Chapter 865: Treebeard's true body
Translator: Sean888888 Editor: TheAlliance
Sheyan was currently lying in the depression on the big stone. His whole body was immersed in the precious earth liquid. For humans, this substance could merely play the role of treating burns, acting as an antibiotic, and providing nutrients. All in all, not that useful, but for elemental creatures like the Ents, it was extremely beneficial.
(ED: Seems pretty useful to me…..)
The volume of the pulsating, precious earth liquid was shrinking by the seconds right under Ironthorn's nose! More than half of it was absorbed in such a short period, as if there was an invisible big mouth desperately swallowing the liquid!
From the looks of it, the rapid decline in water level showed no signs of stopping. The earth liquid was going to be sucked dry!
It must be noted that even though the earth liquid was something extremely beneficial to the Ents, it was also a terrible thing to take in too much at a time. Just like how the 100-year ginseng was a beneficial supplement, but if you take two whole pounds at once, you're going to have a bad time.
Normally, the Ents wouldn't dare to drink this stuff directly. They could only absorb the earth liquid slowly with their roots. If they were to drink a few mouthfuls, it would cause them to take root on the ground, lose their own will, and transform into a towering tree.Ironthorn would need at least a couple of years to fully consume the amount of earth liquid that Sheyan was soaking in.
But this shocking feat was happening right in front of his eyes. This human completely absorbed the earth liquid in less than 20 seconds!
What was even more amazing was that the human himself appeared to be at a loss and had no idea what's happening.
Suddenly, a great fear overwhelmed Ironthron. The fear was very tyrannical, as if it was a rude and barbaric man ripping off his psychological defense and stuffing himself into Ironthron's heart!
The instinctive reaction of Ironthorn was to flee, but he soon realised that his broken body was no longer under his control!
The next moment, Ironthorn and Sheyan were frightened/surprised to see five extremely long and dark tendrils protruding out from Sheyan's fingertips. The tendrils looked like the roots of plants, but they also possessed the dexterity of animal tentacles. The wriggled like snakes in the air and leaped fiercely across a distance of five or six meters to lightly wrapped themselves around Ironthorn's neck, then stabbed into him without much effort!
Ironthorn immediately turned stiff as life deserted his body at an incredible speed. The gigantic, heavy body of the Ent crashed into the ground and collapsed into a pile of decaying wooden chunks. It seemed like they would be covered in moss in a few days, then assimilate back to the earth.
Sheyan was also shocked to see this. The black tendrils quickly retracted, and then retreated into his own body. There was no notification in the battle record. If it wasn't for the disappearance of the earth liquid in the rock and the corpse of Ironthorn in front of him, Sheyan would really think that nothing had happened.
But when Sheyan looked inside his body, he found that the solar 'Stairway of the Sun' had turned pure black, and all its tendrils had shrunk back. It had completely fallen into a dormant state. The 'Pestilence Monarch' ability had also greyed out, which indicated that it can't be used.
Elemental creatures like Ents were immune to diseases anyway, so for Sheyan this ability wasn't important right now. This ability was not a part of his plan.
There was a saying that plans could never keep up with changes. Sheyan was originally still thinking of looking for a way to meet Treebeard first, then improvise from there.
But he had become the biggest suspect in the death of Ironthorn. If he was discovered by any Ent, there was no doubt that his "one day tour of the Treebeard tribe" would come to an abrupt end.
Sheyan had no way back now and could only venture into the depths of the valley. He came prepared. He tore a magic scroll and buffed himself with a Rank 2 divine art - 'Aura of Nature' - which allowed one to completely blend into nature. He gritted his teeth and quickly sneaked into the depths of the valley.
The further he traveled into the valley, the more lush the vegetation became. Even the flowers that should not bloom at this time were in full bloom. The soil on the ground was quite moist. When he stepped on it, he would quietly sink halfway down. The moisture in the dirt did not seem to be water, but fertile oil.
