Theron's horse slowly came to a stop by the river. Unlike what some of his speculations might have concluded, the river looked almost more like a lake—one that had grown so still and stale that it had already begun to atrophy and die off.
There was a faint scent of death in the air, and what should have been rushing currents moved so agonizingly slowly that one would have thought there was no movement at all.
The staleness was causing waves of death in the river, and there was hardly any turnover or recycling.
When bodies of water lost their movement, bacteria began to grow, the microbes causing mass waves of death and destruction to the ecosystem. In the cultivation world, the result was even worse for everybody, as these microbes were often heavily boosted by Mana in ways that could kill and poison even Gold Mancers.
Normally, water would put Theron at peace, and he would feel like he had an extra trump card hanging from his hip. But right now, he couldn't feel any sort of comfort at all. For him, this water was so far separated from the essence of Water Mana that controlling it would be as difficult as controlling the steaming plumes of smoke back in the underground volcano.
The others slowly caught up to Theron and then looked back to General Pennel. But seeing that the latter was still sitting on top of his horse with his arms crossed, as though nothing at all had happened, they knew that they were still being tested.
Gengh opened his mouth to say something, but then paused again, suddenly entirely unsure of himself.
Shah's lips remained sealed, looking up at Theron as though he was waiting for him to speak first.
Theron didn't seem to have any intention of saying anything, though. He just continued to observe the stale river in silence, every slight tinge of green and brown standing out to him as he scanned it slowly.
All he knew was one thing for certain…
This had definitely happened too fast.
Theron was someone who liked to be prepared. Overly prepared.
Not only had he looked at maps of this region, but he even understood its history quite well.
This river here was the very same one that ran through the entire Empire, splintering off into countless little streams—including the one he had killed Yonowai on and the one he had used to escape the culling at Daggers of the Night.
That was to say, this river had so many entrances and exits feeding into it and allowing escape routes that growing stagnant required a great change to take place. And more importantly than that, this great change had to have occurred within the last handful of weeks, if not days.
Theron crouched down, taking a closer look.
'This entire region is located in a basin. Water has a very easy time coming in at least… the outflow might be the problem, then, since it needs to climb out. In that case, the most obvious place to check would be further north, where the exit of this basin should be…'
Theron reached his conclusion, but he wasn't too eager to say anything. As for why, only he knew.
The only thing that was certain was that it had nothing to do with his temper flare-up from earlier. He had long gotten that under control.
It would be too foolish of him to allow himself to be ruled by the power in the palm of his hands. His greatest asset was still his mind, and it was in his best interest to move through life with that understanding.
His real reason was very different.
He looked back toward Gengh and Shah. "I'm not too sure what's going on here, seniors. Can you help me?"
The two blinked and then looked to one another. They weren't sure if they believed Theron at all. He had displayed analytical skills just earlier that were beyond them. Plus… this was right in his wheelhouse.
He was the only Water Mancer here, after all.
Gengh and Shah were both Soul Mancers. General Pennel was a Flux Mancer, while Aliza was an Earth Mancer. As for the Third and Fourth Year of the military stream, both were likewise Flux Mancers.
Theron scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Honestly, I don't know much about the region. I didn't grow up near the capital, and you know maps are pretty limited to commoners like me. I have some grasp of the region, but I feel like I'm lacking important context."
It was a common control tactic of Empires. Most maps in circulation were very limited in detail and scope. For a river as important as this one that branched through the entire Empire, there was no way a commoner could easily get their hands on such a thing.
Gengh and Shah seemed to understand a bit better now. Assured that Theron probably wasn't just teasing them for a chance at a "gotcha," they relaxed a bit.
"What do you think?" Gengh asked Shah.
"Well, this must have happened very recently, and it's a very acute symptom as well because as far as I know, the rivers by the capital are entirely unaffected, and it would be much easier to report something wrong there as opposed to here. Whatever we're looking for has to be large enough to trigger these changes, have a scope narrow enough that it could only affect this region, and it has to have only appeared within the last two weeks at the earliest."
"I agree. There's a strong slope at both ends of this region, and this river flows north instead of toward the south, which would be closer to the capital. In that case, we should go check the exit paths out of this basin and probably be prepared for danger."
The two discussed and reached conclusions on some of the finer details before they set off.
As for Theron, though, his mind was elsewhere.
Were they right? Yes. But they weren't right about just how "acute" this phenomenon was.
He was certain that he sensed water flowing quite fast not even half an hour ago.
What could cause all of this in not even an hour?