A world polluted by evil gods (16): Dust settles

Squish — the sound of mashed flesh.

Si Qi felt a tingling sensation under his foot. Looking down, he saw a mess of a squashed worm struggling to crawl out from beneath his sole, inching its way toward the darkness of his consciousness.

Si Qi thrust his sword into its body. The worm shrieked and writhed in pain, clearly suffering, but it just wouldn’t die.

Xiu Xiu: [That’s probably the true form of the evil god, huh? It’s really tenacious.]

Si Qi: [How do I kill it completely?]

Xiu Xiu, bewildered: [Huh? I don’t know either.]

Si Qi: […………]

Xiu Xiu quickly said: [I’ll go ask the World Consciousness and see what it suggests!]

Si Qi raised an eyebrow. What even is this World Consciousness?

A few seconds later, Xiu Xiu muttered: [The World Consciousness says you just need to drive It out of the consciousness space, or wait for the consciousness space to disappear. Once It loses the soil to survive and is exposed before the Lord God, that will be enough.]

Si Qi: [By “consciousness space disappearing,” you mean I have to die, right?]

What a joke. He had already defeated the evil god — how could Si Qi possibly die so easily? Even if there was only the slimmest chance, he had to live.

Xiu Xiu cautiously said: [But as long as the evil god dies, the world mission will be completed, and you’ll gain a huge amount of World Power. You’ll be able to return to the Tower of the Lord God…]

Si Qi didn’t agree to Xiu Xiu’s suggestion. To him, everything about it was unknown — it was simply too risky.

He opened his eyes and immediately said something that nearly scared his family to death: “Chu Feng, the evil god is still inside me.”

Chu Feng had been leaning dazedly against the wall. His eyes were bloodshot, and a layer of dark stubble had grown on his chin — he looked desolate. When he saw Si Qi finally awake, he rushed over, grabbing his hand, his own trembling uncontrollably.

Hearing Si Qi’s words, he said, “Let me take a look.”

Divine power spread into Si Qi’s body, and Si Qi saw white light envelop his consciousness space, revealing the ruin within.

The light shone on the maggot-like creature, but it only made it uncomfortable — it curled up to escape the light. It couldn’t be killed completely.

Chu Feng said, “I can sense a black force inside you.”

Si Qi: “Can you get it out?”

Chu Feng frowned and thought for a long time before replying seriously, “…I’ll find a way. I definitely will.”

Seeing this, Si Qi understood and tried to comfort him: “No rush. It’s still there, but it can’t harm me.”

With the World Power pressing down on it, the evil god couldn’t do anything — at most, it just kept cursing and swearing, making people irritable.

Luckily, Si Qi was used to this sort of thing.

“How can we not worry!” Si Qi’s mother burst into tears, covering her face. “You child… why did you keep this from your family? Do you know how afraid we were something might happen to you…”

Si Qi snapped back to reality and suddenly realized his secret identity had been exposed. His expression went blank for a moment.

Then… that means Chu Feng also saw him switching personalities and getting jealous of himself…

Si Qi was speechless. He glanced silently at Igor, who was watching him with red-rimmed, tear-filled eyes. Si Qi couldn’t say a word of blame — he could only whisper, “I’m sorry.”

The marquis’s family looked at Si Qi with complex expressions. “You were at home every day… even during the last natural disaster, you stayed by our side the entire time. What’s going on…”

Si Qi: “That was a substitute.”

The marquis’s wife cried even harder: “I couldn’t even tell my own child apart…”

Si Qi comforted her: “He’s basically a child who grew up at your side. He’s spent more time with you than I have. I’ll bring Ander to see you later. He really loves you all.”

The marchioness wiped her tears and, for a moment, couldn’t bring herself to say, “That’s not our child.” After all, that boy had always been so thoughtful and sensible.

The marquis spoke up. “Will you keep doing this kind of thing? Your mother worries about you.”