If there was aerial photography in this era, then an aerial photograph of the forest of Fangorn would reveal that the vegetation of this forest was far more lush than that of the surrounding forests. The central area of the forest of Fangorn was even more full of vitality, as if a mountain suddenly rose up in the center of the forest! In reality, the mountain did not exist. It was entirely composed of thriving vegetation!
The valley gradually sloped downwards. Sheyan continued to travel for a kilometer or so along a road that was formed from being stepped on by the Ents. Even though he called it a road, it was actually just a path that was not blocked by tall trees.
He could see that the Ents had not visited Treebeard for a long time. The road had grown full of bushes and shrubs and they showed no sign of being trampled on. The height of these obstacles only reached the shin of the Ents and would not impede their movement at all. For Sheyan, however, they reached his waist and severely affected his speed.
The road finally came to an end. Sheyan found himself in front of a small basin-shaped valley. The road entering the valley inclined downwards, so the upper edge of the basin was actually level with the ground.
Unlike the exuberant vitality outside, the valley was totally devoid of vegetation. Huge roots meandered all over the place. Even the brown rocks in the walls on the edge of the basin were teeming with roots. It gave the illusion of the roots plundering the earth.
After Sheyan saw such a sight, his heart was filled with a deep awe!
His gaze moved up following the massive roots and finally met their source - an impressive ancient tree that was low but huge.
The trunk of the ancient tree was only five or six meters tall at most, but it was inflated like an oversized wine barrel. The diameter of its chest was at least twenty, maybe even thirty meters. At first glance, it looked a bit similar to the baobab trees on the grasslands of Africa in the real world.
The ancient tree had only branches with no leaves. Its branches were matte green in colour, with formed a sharp contrast with its ancient tree bark.
This tree was the only thing occupying the entire basin!
A stout ancient tree that was hard to describe with words!
In the direction facing Sheyan, there was a huge depression in the trunk in the shape of the "天" character. An Ent rested steadfastly against the depression.
The form of this Ent was no different from most other Ents - burly, strong, gigantic and rough!
The only difference he had with other Ents was that the branches and leaves on his heads had become grey, and aerial roots had grown on his hands and feet. The aerial roots looked like horse manes that swayed in the wind.
A meter in front of this Ent were seven seeds that floated in the air. Each seed was about the size of a ping pong ball. The surface of the seeds had some very mysterious patterns. At first glance they seemed like a golden walnuts. The golden light they exuded looked just like smelted gold, hot and flowing.
Obviously, this was Treebeard!
And those were the Golden Fruits Saruman so desired!!
Sheyan fell into a dilemma.
It's no wonder that even someone as strong as Saruman found it difficult to procure the Golden Fruits.
In the wide basin, with the exception of bare rocks, there were only the terrifying roots. Which means that if he wanted to get the Golden Fruits, he had to go through a distance of 50 meters. Even if he did obtain the fruits in one piece, there was no doubt that he would be facing ferocious attacks from Treebeard and the ancient tree that was his true body. Sheyan did not think that those thick roots scattered throughout the basin were there for decoration.
"What should I do?" Sheyan's first thought was to attack with fire. But what was there in the basin that could be burned? Not to mention that as soon as a fire broke out here, the Ents would definitely rush here immediately. Even if he had the Golden Fruits, he won't be able to escape.
"Can I try persuading him?" thought Senyan, but he immediately rejected this unrealistic idea.
He overclocked his brain and thought of a dozen plans, but he ended up rejecting all of them.
Sheyan, who was crouching in the grass, suddenly felt something was wrong. He looked carefully and discovered two black tendrils on the tips of his right middle finger and index finger. The tendrils kept getting longer, and then snaked forward!
The 'Stairway of the Sun' that was originally lying dormant in Sheyan's body had woken up without Sheyan knowing it. It frantically shifted the energy in Sheyan's body and sucked them all onto the two black tendrils!
The two tendrils did not extend towards the same direction. One of them slowly sneaked in the ground to subtly move among the rocks towards the nearest thick root. It silently plunged into the root, then stayed motionless.
The other black tendril continued to extend like a blood vessel, then slowly but firmly slithered towards the floating Golden Fruits.