Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 522 Mirror Lake Severing Grievances

The mirror reflects no spirit, only people;

There was no door inside, only hatred.

When the lake swallowed the house
It's not the water that's moving.
It's fate that's turning around.

—The Record of the Yellow Springs Mirror

Yomi had already decided on the outcome in her heart.

The young Voidwalker had already entered her room, his presence firmly marked by Toshio, and Gayako's shadow climbed up the ceiling.

In seventy-two seconds, all the struggles will end. He will be bitten, digested, and assimilated by this house, becoming a new vengeful puppet.

The haunted house in the Flower Garden has never failed.

She slowly raised her hand, her fingertips closing together.

The ground began to creak. The tatami mats clicked together with a cracking sound.
The door gaps closed on their own, and the friction between the wooden frame and the paper felt like countless teeth gently chewing.

The pungent, sweet smell of blood in the air grew stronger, and the dampness felt as if it could drip with juice.

“Go home,” she whispered. “Your mother is waiting for you.”

The light in the heart of the house was gradually swallowed up by darkness.

Her black hair spread out, the ends curling up, strands wrapping around the man's legs.

Gayako's whisper came from inside the wall: "Ga-ya-ya-"

Ye Mi raised an eyebrow; she could already hear that familiar cracking sound—the sound of a soul being pulled away.

Just as she was about to turn and leave, the cry of a deer rang out.

The voice was so soft it seemed to come from a distant dream, yet it shattered the order of the entire house.

Beneath her feet, the wooden floor began to gleam softly, both gentle and deadly.

Light gradually connects to form a surface.

That was not ordinary light, but an extremely thin mirror that could reflect the soul.

Ye Mi looked down and saw only her elongated reflection—at first there was only one layer, then it became two, three, ten layers… Each layer showed a different “her”, silently wriggling at the bottom of the lake.

Fine ripples appeared on the mirror surface, and light spots like water droplets floated up.

She instinctively lifted her foot, only to find that the light had extended to her body, engulfing the entire room.

The walls, door frames, Kayako's shadow, and Toshio's laughter were all dragged into the mirror, piece by piece.

She then realized that she was standing on the lake.

And her "house" is sinking to the bottom of the lake.

"What is this..." she murmured, her voice beginning to crack.

A soft hoofbeat came from behind.

It wasn't a horse, it was a deer. Its gentle, tranquil nature naturally evoked the voice of a forest spirit.

The sound of hooves, accompanied by light, came from the center of Mirror Lake.

A deer emerged from the center of the lake.

The deer's fur was not flesh and blood, but scales pieced together from mirror lenses; its antlers were like shattered starlight, sharp as knives.

With each step it takes, the mirror-like water beneath its feet ripples silently, reflecting countless intersecting images—Kayako, Toshio, her home, and herself are all reflected, yet they shatter at the slightest touch.

A person was sitting on the back of a deer.

His long black robe was outlined with silver edges by the faint light, and his legs were draped lazily on either side of the deer's body, his fingertips twirling around a wisp of mirror light.

The smile held neither pity nor anger—it was merely a light, mocking expression.

"……How can this be?"

Yomi was practically gritting her teeth.

The man in the middle of Mirror Lake looked up.

The face was half-hidden under the mask, with only the faint curve of the lips visible, almost indifferent.

He didn't draw his sword, nor did he cast a spell; he simply wiggled his ankle slightly—in that instant,
She saw the shadow of black hair wrapped around his feet being flung away, like a snake thrown into the water, curling up with foam and sinking to the bottom of the lake.

“Nothing is impossible,” Xiao Jinyan’s voice was as cold as a mirror. “Your world is merely a higher level.”

He reached out and patted the mirror deer's neck. The deer let out a soft cry, and the mirror-like surface rippled, transforming the lake water into a smooth, mirror-like walkway that stretched out from the center of the lake in all directions.

He sat upright, as if the entire Mirror Lake were his throne.

"And my world is called—Supreme."

Ye Mi's breath hitched.

"World-type...?"

The concept that only appeared in ancient scrolls flashed through her mind: the Supreme World, an existence that could rewrite the rules, the power closest to "god" below the primordial.

“Wrong,” Xiao Jinyan smiled, “it is the reflection of the world.”

He raised his hand and pressed down.

Mirror Lake trembled like a heartbeat, and the next moment, her house completely collapsed.

The entire "Saeki House" crumbled like a crumpled piece of paper, falling from beneath her feet with a "crack" sound.

