Chapter 14: The Way of the Stick and Carrot

The golden-red sun dipped more than halfway below the horizon, the remaining daylight spreading across the sea and staining much of the sky red. On the platform of the Crystal Castle, the cloud giant guards in their splendid armor remained faithfully at their posts.

Suddenly, on one of the platforms, a fifteen-meter-tall cloud giant looked up at the sky, a joyful expression on his face. In the direction of his gaze, a gigantic humanoid creature was slowly descending towards the castle, wings flapping.

Muria, flapping his wings leisurely, took his time descending. It took him a while to land. After all, the darting descent technique used by the dragon leader was not something he dared to attempt yet. His life was precious.

"Lord Muria," the cloud giant leader greeted him with a joyful expression. "You've learned to fly so quickly. It seems that Bart has been very diligent."

"Heh," Muria replied with a pale smile. Although he had learned to fly, he felt no gratitude towards the dragon leader, even a bit of irritation.

The reason was simple. The damn golden-scaled dragon's teaching method was too crude and straightforward. Dropping him from tens of thousands of meters in the air, the first time Muria didn't manage to fly properly, leading to a free fall.

After falling thousands of meters, the golden-scaled dragon and its kin caught Muria, took him back up to ten thousand meters, and dropped him again...

Catch, lift, drop. This was the dragon leader's method of teaching Muria to fly, without any verbal instructions or sharing of experience, letting him learn to use his wings and tail to fly through countless free falls, finding the method that suited him best.

Indeed, this method allowed him to learn to fly in the shortest time, but it was too direct. However, Muria couldn't really complain about the dragon leader, given that it was a retainer of his mother, unlike the genuinely respectful giants.

"Abert, why are you still here?" Muria asked, somewhat puzzled. The Crystal Castle was guarded by one thousand eight hundred cloud giants, led by eighteen fifteen-meter-tall cloud giants, who guarded the castle in shifts.

"Lord Muria, it's not yet time for the shift change," Abert replied with a simple smile.

"Is that so?" Lord Muria eyed the sun, almost completely submerged beneath the sea.

"Abert, you're delaying the shift change just to wait for Lord Muria?" Just then, a loud voice came from behind Muria.

Turning around, Muria saw a cloud giant leader holding a spiked mace, also fifteen meters tall, approaching with a hundred cloud giants onto the castle platform.

This was a particularly robust cloud giant leader, looking unfriendly at Abert but his gaze softened into utmost reverence upon seeing Muria.

With fervor, he and the giants behind him knelt on one knee: "Lord Muria."

Muria's face twitched, and he gestured, "Rise, Leader Bolton."

The muscular Leader Bolton huffily stood up, glaring angrily at a sheepish Abert.

"Alright, Leader Abert, take your men and rest," Muria quickly intervened to give Abert an out, not wanting to see the two leaders argue in front of him.

"As you command, my lord." Abert, as if pardoned, quickly led his subordinates down the other side of the platform, almost fleeing, feeling guilty about his actions.

"Hmph." Watching Abert's hasty retreat, Leader Bolton snorted, turning to Muria, "Lord, Abert is despicable, blocking my way to greet you. I will settle this account with him sooner or later."

"There's no need for that, Leader Bolton. If you wish to see me, just speak to the castle's maids."

"Hehe!" The bearded giant leader brightened up, pulling out a silver-blue irregular metal block from his chest, offering it to Muria.

Muria's eyebrows rose as he caught the silver-blue metal, feeling its weight, revealing a knowing smile: "Adamantium."

This was a magic metal known throughout Erathia for its hardness and high energy conductivity, ranked alongside mithril and orichalcum as the three most accessible legendary metals.

According to dragon lore, adamantium, mithril, and orichalcum could all be used to forge legendary weapons, but they were famous not just for that. What made them renowned was their relative abundance compared to other scarce and hard-to-obtain legendary metals.

In Erathia, these three metals were the only ones legendary beings below could hope to obtain; other legendary metals were out of reach until one reached legendary status.

"Bolton, you're lucky to have found such a large piece of adamantium," Muria, playing with the legendary metal, handed it back to the giant leader.

The burly giant leader hurriedly refused, "Lord Muria, this is my offering to you. How could I take it back?"

"Offering it to me?" Muria was surprised. Adamantium was relatively abundant compared to other legendary metals but still very rare overall, a metal many beings coveted but could seldom obtain.

"I don't need it now; keep it for yourself. It could greatly improve the quality of your spiked mace," Muria firmly returned the adamantium.

"Lord Muria, you could use this metal to forge your own exclusive weapon," the cloud giant leader insisted, quickly running away while shouting back, "Only this metal is worthy of you. And the quality of my mace is sufficient for my use; it doesn't need to be enhanced."

"Sufficient for use?" Muria smiled, holding the piece of adamantium, "In this world, who would refuse to have their weapon quality improved?"

"What does the Titan bloodline mean?" Muria, holding the adamantium, didn't pursue the matter further and walked downstairs, back into the castle.

Returning to his room, Muria immediately noticed the large-headed dragon hatchling gnawing on jerky.

This dragon hatchling, which Muria had nearly electrocuted to death before leaving the room, now appeared lively and well, shedding its charred scales and dead skin, showing only a few burn marks.

When the hatchling, named Auston, noticed Muria entering the room, it shuddered, trying to distance itself but quickly gave up the attempt, as Muria approached, staring at it.

Muria, seeing Auston's reaction, nodded in satisfaction, reminded of the ancient saying: "True filial piety stems from the discipline of the stick." This principle, although flawed, suited Muria's current situation with the dragon hatchlings perfectly.

He examined Auston, focusing on its body's changes. As the hatchling continued to eat, its injuries visibly healed, with scorched scales and dead skin shedding under Muria's gaze, revealing freshly grown scales underneath.

"Such a terrifying growth rate," Muria marveled at the quick healing, then thought, "Given my higher-ranking gold dragon bloodline compared to this red dragon, I should possess an even more formidable healing rate."

Muria looked at his hand, contemplating for a moment before discarding the idea of testing his healing abilities through self-harm: "I have no masochistic tendencies. Better to wait until I'm actually injured."

"Roar!" As Muria pondered

 his healing abilities, a loud, satisfying dragon roar echoed throughout the castle, startling Auston and causing the other hatchlings to huddle in fear.

"What special day is it?" Muria looked up, "The Golden Dragon Mother has awakened."

"Oh, not bad, my son, hatching the red dragon eggs," a young girl's voice praised from behind Muria.

Muria turned to see a door opening mid-air in his room, leading to a space with a mountain of gold. The Golden Dragon Mother, Atlis, in her breathtakingly beautiful human form, stepped through the portal.

"Lady Atlis," "Lady Atlis,"...

Sophia, who had been taking care of the dragon hatchlings with a group of dragonkin maids, immediately led the greeting to the castle's mistress.

"Lady Sophia," Atlis nodded, "You've taken good care of Muria these past few years."

"It's my honor to care for Lord Muria, Lady Atlis," Sophia replied respectfully.

"Little Muria. You've grown," Atlis observed the eight-meter-tall Muria, "But compared to your father, you're still a little one."

"My father," Muria's expression became complex, having seen the imposing, majestic "man" only once at birth and not since.

"Cough," Atlis also remembered Muria had only met Ansol once, clearing her throat, "Your father is very busy, so he hasn't had time to see you."

I believe that only the recovery abilities described in Jiang Nan's "Dragon Raja" are worthy of dragons, so I modestly imitate that.