Supreme Magus novel Chapter 4002

Chapter 4002: A Fellow Predator (Part 1)

Serfs, male and female concubines, servants, and the survivors of the Black Stork tribe looked at her group not with fear, but with hope. To them, Friya and Nalrond were heroes who had come to rescue them from their oppressors.

Where the Yellow Wind tribe saw merciless butchers, everyone else saw champions of justice and freedom.

"Gods, this is so messed up." Friya said. "I mean, I know that the Yellow Wind tribe is the bad guy here, but what about the children? What about the elders? How can we judge who deserves to live and who dies?"

Lith opened his mouth to answer, but Friya stopped him.

"Maybe you can live with that burden on your conscience, but I can’t." She said. "I won’t hurt anyone without reason."

"I wasn’t about to suggest anything cruel." Lith replied. "I wanted to point out that’s the reason we need a justice system. This is too big for us. I mean, without its slaves and warriors, the Yellow Wind tribe will collapse.

"They will be slaughtered by the first criminal outlaw tribe they meet. If we leave them here, it’s the same as killing them ourselves."

"What do you suggest?" Nalrond asked.

"To call in an expert." Lith shrugged. "I’m sure that Grandma will make an exception to the rule when she learns that Meln has entered the Desert and planted his Upyrs without her knowledge."

A quick call to the Overlord put his theory to the test.

"Don’t be silly, Featherling." Salaark dismissed the idea with a sweep of her hand. "I’m very busy, but there’s little that happens in the Blood Desert without my knowledge. If Meln had dared enter my turf, I would have noticed it, and he would be dead."

The Guardian was swamped in the mountain of paperwork she had to deal with every day to keep things in the Desert running smoothly. Dozens of pieces of paper orbited around her as Salaark signed, amended, or scrapped the single legislative proposals.

"Do you think I would waste your time with a prank?" Lith asked.

"I don’t think, I hope so." She replied. "Because I don’t like the alternative one bit. I’m coming there right now."

Salaark appeared so fast that she seemed to materialize out of her own hologram.

"Where’s the Upyr? I don’t feel or smell anything off." She said while sniffing the air and spreading her breathing technique, Mother Sun, through the ground.

"It’s easier if you read my mind." Lith offered her his hand. "Everyone’s mind, actually."

From so close, the Overlord didn’t need physical contact, but she took Lith’s hand nonetheless, not to miss a single detail. Her bronze skin went pale as she witnessed the recollection of the fight and the powers the Upyrs had displayed.

"This makes no sense." She said after a few seconds of stupor. "I didn’t perceive anything aside from the spells everyone used, and I was still at the Starry Lagoon village. How could I miss the Upyrs and their bloodline abilities?"

She knelt near Hassar, probing his unconscious mind for answers. Salaark tapped into his memories with subtle suggestions that conjured the details of his meeting with Orpal in the form of a dream.

"Are you sure the Usurper won’t notice?" Hassar would have never trusted a stranger, but he had no choice.

Orpal had come in his Vurdalak form, offering the chieftain to take his blood or face the annihilation of the Yellow Wind tribe.

"My presence here is all the proof you need. The old hag you call the Usurper is not as strong as she thinks, or she would have sensed and killed me when I crossed the border." Orpal nodded. "I’m not asking for much. We both can greatly benefit from this relationship."

"Is this all you want? Rumors and information about the Blood Desert?" Hassar asked, and the Vurdalak nodded. "Most of the things you asked me are public knowledge. Any merchant or traveler could tell you about it."

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