To the south, the Demon Dragon had already occupied Qiongzhou Island. Surrounded by sea, with only the Qiongzhou Strait separating it from the Divine Land mainland, it offered a position from which he could advance to attack or retreat to defend. To the north, Dayao Mountain lay in ruins. The Xun River was buried beneath the mountain, and the Qian, Yu, Meng, and Gui Rivers had stopped flowing.
By now, the two smaller tributaries, the Meng and Gui Rivers, had dried up completely, their beds strewn with the bodies of the Aquatic Tribe. As for the two great rivers, the Qian and Yu, only their downstream confluences had been drained. Water still surged down from upstream, and before long it would reach the vanished stretch of the Xun River. When that happened, the rivers would overflow, and people might become food for fish and turtles. With the Xun River severed, the West River downstream had lost its source. Before long, its remaining water would flow away, and it too would dry up.
The consequences extended far beyond this. Dayao Mountain was the root of the mountain ranges in the heart of the Southern Wastes, while the Xun River was the main artery of the entire region's water veins. Now that one had collapsed and the other had been severed, there was no telling how far the repercussions would spread.
Take the Daoist himself, for instance. He had only three Union-with-the-Dao Lands in the Southern Wastes: Rotten Peach Mountain, Peach Blossom River, and Hundred Barbarian Mountain. Rotten Peach Mountain's roots connected to an offshoot of Dayao Mountain's northern foothills, and it also connected to Peach Blossom River, which flowed into the Qian River. Hundred Barbarian Mountain's roots connected to Panyang River, which flowed into Red Water River—the upper reaches of the