.

This also meant that, to some extent, power could be transmitted through the palantíri.

The next second, Kael instantly sensed Saruman's thoughts and memories through the palantír.

As a Maia, Saruman's mind was incredibly powerful. Compared to him, Kael was like a stone to a mountain, normally impossible to shake his memories.

But perhaps due to Saruman's arrogance, or because he was blinded by Eärendil's light and his mind was in chaos, he had no defenses.

Kael successfully stole a small portion of his memories.

And they happened to be memory fragments of his conspiracy with Sauron.

Saruman instantly realized what had happened. His massive mental power immediately formed solid barriers, violently repelling Kael's mental spying.

Unable to see temporarily, he was like an angry lion, shocked, furious, and uneasy.

"Kael! I want you dead!!!"

Kael let out a muffled grunt. Being mentally repelled wasn't pleasant. His head was dizzy.

He immediately severed the palantír connection, stuffed it and Eärendil's Light into his pocket, and quickly used Apparition.

He had to quickly notify Gandalf, Lady Galadriel, and the others that Saruman suspected he was being suspected.

But Saruman clearly didn't want to let him go so easily.

When Kael appeared at the next location via Apparition, a bolt of lightning instantly struck down.

The lightning was so fast, as if it had already anticipated he would appear here and had been waiting.

Kael's hair stood on end. Sensing extreme danger, he had no time to use Apparition again.

"Confringo!" Kael cast an attack spell at the lightning.

Brilliant red light shot upward, colliding with the lightning.

At the collision point, light scattered everywhere. The dazzling radiance made it impossible to keep one's eyes open, followed immediately by a deafening explosion. The lightning directly exploded, turning into countless electrical currents that wreaked havoc everywhere.

The tremendous impact instantly sent Kael flying, crashing heavily more than ten meters away.

Kael let out a muffled grunt, his face somewhat pale, with several wounds torn open by the exploding electrical currents.

Without hesitation, he took out a bottle of Ent-draught and drank it down in one gulp.

The places on his body injured by electrical currents quickly healed, and his complexion became ruddy again.

Seeing another bolt of lightning about to strike from the sky, Kael immediately used Apparition to leave without a word.

When he appeared several hundred kilometers away again, another bolt of lightning struck toward him as if predicting his arrival.

But this time Kael was prepared. The moment he appeared, he cast an Impediment Jinx at the sky, then used the few seconds of delay to use Apparition again.

Upon appearing once more, Kael vigilantly cast defensive spells immediately.

But to his surprise, this time there was no lightning attack.

This result didn't make Kael relax. Instead, he became even more vigilant and uneasy.

He didn't believe Saruman would give up so easily. Sure enough, his expression changed the next second. He discovered he couldn't use Apparition!

"Stop struggling. Your every move is within my expectations. I've placed spells here; your teleportation magic won't work!"

Saruman appeared in the distance, riding a tall white warg, his sharp eyes flashing with calculating mockery.

"Don't resist, Black-robed Wizard. I don't want to kill you just yet. Come along obediently!"