Condition

Aiden said, "Right now, the continent of Pandaria is surrounded by mist, and for this mist to dissipate—or rather, for it to dissipate on its own—there's a necessary condition: Deathwing must appear."

"Deathwing? How is this continent related to that guy?"

Everyone discussed animatedly, but they weren't too worried.

After all, although Deathwing was infamous, the impression he left on people was mainly that of a swindler and schemer; people didn't pay much attention to his actual strength.

During the Second War, Deathwing, under the alias Lord Prestor, pretended to be a royal nobleman who had escaped from the Kingdom of Alterac and sought refuge in Lordaeron.

His charming demeanor and extraordinary wisdom captivated all the nobles of Lordaeron, to the point that the old King Terenas even considered marrying his daughter, Princess Calia, to him and supporting him as the new King of Alterac.

Of course, in reality, Prestor's success in deceiving so many people relied not only on wisdom and demeanor but also on magic.

Although he showed a cunning and treacherous side in Lordaeron, his actual strength was undoubtedly very powerful.

When Deathwing went to Outland, even the powerful Gronn demigod Gruul was as helpless and weak in front of him as a toddler facing an adult.

However, not many people knew his true strength; Khadgar and others who had faced Deathwing directly were among them. For others, Deathwing mostly left the impression of a schemer.

"The reason for this is very complicated. Simply put, only when Deathwing appears will this mist dissipate, allowing us to set foot on Pandaria and use the characteristic of the Valley of the Four Winds, where crops mature in a single day, to eradicate our food crisis."

It was difficult for Aiden to explain the specific reasons to them, because it also involved the problem of "settings."

Ten thousand years ago, the explosion of the Well of Eternity at the end of the War of the Ancients caused a cataclysm.

Sensing the arrival of this day, the last Emperor of the Pandaren, Shaohao, in order to protect Pandaria and prevent it from being destroyed, chose to sacrifice himself.

He merged with Pandaria, protecting the place so that it could remain safe and sound during the cataclysm, and transformed into an eternal mist that shrouded the continent of Pandaria, preventing the last land of the Pandaren from being detected and invaded by foreign enemies.

On the surface, it seemed that the mist of Pandaria would only dissipate if Shaohao's soul agreed. But after truly understanding the essence of the world, Aiden knew that it wasn't that simple—just like the version updates, from the perspective of the game, if the Pandaria version of the World of Warcraft was to go online, the prerequisite was that Deathwing had to emerge from the earth, shatter the World Pillar, and trigger the Cataclysm of Azeroth.

Only then would Shaohao's soul realize the crisis the world was facing and, according to the prophecy of the Jade Serpent, actively dissipate the mist, hoping to solve the global famine brought about by Deathwing's appearance with Pandaria's abundant agricultural resources.

After returning from the Northrend expedition and realizing the food crisis they were facing, Aiden had personally led a fleet to visit Pandaria, hoping to persuade Shaohao to open Pandaria and use the Valley of the Four Winds to solve the food crisis.

With the Titan's map, he successfully found the continent in the mist, but ultimately failed to enter it.

He tried to release his mental power to communicate with Shaohao's soul in the mist, but received no response. Repeated efforts all ended in failure.

This continent was like an unreleased area in the game; although it was displayed on the map, the new content within could not be experienced at all.

Aiden had already proven with his own experience that it was not the global famine, or even Shaohao's soul, that influenced the mist of Pandaria, but the "settings."

The mist would not dissipate unless Deathwing came out to destroy the world.

After going around in circles, Aiden found that things had returned to the starting point:

Months ago, after the Ulduar crisis ended, he wanted to strike while the iron was hot, directly open the seals of the elemental planes, and eliminate the threat of Deathwing and the elemental lords.

However, the famine problem plagued the people of Azeroth, and launching a war at this time would undoubtedly make the already difficult situation even more difficult.

So he dismissed that idea and instead focused on dealing with the famine problem.

But after going around in a big circle, Aiden realized after returning from Pandaria that the ultimate solution to the famine problem was still to open the seals of the elemental planes.

At the meeting half a year ago, Aiden mentioned the threats facing Azeroth. The expedition solved the Scourge, Nexus, Ahn'Qiraj, and Ulduar crises, and now the biggest threats remaining were Deathwing, the Old God N'Zoth, and the Burning Legion led by Kil'jaeden.

Everyone knew that Deathwing was hiding in the earth elemental plane, "Deepholm." After the Battle of Ulduar, Aiden had also mentioned his plan to lift the seals of the elemental planes and eliminate this threat.