The tatami mats, the door frame, and Kayako's black hair were all dragged into the mirror.

She saw Kayako's outstretched hand break into fragments in the light, and Toshio's face was reflected in the mirror as hundreds of blurry "smiles" before disappearing.

Ye Mi raised her hand to grab something, but couldn't grasp anything.

At that moment, she finally understood that this was not a spatial transfer, but rather that the world had been switched upside down.

Her world was turned upside down by him.

Her home sank in his Mirror Lake.

"This is impossible!" she screamed, her fingertips scribbling runes in the air. A flash of blood-red light appeared, but it seemed to be "sucked" into the mirror's light, turning into a wisp of smoke.

Xiao Jinyan's voice drew closer, close enough for her to hear the slight chuckle.

"The mortal world only writes rules; but the King of the Mirror writes the shadows of those rules."

He stretched out his hand and flipped his palm over. The mirror-like surface of the lake was covered with light, like a slow sunset.

The light reflected in Yemi's pupils, and for the first time, she saw her own reflection clearly—

At the bottom of Mirror Lake, her other face is quietly smiling.

"Welcome to Reflection."

Xiao Jinyan said softly.

The mirror-like lake was overturned, and heaven and earth were turned upside down.

Ye Mi was pulled by the opposite force of gravity, her hair stood on end, and her body fell towards the darkness that she had once controlled.

And he, from his high vantage point, watched her fall.

Like God seeing the dream he created shatter in a mirror.

Mirror Lake is like a sky reflecting mythology, drawing back a second round of hell between light and blood.

Ye Mi stood in the center of the lake, the hem of her kimono transformed into a vortex of black hair.

The strands of hair did not hang down, but flowed upwards, hanging in the air in a spider web-like structure, with half a human face hanging from each strand—some looking like a smile, some like a cry.

Her blood droplets fell into Mirror Lake, but were rejected, like tears denied by the whole world, turning into clusters of bloody light.

“The mother is not dead,” she murmured, her voice carrying a kind of religious reverie, “because the child has not returned.”

Before the words were even finished, the air began to tremble. Kayako emerged upside down from Yomi's shadow, her spine twisting and turning with a crisp "crackling" sound.

Her black hair spread out, entwining with the reflections in all directions, as if she wanted to drag the entire Mirror Lake back into her embrace.

Junxiong's shadowy figures peeked out from the four gates, his eyes were white with no pupils, and his smile was calm to the point of being eerie. Each of them was repeating that eternal cat meow.

Xiao Jinyan sat on the mirror deer, casually flicked his hand, and the deer's antlers made a buzzing sound.

The mirror light fell like rain, and fragments traced spiral trajectories in the air before landing at the edge of Yomi's world.

"O subjects of the realm of reflections, heed my call."

In an instant, the sky and the earth merged into a silver crack.

The lenses tumbled and fell, transforming into translucent shapes upon landing; their silhouettes resembled those of Kayako and Toshio sculpted by light.
But the posture, angle, and breath are all slightly different—each one is a "reflection" of the original.

The Mirror Deer stepped forward, its horn slicing open two layers of space.

The first layer is the Mirror World, and the second layer is Yomi's "house".

When the two layers overlap, light and shadow overlap, and all of Gayako and Toshio are "projected" into the mirror layer, like shadows forced into a dream.

The black hair that had been binding Jin Yan loosened instantly, and the tendrils of the curse could no longer hold him.

“You only have one Gayako and one Toshio.”

Jin Yan's tone was so calm, as if he were describing the weather.

"My—infinite."

Countless petal-like cracks of light bloomed at the edge of Mirror Lake.

The reflections of Kayako and Toshio walked together, their bodies like reflections of light on the water's surface, both real and not belonging to the three-dimensional world.

They looked up at Ye Mi—at that moment, dozens of identical faces smiled simultaneously.

"What are you laughing at!" Ye Mi roared, his black hair exploding into hundreds of snake whips, lashing at the shadowy companions.

The reflections silently laughed in retaliation.

The mirror-like surface is like waves, and the reflection is like the sea.

They climbed up Yomi's "world"—the cracks in the door, the lanterns, the tatami mats, the beams—the structures that supported her domain were gradually "pulled out" by the mirror light, like tree roots uprooted.

The Mirror Lake is expanding, and the reflected waves are sweeping over the foundation of the "Cursed House". The texture of the tatami mats melts in the mirror light, and the wooden beams turn into flowing silver.

