Chapter 37: Chapter 37 Gradual Births Chapter 37: Chapter 37 Gradual Births You should know that there are a total of eighteen Cloud Giant leaders, and only with some of the leaders colluding could it be possible to blindside Muria’s surveillance. It was definitely more than just two Cloud Giant leaders.

Thus, once he had determined which Cloud Giant leaders had attempted, through various means, to prevent Muria from accepting new Giant allegiances, he didn’t hesitate to exile them; yet, Muria still harbored kind intentions, granting these eight Cloud Giant leaders a chance to redeem themselves.

During the six months since Muria had arrived at Taiji Island, his consecutive banishments of Cloud Giant leaders had truly terrified most Cloud Giants, leaving them in a constant state of unease. Under this atmosphere of fear and anxiety, construction of the Giant City, which Muria had not specified a completion date for, was progressing at a rate that astonished him.

Muria saw this and merely sighed. Apart from the first day of each month when he would visit the White Jade Divine Palace to deal with the affairs of Taiji Island and casually inspect the construction progress of the island, he spent the rest of his time within the Five-Color Dragon Castle studying magic arrays.

Muria grasped the basics of magic arrays very quickly; after all, he had an endless supply of casting materials to practice with. On this foundation, Muria began to attempt modifying the incubation array for Dragon Eggs, striving to match the elemental energy provided by the array perfectly with the requirements of each egg.

By the fifth month of Muria’s stay in the Five-Color Dragon Castle, he had, one by one, altered the incubation arrays using his ability to sense the elements. By the sixth month, with some mental preparation, Muria witnessed Baby Dragons hatching from their eggs.

“Your Majesty, the Dragon Egg in the room I’m guarding is shaking non-stop; it seems a dragon is about to hatch,” reported a somewhat young Cloud Giant guard who, under the guidance of the female servant Mia, had burst into Muria’s room while he was studying the magic array.

This was an order Muria had issued long ago: any slight irregularity with the guarded Dragon Eggs should be reported to him immediately.

“So soon?” Muria was slightly startled to hear the Cloud Giant Guard’s words but quickly regained his composure, “Which type of Dragon Egg is it?”

“Black Dragon Egg.”

“Lead me to it.”

When Muria followed the Cloud Giant guard to the room he was guarding, he saw a young dragon with a large head and small body. It lay on the shattered eggshell, cloaked in thin, small Black scales, with a pair of dark, vigilant eyes watching Muria and the Cloud Giant by his side.

Muria, not having used a Shape-shifting Spell, now nearly eleven meters tall, appeared overpowering to the Black Dragon who had just been born and was only the size of a pony.

The aura emanating from Muria made the little Black Dragon feel ambivalent; it felt both a familiar warmth and a disdain stemming from inherited memories of its bloodline, due to the scent of the Golden Dragon on Muria.

The faint sense of warmth was because Muria had cared for it for six months, especially in the last month. The elemental energy provided by the modified array made the Baby Dragon exceedingly comfortable. Even before it was born, inside the eggshell, it had completely memorized Muria’s presence.

After some hesitation, the little Black Dragon saw that Muria and two Cloud Giants were just standing quietly at the doorway of the pure white room, watching it without taking any action. It grew slightly bolder.

It reached out with its little Claws, picked up a piece of broken eggshell, put it in its mouth, chewed it, and swallowed. All the while, the Baby Dragon kept its head raised, staring at Muria and the Cloud Giants.

“We’re late!” Muria frowned upon seeing the little Black Dragon already feeding and then looked towards another Cloud Giant. Each room was watched by two Cloud Giants; while one had gone to report to him, another Cloud Giant had stayed in the room, witnessing the entire hatching process of the Black Dragon.

“What’s the Dragon’s name?” Muria inquired. Dragon typically reveal their true names right after birth, followed by their first meal of consuming their eggshell—without exception, Muria himself had done the same.

“Your Majesty, I don’t understand Dragon Language,” the remaining guard showed an embarrassed expression. The true names of Baby Dragons were spoken in Dragon Language, and without understanding it, it was hard to recognize.

Muria fell silent, waiting quietly until the little Black Dragon had finished eating its eggshell. He then approached, looking down at it with what he thought was a gentle smile, “Little Black Dragon, what is your true name?”

A true name is unique and possesses certain special powers, such as signing Contracts. However, it is effective only if the individual themselves writes down their own true name. Writing down someone else’s true name during a Contract signing will not give the Contract any validity.

Therefore, a true name is generally useful only to its owner. To others, someone else’s true name is not that useful; it’s just for reference.

“My name is Sackson,” said the little Black Dragon, shrinking into itself and looking up at Muria with a touch of reverence born from intelligence. Upon hearing Muria’s question, it didn’t hesitate to reveal a part of its true name.

“Um, is there any more food?” the little Black Dragon stretched out its Claw to touch its belly, asking Muria shyly. It had finished all the eggshells but was still unsatisfied.

