The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-866

Sheyan had no way to stop the action of the 'Stairway of the Sun'! To be honest, even if he could, he wouldn't, because he could think of no better way.

So he could only wait and see!

Suddenly, Sheyan felt a burst of giddiness as his vision rippled. The basin remained the same and so did everything else, but the black tendril that had tried to snake to the Golden Fruits had disappeared.

He blinked a few times in shock, but then found that the black tendril still existed and had continued to grow stubbornly towards the Golden Fruits! It displayed the bravery of a suicide fighter!

"What....is going on?" Sheyan shook his head, but when he looked again, the tendril was once again gone. The alternating illusion and reality caused a bold assumption to form in his mind. After all, Sheyan had always been a sharp one.

"Perhaps the 'Stairway of the Sun' is slowly releasing a hallucinogenic substance after stabbing into the root? The hallucinogenic substance is absorbed by the mother tree that Treebeard is perching on, then transmitted over to Treebeard, causing Treebeard to hallucinate?"

As soon as this thought formed, Sheyan immediately felt that his guess was probably correct.

Treebeard's strength was certainly far inferior compared to Sauron's. He should be in the same league with Legolas, Gandalf, and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings world. Of course, even though they're in the same league, there were still differences in strength between them. For example, among the first-rate generals in the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Zilong was clearly stronger than Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan.

Treebeard's strength should belong to the peak among this tier.

While the 'Stairway of the Sun', being the ultimate creature of the hidden world, should be no weaker than Treebeard.

More importantly, Treebeard was currently "in labour" while bearing the Golden Fruits, so his strength was significantly reduced. Also, the attack by the 'Stairway of the Sun' was a sneak attack. With all these factors combined, it was highly probable for the illusion produced by the 'Stairway of the Sun' to deceive Treebeard.

Sheyan didn't even dare to breathe. His eyes stayed fixed to the progress of the black tendril. Drops of sweat slipped off his forehead and his hair, dripping on to the soil beneath him.

He watched as the black tendrils grew tenaciously and finally arrived in front of the Golden Fruits. They did not rush in, but instead explored tentatively around the area.

Sheyan felt weak all over. He took a deep breath and immediately activated 'Gloryheal'. He was afraid that the leaf of the World Tree might alarm Treebeard or he would have used the Rejuvenation spell on it too.

After recovering some energy, Sheyan's vision suddenly turned blurry once again. He could see a layer of turbulent darkness enveloping the Golden Fruits. The darkness had a boundless depth to it, and it seemed that when he laid eyes on it, there was a painful feeling of grinding and scraping.

Under the contrast of the dark background, it could be seen that despite the golden light on the surface of the Golden Fruits shining radiantly, there were still some green patterns which indicated that the fruits had yet to fully mature. Obviously, the tendril extended from the Stairway of the Sun was wary of the hidden darkness and dare not dive into it. Treebeard seemed to be using this darkness to train the essence of his power to make it purer!

"Since he's using this darkness to train his strength rather than to destroy, it's likely that the burst power of the darkness will not be very strong. It was meant to grind his essence bit by bit," such thought flashed in Sheyan's mind.

"I still have an 'Honorary Recovery Dosage' left. I have enough HP. The 'Stairway of the Sun' can risk it!"

As if it sensed Sheyan's thought, the black tendril stopped probing around in the air. It fiercely pierced into the turbulent darkness like a sharp needle.

As soon as it penetrated the darkness, Sheyan immediately felt an immense pain, as if every cell in his body was being crushed. His vision turned dark and his mouth bled as he bit into himself.

The black tendril of the 'Stairway of the Sun' penetrated into a Golden Fruit. The power in the fruit, which looked like smelted gold, found a channel to vent out from and rushed into the tendril.

Treebeard inexplicably remained motionless despite all this happening. He was apparently still being deceived by the illusion created by the 'Stairway of the Sun'.

They had passed the phase that worried Sheyan the most. The worst outcome would have been Treebeard detecting his presence when the tendril pierced the Golden Fruit, then flattened him with a laugh....

When the Stairway of the Sun began to absorb the power of the Golden Fruit, it no longer consumed the vitality of Sheyan. The colour of its body shifted constantly. It sometimes turned into the common green shades of plant, and sometimes into a strange black colour.