Si Qi replied, “The evil god is no longer a threat. There won’t be anything that dangerous again…”

All he needed to do now was, like before, carefully contain the forbidden objects scattered across the world and seal them away where humans couldn’t reach. One day, this world would be completely free from the evil god’s shadow, and humanity would be able to live safely.

Especially now that the gods of this world had reawakened.

Si Qi glanced at Chu Feng, then quickly looked away guiltily when Chu Feng noticed his gaze. He turned to Igor and asked, “How are things outside?”

“Three days before the evil god descended, forbidden objects flooded the entire capital. We were understaffed and locked in bitter battle. A week later, after the evil god died—or rather, was defeated—you fell into a coma. The contamination stopped, and no new forbidden objects have emerged since. Chu Feng and I contained them one by one, and finally got the situation under control today… You’ve been unconscious for two days.”

“A week?” So he had been fighting the evil god in the consciousness space for an entire week? That kind of high-intensity battle—one small mistake and he would’ve been devoured from the inside out—no wonder Si Qi felt so exhausted in the end. It was sheer overwork.

Si Qi asked, “What about overseas?”

Igor responded, “Forbidden objects experienced a power surge as well, displaying extreme agitation. Fortunately, nothing major happened. The members stationed abroad joined forces and suppressed them.”

Si Qi nodded and tried to sit up, but his body didn’t respond in sync with his consciousness, leaving him clumsy and too weak to move.

“You silly child, just lie down. You need to rest,” the marchioness said, tending to her “frail” son with practiced ease. Si Qi instinctively complied, but then remembered that things were different now. He retrieved a few pink potions from the World Tree’s leaves and drank them. The soul-deep fatigue, like having stayed up several nights in a row, finally faded away. He sat up normally and told the marchioness, “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

Seeing the sudden change in Si Qi with her own eyes, the marchioness thought of the countless times she’d been told by useless doctors, “The young lord’s condition hasn’t improved,” and then remembered how the very same people had just claimed, “The Commander has always been in good health. He’s just too mentally drained to wake up.” It should’ve been a relief, but she suddenly felt a bit stifled. She lightly thumped her son’s shoulder, not knowing whether to be happy or angry.

The congressman, meanwhile, curiously eyed the glass bottles beside Si Qi. Though he was a well-informed man, it was rare to witness something so mysterious in person. He asked, “Will continuing to use this kind of power harm you? I heard people say that your condition was due to being exposed to too many sealed objects…”

Si Qi replied, “This isn’t a sealed object.”

He didn’t know how to explain the difference to his older brother and fell into silence. Chu Feng stepped in to smooth things over, saying, “The Commander’s soul condition looks better than before.”

Everyone instinctively glanced to their sides but didn’t see the black-and-white blob.

Previously, due to severe contamination, a black-and-white blob had been floating beside them. After the situation was brought under control, the blob—supposedly representing the soul—disappeared. When Chu Feng mentioned it again, they momentarily panicked, thinking it had reappeared.

Si Qi looked at Chu Feng, confused. Chu Feng hesitated for a moment, then explained, “Didn’t you always say I had special eyes that could find a way out even in the most dangerous situations? Actually, I can see things others can’t.”

Si Qi didn’t react at first. After a moment, he processed the meaning behind Chu Feng’s words, and his whole body stiffened. “You mean… you’ve been able to see our souls all along?!”

Chu Feng replied, “…Yeah.”

Under the puzzled stares of everyone else, Si Qi’s face slowly turned red. He looked at Chu Feng with a mix of resentment and embarrassment, gritting his teeth. “So you knew who I was from the very beginning…”

Chu Feng awkwardly rubbed his nose. “That’s right.”

Si Qi: ……………

More embarrassing than being exposed in public was hearing the person say, “I always knew who you were. I also knew you were switching identities and acting like different people in front of me.”

Even someone like the Commander—who had faced countless crises and whose mental state was usually rock solid—couldn’t handle that kind of blow.

