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

All the mercenaries remained silent, leaving only the sound of breath as constant as the waves of the sea. In a stillness that seemed to engulf everything, they waited quietly for the person suspended above to issue commands.

Alexander was also waiting. Right after the rescue operation concluded, he went straight to the graveyard community.

Alas, the place was still shrouded in darkness, a space as silent as death itself.

Since establishing ten thousand survival bases, Sophia had disappeared just as quietly as they had appeared, never to be seen again.

"Boss!" The white walls rippled like water, and Cain, along with five others, emerged, their faces flushed with excitement:

"We’ve found the location of the black beetles, a total of twelve hundred!"

"Where are they all?" Alexander, floating in mid-air, asked urgently.

These individuals, like Cain, possessed the innate talent to foresee danger. Alexander had sent them out to scout the locations of the beetle swarms in preparation for the hunt. While these beetles couldn’t be transformed into Ghost Pills, they could be used as ghost crystals to enhance strength.

Alexander planned to train all one hundred million people to the level of Ghost Kings or even Ghost Emperors, and then return to the real world. Meanwhile, these individuals would continue to hunt for him here until the final battle commenced.

With one hundred million Ghost Kings or Ghost Emperors, as long as they stayed in this space, they would be safe from any danger.

Even if there were endless swarms of insects, as soon as Alexander returned to the Horror World and reopened all Instances, they could enter the Horror World through the Horror Instance to find refuge.

"There are twelve hundred swarms across the globe. Nine hundred are below the ten-million level, two hundred and seventy are in the tens of millions, and thirty are definitely over a hundred million! The most terrifying are two of them!"

Cain spoke, his face betraying a look of extreme terror, and his voice trembling:

"It’s countless, seemingly infinite. I even have a premonition that if we encounter either of these two swarms, even if we had ten times more people, all of Emperor level, we wouldn’t be able to stop them."

These words sent chills down many spines and made scalps tingle with fear.

"Let’s start with the swarms at the million level!" Alexander didn’t recklessly charge into the swarms numbering in the billions.

At the same time, the swarms outside were not like the kind the bases faced, which seemed more like assessments than actual threats. The swarms the bases faced might not have even one Emperor-level among a thousand, and this was considering the current situation which was far more dire than before.

In the past, it wasn’t unheard of for smaller bases with fewer numbers to encounter a few thousand black beetles, with the highest being only a few at the Imperial level.

A true swarm, perhaps every few dozen would have an Emperor-level beetle—that was the difference. Therefore, Alexander decided to target the weaker swarms first, to fight and grow stronger through battle, rapidly increasing the survivors’ strength.

Just as Alexander began to prepare his forces, in the Horror World, terrifyingly huge snowballs were forming with the momentum of an avalanche.

Under the command of the generals appointed by Alexander and with the help of duplicates, a ghostly tide that would sweep across the entire Horror World was slowly gathering.

...

Horror World, Skeleton City.

As one of the two major cities in the First Ghost Realm, Skeleton City ruled over one of the two great ghost alliances. Although it was not as powerful as Lake City, it still had nearly a billion ghost citizens and considerable strength.

This was one of the characteristics of the western Ghost Realms, one, two, seven, and three; because of the crazy erosion by the Mist World, they were much more compact than the ghost cities in the eastern Ghost Realms.

Additionally, there were many disputes between the two major alliances within the same Ghost Realm, leading to a concentration of masters within the capitals of the ghost alliances.

At this moment, in the city, there were no fewer than ten Ghost Emperors present.

Being early may not be as good as being timely.

At this time, a group of Ghost Emperors was casually chatting on the city wall, looking at the faintly visible white Mist on the distant horizon, each wearing a look of worry.

Suddenly, a beam of light rose from the teleportation plaza, immediately attracting everyone’s attention.

The next moment, Su Rong appeared on the teleportation array, clad in red molten lava armor, wielding a long spear. Her stunning figure immediately caught the eye of the Ghost Emperors.

"What a striking and beautiful female Emperor! When did such a personage appear in our First Ghost Realm? Has she come to Skeleton City to form an alliance?" The lord of Skeleton City admired and speculated.

But before the Ghost Emperors beside him could respond, one figure after another began to appear on the teleportation array.