“Hmm?” Muria twitched his nose a couple of times, then frowned at the little black dragon. He had caught a faint stench coming from its body. “There is, but you need to take a bath now.”

“…” The little black dragon Sackson looked at Muria with a bewildered face. What was happening? Why did he suddenly need to take a bath?

“You stink a bit!” Muria looked at the little black dragon Sackson with a slight disdain. He knew that this was a unique scent of the black dragons, who liked to dwell in swamps, and their bodies invariably had a foul smell.

This was the same as the sulfur scent of the Red Dragon and the naturally emanating blended fragrance from the Golden Dragon. It was the body odor of a dragon. Of course, there were also dragons without any scent.

“…” The little black dragon continued to look bewildered. As a member of the dragon race, just slightly superior to the despicable White Dragons, Yorkson inherited the high intelligence from birth and was acutely aware. It knew it had to behave obediently and must not cause any trouble.

“Take it for a bath; after the bath, feed it well,” Muria turned his head and commanded the somewhat baffled Cloud Giants at the door, “Remember to put some extra spices in its bathwater. I don’t want to smell that stench the next time I see it.”

“Understood, Master Muria.” Two Cloud Giants, equally puzzled by Muria’s orders, quickly complied.

In the following time, baby dragons successively hatched from their eggs, but no type of dragon egg hatched two baby dragons on the same day. The birth times of the baby dragons were all different.

This indicated one thing: Muria’s father had likely snatched a significant number of evil dragons and selected only one egg from each nest. Each Dragon Egg had been meticulously chosen by the legendary Titan Ansol, even the worst White Dragon Eggs underwent a selection process.

So far, a one hundred percent hatching rate already proved a point. Even with the contribution of the incubation array set up by Muria, it also had to do with the extremely high quality of this batch of eggs.

Three years flickered by, and the number of giants on Taiji Island successfully broke through the thirty thousand mark, with both Mountain and Tidal Giant populations surpassing one thousand. Only the number of Storm Giants increased to three hundred and fifteen in three years.

The Giant City, centered around the White Jade Divine Palace on Taiji Island, also began to take shape. Most of the giants settled there. With giants continually joining Taiji Island, White Jade City has been expanding continuously without halting construction.

The growth in the number of Storm Giants indicated the expansion of Muria’s personal guard. As their numbers grew, something naturally unfolded—the Storm Giants themselves divided into a hierarchy.

With equal strength among themselves, other factors could influence the outcome of battles. Thus, the Giant Peng became a symbol of status among the Storm Giants, and those with Giant Peng companions began to naturally form a clique, subconsciously excluding those without a Giant Peng.

Those Storm Giants with Giant Pengs always stayed close to Muria, trying to stay as near to him as possible. The tasks of patrolling Taiji Island and the surrounding eight grain-producing islands were all executed by the Storm Giants without Giant Pengs.

During these three years, the cloud giant leaders exiled to the eight islands around Taiji Island carried out the tasks given by Muria with great caution.

These cloud giant leaders led their followers to cut down all the useless trees on the islands, planted fruit trees found on the Titan Islands, berry-producing bushes, and plants favored by herbivorous lower-level monsters.

On those eight islands, one could see fruit orchards laden with fruit everywhere and large pastures where herds of cattle and sheep-like monsters roamed and grazed on plants. The eight islands supplied Taiji Island with a large amount of meat and fruit every day, greatly expanding the diet of the giants who were sick of eating seafood every day.

Such achievement made Muria quite satisfied, and he began to allow the eight cloud giant leaders to enter the White Jade Divine Palace on the first day of each month to attend the monthly council and report on their work.

Muria, in these three years, spent most of his time within the Five-Color Dragon Castle, welcoming the birth of the five-colored baby dragons.

During this time, all the dragon eggs given by Muria’s father had hatched successfully without a single dead egg. This miracle-like event, if it had spread to the mainland, would have certainly caused a sensation. However, the giants on the Titan Islands only entered and never left, so the news could not spread.

Witnessing the birth of nearly a hundred baby dragons, Muria also verified a few things, such as dragons being extremely intelligent beings. Even just-hatched baby dragons could read the room, knowing when to meekly submit and obey, regardless of whether their commander had a dragon-repelling Golden Dragon scent.

Of course, evil dragons were always evil dragons—dragons are wicked by nature. Among the Five Colored Dragons, the Green, Black, and White Dragons all behaved very cleverly without causing trouble after figuring out the environment they were in.

But the most powerful evil Red Dragons and some of the second-strongest Blue Dragons were different. After being born and inheriting knowledge, these Red and some Blue Dragons were arrogantly unbearable, just like the six Red Dragons that Muria had first raised.

But for such dragons, Muria treated them consistently, “educating” them with thunder in his hands, on how to be proper dragons under his command…

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