No strange things are allowed to evolve!

There's no scene in the script where the princess is kidnapped.

If word gets out that someone is abducting underage girls, wouldn't that ruin their reputation?

We need to give them a good warning afterwards.

After pondering for a while, Jiang Shu slowly opened his eyes, feeling that the time was about right.

His gaze was no longer as innocent as those who knew him before; instead, it was filled with an inexplicable majesty and nobility.

Jiang Shu glanced at everyone and asked calmly, "Does anyone here know anything about the King of Beasts? I need to know everything about him."

The crowd exchanged glances, but eventually all turned their attention to an elderly man with white hair who was not far from the king.

This is the kingdom's great sage, the most learned person in the kingdom.

The great sage was scrutinizing Jiang Shu from head to toe.

He could sense that Jiang Shu's demeanor at this moment was completely different from when the princess had invited him to dance.

He couldn't help but ask, "You...are you really a hero?"

“I don’t know.” Jiang Shu shook his head and answered seriously, “I only know that I seem to have some unusual mission now, as if I was born to defeat the King of Monsters.”

The great sage nodded slowly, then sighed: "To be honest, I have never heard of any hero being born in history. The previous kings of monsters either died of natural causes or were defeated by countless sages who went to great lengths to defeat them."

Jiang Shu was about to say something to forcefully smooth things over when he heard the Great Sage change the subject.

"However, I do know that the changes and development of all things in the world have their own laws. If no heroes have been born in the past, but have appeared this time, it can only mean that what those four people said was true. This time, the King of Monsters is probably not like the past. He is indeed the strongest in history, a terrifying existence that we can hardly imagine."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu breathed a sigh of relief.

It turned out that the other party did not doubt his authenticity as a hero, but rather became even more convinced that this time the King of Monsters was the strongest King of Monsters in history that only he could defeat.

"So," Jiang Shu asked, "how exactly was the King of Warcraft born?"

"You know nothing?" The great sage seemed somewhat surprised.

Jiang Shu simply replied without changing his expression: "Well, all I know is that I have to defeat it, and I can feel that something is different about me now than before. I seem to have become very powerful, but I have no idea what it is, how it was born, or where it is now."

"I see."

The great sage nodded knowingly and began to explain without any doubt:

"The King of Warcraft, strictly speaking, is not a Warcraft."

Chapter 241 This Hero is Worthy!

The King of Warcraft is not actually Warcraft, just like there is no wife in Wife Cake.

This sounds perfectly reasonable at first glance, but upon closer inspection, something seems off.

Jiang Shu couldn't understand it at all.

"Wait, if it's not a monster, why is it called the King of Monsters?"

"It's a long story," the Great Sage sighed, looking at the chaotic scene in the hall after the disaster. "Let's talk about it somewhere else."

Having said that, he looked at the king and asked, "May I go to Your Majesty's study?"

The king nodded, his face serious: "That's exactly what I was thinking too."

Clearly, he also wanted to sit in on the conversation.

After all, the princess has now been captured by the nominal minions of the Beast King, and as her father, he must know this, as it concerns whether he can rescue his daughter.

The battered and bruised commander-in-chief also came over: "Let me join too, I might be able to help."

"I really didn't expect it to turn out like this." Duke Bailey smiled wryly, "Count me in too."

The great sage did not refuse.

The people present were either heroes, the former number one warrior in the kingdom, or dukes with great influence, plus the king himself.

If we're talking about who has the ability to save the kingdom right now, there's probably no one else who's qualified except for these people.

"Then, please follow me."

The king briefly comforted the guests, handled the aftermath, and arranged for the queen, who had fainted from excessive grief, to rest. Then, he led his entourage to his study.

Although it is called a study, it is actually a palace, only slightly smaller than the main hall where banquets are held.

The king dismissed his attendants and then respectfully asked, "Great Sage, what is the matter?"

It is clear that the king has great respect for the great sage.

