Professor Ding Zhiying was widely experienced and had his own considerations. He would neither panic nor blindly follow orders. After a brief pause, he said:
"This may be a poorly timed question, but I still have to ask: when are we withdrawing? Can we wait until tomorrow morning and sort through the Insect Corpses from tonight's ambush? If we have to do this again somewhere else, not only will we exceed the budget, but the results will probably suffer too."
Meng Tu did not give a definitive answer. "We still need to observe the situation. I've already deployed scout drones. We'll make a judgment based on the situation at the front. Until then, all personnel are to remain on standby and be ready to break camp and relocate at any time."
Ding Zhiying sighed. "Then we'll make preparations first, stay in contact, and begin operations."
Meng Tu nodded, then turned to Li Taisheng. "High Priest Li, will you continue with the agreement and coordinate operations with us?"
"Of course." Li Taisheng answered without hesitation. "Unexpected events were part of the agreement to begin with."
Yet as he spoke, his gaze had already shifted toward the monitoring area inside the command vehicle. He quickly found the feed that interested him most—the live footage sent back by the scout drone.
It was still wilderness beneath the night sky. By now, the drone had completely flown beyond the forested mountain region where they were stationed. The terrain ahead was flat, but a river cut across the field of view, and the air seemed heavily damp.
A thin layer of mist had risen over the area caught by the camera, restricting visibility to some extent. And those spreading mists seemed to be flowing rapidly as well.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but as the