Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 472 Bones on the Fiery Track
"Under His postmark, there is no difference between the flesh and blood of the strong and the bones of the weak."

Every roar is a receipt for a package.

—The Postal Black Book of Hell's Post Office

Si Ming pushed open the half-closed window, and the roar of the raging fire immediately flooded his ears like a tidal wave.

The street was no longer a street, but a runway woven from flames and shadows.

More than a hundred motorcycles sped around recklessly, the sound of tires chewing nails mingling with the heavy metal music of chains lashing the road, as if writing a death list.

They recklessly smashed open streetlights and windows, leaving black marks on the walls with their raging flames, and chains coiled around the eaves, causing the wooden beams to crack.

Through the firelight and the shattered bricks, Si Ming could even see that under the helmets of some knights, instead of faces, were skulls entwined with tentacles, grinning.

“They’ve got their eyes on that house.” Isabel stood beside him, her eyes behind her glasses unusually calm.

"A mutated beast king refused to ally with me. Now, he's ready to collect his offerings."

The house suddenly exploded, scattering rubble everywhere.

With a deafening roar, a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex-like monster burst out of the roof, its scales churning and bone spikes protruding. With a sweep of its tail, it smashed an entire row of motorcycles.

The Beast King's avatar stood like a mountain in the middle of the street, spewing out a stench of blood and flames.

Instead of retreating, the fiery knights advanced, their roar reaching its peak.

The chains flew, like countless snake shadows striking down simultaneously, tearing off the Tyrannosaurus Rex's scales piece by piece.

The fiery runway spread beneath its feet, and flames erupted from the postmarked part of the iron chain, scorching its very bones.

The knights, like countless ants, devoured their enormous prey, and the beast's roar gradually turned into a painful groan.

Minutes of explosive fighting, a clash of blood and fire, iron and bone.

Finally, the Tyrannosaurus Rex collapsed with a thud, and the evil flames coiled around its limbs and neck, completely igniting it.

The massive burning body quickly transformed into a pitch-black dinosaur skeleton, the remains still shimmering with a red glow like a postmark.

After a brief silence, the wind swept by, carrying away the last roar.

Before its eyes went out, the Beast King Star Calamity's eyes still flickered with resentment.

That look seemed to be questioning—even if you transform into a monster, even if you burn a planetary catastrophe, why can't you even be considered to be putting up a fight?

His skeleton collapsed with a crash, turning into a pile of lifeless ashes.

Isabel adjusted her glasses and said softly:
"This is the Tower of the End. Remember, Fate—under His watchful eye, we, the Star Calamities, are not the strong, not the hunters… merely lab rats, dancing the ugly dance He demands."

Si Ming narrowed his eyes, staring at the still-burning raging fire track, a cold smile quietly emerging in his heart.

On the Fiery Runway, the roar of motorcycles sounded like an endless trial.

The iron chains lashed the ground, the flames flickered and died down, and the neighborhood had become a kind of burning execution ground.

Si Ming glanced out the window, raised an eyebrow, and suddenly asked:

"How...do they determine how many people are in the house?"

Isabel adjusted her glasses, a fleeting glint of coldness in her eyes concealed by her gentle demeanor.
"I... am also thinking about it. Should I count breaths? Or peek into the soul? It's ridiculous that I'm an alchemist, yet I don't even understand the principles of this experiment."

Before the words were finished, a deafening explosion came from afar. A house was shattered by chains of raging fire, and burning tiles and beams fell to the ground.

Amidst the flames, a series of panicked footsteps sounded, and two living people stumbled out, followed by two broken skeleton puppets.

Strangely, the chains of the Fire Knights paused in mid-air, and the roar of the motorcycles suddenly slowed down.

They glanced at the "number of people," then coldly turned their gaze away and continued searching for their next target.

"...Just consider the quantity?" Isabel murmured, as if noting down experimental results. "Or are even the dead considered 'human'?"