He sent Chu Feng away to deal with the remaining chaos left behind by the evil god and stayed behind in his room to slowly digest the overwhelming shame. Only after a long while did he emerge again to the surprise and delight of the enforcers waiting outside, ready to dive into the tedious cleanup work.

Life gradually returned to normal, though many things had undeniably changed.

First of all, the entire imperial capital had heard of the evil god’s descent. They now knew that the marquis’s frail, reclusive young son was actually the legendary commander of the Temple Knights.

One was a gentle, well-mannered child pitied by countless nobles. The other was a ruthless savior whose power even royalty dared not challenge. The gap between these two identities was so vast that many found it hard to believe the news was true.

That is, until a daring journalist managed to capture a photo of Si Qi and Chu Feng battling while he was possessed by the evil god. Once it was published in the latest issue of the newspaper, the public had no choice but to accept the truth.

At the same time, the enforcers who had long operated in secret across the globe, quietly containing forbidden objects, no longer needed to hide. They began appearing in public, asking for cooperation and warning civilians to avoid areas with forbidden objects.

People were stunned to realize how many individuals had been part of the legion all along. More and more aliases were shed, just like they had done countless times in the past—guiding the public to work with the enforcers to contain forbidden objects hidden within their countries, one after another.

What followed was people gradually realizing, far too late, that they had always been living under the protection of these individuals. All those strange incidents that had happened around them in the past—turns out it was these people who had stepped in and saved them behind the scenes. As this awareness spread, gratitude toward the legion and the enforcers only grew stronger.

At that point, the legion’s various bases around the world—namely the churches—naturally came into the public eye. Whenever people encountered anything that might be a forbidden object, they could now seek help at a temple church. This significantly reduced global death rates and improved the survival chances of ordinary people.

The statues of this world’s gods standing within the churches began to draw more and more faith from the masses. As a result, the divine power Chu Feng received became increasingly vast. He could clearly feel the growth of that power—he could even sense a prayer from a follower on the other side of the world, even with his eyes closed. Those prayers filled Chu Feng’s consciousness like snowflakes, either pure white or murky in color.

Whenever he saw a soul darkened by corruption, Chu Feng would intentionally use divine power to cleanse it.

Over time, some followers noticed that the whispers of the evil god near their ears had vanished. They no longer felt the constant impulse to kill or destroy everything around them, and their minds became clear once again.

Once the prayers truly began to take effect, more and more people around the world sincerely turned to worship the gods of the temple, offering Chu Feng increasingly devout faith. This began a virtuous cycle. With Si Qi’s encouragement, Chu Feng began attempting to craft “divine artifacts.” Just as forbidden objects, when corrupted by the evil god, could gain strange abilities, these divine artifacts could suppress forbidden objects and cleanse the corruption within human bodies.

The artifacts were gradually distributed to priests at churches around the world, which greatly alleviated Chu Feng’s burden of having to help so many followers by himself.

With his hands finally freed, Chu Feng’s first priority was to deal with the enforcers.

These were people who had spent years walking in darkness, fighting on the front lines against the evil god—many of them were already halfway into their graves, struggling to survive. Now that Chu Feng could purify souls and eliminate corruption, the first people he had to save were these human heroes.

Batch by batch, enforcers were pulled back from the brink of madness and regained their sanity. When they looked back on the mental state they had been in for the past few years, it felt like a dream—nothing seemed real.

The psychologists who had begun to rise in prominence in recent years nearly lost their jobs because of this. They couldn’t tell the difference between mental illness and soul corruption. Most of them ended up switching to theological studies, muttering mystical theories all day long. The news shocked quite a few people.

Time passed in an orderly fashion. A few years later, the vast majority of forbidden objects had been contained by the temple. Aside from a few remnants of evil god worshippers who still attempted terror attacks and stirred up occasional trouble, society had largely returned to stability. The previously skyrocketing death toll began to slow at a visible rate, all thanks to the joint efforts of Si Qi, Chu Feng, and the entire legion.

Once order had been restored, Si Qi was persuaded by Igor and the others to rest again.

