Pretending To Be A Boss
Chapter 939 - 77: Tang Xian's Exploration Journey

Tang Jing manipulated for a while, unlocking the hatch restrictions.

The hatch opened, and a plume of white mist billowed out. Tang Jing covered his mouth and nose, patiently waiting.

As the white mist gradually dissipated, he finally saw the figure within. His previously calm expression was immediately written over with astonishment.

This person wasn't unfamiliar to him, but this state was entirely foreign.

The body had become shriveled, as if drained of all vital fluids. The cracked, peeling lips bore the marks of one who hadn't consumed water in ages.

Tang Jing stared blankly at the spectacle before him, unable to comprehend what was happening.

Why was he here?

The person in front of him, despite the wrinkled skin and the appearance of a vampire long deprived of blood—frail and emaciated—that face was still unmistakably recognizable to Tang Jing—

Tang Xian.

This was Tang Xian's face. Tang Jing never imagined that in the seventh nutrition pod, he would encounter Tang Xian, and in this condition.

But the most perplexing thing for Tang Jing was what happened next.

When the final nutrition pod's hatch opened, it was as if some pre-set switch designed by Qi Yuan had been triggered.

A voice belonging to Qi Yuan resonated within the room.

"We have considered many potential strategies for confronting the Eden Lord, but we've also pondered whether such optimism is misplaced. Perhaps the Eden Lord possesses tricks we are unaware of, and thus, we must reserve some contingency measures. I know your mind must be filled with questions, but I cannot answer them here, because I cannot be sure whether the one who arrived here is a human or an Eden Tribe member."

That was the entirety of the message. It sounded as if it anticipated some deeply despairing moment. Yet it provided no context, nor did it offer Tang Jing any guidance on what to do with the "Tang Xian" standing before him.

Was this the real Tang Xian or a fake?

If the Eden Lord had seized Tang Xian's body, then what was the explanation for this Tang Xian?

Tang Jing harbored a suspicion that his brother might have secretly collaborated with Qi Yuan long ago, concealing this alliance from everyone, including himself. It could be an ingenious yet perilous gambit.

But even now, he couldn't decipher the intent behind it.

This broken, aged version of Tang Xian—should he save him? Or leave him to his fate?

What should he do?

For once, Tang Jing found himself utterly at a loss, unable to fathom the purpose behind it all, leaving him hesitant to act recklessly.

"Forget it, I need to keep him alive for now. Perhaps once he regains consciousness, he'll be able to shed some light on what's going on."

Deep down, Tang Jing instinctively didn't believe that this person, identical in appearance to Tang Xian, was truly Tang Xian.

And in fact, it wasn't. Tang Xian's real body had indeed been taken by the Eden Lord.

All Tang Jing could do now was wait—for this seemingly unresponsive body to wake.

...

...

The Eden ruins.

Once the boundary between reality and illusion shatters, the world becomes strange and grotesque.

Tang Xian had long forgotten how much time had passed since he entered this world.

Three years? Five? Half a year? Or ten?

It wasn't a matter of lacking a sense of time, but rather that his memories were in disarray.

From the moment he bid farewell to Zhong Yao, leaving the sanctuary and stepping into the ruins, the harshest survival challenge had already begun.

What awaited Tang Xian was an endless series of catastrophes.

The Eden Lord feared the world itself, not the beings born within it.

Faced with the vastness of the cosmos, even it couldn't predict what sort of challenges would emerge.

It likened Tang Xian to a kindred spirit. When Tang Xian stepped into these ruins, the Eden Lord externalized all its inner fears.

Bizarre weather, terrifying bursts of energy, ferocious ancient beasts.

The ruins Tang Xian walked into were far more harrowing than any labyrinth, for mere survival here was a luxury.

Countless ancient creatures, so long forgotten that even Tang Xian had never heard of them, roamed this land, hunting freely.

The thunder in the sky never ceased rumbling. Occasionally, meteorites would crash down, triggering massive destruction and claiming the lives of many beings.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions occurred sporadically, resembling common natural disasters in name.

But in these ruins—a realm where fiction and reality intertwined—these events were nightmarishly horrifying. Tang Xian was certain even apocalyptic-level creatures would need sheer luck to survive here. Tang Xian understood that this world was a half-real, half-fabricated construct; the ruins once existed in reality but had since been consumed by the Eden Lord's will.

The interweaving of reality and illusion transformed this place into a hellscape of unprecedented harshness.

Yet even so, Tang Xian had survived here.

He existed as a consciousness, and any death would render his essence shattered beyond recovery. But he hadn't died. He had even drawn close to the central zone.

His goal was to locate the Eden Lord's physical body at the center. With a corporeal form, Tang Xian could reclaim his place in the genuine reality from this domain of conscious existence.

But achieving this was anything but simple.

"Qi Yuan, Zhong Yao, Yan Xiaoling, Li Xiaoyu, Tang Jing…"

"Qi Yuan, Zhong Yao, Yan Xiaoling, Li Xiaoyu, Tang Jing, Qi Yuan, Zhong Yao, Yan Xiaoling, Li Xiaoyu, Tang Jing, Qi Yuan…"

In a dim cavern, Tang Xian repeatedly muttered these names. Upon realizing he could only recite five, a profound sense of despair filled his heart.

...

...

The ruins and the sanctuary.

Both were creations of the Eden Lord. This place, to the Eden Lord, was akin to a divine kingdom for Qi Yuan.

What Tang Xian could do was attempt to escape, rather than dismantle it.