With a flick of his wrist, the mirror light coalesced into a short blade, its transparent body containing countless layers of spatial refraction.

With a flick of his finger, the blade dispersed into a light array, and dozens of reflections of Gayako and Toshio split apart once again.

“Welcome to the purgatory of Mirror Lake,” he said. “Your vengeful spirits are well-behaved; let me teach them some manners.”

The reflections murmured in unison, their voices almost human, yet carrying a mechanical echo. They rushed toward the core of Yemi's world, intertwining into a ring.

Black hair and mirrored light intertwined and collided, each collision sparking silver flames—the sound of rules gnawing at each other.

“An unexpected gain,” Yomi’s voice suddenly lowered, sounding like he was laughing, yet also like he was crying. “If I can take away a Supreme Being, Prince Haruhisa… will surely be proud of me.”

She raised her hand, her fingertips piercing the skin, and drops of blood fell one by one.

Blood dripped onto the mirror, only to be rejected and bounced off by the mirror's reflection. So she switched to using her knuckles to tap her chest—with each tap, a layer of cursed patterns would appear beneath her skin, like some kind of self-destructive ritual.

"Then come on."

Her black hair exploded again.

This time, it wasn't a snake, but the sea.

From the end of each strand of hair grew a human face, those faces were her flesh puppets—parents, sister, lover—they twisted, roared, with uncorrupted skin and cold, wet eyes, all merging into that black ocean.

Ye Mi smiled, her lips pursed, and a drop of blood slid down her cheek.

"Let's die together with Mother."

Cracks appeared on the mirror at the edge of Mirror Lake.

The reflection and the curse of the vengeful mother were devouring each other. With each collision, a silver flame would flash out, only to be dragged into the depths by the black hair.

Jin Yan whistled softly.

“Come on,” he looked down at her, his tone almost gentle, “have some fun.”

The mirror deer raised its head and cried out, and the mirror light and blood mist exploded at the same time.

In that instant, the entire lake seemed to be torn into countless shattered pieces by two worlds—

The reflection and the original object are intertwined, biting each other, and disordered.

Ye Mi stood at the boundary between light and shadow, her smile as red as blood, her hair swirling in the air, as if she were personally overturning the boundaries of the world.

Ye Mi's figure remained still in the center of Mirror Lake, her black hair slowly falling down, enveloping her entire body in a shadow like a shroud.

Her voice was almost calm, devoid of emotion or even the slightest change in breath, as if she were announcing a funeral that had already been decided.

"The mother is not dead because the child has not returned."

"The mother's love is unyielding, for the hatred remains unresolved."

As she whispered, the lake surface suddenly collapsed, and dark red ripples spread out in concentric circles.

The air grew still, and the light of Mirror Lake gradually dimmed, as if the whole world had been stripped of its color.

Ye Mi's skin began to crack, and dense red lines appeared from her neck to her arms, traces of blood flowing backward.

Blood droplets overflowing from the rift hovered behind her, drawn by some force, spinning, falling, and reforming.

Burning Star, Curse of the Heavenly Corpse.

Her body shattered into countless blood vessels, each one being sucked into the house behind her.

The "Saeki House" reflected at the bottom of the mirror lake began to swell, convulse, and flip.

Wooden beams broke, paper doors cracked, and the outline of the house twisted into a shape that did not belong to geometry.

It rises abruptly from the lake, like a tombstone piercing the sky.

Heaven and earth are in chaos.

The sky hangs upside down, becoming a corridor; the streets transform into tatami mats; and the buildings bend into beams and pillars.

Above Mirror Lake, paper doors appeared one by one, and behind each door came suppressed sobs and groans. Those were the writhing souls of those who died from her curse.

The first door opened, and a man crawled out, his face rotting.

The second door opened, revealing a woman with disheveled hair, holding a baby in her arms;

Through the third door, a group of Onmyoji dressed in white were dragged out headfirst, their eyeballs rolling in their rotting sockets.

They all looked up at Ye Mi.

Her voice was no longer human language, but a low-frequency hum, mixed with a tone of crying and laughing: "Come on—go home."

With a loud bang, the roof tiles exploded like flowers.

Hordes of vengeful spirits fell from the house, their bodies disintegrating in mid-air and turning into flesh and blood puppets.

Each puppet carried her aura, its eyes vacant, yet it was breathing.

"You know the resurrection mechanism." Ye Mi raised her head, her gray eyes reflecting Jin Yan's figure. "Burning Star means giving up resurrection."

