A world polluted by evil gods (1): Chu Feng is the son of the world?

“Brother Si Qi, what’s wrong?”

“Come play with Jila~”

The little girl blinked her bright, watery eyes and tugged affectionately at Si Qi’s sleeve.

Si Qi gently patted the children’s heads, a coldness brewing in his pitch-black eyes.

A handsome teenage boy nearby, with fair features, noticed the subtle change in Si Qi’s expression. With a warm smile, he stepped forward and said, “Alright kids, young master isn’t feeling well. He’s been playing with you for quite a while and needs to rest now.”

The children, understanding and considerate, looked up at Si Qi’s pale face and obediently let go of his clothes, saying, “Brother, you need to rest well and take care of your health!”

A smile appeared in Si Qi’s eyes. He waved goodbye to the children and, accompanied by the young man, left the lush green lawn and returned to the shaded, sunless area behind the buildings.

Watching the children laugh and run freely in the sunlight, the young man said to Si Qi, “Sir, what happened?”

This young man, named Igor, was one of Si Qi’s trusted subordinates selected from the orphanage. He had commendable intelligence, temperament, and courage, and was among the very few allowed to know Si Qi’s true identity and personally protect him.

Si Qi said, “I was attacked.”

Igor’s expression changed dramatically. He asked nervously, “Are you alright? I didn’t notice anything at all!”

Si Qi frowned slightly. “No, neither did I…” — and that was exactly what troubled him the most.

Igor’s shock became even more obvious.

For Si Qi to be attacked in his private life was already an alarming matter. It hinted that their enemy may have discovered Si Qi’s true identity or even located him directly.

But what Igor couldn’t understand even more was how someone as overwhelmingly powerful as Si Qi — a man so strong he could only be looked up to — was unable to sense the origin of the attack. It was simply unbelievable.

Si Qi instructed Igor to return to the orphanage and watch over the children. He then changed into a disguise and put on a mask. With two subordinates following behind him, he left the orphanage and headed to a nearby chapel. Inside, the priest gave him a gentle, kind smile and guided him to a hidden door within the church. They entered a winding, dark underground passage.

There wasn’t a single glimmer of light in the tunnel, yet the three of them moved without the slightest difficulty. Silently, they passed countless deadly traps and used dozens of methods in succession to unlock layers of sealed doors. Eventually, they arrived at a vast space filled with various items — stored behind doors, in boxes, or sealed in jars.

The space resembled a massive shopping mall — huge and divided across multiple levels — but the decor and layout gave off an eerie, disturbing vibe. Some areas were shrouded in layers of black cloth, letting no light through. Others were lit around the clock from every angle, ensuring no shadows remained. Still others were completely free of anything resembling a door, storing items in fully sealed rooms, precisely 6.66 meters in every dimension, impenetrable even to dust.

It was like stepping into a madman’s mind — bizarre, absurd, and incomprehensible.

Since approaching the area, the two subordinates following Si Qi had become visibly tense and cautious, their eyes filled with anxiety and fear.

Despite their deep fear, they stayed close to Si Qi, never straying more than a meter from him. The three of them made their way to a certain place on the third basement level. The two subordinates’ expressions turned increasingly fearful, sticking closely behind Si Qi as if the air around them were laced with invisible poison — even a slight misstep would lead to instant death.

The trio, in a perfect equilateral triangle formation, stopped before a pitch-black mirror. Si Qi’s expressionless face looked sharp and dangerous, with no trace of the warmth he’d shown while playing with the children under the sun.

He sliced his fingertip and smeared fresh blood on the mirror’s surface. The darkness within the mirror churned like a swamp stirred by blood, eventually revealing a horrifying image that chilled the two subordinates to the bone.

In the space where their commander should have been reflected stood a monstrous, demonic creature — dangerous and grotesque. Its entire body emitted a dark aura, and its blood-red eyes were like the crystallization of nightmares. The creature’s form was so terrifying that the two subordinates didn’t dare look clearly. They just knew it was the most horrifying thing the human mind could imagine. Just a glance filled them with unspeakable terror, making their bodies tremble uncontrollably, nearly fainting.