A thought crossed Sheyan's mind. The venom of the nemesis of the 'Stairway of the Sun', the Ouroboros was coincidentally also this shade of black. The 'Stairway of the Sun' in his body happened to have been poisoned by the venom of the Ouroboros. Would something unexpected happen? Was the soul of the Ouroboros going to transmigrate here and be reborn?

Very soon, the energy of a Golden Fruit was completely absorbed. However, it seemed like the 'Stairway of the Sun' was not yet satisfied. It penetrated into another Golden Fruit.

Sheyan waited patiently. To be fair, the absorption rate of the 'Stairway of the Sun' was already quite fast. It took less than 20 seconds to suck a Golden Fruit dry, but the short waiting period felt as long 20 years to Sheyan!

After absorbing the power of four Golden Fruits, the 'Stairway of the Sun' finally looked like it was done feasting. Sheyan hadn't forgotten that he had to bring a Golden Fruit back to complete his mission. Furthermore, there was no doubt that this Treebeard fella would be his mortal enemy from now on. Weakening him was definitely not a bad idea. He tried to order the 'Stairway of the Sun' to plunder the three remaining Golden Fruits.

The tendril of the 'Stairway of the Sun' lightly wrapped up the three remaining Golden Fruits like a rope wrapping up three eggs, and slowly retracted back. Sheyan felt something wrong at this time, but he couldn't tell what it was. He felt that something had changed, but he didn't have the time to think too much about it. After all, his pressure was at its greatest at this moment. The Golden Fruit had yet to reach his personal space. Although Treebeard was still resting with his eyes closed, who knew if he would suddenly wake up?

Fortunately, nothing overly dramatic happened at the last moment. Sheyan managed to lay his hands on the Gold Fruits. on He really wanted to absorb one like the 'Stairway of the Sun'n did, but no matter how he fiddled with it, it remained a mere quest item....That was to be expected. If Sheyan could get rid of Treebeard, then he should be qualified to consume the Golden Fruit.

Looking at the two black tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' slowly retracting into his own body Sheyan felt quite strange.

Everyone made mistakes. Sheyan suddenly realised something important. He urgently inquired.

"If the 'Stairway of the Sun' stops injecting hallucinogenic substances into the root, how long will the illusion last?"

The reply soon came back.

[3 minutes.]

Sheyan froze, but only for two or three seconds. He screamed in his heart and used all his abilities and medicines that can increase his movement speed. He carefully crawled backwards for a few dozen metres, then ran for his life.

Before Sheyan could even reach the place where he killed Ironthorn, he already felt a terrifying pressure behind him!

That pressure was akin to an exploding nuclear bomb. It was filled with an endless anger. When the anger was directed towards Sheyan, it was so strong that it made him stumble!

What kind of concept was that?

Senyan realised that he may have underestimated the monster called Treebeard. If it wasn't for the Stairway of the Sun in his own body being an even crazier monster, there was no way Treebeard could be deceived by an illusion.

Although the Golden Fruits had already been thrown into Sheyan's personal space, it still took no time for Treebeard's anger to lock onto Sheyan!

It wasn't because Treebeard's perceptive sense was so strong that it could cross dimensions, but because the 'Stairway of the Sun' had absorbed the energy of four Golden Fruits....It was caught with its hands in the cookie jar!

The only hope for Sheyan now was to bet on Treebeard not being a Leaping Ent.... As long as he wasn't, it didn't matter how strong he was, he would still be an Ent. A king among beggars would still be a beggar. Slow movement and fear of fire would still be his inherent weaknesses.

Sheyan bet correctly. The Leaping Ents were a new species of Ents. Similar to parkour, you can't expect a 70 year-old man to practice this sport.

However, Sheyan still underestimated the strength of Treebeard. It must be noted that this is the forest of Fangorn, the lair that had been controlled by Treebeard for thousands of years. It was a place that even someone as mighty as Sauron couldn't lay hands on!

Almost as soon as Treebeard locked on to Sheyan, several trees in front of Sheyan roared and pulled out their roots from the ground. These trees did not have the "talent" to become Ents, but under Treebeard's will, they were temporarily given life. The only purpose of their lives was to shred this human into pieces!!