I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 307 Swarm Guardians

The mantises live in rather strange houses, almost all of which are made of amber. Living in these houses always feels so bright and dazzling that it almost blinds you.

Even the Mantis don't live a life of raw meat and blood. The Klaxxi are a relatively civilized organization, and in reality, their lives are not much different from those of ordinary people.

Aside from his unusual obsession with amber.

The mantis's food wasn't too unacceptable; it was just a whole insect feast, not like Bear Grylls's raw, bursting-out dishes. It was acceptable once cooked, at least that's what Louis thought, since he had brought a lot of convenient fast food.

Roasted scorpions are nutritious and rich in protein, and they taste delicious when roasted. However, among everyone present, only Master Zhu dared to try it despite the dangers.

But it seems that Zhu Talan is putting on a brave face; he doesn't want to tarnish his reputation in front of the mantis demon.

Being so concerned with saving face that you suffer for it is a bad thing.

Seeing the way he looked in excruciating pain as he chewed it, Kerruk laughed heartily, crunching the scorpion in his hand as he said, "Pandaren... uh, young man, if you don't like this stuff, don't force yourself. Wouldn't it be better to eat the same thing as your companions?"

"Who says I don't like it? Of course I do!" Zhu Talan said immediately without hesitation. He picked up the other scorpion's pincers, lifted it up, and neatly stuffed it into his mouth, chewing until juices splashed everywhere.

"Delicious!" After swallowing, Zhu Talan gave a thumbs up.

"What courage!" Kerruk gave a thumbs up. "I've never seen anyone eat a scorpion raw like this before. My goodness, your stomach is going to suffer..."

That kid's pretty wicked, actually trying to trick Zhu Talan into eating a scorpion raw...

"The mantis isn't a good person..." Ron muttered to himself, reminding himself that he would never suffer like this again just to save face.

Old Chen shook his head, indicating that Zhu Talan was beyond saving.

FlooNet can also connect to Klaxxi. After weighing the options, Louis set a restriction on FlooNet to prevent Mantid from freely crossing the Spine of the Cobra.

There's a saying that goes, "You can know a person's face but not their heart." Perhaps these mantid are friendly to Louis for the time being, but he can't guarantee that they'll be just as friendly to the pandaren.

After all, they've been enemies for tens of thousands of years, and he couldn't guarantee that the mantis demon would suddenly change its ways.

"Eat quickly, we still need to awaken the other heroes after we finish." Kerruk put down his amber cup, his compound eyes narrowing contentedly. "Ah, the long-awaited amber drink. Speaking of which, I've been extremely hungry ever since the seal was broken. If the Awakener weren't here, I would have eaten you, you fat pandaren..."

When Kerruk said this, his gaze was fixed on Zhu Talan.

"You really didn't have any good intentions!" Zhu Talan said angrily, pointing his thick bear paw at Kerruk.

Old Chen quickly pressed him down, slapping him on the back of the head: "Alright, he was just joking with you, and you actually took it seriously... If he wanted to be hostile to us, he would have done it already, would he have waited until now?"

Zhu Talan gave a haughty snort, no longer looking at Kerruk, but instead savoring the mantis demon's specialty—amber tea.

What kind of abstract person could possibly enjoy such an abstract drink? But judging from Zhu Talan's expression, she seems to like it quite a bit.

"Have you eaten enough?" Louis asked the three little ones.

"We're full." The three little ones nodded in unison. Although they didn't really want to drink the amber tea, they were quite interested in the roasted scorpion and even tried it.

Hmm... how should I put it? No wonder they come from the land of bizarre cuisine, they have a high acceptance of such strange and unusual things.

After the meal, the Kharakshi Council also delivered intelligence, information about the next hero to be sealed away.

“‘Swarm Guardian’ Hisek…” Kerruk tapped the table with his claws. “Ha, a long-lost old friend…” He looked around and whispered to Louis, “He is sealed in the Twilight Swamp not far from Klaxxivis. Perhaps we can find him there.”