Their instincts screamed for them to run, but reason kept their feet rooted to the ground — they dared not move a step.

Because this mirror, known as the “Mirror of Truth,” had a rule: any living being reflected directly by it must appear in a group of three and stay within one meter of each other. If there were more than three, the mirror would randomly kill the extras. If the distance exceeded one meter, all would die.

That was why Si Qi brought exactly two people with him — alone, he couldn’t activate the sealed item.

Si Qi spoke to the mirror, which was known as the “Mirror of Truth”: “What changed in me after I was attacked just now?”

He did not use the word “hurt” to describe what had happened. Instead, he said “changed” — because the mirror was cunning enough to deliberately ignore things like surveillance or curses and claim “nothing happened.”

Si Qi was already experienced in dealing with intelligent sealed objects like this.

The mirror shifted slightly and used Si Qi’s blood to form a sentence on its surface: “There was no attack.”

Si Qi frowned, then opened a new cut, smearing more blood: “What was the source of the voice I heard?”

Mirror: “There was no voice.”

Si Qi’s face darkened.

Sealed items followed their own set of rules. As long as a question fit within those rules, the sealed item could not lie.

Si Qi was certain he had not misheard — which meant that the power involved in the attack far exceeded that of even S-class sealed items, to the point that even the Mirror of Truth couldn’t perceive it.

Knowing he wouldn’t get any answers here, Si Qi turned and left without a trace of sentiment, his subordinates hurrying to follow.

The mirror regretfully absorbed the rare blood. Ever since it had been sealed by that human, it hadn’t tasted death or blood in a long time.

Fortunately, answering questions didn’t cost much. Compared to the other cursed sealed items, this human still came by now and then to use it, letting it enjoy a taste of the delicious again.

As the doors shut behind them, sealing off the instant-death aura, the two subordinates slowly relaxed their tense muscles and exhaled quietly.

They instinctively avoided thinking about their commander’s “true form.” Even knowing that the man who could command so many sealed objects must be incredibly powerful, even a brief glance was enough to make one’s hair stand on end and heart fill with fear.

Of course, more than fear — there was reverence and fanatic devotion.

They didn’t ask Si Qi about the voice. They understood that if even their commander couldn’t figure it out, there was no way they could.

Instead, one of them said, “The person you asked us to keep an eye on will arrive in the Imperial Capital at 7 o’clock tonight.”

Si Qi gave a neutral “Mm” and said, “Protect him well.”

“Yes.”

The man standing on Si Qi’s left replied, then turned to see Si Qi’s pale and indifferent profile. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly let out a nervous giggle and said, “Why is the commander so interested in that guy? I went to check him out earlier—aside from being decent-looking, he’s just an ordinary person.”

The man on Si Qi’s right knew this guy was once again losing control under pressure and starting to go mad. He frowned and said, “Get a grip.”

The man giggled again and said, “What’s the big deal? I’m just curious~”

Members who dealt with forbidden objects every day and were constantly under immense invisible pressure rarely had normal mental states.

Some had personally witnessed forbidden objects slaughtering their family and friends, leaving them traumatized and unable to escape the shadows for life.

Some barely managed to recover, and once deemed useful, were recruited into the legion  under Si Qi’s command—constantly sent out to seal forbidden objects, risking death at any moment from the deadly rules, to retrieve those objects that randomly appeared around the world and bring them back for underground containment.

Nearly every mission involved witnessing strange and gruesome deaths—whether it was their teammates or themselves.

After living like this for long enough, even a normal person would go insane.

This particular subordinate of Si Qi’s was one such case. As a child, he had witnessed an entire city fall under the influence of a forbidden object—tens of thousands of people crazily devoured and tore each other apart, including their own family and friends. He barely survived in that hellish city for half a month before being rescued by Si Qi and invited to join the legion .

