Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 569 The Second Heart of the God of Greed

The old gods are immortal and sleepless.

The dream of the greedy, the abyss of depravity for all beings.

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

The void trembled.

Miranda's calamity zone burned to its limit. Countless mycelia, parasitic beasts, and poisonous vines surged wildly under her command, transforming into a blood-red storm.

She seemed to transform into a swirling red comet, its fierce tail flames trailing as it weaved, tore, and dismembered the massive body of the Taotie.

The blood of the Taotie transformed into a shower of stars in the void, falling drop by drop like red meteors plummeting into an abyss.

The health bar is dropping rapidly.

Nineteen grids —

Seventeen squares——

Fifteen squares —

It's collapsing, sliding wildly.

Miranda's laughter was drowned out by the storm, yet it remained clear and jarring.

Her cloak transformed into thousands of long whips of mycelium, each swing tearing open new wounds on the Taotie's skin.

Those wounds were deep enough to cause the space below to tremble and collapse.

“Look,” she turned her head and looked at the Si Ming and the others watching the battle in the distance.

"The gods of old were nothing more than this."

Another blow.

The eyes under the armpits of the Taotie were pierced by mycelium, and black liquid gushed out with a roar.

Health bar, only ten bars left.

Zhuang Yege held the copper bell, watching the destructive clash with a furrowed brow.

"Can she... really fight such a monster?"

Yu Weiwei bit her lip and whispered, "It seems like I'm really about to die..."

Selene flicked the dust off Bloodwing and sneered, "That woman's insane."

Zhuang Yege looked at Si Ming: "What should we do? Judging from this, it won't be long before she defeats that monster—"

"will not."

Si Ming's voice was low and cold, but his eyes held a strange calm.

Before him, the Thousand Faces unfolded a virtual panel in the air.

The light on the panel flickered silently, revealing whispers from the depths of the system.

[Supreme No. 9: Taotie (Weakened State)]

[State: Critical]

[Warning: Target's health has reached the second stage threshold.]

[Hint: The event "Gluttony - The Heart of Re-eating" is about to trigger.]

"Phase Two".

Si Ming whispered, his face expressionless.

The voice of the Thousand Faces echoed only in his heart:
"The health trigger point is approaching."

Evacuation is recommended immediately.

The Taotie will enter a state of 'self-devouring reconstruction'.

"Go back!"

Si Ming suddenly looked up and shouted.

"Serian, Yu Weiwei, Zhuang Yege—get out of the way immediately!"

Yu Weiwei was taken aback and was about to ask what was happening when she heard a sharp ringing sound coming from deep inside her eardrums.

The Taotie—moved.

It no longer roars.

It began to curl up.

Its enormous body slowly shrank into a ball, like a huge and bizarre fleshy sphere.

Its surface is swollen and undulating, with layers of texture writhing.

then,

Countless barbs suddenly sprouted from its body surface, pointing in all directions.
Like flowers blooming in hell.

Miranda sneered.

"You're only thinking about defense now?"

She raised her right arm, and the mycelium at her fingertips coalesced into a knife.

"too late."

She swooped down.

A blinding white light exploded from the core of the Taotie.

The void was illuminated.

The health bar is stuck at the eighth level.

Then, reverse it.

Nine grids.

Ten grids.

twelve.

fourteen.

"...It's healing!" Yu Weiwei screamed.

Siming's pupils constricted sharply: "No, it's not healing—it's a phase transition!"

The Taotie's health bar jumped up and down, and the red light once again covered the entire strip.

fifteen.

eighteen.

twenty.

Everything reset.

Miranda hovered in the air, her eyes showing a rare look of astonishment.

"This is impossible!"

She roared and unleashed a powerful strike.

The crimson fungal blade, carrying the energy of the entire disaster zone, slashed down from her hand—

However, the blade only sparked at the Taotie's shell.

pierce,

Not an inch can be advanced.

"Its skin...hardened?!" Zhuang Yege gasped.

Si Ming said in a deep voice, "No... that's not ordinary hardening, that's adaptive devouring evolution."

The Taotie's curled-up form unfolded again.

This time, its outer layer was covered with a thick layer of fungi and parasites.