"The swamp is so big, how are we supposed to find it?" Louis raised an eyebrow and asked the essential question.

Kerruk paused for a moment, then reached out and fiddled with his four tentacles: "See this thing? It can pinpoint any location and sense the presence of its companions, especially among the Klaxxi Champions, where there is a bond that is unimaginable to ordinary people."

"I see, so it basically means it has a location system." Louis chuckled. This feature was quite convenient, essentially like having a built-in TomTom navigation plugin.

"Although I don't quite understand what a positioning system is, I can understand what you mean, Awakener." Kerruk's mouth antennae twitched twice, making a smile that represents a mantid.

But to others, it didn't look like a laugh; it looked like they were about to eat a child.

Riding the Amber Giant Scorpion once again, they exited through the gates of Klaxxivis. The sky over the Dread Wastes was incredibly dark, and looking up, they saw eerie black and white clouds with a bright white center and gray-black wisps of malevolent energy spreading outwards, creating a strangely terrifying scene.

"What's that? Why is that tree that color?" Hermione asked Kerruk curiously, pointing to a towering tree in the distance.

"That's the Kepa Tree Ik, corrupted by Sha energy." Kerruk glanced at the tree and sighed, "Back in the beginning of chaos, the first Kepa Trees blossomed beautifully. The amber that flowed from those trees nourished us Mantid; we call it Kepa Amber, meaning the blood of the earth."

"Keppa amber has many uses. It heals our wounds and strengthens our bodies. Amber is the cornerstone of Mantid society. We use this material in various fields such as architecture, art, and technology. The Queen and our Klaxxi Council protect the great tree on the Mantid Plateau—what we call the 'Keppa Sacred Tree,' which is the only source of precious amber."

At this point, Kerruk looked toward the direction of the Panlong Ridge.

"Legend has it that the sacred trees of Kepa once grew abundantly east of the Wall. But the Mogu cut them all down during their endless war with the Mantid, which is why we have never been on friendly terms with the Mogu."

"So, has this tree... been completely corrupted?" Hermione stared blankly at the giant tree in the distance, shrouded in black and white malevolent energy. For some reason, she felt a deep sense of regret.

Such a beautiful tree, yet it suffered such a fate.

"It's corrupted by Sha energy. We need to stay away from it. There's a bunch of corrupted Hive Guardians guarding it, and I don't want to get into any trouble with them," Kerruk said, clicking away.

"Haha, you're scared." Zhu Talan pointed at Kerruk, her expression as if she had discovered a new continent.

Kerruk snorted and stroked his tentacles: "They have tens of thousands of people, and we only have six. Do you want to be sent to our deaths?"

Zhu Talan immediately shut up.

After going around that big tree, there was another towering tree ahead.

"Keppa Sacred Tree Zhar," Kerruk took a breath and introduced to everyone, "It doesn't seem to have been corrupted yet, or rather, the corruption isn't very deep, but the situation is not optimistic. You see, there's still corrupted swamp below the roots..."

Following the direction Kerruk pointed, they indeed saw a muddy swamp, shrouded in a hazy yellow mist, with all sorts of strangely shaped and brightly colored mushrooms growing around it.

"It looks quite lively here," Zhu Talan said meaningfully, referring to the swamp demons trudging through the swamp.

Ron glanced at the monsters and hissed in shock. The monsters were humanoid in appearance, with small heads, a single, enormous eye taking up most of their heads, and below the eye a sharp mouth filled with withered, yellow fangs.

The swamp demon's body also seemed to be made of the corrupting poison gas above the swamp; its smoky body solidified into a tangible form, which was quite terrifying.

"Stupefy!" Hermione drew her wand and cast Stupefy on a dark swamp lurker. The lurker was sent flying more than ten meters away by the spell, crashing heavily onto the swamp and then slowly being swallowed up by it.

"This magic is very novel. I've never seen it before, and it doesn't seem to belong to the Azerothian system." Kel'Thuzad looked at Hermione with great interest, praising her spell highly.