Si Ming chuckled: "It seems they only follow a certain delivery rule, and don't care whether it's true or false."

As they were talking, the lights of the Fiery Knights all turned at the same time, and their fiery eyes converged on the same point.

The chains whistled, and the wheels sputtered, sending flames flying. The entire street seemed to have been dragged onto a new racetrack.

The target—is the house where the God of Fate resides.

The roar drew near, eerie flames flowed before the window, and wheels rolled through the void, casting hideous shadows.

Si Ming stood by the window, his gaze still languid, and turned to ask Isabel, "So? Are you going to follow their example and sneak into other people's houses, or are you going to learn how to protect your own door?"

Isabel smiled and said gently, "You are the homeowner, so you should decide."

"Okay." Si Ming uttered a single word, his finger making a virtual tap in the air.

The voice was deep, yet carried a certain dramatic quality in its recitation:

"Joy and sorrow are both ephemeral, and life on stage is unpredictable."

In an instant, gray mist quietly spread from the corner of the house, like a curtain slowly falling, engulfing the house.

The raging fire roared into the mist, only to be immediately swallowed up and suppressed, turning into a suffocating low groan.

A cold glint flashed in Si Ming's eyes as he explained in a low voice:

"The mystery of the King in Yellow is that it does not rewrite cause and effect, but only the process. The house still exists, and the cause and effect remain unchanged, but in the vision of these fiery knights—its process of existence has been erased."

Thus, in the knight's eyes, the once real dwelling was instantly erased, leaving only a vast, misty void.

They roared and lashed out, but struck only empty air.

Si Ming leaned against the window frame, put on a white clown mask, and a mocking smile appeared on his lips.

"40 minutes."

He muttered to himself, like an opening narration, "My script in yellow, performance time."

Beyond the fog, the fiery knights roared like a tidal wave, yet they could only run wildly around a "nothingness," unable to find their prey.

The roar of the Fire Knights suddenly changed rhythm; they were no longer patrolling haphazardly, but instead circled around the entire house.

The chains lay scattered on the street, leaving behind scorched marks, like postmarks or seals of curses.

“Infernal Flames…Seal the Boundary.” Isabel murmured, her glasses reflecting the raging flames on the street, her expression changing slightly for the first time.

"It seems that your 'theater' has angered them." Si Ming simply smiled, resting his chin on his hand, a mad light flashing in the eye sockets of his white mask.

For a moment, Isabel paused, then suddenly smiled.

"Ah, I understand," she murmured, her voice gentle as if comforting a patient, yet with a subtle tremor.
"Yes... rules? Since the Tower treats us like guinea pigs, forcing us to bounce around on the script of death... then dancing on the edge, laughing on the tip of a knife—that's what Star Disaster is all about."

Her smile deepened, and with a flick of her fingertips across the floor, her dark blue alchemical gloves instantly shone with runic light.

"Then let me add a few actors to your theater."

She braced herself on the ground with both hands, and ancient, twisted, and mysterious words flowed from her lips:
"Where the sages rest, here the dead are forged—Rise, Array of Sages' Forging."

boom--!
The ground trembled, and the streets and lawns instantly transformed into a giant alchemical array, with intricate symbols burning along the bricks and soil, creating patterns of starlight blue and infernal fire.

The air was filled with the smell of metal and flesh.

ka ka ka-

The ground cracked open, and skeletons emerged from the soil, their arms protruding and their joints grinding together with a sharp sound.

Soon, the bones were covered by flesh and blood, the skin stretched out again, and then mutated, swelled, and twisted into fleshy abominations—some of them grew three arms.
Some bodies swelled up like fleshy sacs, while others still retained the appearance of "humans," but only hatred and resentment remained in their eyes.

“These…” Isabel said softly, as if telling a bedtime story.

"They are all the Star Scourge who perished here. The remnants and resentment of those players—I release them for them."

