Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 565 The Gate of Soul Fall
The *po* is the root of a person. When the *po* is pure, the *hun* arises; when the *po* perishes, the earth cracks.

Everyone else is climbing higher, but Po is falling.

—From *Zi Bu Yu* (The Master Did Not Discuss), Chapter on Dreams

The seven souls have been purified.

These are the victory conditions engraved in the dungeon rules.

But at this moment, Wangchuan Town showed no signs of the tranquility that came after its "purification".

Instead, it's like a dream veiled by a thin sheet of paper, which is then torn open by someone.

The altar was the first to tremble violently.

The Soul-Devouring Altar emitted a sharp sound beneath Zhuang Yege's feet, its azure runes rapidly expanding, the light twisting into an inverted spiral that spun and soared into the sky.

Meanwhile, in various parts of the town, the other six altars also began to glow almost simultaneously. Seven beams of light of different colors pierced through the gray mist and converged in the sky to form a twisted ring-shaped mark.

That is not a symbol of victory.

That was a summoning ritual.

“This… is not right.” Si Ming suddenly stopped, his expression changing drastically.

The patterns of fate in his eyes rapidly disintegrated like a dam breaking, and mysterious cards automatically emerged, emitting anxious and uneasy tremors.

The next second, the earth emitted a cracking sound that seemed like a wail.

boom! !

The ground of Wangchuan Town, like a curtain pasted on a theater floor, was torn apart from the center by some force.

Stone bricks, streets, and rooftops were lifted up by an invisible force;
The entire town shook violently like a toy model, swaying, flipping, and collapsing; even the gray fog in the sky twisted and collapsed in all directions.

The four of them lost their balance almost simultaneously. Zhuang Yege pressed one hand to the ground, and the talisman paper opened—the Hundred Ghosts Domain erected its final barrier amidst violent tremors.

But this is only a temporary shelter from the rain. The real storm is yet to come.

The first ghostly wail came from afar.

It sounded like a child crying, or like the mournful cry of a corpse being pierced by the wind through its throat.

Then came the second sound, the third sound, one after another, getting closer and closer, more and more real.

The cries, mixed with screams and crashes, poured into my ears from all directions, as if the spirits of the entire ghost town were awakening.

From the sky, paper money began to fall...

The jet-black paper money, densely packed, drifted down from the gray mist, lightly landing on the eaves, faces, and shoulders, each note bearing a blurry character for "soul".

"It's time to move to the next phase," Zhuang Yege said in a low voice. "We've purified the seven souls, and this instance is probably about to enter its second phase. It's going to devour itself again."

Yu Weiwei held her head, her body trembling slightly.

She tried to play the "Flute of Lamentation for the Dead," but the sound was immediately torn apart by the wailing that surged through the air.

She was devastated; her ears were ringing and tears welled in her eyes.

“The lament is suppressed,” she murmured. “It won’t let me sing…”

This is not an ordinary spatial collapse.

This is the world "actively devouring" the purifiers—as if telling them: "You are not the purifiers, you are the invaders."

The ground cracked again, and the clock tower in the town center collapsed with a muffled thud, sending dust billowing into the sky.

The streets were torn apart by cracks, and buildings collapsed backward like stage sets.

Even the sky above the horizon was torn open with black slits, and blood-red light spilled down from the slits like the setting sun.

"The chessboard moves, deception and lies intertwine, the mysterious [King of Deception] unfolds, a silver-white light traces a black and white chessboard path, paving a narrow path to survival in the ruins."

"Head towards the town center, towards the ancestral hall!" he shouted sternly.

The four had no choice.

Behind them, a huge shadow slowly rose from beneath the collapsed street.

That's not the building's shadow.

That's a mouth.

Beneath the ground lay the gaping mammary cavity of a gigantic creature, filled with barbed teeth and writhing flesh.

The collapsed houses, the floating altars, and the talismans in mid-air were all instantly sucked into the "mouth," making chewing sounds that did not belong to the human world.

It has no eyes, yet it can accurately track their location.

It's not a monster. It's just the "original copy".

"Run!" Zhuang Yege shouted angrily, raising a talisman.

The paper money swept down from the sky, like a town wailing.

Yu Weiwei gritted her teeth, forcibly calmed herself, grabbed Celian's hand, and ran.

Si Ming charged ahead, his black and white chess pieces falling continuously, each flash opening a path for them.

They raced through collapsed streets, past ruined teahouses and abandoned houses, toward the ancestral hall in the town center.

The doors of the ancestral hall slowly opened.

