The group gathered around a cozy dining table for breakfast. Julia, with some help from Alicia, had prepared a simple breakfast. Once she set the last dish down, everyone started to eat. The breakfast was pretty good, much better than the previous night's dinner.
"This soup is delicious!!!" Lilith complimented as she enjoyed a spoonful of the vegetable soup Julia had made.
"Riya's magic helped a lot. She used her powers to grow these fresh veggies!" Julia gave credit to Riya. After all, they did not have any vegetables with them. Riya had used her special abilities to make fresh vegetables grow in the desert sand and all Julia had to do was pick them.
Aditya, who had been quietly eating, suddenly paused. He was about to eat a piece of fried fish with his chopsticks when he stopped. The chopsticks were just inches from his mouth, frozen in place.
"Aditya, what's wrong?" Alicia noticed his sudden change and asked with concern.
Everyone's attention turned to Aditya, worried about what might have caused him to stop so suddenly.
Aditya remained silent for a moment, then a slight smirk crossed his face as he finally put the fried fish into his mouth.
"We seem to have some visitors coming our way!!!" He said casually between bites.
"Visitors?" Julia and Alicia looked at each other, puzzled. But soon enough, Riya, Sasha, and Lilith also picked up on something. They had a special sense that allowed them to detect others from a distance.
"Now I get what you mean," Lilith remarked with a knowing look before she continued to enjoy her soup.
Lara, Alicia, and Julia were still a bit in the dark, wondering why the others were smiling. But then, a few minutes later, they too heard a noise. It was the sound of multiple other desert ships, approaching their own, which was parked in the midst of the vast desert.
Scene change_____
"Brother, why are we moving so fast this morning?" The tall and skinny man with tan skin asked. He was a middle-aged man. He was bald and he was one of the subordinates of the Harland. The reason he asked this question is because as pirates, it was their regular habit to party and drink for the whole night and sleep during day time.
However, this morning, his brother who was the leader pirate group woke everyone on the ship very early in the morning for some reason. Waking early in the morning wasn't in the blood so he was curious about the reason behind doing this.
"We've spotted a new target ahead!!!" Replied Captain Harland, who was the leader of a group of desert ship pirates.
Harland was a short middle-aged man who had a black beard. He wore a classic pirate hat. The most noticeable thing about Harland was the vertical 3-inch-long scar that ran across his left eye. Harland was blind. He could only see using his right eye.
Harland was a notorious figure in the Beast Continent. He and his crew lived on their fleet of desert ships as they roamed the vast desert. Their main job was to stop and rob any desert ship they encountered or passed through this desert.
His men were constantly on a watch to look out for any desert ship that might pass through this desert.
Harland had some subordinates at the Savannahclaw city. His subordinates would inform him every time a desert ship left the Savannahclaw city. Since Savannahclaw City was located at the very northern edge of the Beast continent, it was 100% confirmed if any desert ship left Savannahclaw City, this ship was going to cross the second largest desert in the whole world to head to other regions of the Beast Continent.
But they didn't just rob ships. Harland and his men also stopped the big ships carrying passengers. Holding the commercial ships hostage, he and his men demanded money from everyone on board. They called this a 'tax' for traveling through their territory, which they claimed was the entire desert. It was really just a way to extort money from people.
But one had the courage to stand against Harland and his men. Harland was extremely vicious. If someone offended him, then he would chase that person throughout the entire Northern region.
If anyone couldn't pay, Harland's crew would take them as captives and sell them as slaves. They were also known for being violent, often hurting or even killing people during their raids.
Whenever they found a private desert ship, especially one that looked like it belonged to someone rich, they would demand a huge ransom. They would also take the ship for themselves and would add it to their collection. At the moment, Harland had eleven medium-sized desert ships under his control, which he used to intimidate and threaten other travelers in the desert.
Day by day, Harland's wealth and his power were growing in the northern region. With 11 medium-sized desert ships under his control, not even the City Lord of Savannahclaw city would have the guts to confront Harland. No beast clan living in the Northern region had the guts to offend Harland.
