866 Success (1/2)

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....