Chapter 140: The Magic Egg

Coming out of the herb garden, Kael cast more than a dozen Cleaning Charms and took a fragrant bath before finally managing to remove that foul smell from his mind. Then Kael entered the potions room once again. He was preparing to brew another potion. And unlike the growth potion, this time he was going to make a dark magic potion. Kael switched to a silver cauldron, poured in river water from Mirkwood that had been contaminated by dark magic, then added a whole crocodile heart, covered the pot, and simmered it over low heat. This continued for seven full days. At midnight on the seventh day, he added ten fertilized chicken eggs, stirred clockwise 42 times with his wand, then counterclockwise 7 times. Then he used a pure gold filter to strain out the flocculent matter and reheated the mixture in the cauldron. Next, he dripped in seven drops of giant bat's heart blood, added seven powdered snake fangs, stirred counterclockwise thirteen times, and brought it to a vigorous boil. At this point, the liquid turned pale purple. Kael mashed the mandrake pulp and added it to the potion, stirred clockwise 9 times, and simmered over low heat for 9 hours. He removed the cauldron from the fire, added ten drops of giant spider venom, stirred counterclockwise ten times, then placed it where moonlight could reach it and left it overnight. The potion had now turned deep purple. Then Kael added the brain matter of three toads, stirring three times clockwise and counterclockwise each. Finally, on a new moon night, he added seven drops of dragon blood. Without any fire, the potion began to boil and turned into a pot of blood-red liquid. Thus, the dark magic potion called the Birth Potion was born. This Birth Potion, as its name suggested, could make anyone give birth, regardless of race or gender. Anyone who drank the potion would be able to bear offspring. But the price was that the offspring would devour everything from the parent body, including life, magic power, soul, and all. The moment the offspring separated from the parent body, the parent would instantly die. This was why this potion was classified as a dark magic potion. After all, such life-for-life magic was too evil. Of course, merely drinking the potion wasn't enough. It had to be combined with specific stellar timing and magical rituals to take effect. And such specific stellar timing was soon to arrive. When the castle construction was more than halfway complete, an owl flew out from the tower as night fell, heading west all the way. Flying past Bree, it continued until it reached the barrow-mounds of the Barrow-downs, landing and transforming into human form. Kael looked at the surrounding environment filled with deathly miasma and persistent dark forces, nodding with satisfaction. Many people had died here, and it had once been contaminated by the evil power of the Witch-king of Angmar. The aura of resentment and despair lingered for ages. It was an excellent place for performing dark magic rituals, providing natural evil energy for dark magic. Then he looked up at Helluin's star rising in the distant sky. Helluin's star was a brilliant blue star created by Varda, Queen of the Stars, for the Firstborn Children, the Elves. When the Elves awakened by the shores of Lake Cuiviénen in the north-central part of Middle-earth, it was the first thing they saw. So this star held special meaning for the Elves. It was a witness to their birth and embodied their love for starlight and reverence for Varda. Of course, this star, which in the Elves' eyes symbolized hope and guidance, had another name in another world: Sirius. In fact, Kael had long noticed that although many things in this world had new names, many were very similar to his previous life. For example, the current Middle-earth was actually a sphere, with day-night cycles, seasonal changes, and celestial movements similar to Earth. Speaking of the catalyst for Middle-earth becoming spherical, it traced back to the First Age when Númenor had not yet sunk. At that time, the world was still a flat plane, with Middle-earth at the center and endless oceans surrounding the world's edges. The Undying Lands of Aman beyond the western seas had not yet been hidden. If one sailed far enough, one could still reach Valinor. Until the last king of Númenor, corrupted and beguiled by Sauron, led a fleet attempting to attack the Undying Lands of Aman, challenging the Valar's authority. This act of blasphemy against the divine angered the Valar. Manwë, King of the Valar, sought help from Eru Ilúvatar, who then reshaped the world of Arda, transforming it from a flat world into a sphere, and Númenor was sunk beneath the sea. Aman was also hidden from the visible world, reachable only through the Straight Road. Other ships attempting to sail west continuously in search of the Undying Lands would ultimately just circle back from the east. Therefore, the world of Arda was actually similar to Earth from his previous life, both spherical. And those stars in the sky, though having different names, had exactly the same stellar patterns as his previous life and the wizarding world. The stellar alignment Kael was waiting for was when Sirius, or Helluin, rose to its highest and brightest point in the sky. He found a large open space and used dragon blood to draw a seven-pointed star on the ground, inscribing dark magic runes. After completing the magic circle, Kael took the seven-year-old rooster from his space bag, force-fed it the prepared Birth Potion, and placed it at the center of the seven-pointed star