But the color of those mycelia was different from Miranda's.

It was a bacterial body that was a mixture of deep sea blue and jet black, thick like octopus tentacles, winding and twisting;
The end of each tentacle split open into a grotesque, menacing mouth.

And those parasites attached to it

Each one has Miranda's face.

They opened their eyes at the same time.

Smile at the same time.

Then, open your mouths at the same time.

Silent laughter, thousands upon thousands.

Taotie raised its head, which had a human face and a sheep's body.

The eyes under the armpits reopened.

Deep within the pupils, the faint glow of mycelium shimmered.

Its tiger claws slowly rose.

boom! !

An air explosion.

In an instant, countless tentacles shot out from the rift in the void.

Like rain, like swords, like billions of black nerves.

At that moment, even the space itself seemed to tremble.

Miranda's disaster zone is operating at full capacity.

The mycelium around her immediately retracted and condensed into a shield, with layers of fungi enveloping her body.

The tentacles slammed into the shield, emitting a tearing shriek.

Each impact was accompanied by a burst of light, like a comet falling to earth.

But the quantity is too much.

"Hiss-ah-!"

Miranda roared, and her arms were instantly enveloped by tentacles that coiled around her waist like snakes.

She struggled to break free, severing several tentacles with a wave of her hand, but new tentacles grew from the depths of the void.

The taotie's enormous mouth opened.

That bite,

Like an abyss that devours everything, the barbs spin, and the sound waves turn into a storm.

All the light was sucked in by that one breath.

Miranda's figure rose and fell at the boundary between light and mist.

The disaster zone surrounding her was like a burning planet, constantly flashing, erupting, and reforming.

Her roar echoed through the space:

"Submit to me!"

The sound was swallowed by the wind.

The tide of parasites overwhelmed her.

The Taotie roared, and the sound waves transformed into visible vibrations, shattering Miranda's defenses inch by inch.

The health bar remained steadily at full.

Twenty squares.

"It... completely replicated her power."

Zhuang Yege murmured absentmindedly. Celian whispered, "The monster has learned to evolve."

Si Ming lowered his hand, and the chessboard of fate slowly spun in his eyes.

“The second phase,” he murmured.

"Taotie—begins to devour."

Miranda roared.

The mycelium around her surged wildly, its sound so deep it seemed to rumble from the earth.

Her face gradually distorted in the light and shadow, her eyes flashing with a frenzied satisfaction and hatred.

"What I want," her voice ripped through the air, "I must have it!"

She raised her hand, her five fingers slowly spreading out, as if making a declaration to the entire void.

Even the Supreme Being!

"I am the very embodiment of greed!"

Spark, activate.

Countless rays of light erupted from Miranda's body; these rays were neither fire nor electricity.

Rather, it is something deeper—"growth".

Her body began to disintegrate, only to reform at the same instant.

Skin cracked

Silvery-gray fungi emerged from the cracks, coiling around like snakes.

Those fungi grow instantly in the air, transforming into branches, buds, and fruits.

Flesh and spores resonate, bones rearrange.
Her figure rose taller in the light.
The skin lost its human color, replaced by a dark green, mossy texture.

Her limbs were long and twisted, like dead trees taking root.

The fingers extended into sharp, black finger bones, and the cracked claw blades shimmered in the air.

Her hair transformed into countless hanging mycelium.
It drooped down from her head and spread out behind her like a torn spider web.

As her chest rose and fell, clusters of spores burst open in the air.

Formation of spore clouds

It enveloped the entire battlefield.

At that moment, her upper body still barely maintained a human shape.

Its lower body had completely merged into the void, transforming into a twisted fungal tree.

The roots intertwined in the air, forming a terrifying wing of mycelium.

Beneath that cloak lay a rotting, decaying forest.

She opened her eyes.

His eyes turned into a ghostly green fluorescence.
The pupils rotated, forming a shape resembling spore rings.

Those rings of light were like a dream, or like a creature splitting apart.

She smiled slightly, a thin crack appearing at the corner of her mouth.

His sharp teeth were exposed, and the smile on his lips resembled a gaping wound.

