Prime Originator - Chapter 1096: Cause of Water Depletion

“Chief Blackbear, you’re back,” Chief Ironshield welcomed him before seeing the grim look on his face. “Looks like you have some terrible news to share.”

“The Celestial Water Spark’s power depleted, didn’t it?” Chief Sul-Dahki asked right after, prompting Chief Blackbear to look at him with surprise.

“How did you know, Chief Sul-Dahki?”

“So it’s true then…” Chief Dahki sighed after receiving Chief Blackbear’s indirect confirmation of the news. “I was hoping you would say otherwise.”

“This is just plain terrible. The Infertile Plains haven’t been unified, and it would take a great deal of time and preparation to gather all our people for the great migration. Furthermore, we haven’t decided on a destination,” Chief Ironshield frowned with worries.

“The object from outer space must have destroyed numerous water veins beneath the surface when it crashlanded into the ground. The water reserved would have been drained from the water veins like open floodgates,” Chief Sul-Dahki speculated.

“Even then, we were supposed to have enough water to last a few more weeks! This was too fast—way too fast!” Chief Blackbear said with a heavy look.

“I agree that the Celestial Water Spark’s power depleted too quickly,” Chief Sul-Dahki agreed with a nod before saying, “However, it is possible if one of the major water veins running underneath these lands was broken by the impact.”

“Major water veins!” Chief Blackbear frowned.

The major water veins were like the main bodies of the natural underground water vein network.

It held vast amounts of water reserve and was responsible for supplying water to countless other smaller water veins connected to them.

“If the major water vein was damaged, then it is indeed possible,” Chief Blackbear nodded before saying, “The most pressing issue now is to inform the Lord and hope the Lord has a solution. Otherwise, people will start to die within the next week or two.”

“You don’t need to worry too much, Chief Blackbear,” Chief Sul-Dahki assured him.

“According to what I know, the Southern Region seemed to have procured a stable source of food and water outside of the Infertile Plains. Though I do not know whether it is enough to support the entire Infertile Plains, it should buy us some time.”

“Right.” Chief Ironshield recalled what happened back at the Divine Tortoise Tribe and mentioned, “I don’t know about water sources, but food won’t be a problem with the Lord around.”

“Still, we need to inform the Lord right away. This isn’t a problem that should be taken lightly,” Chief Blackbear argued before stating, “The longer we delay it, the bigger the issue will be.”

“I understand what you are saying, but the Lord already went down into the abyss. Lord Goldenstride and Lord Nightingale also followed some time ago. How are you planning to reach the Lord?” Chief Ironshield calmly asked.

“This…” Chief Blackbear froze.

Only those who could fly would be able to reach the Lord easily. Otherwise, they would be risking their life by trying to climb down into the abyss.

A single mistake could cause them to plunge to their death.

“What should we do? We can’t just wait for the Lord to come back, right? We don’t know how long the Lord will be down there,” Chief Blackbear frowned before wondering, “Should we start moving our people to the south to seek refuge?”

“You want to bring over fifty thousand of your tribesmen to the Southern Region to leech their food and water without the Lord? Do you think the southern tribes will agree to that?”

Chief Ironshield glanced at Chief Blackbear weirdly and said, “It would be strange if the southern tribes don’t attack your people on the spot.”

“That’s right,” Chief Silvertooth’s sudden voice came from a distance as he joined their conversation.

“We’ve only recently joined the Lord, so I doubt the southern tribes will know we are on the same side.” Thus, without the Lord to vouch for your Black Warbear Tribe, do you think they will care about your tribe’s needs?”

“What are you doing over here, Chief Silvertooth? Shouldn’t you be guarding the northern side of the abyss opening with your warriors?” Chief Blackbear raised an eyebrow at him.

“My people will do just fine without me,” Chief Silvertooth casually said before his expression suddenly turned solemn. “More importantly, I’ve heard the news. The Celestial Water Spark’s power depleted – or so I’ve heard.”

“How could you have heard the news when you were all the way on the northern side of the abyss opening?” Chief Blackbear frowned before he suddenly thought of something.

After glancing around at his warriors guarding the southern side of the abyss opening, he returned his gaze to Chief Silvertooth.