"Although the Lord of Warcraft is not a Warcraft, he is actually related to Warcraft."

The great sage slowly explained:

"It was born from the resentment of a monster before its death. Before it was truly born and had a physical form, no one knew what it looked like."

Jiang Shu nodded, just like a good student listening attentively to the teacher's lecture.

But after clicking for a while, there was no further response.

"That's it?" Jiang Shu couldn't help but ask in surprise, "How long is the story?"

"Don't rush," the Great Sage replied calmly, closing his eyes. "I was just recalling something. It's been too long, and I've forgotten some of the details."

"Memories are fine, but don't make them up."

Seeing this, Duke Bailey, who was closest to Jiang Shu, explained, "What nonsense are you talking about? The Great Sage has too much knowledge in his mind, and now that he's old, he sometimes needs to search it out first."

Jiang Shu understood this time.

The model is too old, and the virtual memory is insufficient.

After waiting for a moment, the great sage suddenly opened his eyes.

"Have it!"

He cleared his throat and continued:

"After monsters are hunted, their bodies are often used as various materials. This causes their souls to lose the support and guidance of their bodies before entering the world of the dead, thus losing their way and wandering aimlessly."

If they are lucky, they may be able to enter the world of the dead and successfully begin their next reincarnation.

However, if they are unlucky, they may miss the opportunity to enter the world of the dead, causing their souls to remain in the world of the living.

When monsters are hunted, it is often accompanied by pain, and their souls retain the memory of the moment before death, which means that they are constantly reliving that most painful moment.

Over time, their souls will become filled with resentment, turning into pollutants that we cannot see.

When these pollutants accumulate to a certain level, they attract each other and coalesce into the most malevolent aggregates in the world, silently eroding those who are completely unaware of them.

It could be Warcraft, or a person, or something else entirely.

Even more terrifying is that this aggregate possesses its own will; it will relentlessly devour, corrode, and imitate until it becomes what it desires to be.

Therefore, I say that before the Lord of Warcraft truly appears, no one knows what he will be like.

At this point, the great sage paused, then continued with a hint of helplessness:

"The last time the Warcraft King appeared was five hundred years ago. To be honest, I thought I would never mention these long-forgotten histories again in my life, but I never expected that I would still encounter them."

Five hundred years ago...

This explains why, although many people have heard of the Lord of Warcraft, they only know the name but not the reason behind it.

It's been so long that unless you've specifically looked into it or have access to information about it, you're just repeating what others say or hearing things from others.

"Then..." Jiang Shu asked subconsciously, "Does that mean that if we stop hunting magical beasts, the King of Magical Beasts will never be born?"

I don't know why, maybe it's because I've been too influenced by public service advertisements, but Jiang Shu always felt that this was some kind of environmental protection campaign.

Fortunately, Warcraft hunters don't hunt Warcraft purely for profit.

"There's nothing we can do about it," the Grand Master said. "If we leave the monsters alone, the lower-level and smaller ones are fine and won't cause much trouble. But some powerful monsters, if left unchecked, will cause enormous damage, posing a great threat to people's safety and property."

“I see.” Jiang Shu nodded.

It seems that this is not some clichéd environmental protection campaign, but rather a very real and helpless situation.

Just like how the best way to curb global warming is to not turn on the air conditioner, but without the air conditioner, people will die from the heat, which eventually leads to the heat island effect and a vicious cycle.

Therefore, the birth of the Warcraft King was actually inevitable.

The only solution is to kill the monster, not take the materials, bury it properly, and ideally erect a monument.

But it's obvious that this is impossible.

The kingdom's economic system, the survival of monster hunters, and all the industries that have developed to this day are inseparable from monsters as a resource, and there is an even more important issue—

Without monster materials, how can we forge equipment powerful enough to rival the strength of monsters? And without equipment, how can humans hunt monsters?

There aren't many ruthless people like the Grand Master, especially since he was built up by countless Warcraft Cores.

