Chapter 864: Lose control
Translator: Sean888888 Editor: TheAlliance
Yet now, he was shown that not only can he take different approaches, he could do it easily, naturally. How could it not move Grubb's heart?
Senyan smiled and clasped his hands together as he stored the leaf back in his personal space. Not even the slightest bit of aura leaked out. This was just an ability given to all contestants, but it made Grubb feel awe amidst his reluctance to see the leaf go.
By now, Grubb had pretty much accepted Sheyan's identity. He was about to speak when he saw a flash of light in the distance among the branches. Simultaneously, he also sensed a strong fluctuation of magic power. Grubb's alertness rose back to the extreme and he roared.
"How dare you lie to me!"
Sheyan, who was extinguishing the fire, turned around confused.
"What?"
A cold ray of light shot straight out among the leaves. Grubb immediately discovered that this spell was not directed at himself, but was at the messenger in front of him! He immediately regretted his earlier action. However, this messenger also seemed to be quite strong. After receiving the enemy's attack, he merely shivered for a short while before smashing the frozen surface on his body and counter-attacking with a shout.
Grubb naturally rushed over to help him, but at that moment, Grubb saw the messenger turn back, spread open his arms and pounced on him!
He became extremely wary. He could not help but instinctively retaliate with a fist!
Even though the messenger directly took his fist and spat out blood, he persistently clung to Grubb's waist and pushed the three-metres tall Ent down to the ground. The next second, a steel arrow flew over right above Grubb's face. The shine on the steel arrow was very striking. When Grubb looked at it, he instinctively felt an extreme danger.
The steel arrow bored into a tree after it missed its target and immediately exploded. A huge fire spread out over an area of more than ten square metres. The sight gave Grubb chills and caused the rough bark on his body to tremble. He knew that was a powerful enchanted arrow. If he had been shot by this arrow, even if he could escape death, the consequences would be dire!
He was feeling terribly guilty towards Sheyan. He climbed back up with a roar and prepared to charge towards the one who shot the arrow. It wasn't in the habit of the Ents to take things lying down.
He did not expect that the hidden enemy could once again shoot a similar enchanted arrow at an astonishing speed. Grubb knew he couldn't avoid the arrow. He could only grit his teeth and try to block the arrow with his two thick arms. But right at that moment, the messenger leapt up and, with his body enveloped in an extremely dense power of nature, caught the arrow!
Grubb was pleasantly surprised, but the messenger unexpectedly turned around and laughed bitterly as he said.
"Just my luck. I triggered it after all...."
Immediately after that, the arrow exploded once again. A blazing flame erupted in front of Grubb, trying to devour everything it touched!
"No!"
Our dear Mr. Grubb, full of feelings of gratitude and guilt, roared in that low tone of his.
When Melody, who shot the arrows, and Franklin saw this, they looked at each other and nodded slightly. Franklin created a mirror image of Melody to mislead the enemy, and the two quietly left.
***********************
"Wow, so refreshing."
That was Sheyan's first thought when he regained consciousness.
The power of that enchanted arrow was not enough to heavily injure Sheyan. However, he still fell unconscious. The nightmare imprint could provide this kind of self-harming services at a price.
Sheyan was willing to pay the fee because he believed that his performance had to be flawless. Many meticulously prepared plans ultimately failed due to flaws in the details.
He soon realised that he was lying in a large groove on a rock. The groove looked similar to a large bathtub. A water-like liquid constantly flowed in it, but unlike water, the liquid had a beautiful colour akin to mercury. Its surface would occasionally shine with 5-coloured rainbows.
Sheyan also discovered that the Stairway of the Sun in his body seemed unusually active. It had spread its roots along his blood vessels to get as close to the surface of his skin as possible in order to better absorb the liquid.
"Mr. Messenger, are you awake? How are you feeling right now?" asked Grubb who was sitting on a rock to the side upon seeing Sheyan move.
Sheyan looked at the surrounding environment. The place he was in seemed like a canyon. Trees that tower above the clouds abound, but the sunlight of the evening could still scattered through the gaps between branches and leaves, so the environment did not appear too dark nor too damp. Flowers and green grass grouped together orderly and there is a sense of vitality.
"Ouch, I feel as if my head was smashed by a hammer. It's still ringing inside," Sheyan covered his head with a painful expression. "Freaking hell. But that doesn't matter. Is the fire extinguished?"
Seeing Sheyan's concern for the forest right after he woke up, the only trace of suspicion left in Grubb dissipated.
"The fire fortunately did not spread. However, I couldn't catch those damn ambushers! I would have hung them to death on trees! They're not even qualified to become fertilizers!"