"This is a Stunning Curse," Hermione answered honestly. "It's a spell unique to the wizarding world."

"That looks interesting," Kerruk praised again, turning back to Louis: "The Awakener, 'Guardian of the Swarm' Hisek, is buried beneath this swamp. If my location is correct, he is buried in the swamp right in front of us."

"How do we dig him out?" Louis asked, kicking at the dirt on the ground.

"Dig it out with your hands," Kerruk said solemnly. "Just dig him out the same way you dug me out."

Louis was speechless. So you have no backup plan to wake up your good brother and are relying on me?

He rolled his eyes at Kerruk, beckoned, and a purple mage's hand materialized, parting the rotting soil to reveal the orange-yellow crystals hidden within.

"He's inside!" Kerruk said happily. "My senses were right. Hisek is buried down there. Quick, Awakener, give it your all! I feel like he's about to come out..."

Louis rolled his eyes. So it wasn't you who suffered, huh? How come I didn't notice that this Windbreaker also has this kind of easy-going, nonchalant quality?

As Louis continued digging, the entire large piece of amber was unearthed, and even in the dim light, the Hispanic crystal inside could be clearly seen.

Unlike Kerruk, Hisek wore only an inverted triangular faceplate, and his armor was made of alternating orange-red and gray-black diamond patterns. When Kerruk saw the amber being dug out, he immediately went forward to tap and touch it, trying to wake Hisek, but to no avail.

"How exactly do we wake him up?" Kerruk scratched the back of his head, not ashamed to ask a question.

Zhu Talan finally found a reason to mock him, and immediately retorted sarcastically, "Hey, as a Kharakshi Champion, don't you even know how to awaken your comrades?"

"I forgot." Kerruk wasn't particularly ashamed; after all, he'd been sealed away for so long, it was normal to forget things. He reached out and placed a hand on Louis's shoulder, saying earnestly, "I'm entrusting this to you, Awakener!"

Louis sighed and reached out to touch the amber.

Under Kerruk's almost reverent gaze, the amber gradually melted, exposing Hisek's body to the air.

The same scenario played out again. Hissek, losing his support, collapsed to the ground with a thud. After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and weakly asked, "Who awakened me? Ah... I sensed the presence of my awakener. Let me see, my dear awakener..."

Judging from the voice, the Swarm Guardian is quite young.

That's just a bit too much.

Kerruk kicked him and said with a look of disgust, "You've been so busy looking for your Awakener that you've forgotten all about your old friend of so many years, you idiot."

"Ha, I'm feeling a bit hungry," Hissek said cheerfully. "Do you have any amber syrup? I haven't had it in years!"

As he spoke, he straightened up and saw three panda people.

"Hey, why are you being so polite? You came all this way, and you even brought me three rations..." The Swarm Guardian Hissek looked at the three Pandaren with shining eyes, drooling.

"Damn it! Who are you calling food supplies?" Zhu Talan exploded again, roaring furiously, "You vicious bastard, I should have known..."

"What do you know?" Hisek clicked his tongue and squinted his compound eyes, saying, "I was just joking with you. Are the pandaren so incapable of taking a joke these days? Back in the day, your emperor Shaohao was a man who could take a joke."

This left Zhu Talan completely bewildered. Shao Hao was a legendary figure; ten thousand years had passed since he transformed into mist to protect Pandaria from the Burning Legion. No one knew his whereabouts. Zhu Talan hesitated before asking, "You...know our emperor?"

"Of course I know him..." Hisek stroked his mouthparts: "That was many years ago, when I was still a larva. Actually, I still have great respect for Emperor Shaohao. He was a truly great man."

Hissek's expression was very formal, and it was clear that his admiration for Emperor Shaohao was genuine.

That makes sense. Few people have this kind of awareness, especially emperors who are at the top of the food chain. There are very few emperors who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the people. So even the mantis demons, who are in a hostile relationship with the emperor, respect this Shaohao emperor from the bottom of their hearts.

(End of this chapter)