Pretending To Be A Boss
Chapter 915 - 66: Acting Showdown

The plan to explore the ruins was finalized.

The Eden ruins are extremely dangerous, so Tang Xian and Zhong Yao did not immediately start their exploration.

Day by day, time passed by. The two of them understood that the temporal dimension here was different from the outside, so they were not in a hurry.

They took a full three months to observe the patterns of Eden's sacred land expansion and to search for places within the sacred land that might conceal the true form of Eden's Lord.

The ruins are divided into several sections, as Zhong Yao had mentioned before. The only section Zhong Yao herself had visited was the maze ruins, so Tang Xian first ruled out the possibility of Eden's Lord's body being hidden there.

As for the other sections of the ruins, they're like fragmented worlds pieced together, and what lies within them—Zhong Yao wasn't sure either.

Zhong Yao was only relatively familiar with the sacred land.

In the years before, she was not lonely here.

Many times, she silently remembered her exchanges with Eden's Lord, word for word.

These recollections have now become part of the clues to decipher the mysteries.

[I desire to transform into the solitary order yet still need to soothe the emotions of the masses.]

[For hundreds of years, I have been but a child, though you cannot tell which butterfly has just emerged from its chrysalis.]

[So many fears exist between life and death; even to this day, I still fear dying. No matter how much of life's essence I absorb, over time I've realized that the hardest to contend with is not life itself, but the environment that birthed me.]

[It seeks to create me and simultaneously seeks to destroy me.]

[I will not perish; I shall merge with eternity.]

There were many other similar statements—enigmatic sentences whose meanings were hard to grasp. Zhong Yao's life in the past often involved hearing the voice of Eden's Lord, sometimes as if it came from the distant horizon.

Other times, it seemed like a thought rising from her deepest mind.

According to Zhong Yao, it felt as though Eden's Lord was the place itself.

In the temporal dimension of the sacred land, during those few months, Tang Xian carefully pondered the partial meanings of Eden's Lord's words.

Of course, Eden's Lord was infallible and would not reveal anything significant during their random conversations, but Tang Xian still managed to infer certain things from the above statements.

First, he formulated a hypothesis.

Did Eden's Lord anticipate his arrival here?

Had it left certain words long ago, using his mother Zhong Yao as a messenger to mislead him?

Currently, Tang Xian and Eden's Lord are like two chess players engaging in a match.

Tang Xian didn't know much about his opponent, but he was certain that Eden's Lord was a master schemer, which forced him to consider several layers of strategies.

But later, he realized that Eden's Lord's words held very little value as deliberate inducement.

So perhaps these statements were just spontaneous thoughts of Eden's Lord.

There was no need to avoid speaking to Zhong Yao because the content was beyond her comprehension.

Oddly enough, though Zhong Yao couldn't understand these utterances, Tang Xian could figure them out quite easily.

It was as if Eden's Lord had casually written down a number whose meaning only it knew. Others couldn't deduce its intent from the number, but Tang Xian could—as though he understood Eden's Lord's state of mind at the time.

After all their preparations were complete, the day before Tang Xian ventured into Eden's ruins, he discussed this topic with Zhong Yao.

Standing on the edge of the sacred land, gazing at the chaotic regions of the nearby ruins, Tang Xian listened to Zhong Yao recount the history of Eden's Lord and slowly pieced together the chain of cause and effect.

"The first statement says that to become truth, the sole deity, it must use a method that earns the conviction of others. This explains why it has taken such a convoluted path. It needs all the events to unfold in the direction it anticipates. If I'm not mistaken, after Eden's Lord took my body and defeated the judge, it must now be welcomed by beasts in a grand procession, its status likely unprecedentedly exalted."

"What about the second statement?" Zhong Yao followed up with her question.

Tang Xian said:

"The second statement is crucial. Do you remember when Eden's Lord transformed into a child after its duel with the judge?"

"I do. That was also the first time you and your dad saw it. Back then, it looked like a human infant placed in a cradle beneath a stone statue. But we didn't dare approach it. We only listened to its voice, obeyed its instructions, and retrieved the design blueprint for Eden's Heart. Later, I caught a glimpse from afar."

Zhong Yao paused before adding:

"Now that I think about it, that was also the only time I saw it before entering the sacred land. Shortly after, when I met Eden's Lord again, it was in an entirely different form."

"So, you actually haven't seen it much, have you? At least in this half-real, half-illusory world, you can't be completely certain that the Eden's Lord you encountered was genuine, right?"

"Correct… In this place, I truly cannot guarantee the authenticity of what I've seen."

"Indeed. For centuries, Eden's Lord's body has been in a childlike state—a condition near death. But its growth isn't fixed; perhaps it can instantly return to adult form. After all, it only takes a short time for a chrysalis to transform into a butterfly. Perhaps its body no longer resembles a child now."

"If that intelligence is accurate, could it count as an advantage for us?"

"It uses my body, and I use its body. If the two of us were to fight... it would indeed be a great advantage for me."

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