“You planted spies within my tribe?” Chief Blackbear asked gloomily.

“Oh, come on. It’s not like you don’t have spies planted in my Mighty Whitewolf Tribe as well,” Chief Silvertooth casually said with a shrug, indifferent to Chief Blackbear’s hostile glare.

“Hmph!”

Chief Blackbear flicked his wrist and turned around as he prepared to leave the crater region.

“Where are you going, Chief Blackbear? Don’t tell me you are still planning to migrate your people to the Southern Region before the Lord returns?” Chief Ironshield asked with startled surprise.

“Hmph, I am not that stupid!” Chief Blackbear snorted before saying, “Since the Celestial Water Spark’s power depleted, I need to make a personal trip back to my tribe and make arrangements to conserve whatever water reserve we have left.”

“I will leave my men here,” Chief Blackbear threw out those words before leaving without further notice.

“Chief Blackbear made a good point,” Chief Silvertooth acknowledged after Chief Blackbear was gone and said, “We need also need to make arrangements back in our tribes to conserve our remaining water.”

“Don’t tell you are also leaving, Chief Silvertooth?” Chief Ironshield glanced at him.

However, Chief Silvertooth shook his head, “No, I do not need to leave. It’s enough for my right-hand man to bring the news back to the tribe and make the arrangements in my stead.”

“I will be staying here until our Lord returns,” Chief Silvertooth firmly said.

…

…

…

While Goldenstride and Nightingale exterminated hundreds of Whitebone Fiends climbing up the rocky walls, Leon descended several tens of thousands of feet down into the abyss.

Although Leon knew a deep hole would have been created from the space debris entering Gaia, the depth still exceeded his expectation.

It was even deeper than the space debris in the Gran Crevasse’s abyss.

Despite his long way down, the number of Whitebone Fiends tirelessly climbing up the rocky walls did not end.

“There are far too many Whitebone Fiends… If these creatures all came from the space debris that fell… It must be a very long piece…” Leon mused.

By looking at the clues during his descent, he concluded that the space debris had a long pillar-like form—though he had yet to learn what it could have been part of exactly.

Nevertheless, as Leon gradually approached the same depth as the vine and tree root region in the other abyss entrance, he started to pick up the sound of water.

The deeper he descended, the more evident the sound of water became. Before long, Leon was forced to halt his descent.

Roughly four hundred feet below him was a sea.

“How can there be so much water down here…? Did the space debris fall into a groundwater reservoir that the people of the plains didn’t know about?” Leon wondered.

“No, that’s not right…” Leon frowned in the next moment.

He recalled that the Celestial Water Spark had stretched itself throughout the underground like a massive nerve network of water called the water veins.

“Given how big the space debris was, and the Mid-rank tribe it smashed on top of… Then, all this water came from the water veins?!” Leon’s gaze turned serious in an instant.

He did not see any water flow or dripping water from the cave entrance above. Thus, he quickly concluded that the water reserve had been drained in its entirety.

“If the water veins had been drained of all their water, then various tribes would soon believe the Celestial Water Spark’s power had depleted early. I can’t spend too much time here. There will be chaos if I don’t return to control the situation,” Leon determined.

Nevertheless, Leon did not plan on returning to the surface immediately. He still had some time to explore and investigate the space debris that fell into the abyss.

“All this water, though…” Leon frowned at the vast amounts of water below.

“The space debris must have struck something hard or got jammed in a narrow part of the abyss, causing all this water to be trapped here…”

Moments later, Leon narrowed his eyes at the reddish-brown color of the water.

“I could have collected all this water and brought it back to the surface, but it looks like the water has been contaminated.”

Leon didn’t need to guess what contaminated the water.

He could already smell the pungent scent exuding from the water. He also sensed the vast amount of wrath energy mixed within the massive body of water.

Anyone that drinks such water would definitely fall ill—even if they purified it with standard means.

“Given this much contamination, it shouldn’t have been caused by the Whitebone Fiends alone… Their numbers are many, but not nearly enough to contaminate all the water to this degree… As I thought, the space debris itself is the problem.”

“I should check it out before I return to the surface to deal with the other matters,” Leon decided.