The Five Calamities of the Mortal World

"A bunch of dirt-poor peasants pick up knives, and now they mean to slaughter every Noble Lord?"

"What a joke!"

"Since time immemorial, there's never been any such principle. We built our foundations over generations—what gives you the right to take them for yourselves?"

"Kill!"

"You dare raise knives and seize our grain? Our heads aren't made of dough. When cattle and horses refuse to obey, they get the whip. When people start harboring delusions, they lose their heads."

At first, the people of the world had been scared out of their wits by this slaughter. No one had imagined that someone could leave the world unplundered, ignore the Noble Families and Noble Lords, and actually join forces with the dirt-poor peasants to seize grain.

In ages past, there had been peasants driven mad enough to rise up, but they were usually crushed. Yet King Ming had secretly received support, breaking the old curse and unleashing a wave the likes of which the world had never seen.

But fierce suppression, far harsher than anyone had imagined, followed right on its heels.

In the past, this would have been the work of the imperial court. Now that there was no imperial court, the suppression was all the more violent, like a storm of wind and rain.

"They've finally made their move."

At the same time, as calamities ravaged the world and ghosts and gods ran amok among mortals, a place existed in balance with the mortal world. It did not receive the people's offerings of incense, yet had always taken the form of temples. There, countless Reincarnators, with Tieguanyin of the Imperial Capital at their center, held a discussion.

"The Rat Transformation Plague has appeared in the southwest. This isn't an epidemic. The living have been cursed, and in their dreams