He wanted to help others like himself, but also knew he could never return to the peaceful world he once knew. He hoped to find companions who shared his experiences.

At first, he just wanted redemption. But after years of watching countless teammates die one by one, his mind began to fray. Sometimes he did things others saw as insane and unacceptable—like digging up personal information on a passerby who had accidentally stepped on his foot, then dragging the man out of bed in the middle of the night and forcing him to apologize in the same spot; or suddenly going mad at the sight of flowing water, lighting torches to burn down every house nearby, convinced that only by doing so could they avoid having their blood drained by the water.

These were all psychological aftereffects left by firsthand encounters with bizarre death rules during forbidden object sealings.

Si Qi had always been tolerant of these mad subordinates. He ignored the one now going off the rails, showing a strong interest in Chu Feng, and said calmly, “This is not something you need to know. Protect him—at all costs. Understood?”

The subordinate’s eyes darted around rapidly. He nodded and said, “Understood.”

Then, this same subordinate—so loyal and serious when he said he understood—was nothing more than a mutilated legion e the next time Si Qi saw him.

By then, it was already late at night. Si Qi, at his parents’ urging, had changed into pajamas and was lying quietly on a soft bed. The fire inside the glass lamp, enclosed by black iron bars, had been extinguished. Moonlight spilled through the window, and with it, a shadow fell silently onto the carpet.

Si Qi heard a dull thud. He got up to check—and saw a severed arm.

The arm struggled, crawling toward him. Its fingers sniffed the air like a nose, confirming it had found the right person. Then it stopped, raised its palm, and a mouth opened up in the center. It spoke: “Commander.”

Si Qi got up and began changing clothes. “What happened?”

“Mission failed. Everyone is dead. The forbidden object was stolen. We need your intervention.”

Si Qi said nothing. He stepped onto the balcony and left the villa.

Moments later, a boy identical in voice and appearance to Si Qi emerged from a hidden room. Using a sealed object to temporarily alter his appearance, he took Si Qi’s place and returned to the bed.

In the understanding of the legion  members, strange items with unknown or incomprehensible rule-based powers were called forbidden objects, while those that had been captured and whose death rules were understood and controlled by humans were known as sealed objects.

Anyone with a discerning eye who saw Si Qi at this moment would notice that the gentle, obedient-looking boy from earlier was now completely covered in traces of sealed objects.

For ordinary people, controlling even a single sealed object was a struggle. But Si Qi could perfectly wield over twenty sealed objects, each interchangeable at will—an ability that would shock any informed observer.

Si Qi picked up a mask and covered his face, donned a cloak that could conceal nearly all traces of presence, and his aura instantly turned eerie and menacing—cold like a drawn blade.

No one would ever associate him now with the gentle, frail young man from earlier in the daylight.

This version of him was the true identity familiar to all who knew: the commander of the Temple Knights—cold-blooded, ruthless, and so deadly that even the mention of his name struck terror into his enemies’ hearts.

Following the one-armed subordinate away from the villa, the two melted into the shadows of the night without making a sound.

The subordinate said to Si Qi, “This time, we brought a total of forty-six members. At the cost of twenty-four lives, we managed to roughly understand the rules of this forbidden object.” He pointed to the two bloody holes on the palm of his hand and mouth. “This forbidden object does not allow eye contact, does not allow listening, and does not allow perception. We tried gouging out our eyes, but the dozen or so people nearest still died instantly after hearing a sound. Four others deafened themselves and attempted to approach, but were ambushed just before containment. The enemy had at least fifteen people. Everyone was killed except for me. They were likely using forbidden object A-68—I smelled the scent of bluebells.”

Si Qi replied coldly, “The Omniscient Church.”22

“It’s them,” the subordinate confirmed his deduction.

Several years ago, during a certain conflict, the group calling themselves the Omniscient Church clashed with the Temple Knights using forbidden object A-68. At the time, records mentioned a forbidden object that left behind a lingering bluebell scent. It killed over twenty members of the Temple Knights. Si Qi and his subordinate quickly recalled that incident.

