Water Reservoir (Part Two)

What should he do...

Er Dongsheng's solution was actually quite ordinary. Since he could not simply dig a hole in the Abyss to store water, he would find a water reservoir instead. But that reservoir had to be large enough, sturdy enough, and capable of preserving water well.

Looking around, the only thing that met those conditions was probably the Abyss Tree.

Abyss Trees truly made excellent water reservoirs. Many creatures in the Abyss searched dead Abyss Trees for moisture. If they were lucky, those dead trees would retain some water. Er Dongsheng had found the Abyss Tree Heart inside an Abyss Tree while searching for water in just this way. Then, struck by inspiration, he decided to turn some enormous Abyss Trees into water reservoirs.

He selected several enormous dead Abyss Trees and cut their main trunks into massive wooden stakes roughly ten meters long. Then he hollowed out the trunks from one end, leaving a small portion of the inner wood as a base. Thus, giant cups around ten meters long and at least two meters in diameter took shape.

He made ten of these giant cups in total, then rolled them down to the foot of the mountain one after another. That process had cost him no small amount of time—altogether, it had taken around eight or nine months. Especially when hollowing out the trunks, his claws still ached even now.

Next, he found patches of soft earth at the foot of the mountain and dug huge pits, burying the giant wooden cups inside. Only a short section was left exposed, like the mouth of a well in Ancient China.

He was not worried about the bark-covered stakes being damaged. Though these were dead Abyss Trees and their hardness had greatly declined, they were still not something ordinary creatures could pierce. Buried deep underground as they were, those common bugs had no way to bore through them. At the very least, Er Dongsheng had never seen a bug capable of drilling through an Abyss Tree—not even a dead one.

The hardness of Abyss Trees was no joke.

There was a saying in the Abyss: an Abyss Tree could only die from lightning strikes, crushing by its own kind, or an inexplicable death.

Yes, you read that correctly—an inexplicable death. In the vast forest, there were many dead Abyss Trees. Small Abyss Trees in particular found it difficult to compete with larger ones for nutrients, so quite a few died. Yet every year, every month, even every day, several large Abyss Trees would always die for no apparent reason. Who knew how they had died?

Besides, had anyone ever seen an Abyss Tree die any other way? Eaten to death by bugs? What a joke.

At this moment, Er Dongsheng looked down into the tree hollow, which was nearly full. The water was crystal clear, and he could not see the bottom at a glance. A few leaves still floated on the surface. His heart brimmed with joy.

"From now on, I'll live a life with water too!" He waved his fist, suppressed his excitement, and began preparing the final step: plugging these giant wooden cups with wooden stoppers.

These stoppers had been prepared beforehand. They were slightly smaller than the mouths of the wooden cups, just enough to fit snugly into them. Now he needed to force the stoppers tightly into the openings—the tighter, the better.

On closer inspection, there was a small hole at the center of every stopper. It was for drawing water later. He only needed to find something to plug or cover those small holes.

The rainy season in the Abyss was like a woman changing faces. Just moments ago, the rain had been drizzling as though it were about to stop, but now it was pouring harder and harder. The rain pattered down in sheets, gradually drowning Er Dongsheng's vision.

"Almost there. Put some more strength into it—it'll be done soon. Work hard for the sake of my future life!" Secretly encouraging himself, Er Dongsheng ignored the increasingly heavy rain and continued working.

A few minutes later...

"Whew, I'm finally done." The tail behind him swished back and forth excitedly; one could easily imagine how thrilled he was at this moment.

"GO! Back home—make a bowl of soup, take a hot bath, and reward myself properly!"

"Life is getting better and better!"

"As for the Sunlight Plane, I wouldn't like it at all."

"I didn't miss you either, old man..."

And my Mother Earth, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River...