As long as you have the courage, fierce ghosts go on maternity leave.

Alexander hadn’t expected that Quillhart would recklessly rush forward, risking his own life to stall the black beetle. Although the presence of his niece and nephew here could account for some of it, this fearless charge still took Alexander by surprise.

Just as the black beetle was about to reach Quillhart, Alexander’s form flickered. In an instant, he appeared beside Quillhart, sword in hand.

Whoosh!

With a sword that cleaved the air and a blade that gleamed with a deadly aura, the Emperor-class black beetle was, without any surprise, cut in half by Alexander.

For a moment, all three of them gaped, unable to believe the scene that had unfolded before them. An Emperor-class beetle—just like that—had been effortlessly slain in an instant by the man before them. The terrifying fluctuation of Ghost Energy that emanated from him in that moment of swinging his sword left them completely horrified.

Even the captain of their base’s defense team, a formidable man who had once killed an Emperor-class beetle, never exuded such overwhelming Ghost Energy.

Inheritance Ghost Emperor!

The thought simultaneously flashed through the minds of all three, a conclusion they could scarcely believe.

"Mr. Alexander, your strength...," Quillhart stammered, still in shock as he gazed at Alexander. "Have you already reached the level of an Inheritance Ghost Emperor?"

"More or less," Alexander nodded. His current strength was indeed at the level of an Inheritance Ghost Emperor, having inherited two major cities of Dark Hell and Lake City, which boosted his Ghost Energy to a staggering fifty billion.

Even without relying on forbidden power, Alexander was confident that he could instantly kill the majority of Inheritance Ghost Emperors in the Horror World with his innate skills.

"As expected!" All three nodded, validating their internal speculations.

Even the previously arrogant Moonshade now put away her pride, her face filled with reverence: "To think that someone could actually reach the level of Inheritance Ghost Emperor. I had thought that such information from the Horror Instance was a lie! So far, among tens of thousands of survivor bases worldwide, there are at least eighty thousand Ghost Emperors, yet no one has ever found a way to break the Ghost Emperor’s limit."

Eighty thousand Ghost Emperors!

This statement made Alexander’s eyes light up. If there were eighty thousand Ghost Emperors, how many Ghost Kings like Moonshade would there be? A million? Even ten million?

Don’t forget, just one country has a population exceeding one billion. The global population has reached over a hundred billion.

With such a multitude of people, even if only one percent or even one thousandth choose to stay, that would still represent a formidable force.

In Horror World, even if Alexander could muster such strength, he doesn’t have that many Ghost Pills. These are beings imbued with forbidden power! Alexander won’t need to expend additional Ghost Pills on them.

Truly, these are first-rate minions.

Right now, Alexander is severely lacking in manpower, or more precisely, lacking in forces on the forbidden level.

Even more crucial is the fact that he could sustain so many Ghost Kings, which implies that the number of forsaken black beetles wouldn’t be few. In Alexander’s hands, these black beetles could be put to far greater use.

If the black beetles contain enough forbidden power, crafting a hundred Ghost Pills from a single one would be a piece of cake.

While the odds of gathering one trillion are slim, for Alexander, it’s at least a good start. The only issue is how to collect these minions and acquire so many abandoned black beetles.

After all, the Parallel World Earth, although not as vast as Horror World, still far exceeds Earth—the Earth before Alexander’s previous life—by more than tenfold. Deploying one million duplicates would still be like a drop in the bucket, let alone the equally crucial mission of conquering Horror World.

Hesitating slightly, Alexander shifted his gaze to the Emperor-level beetles in his hand. Sensing that the forbidden power contained within was barely enough to create a single Ghost Pill, Alexander immediately lost interest and tossed the bisected black beetle corpse to Quillhart:

"Consider this a token of gratitude for you stepping forward to block the beetles earlier!"

"For me?" Quillhart was stunned, his eyes widening as he incredulously caught the beetle corpse tossed by Alexander.

"This is an Emperor-level beetle! Even if it’s given to ordinary people to consume, with the help of the Ghost Nerve, it could elevate them directly to King level, or even Imperial level power."

"Ghost Nerve?" Alexander’s curiosity piqued, he quickly inquired, "What is that? Is it the reason you can exceed physical limits to absorb black beetle’s Ghost Energy?"

"It’s a cultivation method passed down by Thorneblade! It allows us to rapidly absorb Ghost Energy through cultivation and use the absorbed energy to strengthen our bodies directly. Any survivor can obtain it unconditionally at any base."

Quillhart’s answer didn’t clarify things for Alexander; instead, it left him with even more questions. Cultivation methods have now appeared as well? Isn’t this a world invaded by horror? What the hell is going on?

What other outrageous developments will follow?

And who exactly is this Thorneblade? Judging by the excited, reverential glances everyone gives whenever his name is mentioned, he obviously commands a terrifying reputation among the survivors.

Alexander even feels that Louis’s initial reputation in Dark Hell could not possibly compare to this. These people revere him as if he were a god!

Alexander said after brief contemplation, "This isn’t the place to talk. If you can absorb them quickly, then take these two beetles now! I’ll ask the rest of the questions when we get back to the survivor base you mentioned."

With that, he looked expectantly at Quillhart.

The reason Alexander was so eager for Quillhart to absorb the beetles right now was clearly for another purpose.

Becoming stronger through beetle absorption was clearly not something one should do in public. If they returned to the base, even if it was easy to absorb the black beetles, Quillhart would likely do so in private.

What Alexander was curious about was the so-called Ghost Nerve—what it was, what effects it had. He naturally wanted to witness it firsthand.

"It’s no trouble, not at all, but..." Quillhart hesitated, glancing at his niece and nephew, obviously contemplating sharing some of the beetles with them. However, he quickly abandoned the idea.

For one, these were given by Alexander for him to use. More importantly, the arrogance and spoiled behavior of Moonshade dissuaded Quillhart from asking for more beetles for them.

So after only a moment’s hesitation, Quillhart decided to follow Alexander’s instructions and consumed the two halves of the black beetles. Sitting cross-legged, he tossed the beetle corpses into his mouth and began to operate the Ghost Nerve, a practice essential for every survivor.

In Alexander’s pupils, a burst of silver light swelled, activating Ghostly Piercing Vision. He looked straight into Quillhart’s body, witnessing the flow of Ghost Energy.

There was no complex cycle, no mysterious absorption of some worldly aura. Quillhart was merely guiding the Ghost Energy in his chest to form a hexagram.

The energy formed an imperfect, even ugly, hexagram, clearly illustrating Quillhart’s lack of artistic and control skills. Yet the moment this pattern was established, the black beetles he consumed suddenly transformed into streams of Ghost Energy, flowing directly into the hexagram.

The hexagram, now grayish-white, quickly broke down the energy into two parts. One part, incredibly pure, integrated directly into Quillhart’s flesh and muscles, reinforcing him at an incredible speed.

The other part melded into his internal reserve of Ghost Energy. In a blink of an eye, his strength ascended to the peak of the Ghost King level, and without pause, broke into the Imperial tier, stopping only at the mid-Imperial level.

All of this happened within a few breaths. Quillhart’s strength had silently reached the mid-Imperial level.

Alexander was stunned. Was this the Ghost Nerve Quillhart mentioned? A simple hexagram drawn on the chest?