The subordinate led Si Qi to the site of the conflict. legion es with deep sunken eye sockets lay limp on the ground, blood pooling all around.

Si Qi had an excellent memory. He remembered every team member’s name, background, the smiles they gave him, and every word they ever said to him.

But at this moment, he simply looked at them quietly, then turned his gaze away, using a sealed object to follow the direction the enemies had fled.

The one-armed subordinate climbed up onto the road and reunited with a young man who had lost both an arm and his eyes. He then got up and followed Si Qi.

In Si Qi’s vision, the footprints of the fleeing enemies were clearly visible, all heading in the same direction. The large and irregular spacing between steps indicated they had been running in a panic, constantly alert to threats behind them.

Si Qi grabbed the subordinate behind him. His cape fluttered even without wind, lifting both of them into the air and onto a rooftop. Moving like a leopard through the night city, every breath, scent, and step he took on the roof was absorbed and silenced by the cape. In the blink of an eye, he closed in on the dozen or so people who had fled minutes ahead. Under their shocked and wide-eyed gaze, he landed squarely in front of them, blocking their path.

The team, initially fleeing at full speed, split into four groups the moment they saw Si Qi. None of them were foolish enough to confront him. Each group carried a similarly wrapped item in black cloth, making it impossible to tell who had the real forbidden object.

But that didn’t matter.

Si Qi didn’t even glance at the group. As the subordinate swiftly moved behind him, pressing close to his back, a flash of cold light streaked through the night, slicing through everything within ten meters—living beings and all four bundles alike.

Every legion e was cleanly cut in half. Three of the bundles were sliced open by the silver light, falling to the ground as neatly halved contents. The last one was just about to fall and make a slight metallic clink. The blind subordinate, unaware of the impending death, was about to be caught in the aftermath. Si Qi flicked the soundless bell hanging from his waist. The space within a meter around him was instantly enveloped in silence, then returned to sound a moment later.

The subordinate landed and instinctively hid behind Si Qi. Within two seconds, soft thuds were heard as bodies hit the ground. After a moment’s pause to confirm the enemies were dead, the subordinate stepped out from behind Si Qi without a hint of surprise on his face.

He knew it—enemies capable of annihilating their entire squad couldn’t last even three seconds against the commander.

Si Qi picked up the object wrapped in black cloth, preparing to deliver it to the underground chamber that housed sealed forbidden objects and to record the action’s details and death rules. Just then, a familiar aura erupted in the distance—it was a sealed object’s aura, and it belonged to the one he had assigned to protect “that person”!

Si Qi stashed the newly acquired sealed object and rushed toward the source, leaving the bewildered subordinate behind.

In just over ten seconds, he crossed half the city, moving from a silent residential area to a brightly lit commercial zone. There, he saw a monster biting half the body off his subordinate. His breath caught for a split second.

He decapitated the monster with one strike, landing almost simultaneously with its falling legion e. Si Qi reached out and pulled his subordinate’s mangled body from the monster’s jaws.

After confirming Si Qi’s identity, the subordinate’s first reaction was to shove the sealed object he carried into Si Qi’s arms and use his last strength to report his final mission: “Zone A, Marg—”

He couldn’t even finish the sentence. His wild, devoted eyes faded to lifelessness, his face still bearing that loyal and fanatical expression.

Si Qi gently laid him in a hidden corner to await retrieval and coldly stored the two sealed objects.

His subordinates always reported every detail related to Chu Feng. Si Qi only had to think briefly to recall Chu Feng’s whereabouts—Room 1127, Margaret Grand Hotel, Zone A.

He flew straight to the eleventh floor of the hotel, broke through the window, and found the room in utter chaos from some strange force. Blood and feathers from pillows littered the space, but Chu Feng was nowhere in sight.

Si Qi’s expression darkened. He picked up his communicator and ordered his men stationed throughout the city to locate Chu Feng immediately.