Sheyan heaved a sigh of relief, but he heard Grubb said worryingly.
"Although the fire was extinguished in our location, but in the end, there were still three places where the fire could not be controlled. The fire is already raging and sweeping through the northwest area of Fangorn Forest. If we can't contain it to the south side of the Stream of Leaf, then the whole Fangorn Forest may be destroyed! Honorable messenger, since you are awake now, then allow me to leave. Besides the Ents that are too old to move, everyone in my tribe has gone over to extinguish the fire. I have to do my part to protect Fangorn Forest too!"
Sheyan appeared stunned for a moment before he muttered.
"Is the fire that fierce?? When I first saw it, I thought it was just an accidental forest fire. How long was I out for?"
"Three hours, my friend. I have to go. It's now the most critical time for Lord Treebeard. He won't be able to meet with you until tomorrow, at the very earliest. You should stay here to recover. Your injuries are not that light."
Grubb eagerly took big steps to leave. Sheyan could see that he was indeed very anxious. What's more important was that he completely trusted Sheyan and left Sheyan alone in the base of the Treebeard tribe. But, well, it might be because the Ents possessed nothing valuable at all - they didn't have the habit of collecting sparkling things.
As for the Golden Fruits, well, Grubb did not take that into consideration at all. To him, Treebeard was his God, an omnipotent existence!
Senyan closed his eyes and calmly recalled his meticulous plan. It appeared that the first half of the plan was undoubtedly very successful. He had cleverly infiltrated the core base of the Treebeard tribe, and the fire had drawn away almost every Ent who could still move.
Everything was playing out according to his script. It was perfection.
"Then for the next step...." Sheyan, who was lying on the stone slab, closed his eyes and began to improvise on his previous plan. When he was devising the second half of his plan before this, the amount of information he had was really pitiful! There were a lot of holes in his scheme. He had to make use of this period of healing to gradually perfect his plan.
At this time, the ground slightly shook. Sheyan opened his eyes and saw a familiar-looking Ent appearing from behind a big tree. He was a Leaping Ent who was so gravely injured that he looked to be on his last legs.
The reason Sheyan felt the Ent was familiar was because the Ent's injury was caused under his order. The only reason this guy was still alive was because Sheyan wanted to use him to pass on the following message to the Treebeard tribe:
The one who attacked him was an archer, a mage, and a wild Ent of the larger trees variety.
The Leaping Ent called Ironthorn limped over slowly. When he saw Sheyan he immediately exclaimed in a weird tone.
"Oh my God, Grubb's brain must be filled with fungus, hedgehog mushrooms and moss! He let a disgusting human soak in our precious earth liquid!"
Sheyan calmly retorted.
"Not all humans do bad things, sir. I have to say that your view is too prejudiced."
Truthfully, even among the Treebeard tribe, opinions on humans differ. Some think that there are both good and bad humans (just like how some Vietnamese would want to kill American soldiers but they will welcome American investors with open arms), while some of them absolutely refuse to interact with humans. Obviously, Ironthorn belonged to the latter category.
"I dislike humans, and I dislike humans who babble even more. If it wasn't for Grubb, I would have turned you into a fertilizer right here, right now!"
Mr. Ironthorn waved his uninjured arm furiously, but his action pulled on his wound, causing him to grit his teeth in pain for quite a while.
Sheyan couldn't be bothered with him, but he suddenly recalled something and asked.
"What's an earth liquid?"
Ironthorn openly ridiculed Sheyan's ignorance before satisfying his curiosity. In the world of the Lord of the Rings, earth liquid was something akin to magma. In Middle Earth, some places below the earth's crust have low temperature, and would produce earth liquid. This is a rare and unique medicine. It contained a great amount of spiritual energy and had wonderful effects on plants.
The reason why Treebeard settled here in Fangorn Forest was because there was a natural earth liquid pool deep in the valley of Fangorn Forest. Every year, earth liquid would surface from time to time. This substance was very helpful for the cultivation of the Ents. This was also the reason why Treebeard believed that the path he took could ultimately surpass Teldrassil.
Sheyan was still thinking of ways to shake Ironthron off when Ironthorn suddenly pointed at Sheyan in horror like he had just saw a ghost and yelled.
"You....You! You!"
Even though he was a severely wounded Ent, Ironthorn was still an Ent who had lived for almost a thousand years. What kind of things hadn't he seen? What kind of strange things hadn't he experienced?
Yet, right now, he was acting like a human child and screaming like a woman!!!
What exactly did this guy see to make him so scared, and what happened to Sheyan's body?