If you're willing to burn yourself out with me, the Flower Garden will be one less major obstacle.

You are both the prey and the head. Thank you for allowing me to offer a gift—to His Highness.

At that moment, a smile that was almost pious appeared on her face.

All the vengeful spirits opened their mouths at the same time, but no sound came from their throats, only tremors.

The entire space began to tremble, the air shattered like the texture of glass, and spiderwebs appeared on the Mirror Lake. The Mirror Soldiers were thrown back by the shockwave, their bodies turning into countless shards of mirror that fell outwards.

Blood and flesh grow together.

Blood lotuses sprouted in the air, their petals woven from skin, and countless human faces adorning their hearts.

They open and close, spewing out blood plasma with each breath, sticky and warm.

Complaining about mother's return to the womb.

Ye Mi's body was shattered by the reflection, but in an instant, her face grew out from the nearest blood puppet, that face with a smile, and it reformed into a body.

“Burning Star,” Jin Yan murmured, pressing his finger against the Mirror Deer’s antlers, “This woman is insane.”

The deer took a half step back, its hooves scraping against the lake surface with a sharp scraping sound.

A series of shattering white lights erupted from the edge of Mirror Lake, and the ripples were swallowed up by waves of blood.

Ye Mi's laughter spread along the roof beams, like a thousand echoes overlapping.

"Burning Star, or Death?"

"Either ignite it, or go home."

Her hand reached out. Her black hair transformed once more into countless cursed whips, and vengeful spirits crawled up those strands like a dense swarm of maggots.

With each swing of her arms, her black hair surged like ocean waves, carrying hundreds and thousands of vengeful spirits toward the center of Mirror Lake.

He carefully dodged, but in the next instant, he was dragged back to the ground by some unseen "weight".

His body sank, and the mirror-like light beneath his feet cracked under the pressure. His black hair rose up, enveloping him entirely in a giant black cocoon.

The pain seeped from the skin into the bones. It felt like countless tiny needles were sliding through my nerves.

The air smelled metallic, and my breath was cut off.

Hearing breaks down first.

The sound of a baby crying.

The man's dying gasps.

The woman's suppressed scream.

Each syllable penetrates deep into the eardrum and turns into blood.

Ye Mi looked down at the black cocoon, a sickly yet satisfied smile on his face.

"Burn it up," she whispered.

She was as gentle as a mother, yet as ruthless as a butcher.

The Mirror Lake trembled, the sea of ​​blood surged, and the wails of the vengeful spirits merged into a wave of sound that tore the heavens and the earth apart.

"Burn it up, kid."

In her mother's arms,
The world will quiet down—

The black cocoon is tightening.

With each contraction, the world collapsed a little more. The density of the air was like a stone wall being built, pressing down on Xiao Jinyan so that every bone in his body made a slight cracking sound.

Pain creeps from the skin into the nerves, and from the nerves into the soul.

He could hear his own heartbeat amplified inside his body cavity, thump-thump, like a bell being struck underwater.

Ye Mi was outside.

Her palms gently touched the surface of the black cocoon, the black hairs wrapped around it seeping into her skin inch by inch. Her eyes were gentle and focused, as if she were caressing a precious toy.

Her voice was calm, almost like a mother's lullaby.

"It's okay if you're not a star. Then just become my nemesis."

After that, I will place it in the most prominent spot in my little house.

She smiled, the curve of her lips elegant and dreamlike.

"That way, you won't be lonely."

The surface of the black cocoon rippled, as if breathing. The figure inside was almost invisible; only the lines of his back could be seen twitching with each breath.

Until, a soft chuckle came from inside the cocoon.

"Go to hell?"

He repeated it in a low voice.

The voice was weary, impatient, and even a little playful.

"Forget it. It's too much trouble to revive and run back."

Ye Mi was slightly taken aback.

"Burning Star? You're nothing but a nobody."

I'm not stupid enough to use my ultimate move to swatt mosquitoes.

The sound gradually became clearer.

He raised his head.

Inside the black cocoon, between the blood and hair, an eye lit up.

It was a kind of light that carried both mockery and brilliance.

"Who do you think I am?"

Xiao Jinyan's tone was like a knife cutting through silk, smooth yet deadly.

"I am—the Lord of Reflections, the ruler of all reflections."

Domain type, inverted.

In an instant, the world turned upside down.

Ye Mi was thrown off the ground, the world turned upside down, and space rearranged.

