Seeing that Lin Wu was still willing to help them, King Yun Guiren decided to answer all his questions.
"I'll do my best, King Lin Wu." The man spoke.
"Well then, can you start by telling me the cultivation base of that beast?" Lin Wu questioned.
"That is hard to tell, King Lin Wu." King Yun Guiren said with a frown.
"Why so?" Lin Wu wondered.
"Well the thing is, the beast often attacks from far. And none of us dare to approach it to sense its cultivation base." King Yun Guiren replied.
"I see… but then didn't you say that your kingdom has been experiencing attacks for several years now? You should have a decent idea by now right?" Lin Wu questioned.
"We did indeed… two thousand years ago." King Yun Guiren said making Lin Wu raise a brow. "You see, the Cruel Helm Octopus has been in this part of the ocean for a long time now. Back when our ancestors lived here, there was no sign of the beast." He started to speak.
"But then something changed?" Lin Wu guessed.
"Indeed… there are several theories behind it. Some say that a stronger beast appeared in the Cruel Helm Octopus's territory and pushed it out. Some say that the food in its territory ran out and the population of beasts fell, thus requiring it to hunt further." King King Yun Guiren replied.
"Hmmm… from what I've heard your kingdom used to supply a lot of fish in the past right? I think one of the types of fish beasts… Blue Scale Smelt was it? Was only found in these waters." Lin Wu thought of something.
"Yes, we did supply the rest of the continent with the Blue Scale smelt. It is a delicacy and fetched a good price. As long as we were able to fish it, our kingdom always had supplies even if the winters were harsh here.
Our ancestors had fished in these waters for generations and were used to the harsh life here. Even we grew up eating the Blue Scale Smelt… at least I did. But my son's generation and the ones did not have that chance.
The arrival of the Cruel Helm Octopus was the reason behind it all. We could no longer go further out in the ocean, due to the fear of that beast. And as years went by, the beast also continued to expand its territory.
And now it has come so far that even fishing at the edges has become difficult for us.
We often have to retreat because the Cruel Helm Octopus scares away other aquatic beasts towards us. While these beasts aren't as strong as the Cruel helm Octopus, they are still strong enough to kill our people. Some of them are even at the Nascent Soul realm, making it difficult for us to fish without clearing out the waters.
There have been times I've had to go myself to drive away these beasts." King Yun Guiren explained in detail.
"Hmm… I see." Lin Wu developed an understanding of the condition of the Wide Crag Kingdom.
He could see the reason for them sticking to this place and not leaving, despite the threat of the Cruel Helm Octopus.
"And what about the Cruel Helm octopus itself? It also attacks the city right?" Lin Wu asked next.
"Yes. Occasionally it comes all the way here and attacks us. Thankfully, the arrays of Cragfall city were made exactly for that. They were erected by our ancestors in the past, and have lasted all this time.
Unfortunately, they've grown weak over time with the damaged piling up. We can't repair them either, because most of the skills used in making them have been lost." King Yun Guiren replied.
"Huh? You didn't ask other formation masters to repair this?" Lin Wu was surprised.
"We did… several times. They even came to help us, but after seeing our arrays they had difficulties. They were made in a traditional method of our people which has now been lost." King Yun Guiren said in a sorrowful voice. "The last formation master that knew of the ways was my granduncle who unfortunately passed away in an attack from the Cruel Helm Octopus as well." He added.
"Did no one else learn it from?" Lin Wu was surprising they had not passed the information down.
"There were several students of my great uncle. But they didn't get to learn sufficiently before my uncle passed away. What's remained of the array is because of those students too. They've done their best but they still lack core skills that are needed to truly repair the array." King Yun Guiren stated.
"I understand now…" Lin Wu knew that he could fix the array himself too if needed, but that would not solve the core of the issue. "The Cruel Helm Octopus was unable to harm the array before wasn't it?" he asked next.
"Yes. Back in the time of my ancestors, there was no beast that could harm it. But over time, the beast grew stronger too. It was said that back when the array was made, the Cruel Helm Octopus was already a Dao Treading realm beast." King Yun Guiren answered.
Hearing this Lin Wu was now sure.
'That beast has been playing with them all this time… it's surely at the Immortal Ascension realm and is just teasing them. If it wanted to it would have broken this place long ago.' Lin Wu knew.
Since beasts could raise their intelligence, they could also gain complex emotions. One of them being the ability to hold grudges for a long time.
'The Cruel Helm Octopus is intentionally torturing them for the actions of their ancestors.' Lin Wu reckoned.
As for why the beast had not attacked and destroyed the kingdom outright, Lin Wu could also guess why.
'If it had attacked and destroyed this place, there was no way the Long clan would ignore it. Those two ancestors can easily eradicate a single beast, even if it goes deep into the ocean. It was afraid of them.' Lin Wu grasped.