Burning Star Technique: Forest of Decaying Fungi.

The air stopped, and time froze.

The next second, the light from the explosion engulfed the entire void.

A "forest" composed of mycelium, moss, dead wood, and spore clouds.

It rises from the ground with Miranda as its center.

The spores scattered like snowflakes.

Countless parasitic beasts climbed and howled among the clouds.

She seemed to have become a dark tree in the universe.
Its roots penetrate into nothingness, its branches and leaves reach towards God.

The Taotie roared in fury.

It raised that ugly human face.

Waves of light shot from his eyes beneath his armpits, and his tiger claws tore through the air.
The torn fragments of space spun like mirrors, refracting a mixture of blood and light.

Miranda was thrown headlong into the storm.

Her fingers transformed into hundreds of mycelial tentacles.
Each one lashed out like a whip, striking the Taotie's body.

The sound of flesh colliding with metal echoed continuously.

Each swing ignites a wave of light in the air.

The blood of the gluttonous beast splattered in the void.
Drop by drop, it falls as a shower of light.

“She… has gone mad,” Yu Weiwei whispered.

“She’s also ignited a star…” Zhuang Yege watched Miranda’s phantom flicker, “but she’s still pushing forward.”

Si Ming watched quietly, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"Do not worry."

He turned his head and looked at the giant beast that was still struggling.
The voice is deep.

"The gluttony is not over yet."

It will continue to evolve.

It adapts and grows based on the damage dealt by enemies.

"so,"

His gaze shifted to the Taotie's back.

"The real strategy is not to confront things head-on."

Zhuang Yege was taken aback: "Then what do you plan to do?"

Si Ming pointed to the enormous mouth behind the Taotie in the distance.

It was a crevice like a cave, filled with jagged edges and sharp blades.

"Go in."

"Once you get inside, it will end."

Yu Weiwei gasped.

"are you serious?!"

Selene slowly raised her head, her blood-red pupils gleaming faintly.

Her voice was soft, yet carried a hint of the cold beauty of a dark rose:
"It's too dangerous."

"If you go in, you might not come back alive."

Si Ming looked back at her and smiled slightly.

"I know, but I have to go."

I know you won't let me go alone.

Selene paused for a moment, then smiled.

"certainly.

We're bound together."

"If you are going to your death, how can I be left out?"

Si Ming shook his head and chuckled.

"Then come along."

A chessboard of fate emerges.

Countless silver-white squares spread out from the void, like a floating bridge.

Si Ming and Selian stepped onto the chessboard side by side.

The chessboard raced along the path of emptiness.

The chess squares beneath their feet glided like shooting stars, heading straight for the core of the Taotie.

They traversed the spore storm,

Leaping over the rolling sea of ​​mushrooms,
Dodge the rain of tentacles and fungal blades.

Each falling spore explodes into a burst of illusory light.
Like light sprouting in death.

Miranda noticed it from a distance.

Her eyes suddenly locked onto Si Ming.

He roared and stretched out his hand—

Countless mycelia burst forth from behind her.

Transformed into a sharp spear,

It spiraled through the air, piercing straight at Siming and Selene!

"Sir!" Selian raised her Bloodwing Defense.

But just as the mycelium pierced through their bodies,

The outlines of the two people crumbled.

It's not blood.

It's a chess piece.

A black king piece,
A white queen chess piece.

The two chess pieces collided and shattered into dust.

Miranda's pupils suddenly contracted.

"……phantom?!"

Dust drifted in.

The real Siren and Selene emerged from behind the dust.

Leaping past the afterimage of mycelium.

The last square of the chessboard gleamed beneath their feet.

The two jumped up at the same time.

It charged toward those enormous mouths filled with bared teeth.

At that moment, the wind in the void stopped.

The Taotie's eyes slowly turned, its gaze sweeping over them.
seems to be laughing.

Si Ming and Selian,

Together they leaped into the colossal maw that devoured the world.

Darkness closes in.

The void collapsed into a point of light.

If the dream is silent, then there is a path within it.

Dreams return to the gluttonous realm, and all things come to an end.

—From *Zi Bu Yu: Shi Meng Lu: End*

(End of this chapter)