Chapter 863: Preparation
Translator: Sean888888 Editor: TheAlliance
Faced with Reef's questioning, Sheyan shook his head slightly and said.
"As the saying goes- nothing ventured, nothing gained. I've devised many plans for our mission, but this is a matter that even someone like Saruman finds difficult. Do you expect it to be easy for us? The more I think about it, the more I feel that those schemes that I devised have very low chances of success. Even if we do succeed by luck, I'm afraid that half of us would be dead! That's not the result I want."
"I feel that this is the only reliable plan. If I don't take this risk, then we might not even be able to meet Treebeard. But if we execute according to my current plan, even if we don't obtain the Golden Fruits, at least we will know his location!"
"What's more important is that with my plan, at most, I will be the only casualty. I will only be weakened if we use the Unmodeled Amniotank. We can preserve most of the strength in the team. After Zi joins us, we can still survive in the realm. We won't lose everything like the Illume Union."
Reef hastily said.
"But boss, you...."
Sheyan answered with a smile.
"Have some confidence in me. Ask Melody to come here."
Melody came over and silently blessed him with a variety of divine arts. Sheyan's body was fully covered in a thick natural aura, looking extremely pure and full of vitality.
Suddenly, Melody embraced Sheyan from behind. She hugged Sheyan so tight that the two lumps of softness on her chest made his heart beat wildly. The Elven girl cried.
"I don't want you to go. It's too dangerous!"
Sheyan let her hold him while he told her with a smile.
"Foolish girl. There are things a man must do no matter how dangerous they are.... because the High God is a cruel bastard."
Melody moved in front of Sheyan and looked at him with teary eyes. Her expression would make any man heartbroken.
"If anything were to happen to you, then... what about me?"
Sheyan smiled.
"Nothing will happen to me. I know that you're not that happy with the things we've done in Fangorn Forest. I've made things difficult for you."
Melody sobbed and replied.
"Don't say that. As long as you're happy, I'm happy. Back when I was a nobody, you saved me from the hands of the Uruk-hai and asked for nothing in return. Now, what I'm most looking forward to is not to be the queen of Dawn City, but to go to your world and live with you."
The two embraced each other for a while under the sun.... After a long time, Sheyan turned his head to look at the large pile of kerosene in the distance. This was something that Reef and Franklin brought from Isengard overnight. Sheyan grabbed the slender waist of Melody and gave her a deep kiss.
"I have to go. There are still a lot of holes in my plan. I still have to do a lot of things to reduce the risk of this operation as much as possible. Wish me luck."
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The turmoil in the forest of Fangorn continued. As the number of casualties piled up, the place became more fiercely enveloped in hatred. The situation would only get worse.
More crucially, Saruman actually raised the purchasing price of the timbers again. This piece of good news undoubtedly drove the adventurers into a frenzy. As the conflict between the wild Ents and the Ents of the Treebeard tribe rapidly spread, more and more adventurers managed to successfully cut down quality woods from Fangorn Forest and obtained a fortune.
The news spread like a plague. People have always been willing to die for money. Adventurers continuously streamed into Isengard through the teleport formation despite the high teleportation fee. It even stimulated Isengard's business and made it bustling.
On the sixth day, Sheyan's arrangements were all in place. He had adjusted his condition to its peak. At noon, a total of 11 different fires burst out in Fangorn Forest!!
Kerosene was buried beforehand in all the places where the fires broke out. Once those places caught fire, it was hard to extinguish them. Eleven different fires swelled and spread rapidly. Eleven trails of smoke appeared like huge exclamation marks across the blue sky!
There was no doubt that forests fear fire the most, and it stood to reason that the Treebeard tribe Ents who witnessed this should immediately go all out to save the fire. They must extinguish the flame before it could grow into a disaster.
However, the conflict between the Treebeard tribe and the wild Ents had stretched their manpower thin. The sudden influx of adventurers also caused them a lot of problems. Most of the Ents actually ignored the threat and continued to fight, driven by hatred as they were. Only Grubb, being the grandchild of Treebeard, could see further. He worriedly addressed his tribemates who were immersed in vengeance and angrily roared.
