Rules of the Strange: I Became a God in a Bizarre World Through Taoist Arts

During the worst of the strange invasion a while ago, many of us were crammed into a spatial enclosure, surviving only on nutrient solutions. The sky outside was pitch black, and I truly felt I couldn't hold on any longer. Those girls in the ghost stories… what kind of mindset allowed them to cling to hope and survive…?

[Sobbing, I'm already crying with you.]

Unbelievable! Sometimes I'm so glad we live in the interstellar age.

[History books record an ancient idiom, "exchanging children to eat," but that refers to acts committed during times of extreme famine and war when people were desperate for survival. Liu Jin in the ghost story is different; he lives a life of luxury. Just as we previously judged, he is an extremely wicked person!]

[Thanks for the history buff's explanation, but I'm really curious, were there really times when people couldn't even get enough to eat?]

[Yes, we will. We interstellar beings have grown up in the universe, and our physical functions far surpass those of the ancient people of that time. We can maintain our vital signs with nutrient solutions, but the ancient people could not.]

[I hate it even more now...]

[A petition written in blood begs Sister Shen to tear Liu Jin to pieces!]

……

In ghost stories.

Shen Xingzhu frowned upon hearing this.

Liu Jin has committed countless evil deeds, and she will surely send him to the underworld to be judged by the Department of Punishment!

Humph.

Shen Xingzhu sneered inwardly, his gaze gradually darkening.

She firmly believed that the underworld's mechanism for judging good and evil was still fair and impartial.

Sometimes, justice that cannot be obtained in the mortal world will surely be served after the evildoer dies!

The idea that death is like a lamp going out is utter nonsense.

Do you think you can erase the good and evil deeds with just five words?

It's like a dream!

"Liu Jin will definitely get his comeuppance!" she said in a deep voice.

Madam Pei gave a bitter smile, with bruises seeping from the corners of her mouth and a deep, bone-revealing scar gradually growing above her eye socket.

"If he could be convicted, why would I have to go through all this?"

Madam Pei touched the scar on her face.

She unearthed a long-forgotten past from the depths of her memory.

She knelt at the entrance of the county government office, her knees hitting the bluestone slabs until they bled.

She held the complaint above her head for an entire day.

More and more people gathered around, some whispering, some shaking their heads and sighing, and some quietly throwing a bowl of water at her feet.

As dusk fell, the gates of the county government office finally opened.

However, it wasn't government officials who came out, but Liu Jin's men.

They dragged her back by her hair in the street. She struggled, screamed, and clung tightly to the threshold. Her fingernails broke and embedded themselves in the wood, and blood flowed down between her fingers.

He said she had disgraced him, that she was unfaithful, that she was ungrateful—he said many things, but Madam Pei could hardly remember them all.

All she remembered was the sound of the stick falling, dull, one beat after another, like someone was banging on a broken drum.

She had two broken ribs and almost lost sight in her left eye; the scar on her face is from that incident.

I was bedridden for three months.

For three months, Liu Jin didn't visit her once. The servants who brought her food would leave the bowls at the door, knock, and leave, as if afraid that looking at her any longer would bring them bad luck.

"Later I learned," Madam Pei's voice was as calm as if she were talking about someone else, "that county magistrate was Liu Jin's fellow townsman. Liu Jin sent him silver every year, and silk during festivals. My petition was never even submitted."