Since there were only very few clans in the Northern region and each clan lived very far from each other, there wasn't any unity among these clans. Harland took full advantage of this to bully these clans as much as possible.
Harland was also a very clever man. He knew that as soon as he and his men stepped out of the northern region, the power and wealth that he was so proud of would be useless against the big giants.
Harland looked greedily at the beautiful desert ship they had found, not realizing it belonged to the Emperor of the Istarin Empire. "This magnificent ship will be mine!!!" He declared loudly. Such a beautiful ship would belong to someone of his status.
In just a few moments, Harland's fleet of eleven desert ships had completely surrounded Aditya's ship.
"We've got your ship trapped. Our magic cannons are ready to fire. If you don't want your ship to be destroyed, come out with your hands up!!!" Harland announced loudly, using a simple magic trick to amplify his voice. This trick was commonly used by cultivators to speak to large groups of people.
Inside Aditya's ship, the peaceful breakfast was interrupted by Harland's booming voice. They all heard him clearly through the walls of the ship.
Aditya's eye twitched in annoyance at Harland's demand. "Such a foolish person!!!!" He muttered under his breath while continuing with his meal. He seemed unfazed by the threat, showing no sign of worry or fear.
"They're probably those desert pirates I've heard about!" Alicia was aware of the many pirate groups that roamed the Beast Continent. Since the Beast continent is mostly made up of different beast clans and tribes, there were many pirate groups. Without a strong power taking responsibility for wiping out these pirate groups, the power and influence of these pirate groups have continued to increase.
"Are they a threat to us?" Lara asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
"They could be dangerous, but not to us." Alicia reassured her. Then, she turned to Aditya, who was still eating quietly. "Aditya, can you take care of them? I'd like to finish my breakfast without any interruptions." She knew well that Aditya was incredibly powerful. He was capable of handling the pirates with ease. Just a snap of his fingers would be enough.
Aditya let out a sigh, "Alright." It seemed the responsibility to deal with the pirates fell to him, as no one else at the table seemed bothered by their presence. They all continued eating their breakfast calmly without paying any mind to the pirates outside. In their view, these pirates were just a minor nuisance and weren't worth worrying about. These pirates were just a bunch of clowns.
Aditya put the chopsticks down and then stood up.
Harland and his men patiently waited for them to surrender. He was one billion percent sure that the other party was going to surrender. Even if the other party tried to do anything funny, the loaded cannons from his 11 desert ships were going to destroy them within seconds.
However, even after waiting for a few minutes, seeing that no one was coming out, Harland and his men looked at each other in confusion. Some of them wondered if there was anyone inside the desert ship.
But then they saw a man slowly walking to the deck of the ship. The man had long blue hair and blue eyes. "What do you want?" Aditya asked.
Hearing his words, Harland frowned. He replied in a cold tone. "You and everyone in that ship better surrender to me otherwise, I will make sure to give you a cruel death. You have 30 seconds in your hand." Harland did not even consider the possibility of this ordinary young-looking man being more powerful than him and his men. Surrounded by so many magic cannons even a Beginner 5th-order cultivator will be extremely careful.
"Hahahaha!!!!!! These guys are seriously funny." Meanwhile, in the living room, Lilith couldn't stop laughing hearing Harland's words.
"Did that punk threaten to kill Aditya? Hahaha!!!!!!" Lilith was holding her stomach as she was laughing so hard. Lilith found this situation to be really funny and amusing.
Who would thought that there would be such blind and stupid people in this world?
Aditya put his arms in his pocket as he began looking at the 11 ships that Harland had. He noticed that all 11 ships were in good condition.
Seeing Aditya not responding, Harland's frown deepened. Though he was very reluctant to fire Magic cannons as that would damage his favorite desert ship. But since the other party has disrespected him, he was going to kill the other party.
"Fire the magic cannons!!!!" Harland said in a dark tone.
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