formation. Watching as Sirius rose high in the night sky, Kael pointed his wand at the seven-pointed star formation and chanted dark magic incantations. As the spell took effect, the seven-pointed star drawn in dragon blood burst into blood-colored flames. The surrounding dense evil energy was drawn by a tremendous force into the seven-pointed star formation. The formation's attraction grew stronger and stronger, gathering all the evil forces of the Barrow-downs and forming a huge black vortex. The wights sleeping in the barrows were also awakened by this commotion. Feeling their dark power being continuously drained, they became agitated and let out horrifying, uneasy shrieks. The dragon blood flames burning in the seven-pointed star were also tainted by evil forces, turning into blood-red flames tinged with black, carrying scorching, malevolent energy. When Sirius reached its highest position and emitted its most brilliant light, Kael threw seven parts from dark creatures—giant spider venom, troll heart, Orc liver, warg fangs, giant bat wings, were-worm teeth, and wight skull—into the flames at the seven points of the star. The flames that devoured these dark creature parts instantly shot skyward, consuming all the evil energy within dozens of miles around the Barrow-downs. The wights in the barrows were instantly stripped of most of their dark power and could only reluctantly fall back into slumber. The power of Helluin, Sirius, in the sky was also channeled by the seven-pointed star formation, with starlight falling like meteors from the heavens into the formation. The rooster at the center of the formation became very agitated, making clucking sounds and struggling anxiously. The next second, stellar power and dark forces found a host body, continuously pouring into the rooster. The magical power began eroding the rooster's body, forcibly altering its physiological structure. The rooster struggled in agony, letting out piercing cries. As magic power continued to pour in, the egg cells within the rooster began abnormal development. When all the stellar power and evil forces were completely absorbed by the rooster, The flames of the seven-pointed star formation, as if deprived of fuel, suddenly extinguished. The surroundings instantly became completely quiet. Only the rooster at the center of the seven-pointed star remained, showing no signs of being scorched, becoming unusually quiet. Kael stood outside the formation, waiting silently. After a quarter hour, the rooster raised its head and let out a crow, then laid an egg emanating an eerie aura: a black egg. With the laying of the egg, the rooster's life also reached its end. Kael stepped across the formation to the center, looked at the dead rooster, fell silent for a moment, then bent down to pick up this black egg that was smaller than an ordinary chicken egg. Holding it in his hands, Kael felt the tremendous magical power contained within. This magic power fused dark forces with Sirius's power, carrying an aura of ill omen and curse. The power of Sirius, which originally represented light, protection, and guidance, had given birth to an extremely evil magic egg under the influence of a dark magic ritual. And after this magic egg underwent special incubation methods, it would give birth to the most dangerous dark magic creature in the wizarding world: a basilisk. The basilisk possessed a deadly gaze. Direct eye contact would cause instant death, and even indirect eye contact, such as through a mirror, would cause instant petrification. Except for restoration potions made from mature mandrakes, there was no way to remove the petrification curse. Besides this, the basilisk's venom was also the most deadly poison. Except for phoenix tears, no antidote could neutralize basilisk venom. Basilisks also possessed very strong magic resistance. Most spells couldn't harm them. Moreover, basilisks could live very long lives. The longer they lived, the more massive their bodies became and the stronger their magic power. Their only weakness was fear of rooster crows. Perhaps because they were born from roosters, basilisks would flee in panic upon hearing rooster crows and would die if they heard too many. Of course, nothing was absolute. As basilisks aged, their resistance to rooster crows also grew stronger. Ancient basilisks that had lived over a thousand years could no longer be threatened by rooster crows. So even with such a weakness, basilisks remained the most dangerous dark magic creatures in the wizarding world. Many dark wizards attempted to breed basilisks for their own use, but basilisks only obeyed Parseltongue commands, so dark wizards who bred basilisks often became the first targets of basilisk attacks. For this reason, the Ministry of Magic strictly forbade wizards from breeding basilisks, preventing these uncontrollable and extremely dangerous dark magic creatures from proliferating. Kael carefully stored the magic egg, waved his wand, and buried the dead rooster in the earth. Then he cleaned up the seven-pointed star formation. Looking around again, due to the seven-pointed star formation's effect, all the evil forces on the Barrow-downs had been swept away. Even the thousand-year-old aura of resentment and despair was almost entirely gone. Even the wights buried deep in the barrows had been drained of their dark power and had weakly fallen into slumber. If nothing unexpected happened, the day when the wights would recover was far in the future. Then Kael performed his Animagus transformation, becoming an owl, and headed toward Weathertop under cover of night.