While the other enforcers had their souls cleansed and no longer needed to worry, Si Qi—who still carried the evil god’s core inside him—had to remain vigilant against corruption, constantly suppressing the “demon” and making sure it never broke free.

A few days ago, one evil god cult, driven into a corner, attempted to strike back hard.

Si Qi went to the scene, but fell into a trap. Nothing serious happened, just that he became irritable. He dragged Chu Feng to a nearby church, and under the watchful gaze of the divine statue (which was also Chu Feng, technically)… well, he relieved his emotions.

While saying things like “You need to watch me, don’t let me do anything bad,” he also made very bad threats to Chu Feng, telling him not to resist.

Incidents like this had occurred several times over the years. Chu Feng started to wonder if, after his identity as the Commander was revealed, Si Qi was just too embarrassed to openly ask for intimacy—so he found a new excuse. After all, every time… afterward, Si Qi’s mood would be noticeably better, showing no signs of restraint or instability—like a perfectly normal person.

So one day, Chu Feng boldly asked, “Were you letting yourself lose control on purpose?”

Si Qi stared at him in disbelief for a long time. The next second, he snapped out of it and reached for his sword.

Chu Feng quickly begged for mercy and dodged away, saying, “We’re already engaged, but you still haven’t told me you love me. You haven’t even tried to be in a proper relationship with me. Are you just treating me as free… company?”

The overly blunt question made the great Commander blush with a mix of anger and embarrassment. “If you don’t want to, then I won’t come to you next time!”

Chu Feng looked hurt and said, “That’s not what I meant… I just meant that we could still go through with the wedding we planned back then…”

Si Qi fell silent. Chu Feng reached out to take his hand—and as expected, wasn’t pushed away. “I really love you. Not the version of you pretending to be a teenager. From the beginning, I’ve always loved the Commander. I think, when you told me you liked me back then, you weren’t pretending either. Right?”

Si Qi silently looked at Chu Feng. Chu Feng lowered his head and gently kissed the back of Si Qi’s hand. “Next time… even if you don’t lose control, can I still stay with you overnight?”

Si Qi’s ears turned red. He muttered softly, “…Up to you.”

Even though he still wasn’t quite used to how it felt to be without his mask, under Chu Feng’s guidance, Si Qi eventually began to live a more normal life.

In his quiet moments, Si Qi often thought about many things—about Chu Feng’s divine nature, and about his own limited lifespan as a mortal. The worry he had long carried—“I’ll die before Chu Feng”—came back to him again in this new context.

Xiu Xiu once said that both he and Chu Feng were beings from other worlds and didn’t need to worry about life and death. But when Si Qi saw more and more gray hairs on his parents’ heads, saw their bodies slowly weakening, he began to fear that one day, Chu Feng would have to experience the same grief he now felt.

“You don’t need to worry about that.” As the god of this world, Chu Feng could sense the thoughts of every one of his followers—including Si Qi. Chu Feng said to him, “Once you’re gone, I’ll completely destroy the evil god still inside you. After that, my duty as a god will be fulfilled. I’ll live only for myself. I’ll pour all my divine power into the artifacts to protect this world, then leave with you.”

“But you could’ve lived forever,” Si Qi whispered.

“I’d rather be with you through reincarnation, living on as a mortal by your side,” Chu Feng replied. “You once said that the little snake in your mind would lead you to another world. I don’t want to stay here alone. Maybe we’ll find each other again in the next world.”

“But… what if that never happens? What if you can’t find me in another world…”

“But you want to see me again, don’t you?” Chu Feng smiled. “As long as you’ve said that, it’s enough. No matter how difficult it is, I’ll make it happen.”

Si Qi didn’t say anything more. He quietly hugged him.

“I think I’ve fallen in love with you all over again. And this time, I’m sure—this feeling isn’t caused by the evil god’s corruption.”

Chu Feng smiled and kissed Si Qi on the ear. “It’s a request from your god.”