Ever since the slaughter unfolded, Hu Ma went to handle another important matter. He realized that the battle for destiny was not as simple as it seemed on the surface and did not travel with the army. Now, he remains at the beginning of all this.

Gazing at the sky beneath the gloomy night, he slowly closed his eyes and then suddenly opened them:

"Set up the altar!"

From inside his sleeve, with a whooshing sound, a stream of altar flags flew out and circled around him, the altar nine zhang high.

Then, Er Guotou, borrowing the power of the Magic Altar, slowly raised his hand, and five stone weights of varying sizes flew out from the nearby valley.

One after another, they each fell into his altar at different positions. Each stone weight landing caused this side of the world to tremble as if the entire world was faintly absorbed by the altar.

Seeing the five stone weights enter the altar, Er Guotou's expression turned extremely grave. He cursed under his breath, "Damn it, let's go all out this time..."

With a flip of his hand, three incense sticks fell to the ground, releasing a green mist of incense smoke.

"Heavens turn clear, and Earth becomes bright, summon gods to descend upon the altar and illuminate the sky."

"Body transforms into god, god transforms into body, transforming to make the sun and moon clear and distinct."

"Heaven holds destiny, Earth divides yin and yang, in the world, walking ghosts, evil spirits and Yin Gods, heed the decree from above the altar to observe the world."

"Defy the order, and be executed!"

"..."

After chanting the incantation, he raised his hand and scattered a handful of yellow talismans. In the rustling sound, night clouds scattered, revealing five large stars. They shone brightly, overshadowing the other stars, two in the north and three in the south, like five eyes.

One of the eyes was looking eastward, outside Mingzhou, before Prince Changping's camp.

"Rotten again?"

This place had a surplus army under the banner of the Ming King, composed of poor people awakened by the 'not eating beef' followers, roaming across several provinces, and already gathering hundreds of thousands.

Most were old or young, but there were also over ten thousand able-bodied men.

This was originally the most valiant group among the surplus armies, intending to pass through Mingzhou to join the Ming King's main forces. However, unexpectedly, within a few days, they encountered disasters, and their situation deteriorated rapidly.

Their leader declared himself Food Begging General.

Being able to gather so many impoverished and foodless people under the Ming King's banner, endure several fierce battles without scattering the subordinates, and even protecting the lives of women and children, showed he was a man of skill and courage.

But now, this tough guy was crouching in front of the granary, weeping with heartache: "Are we supposed to starve to death, destined to go without food?"

"How many lives did we sacrifice to seize these few granaries? Afraid we wouldn't last till the autumn harvest, we rationed each grain, but just one night passed, and it rotted in the warehouse. How can such a sinful thing occur in this world?"

"Wasting food, no matter if you're human or ghost, will get you struck by lightning..."

"..."

"No need to hastily cry, crying won't bring food, nor make the landlord genuinely merciful."

The speakers were some strange people from the jianghu who had just arrived here in the morning, recommended by the sages of the 'not eating beef' sect, initially intending to accomplish a great feat with the army, but unexpectedly encountered this situation as soon as they arrived here.

Yet, facing such peculiar events, they appeared calm, gently pinched a few grains of food, found them black and moldy, pressed lightly, and had a handful of black water. Sniffing it at the nostril, they turned and asked.

"How did the grain rot? Did you see anything strange?"

Among the crowd, some were grieving, some bewildered, but there was one bold person responsible for guarding the granary. Now that the grain had rotted, he was also facing execution. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He mustered his courage and said, "It... it was a flying corpse that paid homage to the granary."

"Last night, as we guarded the grain, we felt freezing all over. Even with torches lit, visibility was poor. In a daze, we saw in the sky... a person flying down."

"He emitted a stench, the smell of a dead body, and his face was decomposed, not like a living person. It... it didn't eat people, just bowed to the granary three times, then flew away."

"When dawn broke, we could move again. We quickly reported it, and upon opening the warehouse, the grain was already rotten."

"..."

Upon hearing his explanation, the Food Begging General and others beside him were frustrated but speechless. A corpse paying homage, destroying the grain, this was the first they'd heard of it.

Even if it's true, even if they believe it, how could the starving masses outside believe it?

"Heh, indeed, it's the Chen family's flying corpse spell."

The Jianghu Strange People, who were listening intently, sneered upon hearing this and tossed the grain back, saying, "Chen Family's five corpse spells, one bow rots grain, two bows confuse the spirit, three bows obscure the sun and moon, and four bows darken heaven and earth."

"The fifth corpse spell is even more powerful. They say it can reverse heaven and earth, but its exact effects aren't known yet."

"..."

"Is there salvation?"

The Beggar General, hearing him tell the origins of the thing, suddenly felt a spark of hope in his heart and asked nervously.

The Jianghu Strange People did not answer but instead suddenly turned to the Food Begging General, asking, "Isn't it that Prince Changping has already surrounded you? Why hasn't he attacked yet?"

"What Changping or not Changping, we can't bother with it now..."

The Food Begging General looked dejected, "If we end up starving to death, it's better to stretch out our necks for a swift end."

"At least, avoid suffering."

"..."

The Jianghu Strange People nodded, indicating they understood.

Earlier, Prince Changping had brought his army over. Though his troops were strong, he only had thirty thousand elite soldiers. Seeing these hundreds of thousands of surplus troops here, he dared not rashly advance.