A minute later, a squad reported that Chu Feng was being chased by a strange forbidden object. Si Qi rushed over. A subordinate who had already scouted the situation reported, “This forbidden object is extremely bizarre. It spawns monsters that attack anyone who tries to approach—relentlessly. But it shows abnormal interest in that young man, constantly chasing him without actually harming him. We haven’t figured out its exact rules.”

If trashing someone’s room, chasing them across multiple streets, and nearly killing them several times didn’t count as harm, then yes, the forbidden object was showing extreme affection toward Chu Feng.

The subordinate sent to protect Chu Feng had likely been collateral damage. To avoid involving Chu Feng, he had fled far from the hotel and fought the monster using the sealed object, but still died quickly.

Given the subordinate’s strength and the nearby members’ capabilities, Si Qi concluded they’d be no match and ordered, “Have everyone nearby maintain a safe distance. Wait for my signal.”

“Yes!”

Upon receiving the command, the subordinates acted swiftly. Si Qi flew to Chu Feng’s side. The young man, who had lived a peaceful life until now, was likely experiencing such horror for the first time. Seeing the black-robed figure descend from the sky, he nearly mistook him for another terrifying entity.

Instead, the tall figure clashed directly with the monster. Chu Feng’s heart pounded as he slowly realized this person was likely here to save him.

He hesitated—should he run for help or stay to assist his savior? Just then, the figure was slammed through the air by the monster, hitting a streetlamp thick as a thigh and bending it ninety degrees before crashing to the ground.

—Wasn’t that guy just killed?

Chu Feng rushed over, trying to help. A masked face looked up and yanked him behind. Then, both of them were flung into the air by a powerful force. Chu Feng was completely stunned.

Everything happened too fast. As an ordinary businessman, he couldn’t react. He smelled blood on the man’s body but couldn’t tell where he was injured under the black clothes. Then, he heard a hoarse, angry voice:

“Get lost!”

Yet the force that returned him to the ground was surprisingly gentle. He watched as the man once again engaged the terrifying monster.

Subordinates hiding hundreds of meters away were extremely uneasy.

“The Commander clearly could’ve dodged—why did he protect that guy so fiercely? He even took all the damage for him!”

“That monster’s insane! It even knocked the Commander away!”

“Wait, the Commander’s signaling us to block all five senses!!”

Seeing Si Qi’s signal, every soldier—despite the battlefield danger—immediately closed their eyes, plugged their ears, held their breath, and buried their heads in their knees.

Si Qi shot a hateful look at the idiot who refused to leave, rushed in front of Chu Feng, used his cloak to shield his view, and hurled the newly acquired forbidden object—one that could not be seen or heard—at the monster.

But in that instant, Si Qi clearly saw the monster charge straight into the forbidden object without hesitation, completely ignoring its threat!

What? How could something override even an S-class “invisible/inaudible” forbidden object?

He rang the soundless bell again, watching as the forbidden object disintegrated into ash upon hitting the ground. A dead object.

Si Qi pursed his lips tightly.

He glanced at the bewildered Chu Feng, unable to comprehend what kind of existence had taken interest in this man. But no matter how dangerous this forbidden object was, he absolutely couldn’t let Chu Feng die. Drawing his sealed long sword, he charged the monster once more.

By the time the deputy commander and others arrived, they found their Commander fighting the forbidden object in rare desperation. As he grew more bloodthirsty and frenzied, even the deputy commander dared not approach.

At that point, any attempt to assist might lead to their own deaths—Si Qi could easily mistake them for enemies and kill them with one strike.

This was the price of long-term exposure to multiple sealed objects: the loss of reason, becoming a slave to the forbidden object.

As for the young man peeking cautiously from behind a utility pole…

The deputy commander recognized Chu Feng and said in surprise, “Why is he here?”

The subordinates quickly filled him in. The deputy commander’s expression turned strange as he thought, “The Commander really likes that pretty but useless guy? Has he decided Chu Feng is the child of the world?”