"We can settle our accounts with the wild Ents any time, but if we let the fire spread, the whole Fangorn Forest will end in catastrophe! What the hell are you guys thinking?"
Grubb's angry howling shook some of his tribemates awake, but it was all Grubb could do. His control over the more radical Ents in his tribe had dropped sharply these days. He could only mobilise one-third the amount of Ents compared to usual.
"Everything will be fine once Lord Treebeard comes out from his seclusion."
That was the only thought that sustained Grubb's will to persist.
After all, there was less than 30 hours left before the Golden Fruits fully matured. After being purified by the forces of the nature, the strong pure power would be absorbed back by Treebeard. He would be able to break through and become a formidable existence on the same level as the World Tree, Teldrassil.
With this thought keeping him going, Grubb made every effort to rush to the nearest fire scene. However, when he arrived at the scene, he was surprised to find the fire already under control. He move closer and was even more shocked.
The one who was saving the trees that the Ents treated as their family, was a human!
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Sheyan felt the arrival of the Ent from the slight turbulence on the ground.
But he didn't expect the Ent who came to be Grubb! As one of the leading figures among the Ents in the forest of Fangorn, this guy was a rare Ent with brains. At the same time, he also carried the identity of a direct descendent of Treebeard.
The situation carried both advantages and disadvantages for Sheyan. The downside was that was that it would be a lot harder to deceive Grubb, but if Sheyan manage to do it, then Grubb's bloodline would be very helpful for the next step in Sheyan's plan.
As the burly, strong and vicious Ent walked out of the jungle, Sheyan turned around and exclaimed in surprise.
"Hey, big guy, if you don't want this forest to turn into an oven, then come help!"
While Sheyan spoke, he secretly activated a temporary spell. With a wave of his sleeve, a pale green torrent of light fell on the flames in front of him and immediately suppressed the fire. Grubb grabbed a huge tree and slammed on the fire to put it out, but kept some distance between himself and Sheyan. He asked warily.
"Who...are you? Why is...a human...here?"
Sheyan naturally answered.
"I'm a messenger of Lord Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell, Twilight Elf, and the holder of Vilya, the Ring of Air. I came to Fangorn Forest to ask for help from Lord Treebeard!"
Grubb watched Sheyan closely, but Sheyan's body was enveloped in a thick aura of nature - a disguise elaborately produced by the collaboration of Melody and the Ring of Air, both strong entities. Obviously, Grubb did not have enough wisdom to detect any flaws in the disguise.
More importantly, not many people knew of Elrond's fate. It was an era without mobile phones or internet connection. That was why Sheyan could bluff his way through.
"Human...I...cannot trust you...so easily," Grubb let his guard down slightly and approached Sheyan, but still showed a strong distrust.
Sheyan smiled and took out an item that originally belonged to Elrond - the Evergreen Leaf of the Sacred Oak. This item was picked from Teldrassil and it was an inheritance from Elrond's mother. It would serve as a nice token of identification.
More importantly, for all the Ents, Teldrassil could be considered a totem, an idol, a figure to be admired. Even though the Treebeard tribe walked a different path, they were also full of awe and admiration for him. .
This argument might be difficult to understand and may seem outrageous, but it could be explained with a very simple analogy - Confucian scholars in ancient China studied the Four Books and Five Classics, but it did not prevent them from reading the Book of Dao and worshipping Laozi.
(T/N note 1: Four Books and Five Classics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Books_and_Five_Classics)
(T/N note 2: the Book of Dao - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching)
Ents were extremely sensitive to the leaves of the World Tree. They would feel a praise and trembling directly from the soul!
Grubb knew at first glance that the leaf Sheyan brought was definitely real. More importantly, after he sensed the aura on that leaf, he actually gained a lot of inspiration. It was as if he was groping blindly before this, only to find the way ahead getting narrower.