The flesh-and-blood monsters roared as they pounced on the Fiery Knight, chains and claws intertwining, Fiery flames and flesh devouring each other.

The neighborhood was transformed into a slaughterhouse in an instant.

Inside the house, Isabelle gracefully poured Si Ming a glass of red wine.

The two stood side by side by the window, facing a grand spectacle of slaughter and flames, yet they seemed to be enjoying a sky full of fireworks.

On the street, the rhythm of the roaring flames suddenly changed.

The riders no longer charged recklessly like thugs, but slowly gathered their formation, the chains swinging down simultaneously.

"哐——!"

The first flesh-eating abomination pounced on it, only to be struck squarely on the forehead by the iron chain.

The chain left not a scar, but a jet-black postmark, with jagged, serrated holes.

The monster froze, then shattered into countless pieces of paper in the next second, fluttering in the wind as if it had never been a mere illusion made of letters.

ka ka ka-

The second monster roared and pounced, but the chains of the Infernal Knight wrapped around its throat, tearing apart its flesh layer by layer.

The knight with the skull face growled in a low voice, "Delivery guaranteed." The monster's head exploded, turning into pieces of paper with unfamiliar postmarks, which scattered throughout the streets and alleys.

The third, the fourth... fell one after another. Each lash of the chain was a "receipt confirmation".

Si Ming watched quietly, his eyes cold.

Isabel laughed, her finger tapping the rim of the glass, producing a crisp "tinkling" sound, as if providing accompaniment to the carnage outside.

"Beautiful," she exclaimed gently, though her tone held a chilling fervor.

"Let Him see—do He have more knights, or more resentment here?"

As she spoke, the transmutation array on the ground continued to flash, and new bones broke through the soil once more, their flesh and blood rapidly intertwining and taking shape.

The monsters, which had just been torn into pieces, seemed to be reborn with even deeper hatred, and pounced on the Fiery Knight once more.

The chains of fiery energy tore through the air as the alchemical monster roared and lunged forward.

An endless confrontation has been repeatedly staged in this neighborhood.

Inside the window, Isabelle and Si Ming raise their glasses, watching the never-ending theater.

However, the roaring sound suddenly stopped.

The neighborhood seemed to be gripped by an invisible giant hand, and even the engine of the Nie Huo motorcycle dared not roar anymore.

Only the embers licked at the air, like the remnants before the fire was completely burned out.

Then, a loud shout—

It wasn't like a sound, but more like a hole being torn open in the entire space, with angry judgment pouring in through the crack.

The gray mist theater created by the God of Fate scattered instantly.

The mist was torn into shreds and vanished without a trace.

The houses were exposed in the middle of the chariots of the Fiery Knights, with no cover whatsoever.

At the end of the street, a tall figure rode up on horseback.

That wasn't a vehicle, but a colossal beast covered in burning iron and bone wings, its back flaming with tongues of fire and its horns piercing the clouds.

The being riding on it had charred wings on its back, and beneath its iron helmet was a face with its features burned away, with blood and fire flowing intertwined within its skull.

The Ghost Riders roared in unison.

It slowly raised the burning chains, and the entire block instantly became a fiery postal route, the road twisted as if rewritten by flames.

Si Ming and Isabel stood separated by the window, and for the first time, Si Ming felt that it was not a knight, but an incarnation of the Great Old Ones. Its very existence was an extension of the rules.

"The show is about to begin," Isabel chuckled softly, tapping her finger lightly on her wine glass.

Si Ming put on the white clown mask, his gaze coldly meeting those burning eyes.

The neighborhood was silent, as if even time itself had stopped.

"When the flames of revenge are seized by the gods, they no longer belong to humankind."

The knight is just a knight, but He is the lord of evil spirits.
A single roar is enough to obliterate the theater of mortals.

—The Black Scripture of the Illusory Star: Volume of Evil Fire

(End of this chapter)