The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan had already obtained the title of ‘One Hand to Cover Heaven’, but Noah Realm C was kind enough to give the entire Sin’dorei tribe enough time to migrate over. After all, even when ordinary people move to a new place, the process was quite tedious. There was the furniture and other miscellaneous stuff, but merely choosing a suitable location required some time.

Furthermore, although the place that the Sin’dorei tribe wished to move to was an uninhabited wasteland, it was still theoretically a territory belonging to a sovereign country. The ES Consortium may be influential, but this matter was still quite difficult for them. They needed some time to get everything in order.

Thanks to the efforts of the Sin’dorei tribe, and because Sheyan was a key player under Noah Realm C, so he was worthy of these resources, the Sin’dorei tribe managed to open a dimensional tunnel which connected Dawn City to the no man’s land near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Under the reinforcement of the Realm’s power, the tunnel could last for up to 15 days!!

The innocent Melody did not really know what to do with the buffer period of 15 days, but as the saying goes, behind every successful woman stood a lewd man. With Sheyan’s meticulous planning, they naturally maximised the benefits.

Within the first three days, the Sunstrider tribe sent out a total of seven fancy-looking golden boxes, with the fastest delivery method at their disposal. The boxes themselves could already be considered priceless treasures thanks to the precious gemstones embedded in them and the exquisite Dwarven craftsmanship.

(TL: The author uses Sunstrider tribe and Sin’dorei tribe interchangeably.)

The seven boxes were delivered to the seven most powerful and prominent known Ents on Middle Earth. Mr. Ferrell, who was a relative of Sindalor, naturally received one, as did Methuselah, who was also known as the snow capper. Methuselah was a prickly pine tree and was said to be the closest to evolve into a World Tree. The boxes were even sent to three famous figures among the Treebeard tribe, whose relationship with Sheyan had fallen below freezing point. They were:

The leader of the Fangorn Ents, Grubb Longbranch.

The leader of the Wild Ents of Fangorn Forest, Costarica Dryroot.

The third child of Treebeard, Menguer Gnarl.

Among them, Grubb had seen the most of the outside world and had had the most contact with outsiders, so despite the seething resentment in his heart, he still opened the golden box with his huge, rough fingers to take a look at the content inside…

After that, he stood there unmoving, as if he had been frozen in place. Even the wind blowing around him felt full of contradictions at that moment.

But when dawn broke and the first ray of sunlight shone on the land, our dear Mr. Grubb was already gone. The only things he left behind were a set of deep footprints and a yellow leaf. The other Ents who had rushed there upon hearing the news tore the leaf apart in bewilderment. Grubb’s heavy, guilty sigh immediately filled the air.

“I have sinned. Greed and desire have taken over my heart. I am no longer worthy of being a leader.”

The words echoed repeatedly in the winds, which carried them throughout the entire Fangorn Forest. Costarica Dryroot and Menguer Gnarl were both stunned when they heard the news. Neither of them had opened the golden boxes sent by the Sunstrider tribe. Menguer Gnarl had even crushed his and threw it into the garbage pile….

After much hesitation, Menguer Gnarl finally retrieved the box from the garbage pile. Costarica Dryroot, too, picked his box back up. They could ignore the Sunstrider tribe, but they could not ignore Grubb’s judgement!

Upon opening the golden boxes, the two powerful Ents were stunned again. After a while, the more fiery Menguer even started screaming loudly. His voice was like the sharp cold wind which tore through the leaves and branches of autumn.

“That’s impossible! That’s… That’s impossible!!”

Menguer once again flung the golden box away. The box, which was already quite battered, slammed hard into a nearby tree and broke into pieces. The exquisite craftsmanship had obviously significantly lowered the box’s toughness. Broken emeralds and rubies scattered on the ground.

A bit of greyish-black dirt spilled out of the cracks on the golden box. Menguer remained silent for a long time. Then, he sighed sadly. He fell to his knees and carefully scooped the dirt up with his thick fingers, then fed it to his mouth. He chewed on the dirt slowly, as if he was savouring the last scoop of the last meal of his life.

That’s right, all seven golden boxes sent by Melody – or, more precisely, by the Sunstriders under Sheyan’s order – contained nothing but dirt! The dirt dug out from the worst leakage area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant!