Now this matter was once again placed before them.

Everyone faced this choice: either accept the Starry Sky Consortium's conditions and choose to purchase grain through their consortium to solve the food crisis for millions of people; or open the elemental planes, eliminate Deathwing with lightning speed, step onto Pandaria, and rely on the magical Valley of the Four Winds to solve the famine problem.

Peace or war, this was a difficult decision.

This question couldn't be decided by a quick thought in the leaders' heads; after returning, everyone would definitely have more discussions and research.

After the meeting and dinner, Aiden invited everyone to attend a concert, and everyone gladly accepted.

This concert was actually the first "Valoran Music Festival."

After returning from the expedition, Aiden announced that May 25th to June 1st of each year would be designated as the Valoran Music Festival, and invited all races around the world who loved music to participate in this carnival of music. He advocated "music without borders," promoting cultural exchange between different races in the name of music to eliminate prejudices and hatred between various races and countries.

After several months of preparation, the opening ceremony of the first Music Festival was staged a week ago at the "Pearl Grand Theater."

Now that Aiden had outstanding prestige, countless people naturally agreed with his advocacy. In the past few days, Azeroth's famous musicians had taken to the stage one after another. The atmosphere was extremely lively.

Not only human musicians participated in the Music Festival, but night elves and high elves also brought their characteristic music, as well as the orcs' primitive and rough drum music, the dwarves' orchestral music…

Dozens of different styles of music from Azeroth and Valoran were staged in turn, including classical music, modern music, pop music, rock music, and many instruments that many people had never even seen before. This music festival was simply constantly refreshing people's inherent understanding of musical forms.

The people of the Valoran Federation showed unparalleled inclusiveness. Almost every kind of music that had never appeared before could receive warm applause when it first debuted and quickly become a trend that was widely spread.

Tonight was Children's Day, and also the last day of the "Valoran Music Festival." The finale would be staged tonight, and people were already eagerly anticipating the arrival of the official performance outside the Pearl Grand Theater.

—

With the successful entry of arcane communicators into the civilian market a year ago, more magical technology products entered ordinary households. Among them, the most popular among ordinary people was the radio, even ordinary families could easily afford its price, so it quickly entered thousands of households after its birth.

People were finally not bored in the evenings after work—after dinner, everyone liked to turn on the radio and listen to their favorite radio programs. Currently, there were three official radio stations alone, and ordinary people could use the radio to access gossip and entertainment, understand national affairs, learn popular science knowledge, listen to music and opera, and explore unknown mysteries, and each radio station was still enriching its content and forms. Some private radio frequencies were also trying to commercialize operations in order to gain more listening and coverage.

This Music Festival was also broadcast live on the radio, which was why those novel musics could spread to the public so quickly.

"Honey, take a look, how many minutes until seven o'clock?"

"Don't worry, I just looked at the clock, there are still more than ten minutes! You've asked me eight times, my dear Thomas."

"Haha, is that so? Time is passing so slowly, how are there still more than ten minutes!"

"Isn't it good to listen to this entertainment gossip first? Amumu and Annie performed in a play today, and we must take our children to see their performance live in the future."

"Alright, alright, hooray for Mommy!" The two children surrounding the couple jumped up happily.

"I heard that Miss Sona will perform music from the Chief's hometown tonight, I'm really looking forward to it!"

"Who isn't?"

This was an ordinary Valoran family, a husband and wife, plus a son and a daughter. Now they had settled in Los Angeles for more than a year.

It wasn't just them who were waiting for the seven o'clock concert broadcast; millions of families were staging this scene.

People were eagerly looking forward to the finale of the Music Festival. The performances of the previous six days were very exciting and dazzling. How shocking would today's be?

When the hour hand reached seven o'clock in the evening, almost every family with a radio locked onto the "Voice of Valoran" channel.

"Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Voice of Valoran! I am your old friend Draven!"

A very familiar, magnetic male voice came from the radio's speaker, and "Golden Host" Draven was using his unique, teasingly humorous voice to start hosting today's show.

At this time, he was standing on the stage of the "Pearl Grand Theater," wearing a brightly colored and playful red suit, opening his mouth to the microphone with a hippie smile.

The Music Festival was not all serious music, and of course, it didn't need an incredibly serious and rigid host.

In fact, the main reason was that Draven liked being a host. As a hero, his wishes would of course be given priority.