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

Chapter 356: Kevin, how could you betray us?

"Die!" With a furious roar, Lord K hurled the spinning wheel from his hand. However, the moment it left his grasp, a momentary blankness struck his enraged mind.

The wheel, spinning rapidly, traced a beautiful arc and sliced one of his own Ghost Emperors in half at the waist. Despite being a major city lord and an inheritance Ghost Emperor, he was no match for this enraged strike infused with forbidden power.

Bisected! The corpse fell to the ground, the upper half’s eyes wide open in shock, staring at Lord K. Clearly, he had never imagined he would be the target of Lord K’s attack.

Ruby and the others were stunned, as were all of Lord K’s Ghost Emperors and the countless soldiers of the Third Ghost Realm’s allied army. Even Lord K himself was shocked!

Although Alexander had talked about inspecting the goods and splitting them, few actually believed him. Even the ordinary ghosts, who were buzzing with discussions, considered it mere idle talk, not thinking that Lord K would actually make a deal with Alexander.

After all, though this was a loosely formed army and they would go their separate ways after this battle, Lord K was still the organizer and commander. Even the major city lords were expected to follow his orders during this conflict.

Alexander’s words were dismissed as the last struggle of a dying man, a lowly attempt to sow discord that only low-ranking ghosts, whose intelligence was clouded by obsessions, would believe.

However, this scene completely overturned their beliefs. All the Ghost Emperors of the allied army looked at Lord K with hostile eyes. Could it be that there really was some unspeakable dirty deal between the two? Was all this a plot they had concocted? But this was too unbelievable!

"I get it now!" Suddenly, before anyone could recover from their shock, Alexander spoke with an appearance of sudden realization: "Kevin, brother! You must want to keep up the pretense, pretending to be enemies..."

This time, Alexander only began to speak before stopping abruptly, then adopting a stance completely opposed to Lord K: "Dog Kevin, our enmity is as deep as the sea. You want to kill me? Come on then, today we fight to the death, irreconcilable to the end!"

If Alexander had continued to act like they were allies, people might not have believed him, even if Kevin had killed one of their own. But Alexander’s sudden shift made everyone ponder the sentence he didn’t finish.

Humans, and ghosts alike, tend to believe in things they deduce themselves rather than what is directly told to them. By guiding them to a conclusion, they are more likely to firmly believe it.

Although the high-ranking figures present didn’t fully believe Alexander’s words, the reality in front of them made them somewhat convinced. The leader, betraying them?

"Kevin, what exactly is going on here? Don’t you owe us an explanation?" an enraged inheritance Ghost Emperor demanded, staring at Lord K.

"There’s nothing to explain. He just killed our city lord. He’s definitely a traitor. This is a conspiracy!" shouted an Imperial, a confidant of the recently deceased city lord, from a distance.

However, nobody paid attention to his opinion; all eyes were fixed on Kevin, waiting for his explanation.

"It’s you, isn’t it! You’ve done this! You controlled me somehow!" Lord K glared at Alexander, his Ghost Energy boiling over.

Alexander had intended to control Lord K again and solidify his guilt, but Lord K was already on guard. In his rage, he had almost lost his reason, allowing Alexander to slightly tweak his attack.

However, this also revealed the existence of their contract. Unlike other ghost slave contracts, the thread between Alexander and Kevin had a moon in the middle and was extremely weak.

Moreover, as an expert in such manipulations, Kevin quickly realized that Alexander was trying to control him again. When he tried, he found the other end of the thread solid as a rock, impossible to connect with.

Seeing everyone’s gaze turning towards him, Alexander knew their doubts would soon be dispelled by Kevin’s accusation.

He quickly adopted a frightened demeanor and spoke, "Kevin, brother, stop pretending. They are starting to suspect! Since you’ve already hollowed them out, finish them off quickly! You’re not planning to get rid of me too, are you?"

"Rid of you my foot!" Kevin exploded with rage, but Alexander didn’t give him a chance to speak.

His sudden outburst, followed by a slap to his chest, interrupted him, "As long as you’re not getting rid of me, that’s fine. You scared me! I knew you were a man of principle, Kevin. Go ahead!"

At this, the other Ghost Emperors panicked. A city lord shouted, "Xiaoyao City, retreat from the battlefield immediately!"

Everyone turned to look at the Ghost Emperor who had spoken, their gaze quickly shifting to his troops. They all wanted to know if what Alexander said was true.

Unnoticed by all, Alexander slightly relaxed when he recognized the speaker. At this point, whether what Alexander said was true or not was no longer important to these Ghost Emperors. What mattered was whether they had really been hollowed out.

These city lords had an inkling of the truth. Perhaps the initial few who joined the alliance did so to divide Dark Hell City, but as the numbers grew, even a fool would realize it wasn’t that simple.

Kevin’s intentions were not a mystery, and most had probably guessed them. The early joiners were overconfident, believing they couldn’t be hollowed out so quickly, each harboring their own agendas.

They thought if Kevin could benefit from this battle, why couldn’t they? For example, by annexing smaller cities.

Those who joined later faced the same dilemma as Alexander’s coerced tactics; when the Endless Abyss, with its hundred billion-strong army, invites, joining becomes the only option, whether one agrees or not.

Even the early joiners were overly confident and underestimated Kevin’s capabilities. Others might not know, but Alexander, who had always maintained a mental connection with Kevin, knew better.

Kevin, transformed into Lord K, had used his unique talents to orchestrate a scheme that spanned over a century, with his influence extending throughout the entire Third Ghost Realm. Given enough time, completely controlling these individuals was well within his reach.

Even now, he held sway over more than sixty percent of the entire battlefield. Although some areas were insufficiently influenced, or some ghost cities with stronger control were not under his grip, his power was still formidable.

If not for Alexander, Kevin might have been another legendary figure of an era like Hades. Unfortunately, there was no room for ’ifs,’ and more importantly, Xiaoyao City happened to be one of the first and most thoroughly hollowed-out major cities by Kevin.

As expected, when the city lord of Xiaoyao City issued a command, except for a few confidants, the rest showed no reaction and instead all turned their gaze towards Kevin. "So it’s you, Kevin, this was a trap, wasn’t it? You’ve been in cahoots all along, right?"

The high-ranking officials of all the allied ghost cities, except those controlled by Kevin, glared at him furiously, appearing ready to fight to the death.

"You fools!" Kevin was infuriated. His plan, even if successful, would now come at a great cost due to Alexander’s interference.

Ignoring the Ghost Emperors, Kevin’s eyes were solely fixed on Alexander, the detestable troublemaker he wished he could tear to pieces. He shouted fiercely, "Everyone, attack the city! Surround and kill Alexander! I want him devoured by millions of malevolent ghosts. Anyone who disobeys, kill them!"

With Kevin’s command, the army immediately converged towards Dark Hell City. Most ghost cities that were not fully hollowed out could no longer heed their own lords’ commands in the face of this billion-strong march.

After all, the true armies of the ghost cities were only a minority; most of the forces were ordinary ghosts, whose loyalty to their city lords was often questionable.

Even so, numerous loyal factions within the ghost cities caused widespread chaos. The army took ten minutes to cover a distance of less than a kilometer.

For Alexander, this was more than enough time!