The dirt, of course, contained a high level of nuclear radiation, but there was not much of it in the boxes, only enough for the recipients to sense the “holy energy” inside!

These seven golden boxes were, in fact, seven extremely tempting baits. The reason Sheyan had sent one to Ents like Menguer, who would definitely not come to them, was to use their influence to attract even more powerful Ents who remain hidden!

For example, the box that Menguer threw away was picked up by an Orc who had a deer head and a human body. The Orc headed towards a towering cliff that was craggy and full of cracks.

The Orc knelt down respectfully in worship, then took out a dagger and slit the wrist of a slave next to him. He let the blood flow freely into the cracks in the rocky cliff. Whenever the wound coagulated, he would slit it open again, and whenever a slave died from excessive bloodlost, he would switch to another slave!

Only when he reached the eighth slave that an earthquake-like rumble came from deep in the cliff. The cliff suddenly burst apart as if it had been blasted by a cannon. Rocks that weighed thousands of kilograms rolled and flew around. A gigantic root burst out of the cliff, followed by a booming voice which echoed from the depths of the mountain!

“Who is it? How dare you wake me, the great Dark Ent, from my peaceful slumber!?”

“O Master, the mythical Land of Miracles has appeared! The opportunity does not wait; hence why I have no choice but to rouse you from your sleep!”

“The Land of Miracles!” The voice that came from the depths of the mountain became excited. Even the cracks on the mountain surface widened, as if a landslide would occur any time. “Is the World Tree, Nordrassil, finally wilting?”

“Not so, Master.” The voice of the Orc trembled like the flame of a candle in the wind. A huge root broke through the rock and lashed out at him fiercely. The Orc raised his hands which held the shattered golden box high as he shrunk back like a prisoner of fate.

The Orc shouted, “I have proof, Master! Even Menguer, who hates those Elves with all his heart, could not resist the temptation of the box’s content. Like a dog, Menguer sprawled on the ground and ate the soil!”

The huge root suddenly wrapped around the corpse of a slave and retracted back into the mountain. The sounds of chewing came from within. Then, a Boston ivy-like tendril wriggled out and retrieved the golden box inside.

After a few seconds of silence, a thunderous roar came from inside the mountain.

“This is no proof of any Land of Miracles!!”

Hearing this, the heart of the Orc sank. He knew that his life was in danger. However, the next sentence lifted him from hell to heaven!

“Even the soil from the Land of Miracles does not contain such pure power!”

The whole cliff was collapsing due to the powerful roar, as if there was a magnitude 20 earthquake!!! The Dark Ent, named Aryan, was defeated by Treebeard thousands of years ago and had been hiding here ever since. Now, he had been shocked into activity by a tiny box!!

Six days after sending out the golden invitations, only two of the seven invited Ents came.

However, five Ents who were not invited had also come to Dawn City! What’s more, the golden invitations in the hands of two of the Ents were snatched from their original owners! Costarica’s body was now rotting in the River Isen!

The Dark Ent was not named so for no good reason.

This was why Sheyan was so addicted to scheming. Less than 20 grams of soil and 7 golden boxes that the Dwarfs made in less than an hour were able to stir up a storm which swept through the entire Middle Earth! He enjoyed the feeling of using an undisguised scheme to openly and skillfully manipulate these powerful legendary figures who could normally crush him with a finger!

It felt so good.

By the final day before the dimensional tunnel closed, as many as 14 of the most powerful Ents on Middle Earth had gathered in Dawn City! The Elves had calmed down from their initial surprise and excitement. The Ents were provided with a kilogram of Chernobyl soil every day, and not a gram more. They were also shown images of Sindalor, who had already started evolving. That was enough to appease them.

Only after wearing out their edges – mainly by waiting out their initial conflict and confrontations with each other – did the Sin’dorei Elves voice their conditions, as per Sheyan’s will.

The conditions they stated were not much different, maybe even harsher, from those on a slavery contract, or from the series of treaties signed by the Qing government when they surrendered the country’s sovereign rights under humiliating terms.

After listening to the conditions, the Ents understandably roared in anger. They had always been worshipped by others; no one had ever dared to speak to them like this. However, even such a heavily unjust agreement was limited in numbers! There were only three agreements!