Her long hair cascaded down like a waterfall, her blood seemed to flow backward, and her clothes fluttered like inverted flowers.

The roof beams of Saeki House are broken, the ceiling is upside down, and the tatami mats are stuck to the sky.

Ye Mi hung in the center, her black hair like tentacles whipped up by the wind, all in a mess.

Xiao Jinyan, on the other hand, stood firmly on the "ground".

That land was no longer tatami mats, but a deep, bottomless mirror lake.

The mirror beneath his feet reflected an upside-down house, an inverted vengeful spirit, and a stream of blood hanging upside down.

"In my world, everything is upside down."

Jin Yan's voice was calm to the point of arrogance.

"When behavior is reversed, the world is reversed, and victory and defeat are reversed."

Just when you think you've won, that's when I control your reflection.

The Mirror Deer raised its head, its antlers drawing a halo. Ripples spread across Mirror Lake, reflecting Ye Mi's figure on the lake's bottom like a locked-up ghost.

"It's time for trial, Kakaiin Yomi."

Speak with caution.

The black cocoon was sliced ​​open by the mirror's force, and a horizontal line flashed through the air.

Ye Mi was hanging upside down in mid-air, her black hair cascading down like a waterfall. She struggled with her hands, and for the first time, a look of terror flashed in her eyes.

"This is impossible—I am the Mother! I am?!"

She didn't finish her sentence.

The mismatched couples have appeared.

They emerged from the walls, doors, beams, and tatami mats, like a tidal wave crashing down.

Leading the way were four figures.

Her father was still clutching the torn talisman in his hand;
Her mother, with her hair disheveled, had dried blood on her hands;

Her sister was pale, with a smile in her eyes;

And that man—the one she once loved, the one who betrayed her.

Their eyes were blank and lifeless, yet there were dried tear stains at the corners of their eyes.

Yomi's lips began to tremble. She tried to chant a spell, but found that all the sound was swallowed into her throat.

“Come back!” she screamed.

Kayako and Toshio's figures emerged from behind her, but they did not heed her commands.

They hung on her shoulders, one on each side, and began to bite.

Kayako's teeth dug into her shoulder socket, and blood splattered on her face; Toshio's hand grabbed her sternum and twisted it off.

“Jun-xiong…no—” Her voice was ripped apart.

Jin Yan sighed softly and stroked the antlers of the mirror deer.

"Within your barrier, you are a god."

"In my world, you are just a reflection."

The shimmering light of Mirror Lake washed over her feet.

"When the reflection is swallowed by the light, even the shadow disappears."

Ye Mi struggled frantically, trying to reignite the Star Calamity, but the light within her had already dimmed.

That power was being stripped away, pulled out, and devoured by her "family" little by little.

She looked down and saw her father biting her arm.

Teeth embedded themselves in flesh and blood, tearing off a piece, and warm blood flowed down her wrist.

Yomi's screams almost shattered the air.

The resentful couples climbed up, layer upon layer, surrounding and devouring her.

Black hair tangled, skin cracked, bones bursting out, and blood lotuses blooming in the air.

"Mother—is home."

Her hoarse voice broke in two.

Everything was silent.

The roof beams collapsed, and Mirror Lake returned to normal.

The upside-down world returned to normal, and Yomi's figure had already disappeared.

Only blood rain remained, pouring down from mid-air and landing on Mirror Lake.

Xiao Jinyan stood on the lake, took a deep breath, and gently wiped the blood from his lips with his fingertips.

He murmured to himself, "I risked using the Reflection's authority... The flow of time in this space has increased by a full thirty times."

He chuckled, a hint of relaxed exhaustion in his eyes: "That woman is really stupid. She actually thought I didn't have any 'Burning Star'."

Mirror Lake gradually closed off.

He looked up, his gaze passing over the shattered barrier, locking onto the light above—the direction of his sister.

"It's time to go. My older sister is probably getting impatient waiting."

He spoke softly.

With a single step, Mirror Lake shattered, and the Mirror Deer once again stepped into the light.

Behind him, Kakeruin Yomi had no chance of being resurrected.

As the star burned out, her soul was swallowed by countless vengeful spirits, and even her name was erased, leaving only a ground covered in blood-red petals, quietly drifting in the wind.

The mirror shattered, the house crumbled;
People leave, but resentment remains.

Some of the dead cannot return home;

Some living people are born lies.

—The Travels of the Monarch of Reflections

(End of this chapter)