No one pushed it open, yet it opened itself to them.

“The dungeon is going to devour us,” Si Ming whispered as he ran. “And that place… might be its final refuge.”

Behind them, the entire ghost town was tilting, breaking, and falling.

It's as if the whole town is built on the throat of a sleeping creature—and now, that creature is about to open its eyes and swallow.

In the last ten meters, the ground completely collapsed.

They leap, fall, and climb, like desperate men leaping over the gears of fate.

at last,

The four of them jumped into the ancestral hall together.

The ancestral hall doors slammed shut behind them, the sound of giant jaws chewing echoing outside, and the last house in the town was swallowed up.

Wangchuan Town
At that moment, it vanished completely.

The moment they stormed into the ancestral hall, the outside world was collapsing.

The entire town of Wangchuan seemed to have sunk into an indescribable, swallowing dream.

The ancestral hall, however, was unexpectedly quiet. It was like a blind spot undetected by the dungeon system, or the heart of a skeletal remains awakening.

There is no wind and no sound here.

There was only a silence that seemed to precede death.

The ancestral hall is extremely large, with an interior layout of a cross-shaped corridor. The main hall is towering, and in the center stands a shrine.

To be precise, it is a shrine array formed by ten stone statues, surrounding the central pedestal.

Each stone statue is female, dressed as an ancient priestess, with lowered eyes and blurred faces.

Their hands were raised in front of their chests in a gesture of "prayer with objects in hand," while inscriptions with faint light appeared on the pedestal.

Three stone statues have already begun to glow.

On the other side of the shrine, several figures stood silently.

It's Miranda's team, the protector.

She stood in the center, wearing a spotless white-gold cloak, looking at Si Ming and the others with a cold expression.

To her left and right were her two remaining Star Calamity-level subordinates: a short-haired female warrior with a steel wire wrapped around her jaw and a numb gaze, and a beast-like warrior with hidden markings on her face and a saw blade on her back.

They didn't take any action. They just watched coldly.

“…Just in time.” Miranda spoke calmly, her voice languid. “Your purification is complete. Now, the door is open.”

As she spoke, she took out three cards from her side.

Each card radiates the light of a different altar, corresponding to the three soul altars.

She gently pressed the three cards into the palms of the three stone statues respectively.

Click.

Click.

Click.

The inscription on the statue's chest suddenly shone, shifting from "sacrificial chants" to "invocations and resonance."

The entire ancestral hall trembled.

Si Ming turned around abruptly, only to find the ancestral hall behind him buried under the collapsed rubble, the town completely submerged in the dark "mouth" below.

The only thing left is this shrine.

Miranda's figure was now surrounded by three halos of light.

Those were three [teleportation portals].

She glanced back at Si Ming, as if looking at an unfinished experiment, and smiled indifferently:
"We will eventually meet again in a deeper place. But at that time... I hope you will still be whole."

After speaking, she led her group into one of the three gates, their forms obscured by light.

Before Si Ming and the others could react, the three teleportation portals had already closed, leaving only three "lit" stone statues.

The remaining seven remained dim and lifeless—except for a slight movement the instant Si Ming entered. "They're gone, the doors are closed," Celian frowned. "And what about us?"

“We haven’t lost yet,” Si Ming suddenly declared.

He stared at the ten stone statues, the chessboard of fate quietly spinning in his eyes.

"This is not the end of the main storyline. This is a fork in the road."

"What do you mean?" Zhuang Yege asked.

Si Ming raised his hand and held up a card.

【Purification of Ghosts and Impurities - Blessing at the Altar】

The card emitted a soft glow, and one of the statues, its chest runes lit up, suddenly "opening its eyes" from its slumber.

“This is not a one-way door,” Si Ming said in a steady voice. “It is a set of altar teleportation arrays… Each altar card corresponds to a teleportation image.”

He turned his head: "We also have four cards."

"In other words, we can still catch up."

Before he could finish speaking, the ground collapsed again.

This time, even the ancestral hall began to crumble.

The surrounding corridors collapsed, the roof cracked, and a huge fissure slowly opened beneath the entire shrine.

A low, rumbling sound came from the crack, as if a giant creature in the abyss was chewing on the remnants of the town it had just swallowed.

They had no time to hesitate.

"Give me Sparrow Shadow!" Celian took the card that Siming threw at her and stepped onto the second stone statue.

"You stinking lungs, Weiwei!" Siming roared.

Yu Weiwei paused for a moment, then immediately did as instructed.