Following Su Rong were naturally duplicates of Alexander, and then members of the Fierce Ghost Association.

Over a dozen Ghost Emperors with the exact same face followed by hundreds of similarly identical figures left everyone agape. Then, an army of millions descended.

Su Rong rose into the air, her spear thrusting forward forcefully.

The surging Ghost Energy exploded suddenly, and with a thunderous noise that pierced the sky, the massive city wall was pierced by a single spear thrust, creating a tunnel several dozen meters in diameter that went straight through to the inside of the city.

After all this, Su Rong then stood with her spear collected, her gaze turned towards the Ghost Emperors on the city walls. The corner of her mouth revealed a cold smile as she spoke:

"Hear me, all ghosts of Skeleton City, you have two choices: submit, or die! You have ten seconds. Those who do not submit will die!"

Arrogance, sheer arrogance!

Looking down at the ten million-strong ghost army below, the lord of Skeleton City thought he was facing a madman. Ten million might sound like a lot, but this was the Horror World!

It wasn’t just that this was a ghost alliance capital city; several large cities in the alliance, even some of the stronger medium-sized cities, could muster an army of ten million.

And it was clear that this opposing force of ten million had likely been hastily assembled. It even included ordinary evil spirits, which were almost laughable. Such beings could be wiped out by the thousands with a mere slap from them!

The only surprising element was the high number of powerful entities in this group. Especially those hundreds with identical faces, the majority of whom were of Ghost King level, and among them, there were even a dozen or so Ghost Emperors.

"The arrogant fools!" From Skeleton City’s side, a stunningly beautiful young girl leaped out. Holding a ghost axe with decorative patterns, she struck down towards Su Rong.

"Zhou has taken action, now we’re secure!" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Yes, Zhou may look like a little girl, but she’s an old-school inheritance Ghost Emperor, the city lord of Linen Ghost City!"

"These poor mixed troops, they’ve even provoked Zhou to take action! From Linen, Zhou enjoys eating the hearts of humans, and she has a cruel and brutal personality!"

The Ghost Emperors of Skeleton City were all reveling in Schadenfreude, watching the excitement from the sidelines. Of course, they were also vigilant—after all, the opposing side did have a substantial number of high-end combatants, and it would be troublesome even for an inheritance Ghost Emperor if they were to join the fray.

However, their vigilance turned out to be superfluous.

A dazzling streak of molten lava brilliance flashed by, and in the next moment, Zhou’s surging inheritance Ghost Emperor-level Ghost Energy was pierced as easily as tofu.

A golden-red molten lava spear had penetrated her left breast, with half the spear shaft protruding from her back.

Her ghost axe, though it struck Su Rong, was futile. A faint white mist passed over the wound, and the giant axe fell to the ground as the wound healed almost instantaneously.

With a fierce swing, Su Rong flung the petite and pretty corpse to the ground, her gaze once again turned towards the city walls:

"Submit, or die? You have chosen death, haven’t you?"

On the city wall, the Ghost Emperors shuddered in unison.

Forbidden! It was the power of the forbidden!

"Defensive army! Ghost Bone Legion, attack! Hold off that woman!" The lord of Skeleton City shouted in horror.

Immediately, the city’s defense forces rushed towards Su Rong like a tidal wave. Unfortunately for them, their opponent was Su Rong.

Though Alexander had not overtly favored her, as his woman, he certainly provided her with additional resources in private.

To ensure Su Rong’s safety, Alexander had also dispatched some special duplicates. Most duplicates elsewhere lacked the Hell Curse talent, but here, the majority possessed it.

And they used the Hell Curse without reservation, summoning not Ghost Emperors but soldier-level dark shadows infused with the power of the forbidden.

Only three duplicates were deployed, but they had a vast reserve of Ghost Energy in the quadrillions. Yet they only summoned soldier-level dark shadows. What would be the outcome of such an action?

In an instant, the dark shadows surrounded the city, countless black figures enveloped in forbidden Ghost Energy stood filling the space before the entire city wall.

The hastily assembled, charging defense army of over a hundred thousand was annihilated by just the front portion of dark shadows swinging their blades in unison.

"One last chance! Submit, or die!" Surrounded by innumerable dark shadows, Su Rong shouted authoritatively.