Dracotitán

"Are you still angry?" Heylois asked Muria as they were about to leave the Jade Palace.

"I..." Muria smiled awkwardly. He had been trembling with anger upon hearing the giants' comments, wanting to shout, "I didn't lose!" Yet, the young Titan, Gerald, honestly acknowledged his defeat to them.

"Victory is victory, defeat is defeat; that's just the way it is. Titans do not hide their failures," Heylois said, looking at Muria. "Besides, Gerald is a proud Titan. Although he's dissatisfied, he would never deny the truth."

"He's called Gerald?" Muria repeated the name, "I'll remember this favor."

Unknown to them, Gerald had caught up and overheard Muria's comment, promptly responding:

"If you really want to repay the favor, then practice your martial skills. Your grasp of Titan martial arts from the inheritance is too weak. Fighting you is not interesting. Train well, and next time, I'll beat you fair and square!"

"Gerald." Muria made an effort to lift his head and look at the young Titan beside Heylois. "Do you know that today was the closest you ever got to beating me? From now on, prepare to be crushed by me!"

"Muria, everyone can talk big. Your reliance is on that dragon blood-derived armor. Don't think I can't handle you. Just wait until I have my own signature weapon; you'll be the one getting slaughtered."

"What signature weapon?" Muria picked up on the term; his golden dragon mother had mentioned something similar when she took his mithril, seeming very special.

"It's a unique weapon that only our Titan race has the forging techniques for. Each Titan, once they reach a certain age, will have a weapon uniquely their own," Gerald explained to Muria.

"Is this weapon that special?" Muria was puzzled; aren't all weapons supposed to belong to one person?

"Hmph, each Titan's signature weapon is an extension of their own body. Unless permitted, no one else can even touch it. Moreover, once forged, the weapon can continue to incorporate various materials to enhance its power, offering limitless growth potential. Is that special enough?"

"Gerald, so can I eventually have one of these weapons for myself?" Muria was enticed by the description of a weapon that could grow indefinitely, akin to a part of one's own body—truly like a divine artifact.

"Of course, but you are too young now, far from the age to wield such a weapon. It's too early to talk about this."

"I'm too young? How much older are you than me? You look about the same age as me."

"I'm thirty-six years old. In sixty-four years, I'll be a hundred, and on my hundredth birthday, I can have my own weapon," Gerald said proudly.

"A hundredth birthday." Muria's lips twitched; a hundred-year-old Titan was merely considered a youth and not yet mature, while most humans wouldn't even live to see their hundredth birthday.

"You two kids just over thirty, talking about signature weapons, it's still a long way off," Heylois interjected.

"Heylois, you're only twelve years older than me, and you still have to wait a long time for your weapon," Gerald murmured.

"I'm different from you," Heylois glanced at Muria with a meaningful look.

"What's so different? I know you're a prodigy, but you still have to wait for your hundredth birthday just like everyone else."

"Can you put me down now?" Muria couldn't help but interject. Learning that one had to be a hundred years old to receive their signature weapon dampened his spirits; at thirty-three, a hundred years seemed an eternity away.

"Thump!" Without hesitation, Heylois dropped Muria to the ground.

"Ah, Heylois, I thought you were going to carry Muria straight to the homeland. You let him go so soon?"

"Are you asking for a beating?" A flash of brilliant golden lightning flickered on Heylois, as a warning.

"Huh?" Muria, who had just been dropped, moved his limbs and discovered he could fully control his body again.

"Get up, we're ready to go," Heylois called to Muria, who was testing his limbs on the ground.

"Okay." Muria stood up, finding himself at the entrance of the Jade Palace, where, perhaps due to his recent battle, there was not a single giant guard in sight.

"How do we get to the homeland?" Muria was curious about their means of travel.

"By teleportation." Heylois pulled out a silver rectangular metal rod from her robes, decorated with multicolored patterns.

"What's this?" Muria asked, intrigued.

"A one-time teleportation array," Gerald answered.

"One-time? Teleportation array?" Muria watched as Heylois casually threw the silver rod to the ground. Upon contact, the rod disintegrated, forming a slowly rotating circular array.

"This is... wow." Muria was at a loss for words. The Titans really knew how to make an entrance with their high-end, disposable teleportation technology.

"Let's go!" Heylois put her hand on Muria's shoulder, half dragging him into the teleportation array. As Gerald also stepped in, the array activated instantly. A surging force tore through space, transporting them to a predetermined coordinate.

In the doorway of the Jade Palace, only specks of silver dust remained, scattering in the wind...

High mountains stretched endlessly into the distance, ancient and majestic. The vegetation here was taller and older than on Tai Chi Island, where Muria came from. As the teleportation ended, Muria, standing atop a lofty mountain within a simple courtyard, was mesmerized by the scenery.

"So this is the Titan homeland." Muria took a deep breath, the elemental concentration here many times that of Tai Chi Island.

Looking up, he saw a cloud whale gliding through the sky, its vast body casting a huge shadow on the ground. Muria looked down to see a muscular, thick-furred black giant ape leaping through the mountains...

In the ancient and vast air of the Titan homeland, many powerful beings resided, their unrestrained auras bursting like volcanoes in Muria's senses.

Muria looked towards the strongest aura he felt, more prominent than the sun in his perception. Then, Muria stiffened: "How can such a being exist in the Titan homeland?"