No solution.

"That's really frustrating. It seems the King of Warcraft has no choice but to appear." Jiang Shu shook his head.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Duke Bailey looked at Jiang Shu in confusion: "Hasn't the King of Warcraft already appeared?"

Jiang Shu was taken aback, only then realizing that he had let something slip.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly and immediately explained, "What I mean is, I want to see if we can stop the cycle of the curse of the Beast King from continuing to this time, so that this Beast King can be the last Beast King, and prevent this kind of guy from continuing to appear in future generations and harm our descendants."

Upon hearing this, the king couldn't help but praise, "As expected of the brave lord, you truly care about the world and have a long-term vision."

It's clear that Jiang Shu's battle plan was indeed a great success.

After establishing the hero persona, even the king started fawning over him.

But it's also possible that the other party has placed all their hopes of saving the princess on themselves, so they have no choice but to act friendly, or even humble.

Jiang Shu felt a little embarrassed about this, since the other woman's daughter was actually in his hands right now.

But this matter couldn't be revealed, so the king could only suffer in fear for a while.

However, as a gesture of comfort, Jiang Shu gave him a look, indicating that she would take care of his matter and that she would definitely bring the princess back to him safely.

Seeing this, the king returned a knowing look that said, "Then I'll leave it to you."

But for some reason, Jiang Shu felt something was off, because the king's eyes seemed to carry a hint of reluctance and helplessness, much like the look in the eyes of the bride's father when handing the bride over to the groom at a wedding.

Could he have misunderstood? Did he think she was threatening him, demanding that he marry the princess to her after rescuing her...?

If it has to be this way, could we replace her with the Queen?

After letting his mind wander for a while, Jiang Shu temporarily cleared his mind of these distracting thoughts and continued to ask the Great Sage:

"So, is there any way to find the location of the King of Warcraft?"

I remember those people saying that the Warcraft King is only about to awaken. I don't want to wait until it really becomes powerful before dealing with it passively. I want to strike first, find it proactively, and nip it in the bud before it awakens, making those guys regret their arrogance in warning us in advance.

You just said it's an aggregate of resentment, right? So logically, the place with the heaviest resentment should be where the King of Warcraft resides, right? Is there any way to observe resentment?

“Unfortunately, resentment cannot be observed,” the great sage replied.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu clicked his tongue lightly.

That's a bit tricky. If we can only wait passively and not camp out in advance to kill the King of Warcraft as soon as he shows up, what if everyone finds out that the King of Warcraft is not actually familiar with their four kings?

Although the impact wasn't actually that significant—after all, he would have succeeded once he dealt with the King of Warcraft—Jiang Shu never liked things that ended badly or were unsatisfactory, and he would never do anything that would damage his reputation.

Or... how about we make this a real show, and actually get the Four Heavenly Kings to surrender immediately and follow the King of Warcraft to do some bad things?

Just as he was pondering this, he heard the Great Sage continue, "However, although resentment cannot be directly observed, its intensity can be judged by its external characteristics. Generally speaking, strange phenomena will appear in places where resentment is deep."

"Can you finish your sentence at once?" Jiang Shu was speechless.

I almost became an accomplice of the King of Warcraft.

"I'm getting old, and my mind sometimes goes blank," the great sage sighed, his voice filled with helplessness.

"What exactly does that phenomenon refer to?"

"a lot of."

The great sage explained:

“Any phenomenon that does not conform to common sense can be called an anomaly. For example, snow in June, lakes and rivers drying up, floods breaking out even though it is not raining, or even meteorites falling from the sky. These are all external manifestations of excessive resentment.”

Therefore, theoretically, by checking where similar anomalies have recently occurred, it's possible to find traces of the King of Beasts.

Having finally heard the key point, Jiang Shu immediately looked at the other three.

The king immediately responded, "I will send people to gather intelligence on various cities and see where any unusual phenomena have occurred recently."