Ronan did not explain Cha Zheng's unspoken doubts. He continued according to the established logic. "If we erase some details from our perception and emphasize others, we can see why these targets were defined for this 'field exercise.'
"Because they share something in common: within the Great Golden Triangle north of the Great River, these targets have become the most important pillars supporting the environmental system known as the Wilderness."
"These are Aberrant Nests?" Meng Tu spoke up. Rather than a question, it was more of a confirmation.
As a commander who had fought in the Wilderness for years, he was bound to be highly sensitive to such information. The first two defined targets had already made him suspicious. Now, it had been directly confirmed.
Ronan asked in return, "Compared with your military intelligence, is anything missing?"
"Could I... take this and verify it?"
"Of course. Though quite a few details have been omitted. We can make it more detailed."
Without caring whether Meng Tu was willing or not, as he spoke, twenty or thirty points embedded within everyone's consciousness gained further detail, aside from the Wolf Smoke pillars that shot straight into the clouds.
They resembled thick root systems growing without restraint, intertwined and spreading layer upon layer, burying visible and hidden "roots" underground, extending them into the void, and pressing them into the bloodlines of nearby living beings, forming a densely interwoven network.
This network was neither orderly nor continuous.
Twenty or thirty Aberrant Nests of varying strength could not possibly cover the entire two- to three-hundred-thousand-square-kilometer region. There were conflicts and struggles between them, even life-and-death feuds.
Yet it was precisely this twisted, fractured, conflicting network that set the tone for this land.
"I believe that current Wilderness research has severely underestimated the influence of Aberrant Nests.