"You sons of bitches! While I admit that I was in the wrong for killing one of your people, how could you give such outrageous demands?! Are you even human?!" Kulas exploded with anger after receiving the Three Pillars of Heaven's demands through one of their messengers.
The messenger continued coldly, "You didn't kill some insignificant nobody. You killed one of the Sun Family's elders. We're already being generous with our demand—because not even the lives of a hundred of your children could compensate for the loss of one of our elders."
Kulas trembled with anger, exuding such immense killing intent that it forced the messenger to his knees.
"W-Was the elder not enough to satisfy you?! Are you going to kill me, too?!" The messenger exclaimed with a terrified yet provocative expression on his face, almost as if he was daring Kulas to kill him.
"..."
Kulas retracted his killing intent and fell silent.
After a moment of silence, he spoke in a calm voice, "If the Three Pillars of Heaven are so desperate for war, you need only say the word. There's no need to make unreasonable demands or deliberately provoke me."
"W-What?" The messenger's eyes widened in disbelief at Kulas's words.
'He's not actually going to go to war with the Three Pillars of Heaven over a measly few lives, right?' he wondered inwardly.
Despite the apparent severity of the demand, the messenger truly believed it was reasonable. In his mind, Kulas would rather sacrifice a few of his own children than provoke a war with the most powerful force in the world.
In his view, defying the Three Pillars of Heaven was sheer stupidity. Were he in Kulas's position, he would not hesitate to sacrifice his entire family to avoid offending them.
"You heard me," Kulas calmly said. "If the Three Pillars of Heaven desire war, I'll give it to them."
"W-Wait! You should reconsider this!" the messenger shouted. "I admit the Giant Race is formidable, but it's incomparably weaker than the Three Pillars of Heaven! You'll lose far more than just a few lives if this becomes a war! You have plenty of children anyway—what's the loss of a few?!"
"What's the loss of a few, you say…?" Kulas muttered.
Then he suddenly burst into laughter. "Hahaha! I never realized the Three Pillars of Heaven valued life so little! Did you bastards sell your souls to the devil or something?"
In truth, the Three Pillars of Heaven were fully aware of how unreasonable their demands were. However, they deliberately made such demands to put Kulas and the Giant Race in their place.
Simply put, they sought to assert their dominance over Kulas and the growing Giant Race, hoping to keep them firmly in check even as they continued to grow stronger.
After all, the Giant Race was spreading its influence and growing powerful at a terrifying pace—so much so that even the Three Pillars of Heaven, who considered themselves unrivaled, were beginning to feel the pressure.
Kulas then spoke in a cold voice, "I will not accept your demands. Go back and relay my message to the Three Pillars of Heaven."
"You… Are you sure you want to go this route?"
Kulas's eyes narrowed as he snarled, "If you don't get the fuck out of my face this instant, I'll have your corpse deliver my message instead!"
"!!!"
The messenger didn't dare to linger and immediately ran out of the room, tripping in the process.
After returning to the Holy Continent, the messenger relayed Kulas's response to the Patriarchs and Elders.
"That giant bastard was unbelievably rude and showed no respect for the name of the Three Pillars of Heaven!"
While he conveyed Kulas's message, the messenger did not hesitate to twist it, deliberately making it sound far worse than it truly was.
"To dare defy us so openly… These bastards have truly grown arrogant after gaining power too quickly," said the Patriarch of the Sun Family. "We must show them the consequences of their arrogance! Since they seem so eager to go to war, let's go to war!"
Since Kulas denied their demands, war was inevitable.
The Patriarch of the Tian Family sighed. "You make it sound as though this would be easy. Quite frankly, they hold a significant advantage due to their location."
The Giant Race was largely confined to the Giant Continent—an island surrounded by a vast ocean teeming with sea beasts—granting them an immense geographic advantage. Even if war were to be declared, it would primarily be the Three Pillars of Heaven pressing for battle. As long as the Giant Race remained on the defensive, they would be forced to launch the attack themselves, placing them at a clear disadvantage.
This meant that despite being weaker than the Three Pillars of Heaven, the Giant Race would not be dominated so easily. As long as they played their cards properly, they could easily prolong the war until they were ready to fight back.
The Three Pillars of Heaven were aware of this, hence why they didn't immediately declare war on the Giant Race.
Time passed. Although many years had gone by since Kulas rejected their demands, the Three Pillars of Heaven had yet to openly declare war. In truth, however, the war had already begun.
The Three Pillars of Heaven had quietly dispatched assassins and hired mercenaries to strike at the Giant Race, operating in ways that could not be traced back to them. As a result, aside from Kulas and the Giant Race themselves, no one else was aware that a shadow war had erupted between the two most powerful backgrounds in the world.
As a result of the war, all giants who had left the continent were recalled, and the Giant Race once again entered seclusion. However, unlike in the past, they did not seal off the continent, continuing instead to allow outsiders to enter their domain.
Meanwhile, after many years of searching, Tian Yang and Ren Xia finally found the Heavenly Doctor. Though they were unaware that war had already begun, they could sense that something had changed.