It was a gigantic fox, slumbering among the mountains, its silver fur dancing in purple flames, its large and graceful body adorned with nine long tails that spread across numerous mountain ranges.

Proud, majestic, domineering, noble... Watching this colossal fox, Muria thought of several adjectives, but even those seemed insufficient to describe this emperor fox.

"The Purple Emperor of the Underworld," Gerald's voice, filled with complex emotions, came from beside Muria as he too gazed at the fox burning with purple flames.

"This is?" Muria recovered from his shock.

"It's known as the Emperor of Flame. We don't know its real name," Gerald sighed.

"How can our world have such beings?" Muria was still staring at the distant fox, unable to shift his gaze, "My inherited memories mention nothing of this."

"The Emperor

 comes from the void, not belonging to our world. I heard from the elders that it's here looking for someone and just resting temporarily in Erathia."

"Hmm? What about the Emperor?" Muria slightly turned to listen to Gerald. When he looked back, the fox that used mountains as its pillow had vanished, and he no longer felt that overwhelming aura.

"Maybe it's had enough rest and changed its form, wandering elsewhere in the homeland to clear its mind. To tell the truth, Muria, you're quite lucky to have seen the Emperor on your first day here. We hardly ever see it."

"That so!" A profound sense of loss surged through Muria, dampening his spirits.

"Ding-dong..." Just then, a melodious and elegant music reached his ears, washing over him like clean water, slightly lifting his spirits.

"What was all that music I listened to before?" This was Muria's first thought as he compared the music he used to enjoy with what he was hearing now.

"Is this... an angel?" Following the source of the exquisite music, Muria saw a handsome young man passionately playing a harp, a youth with three pairs of snow-white wings.

However, the angel's choice of location for playing—the branch of a tree just outside the courtyard where Muria was—left him speechless.

"Oh, him again?" Gerald sighed helplessly upon hearing the music.

"Who is he?" Muria asked curiously, not expecting to see other Titans but instead encountering a charming Emperor Fox and now a six-winged angel playing the harp outside someone's home.

"He's a Celestial Descendant, not an angel, Muria. Make sure not to get that wrong!" Gerald cautioned earnestly, "They are descendants of the ancient gods, similar to angels but indeed not angels, just as we are to giants."

"Descendant of the ancient gods." Muria smacked his lips; that sounded impressive, "But this Celestial Descendant looks so much like those angels, it's impossible to tell them apart."

"When a Celestial Descendant fights, you'll instantly see the difference. In this state, they really don't look much different from ordinary angels, just with more wings."

"What's his story? Why is he up in a tree playing the harp?" Muria asked, still curious.

"Listen closely to the music he's playing," Gerald suggested with a playful smile.

"This music..." Muria listened carefully, finally realizing as his initial shock from the Emperor Fox subsided, and he hadn't paid much attention until now, "It's expressing love!"

"Really..." Muria looked at the Celestial Descendant still playing outside, speechless, then surveyed the simple and unadorned courtyard, "Whose residence is this?"

"Who else? It's Heylois's, of course. This guy is pursuing her. He comes here every day to play a song he composed himself, rain or shine."

"Wow." Muria felt a familiar sense of déjà vu, then gossipingly asked, "What does Heylois think of him?"

"I've already told you."

"Huh?" Muria was puzzled, then understood as a fifty-meter-long spear of golden lightning whizzed past him, heading straight for the handsome Celestial Descendant.

At that moment, Muria saw what set Celestial Descendants apart from ordinary angels. As the spear neared, the six snow-white wings on the youth's back burst into incandescent flames tinged with a hint of blood red.

"Boom!" The blazing fire formed a semicircular shield that blocked the lightning spear. The two collided and exploded, scattering fragments of incandescent fire and golden lightning, along with translucent shards of wind blades, mostly falling on the verdant ancient tree beneath the youth.

Yet, this tree caught in the crossfire rippled with a faint verdant glow, blocking all the aftershocks, and not a single leaf fell during this formidable clash.

"He really is impervious." Muria watched the Celestial Descendant, whose flames were receding but still focused on playing, and couldn't help but remark.

Muria had now seen the uniqueness of a Celestial Descendant. The sacred flames burning fiercely with the might to purge all impurities seemed no less potent than Titan power.

"Miss Heylois, how do you find the piece I played today?" After finishing, the Celestial Descendant stood up and called out towards the courtyard.

"Get lost!" That was Heylois's response.

The handsome youth, hearing such a harsh reply, showed no change in expression. Instead, he nodded politely to Muria and Gerald in the courtyard, then gathered his harp and transformed into a blaze of incandescent fire, vanishing on the lush, knotted ancient tree.

Describing the brief appearance of the Purple Emperor took me half an hour to revise and still left me dissatisfied, but it will have to do for now.

Surely someone recognizes which novel the Fox Emperor comes from.

I've always wondered what the Titan homeland would be like, aside from Titans. There should be other creatures, perhaps those subjugated by Titans or powerful species allied with them.

Then I thought of the Purple Emperor. What else could elevate the prestige of the Titan homeland more than a Fox Emperor?

By the way, the Purple Emperor is a very special and powerful entity, unmatched by any Titan of the same rank, and cannot be subjugated by any Titan in my books. It belongs only to one person.