Zhuang Yege finally walked to the statue and whispered the [Swallowing Thief Soul - Illusion of the Altar], inserting it into the last unoccupied stone statue.

The four-symbol halo suddenly took shape.

A floating platform rises from the center of the entire shrine, surrounding everyone's feet.

At this moment—the ancestral hall no longer exists.

All that remained beneath their feet was a small floating altar, adrift above an abyss.

And all around...

It is a tooth.

Countless barbed gear structures slowly rotated within the abyss, like the mouth of an evil god, surging beneath their feet with sticky flesh and fragments of souls.

Some teeth have already gnawed through the edge of the ancestral hall, while others are growing from afar, approaching like vines.

“It’s eating…this instance itself!” Yu Weiwei murmured, her face pale.

Si Ming stood in the very center, his gaze calm and composed.

The wind ruffled his hair, the cards of destiny floated around him, the chessboard spun, and he slowly closed his eyes:
"We are just pawns..."

"Then let's jump out of the chessboard."

The next second—

The four symbols shone brightly, and the teleportation array was activated.

Just as the last gear was about to bite into the altar, four beams of light suddenly erupted, enveloping the four people.

The moment the teleportation was completed, the last floating stone statue collapsed into the abyss.

Wangchuan Town, Qipo Altar, Grand Ancestral Hall Shrine.

All returned to nothingness.

The moment the teleportation began, Si Ming sensed a misalignment.

It should have been enveloped in the light of rules and reorganized by coordinates, just like in the past when teleporting to instances, but this time, the light did not appear.

There was only a fleeting moment of white, followed by an overwhelming expanse of pure black.

Black is not blindness, but rather the absence of the definition of "light" in existence itself.

There was no sound, no wind, no pain, and even the boundaries of one's own body became blurred, as if consciousness was being peeled away from one's flesh and blood.

Transmission interference.

This wasn't a system error, but rather... a deeper copy permission had torn apart their "coordinate binding".

He instinctively wanted to call for his teammates.

But he did not speak—his voice was swallowed by the darkness, not even having a chance to vibrate the air.

So he chose to remain silent and open his eyes.

If this is still called an "eye".

Before me lay a... a black expanse, like a mirror.

There was no ground beneath his feet, yet he felt no sense of falling.

He stood on the black mirror, which did not reflect his own image, but rather a slowly distorting phantom, as if another "self" from another world was imitating his existence.

The air felt as thick as liquid, and breathing felt like swallowing thick ink.

"This is where?"

He murmured to himself, his voice finally "allowed" here.

The next second, he heard it.

A voice from the depths of the dark realm.

The voice was far away, yet it seemed to whisper close to his ear.

Intermittent, as if traversing countless years, languages, flesh and blood, and rules:

"……land……"

“Lu, Zhi…”

"……land……"

The Master of Fate's expression changed slightly, and the lines of destiny flickered beneath his eyes.

“It’s not a system,” he said softly. “It’s…something.”

It wasn't a notification sound, it wasn't task text, and it wasn't a hallucination.

The way he called out softly was so real, so real, as if someone knew him.

But in this world, who would call him "Lu"?
He hadn't used that name in a long time. Even in Taki City, and even in the real world, the name "Si Ming" had long since overwritten all his records and identity.

But that voice... didn't care about "Si Ming".

It only cares about his original name.

land.

The sound came again, this time even closer:
"...Lu...did you see that...?"

"They... wrote her as the price."

"Now, you need to go back."

Go back? Who? Who is she?
Si Ming gripped the mysterious card tightly, but the card was dark and the Destiny Chessboard could not be activated, as if this space blocked the intervention of destiny itself.

He looked around, but all he saw was an endless expanse of darkness.

However, this time, a change finally occurred in the black mirror in front of him.

A door slowly appeared.

The door was an old stone door, half-closed. Ten blurry female heads were carved on the outside of the door frame, their faces broken and streaked with tears.

Broken inscriptions appeared on the door:

【Soul Annihilation Zero Domain】.

Si Ming slowly approached, lowered his head, and the moment his fingers touched the door frame, that voice rang in his ear again:

"Open the door and go back to the moment she was erased."

"Fate... is a lie you told."

"Now, it's up to you... to rewrite it."

He didn't answer.

He simply looked up at the door.

The door was open, yet it had no end. It was like a tunnel connecting dreams and reality, truth and lies, life and death.

Si Ming stood in front of the door, silently pondered for a moment, and then stepped forward.

I looked up, and the door seemed to have no end.

And behind the door... lies the place where fate has written the wrong path.

—The Call of the Most High

(End of this chapter)