Ronan's words were blunt.
But ever since he had publicly divided "Abyss Zone Configurations" into "Tool Types" and "Plant Types," every Secret Cult on Earth had had to put up with that kind of bluntness.
To be fair, High Priest Lanier was remarkably forthright. He made little attempt to disguise anything.
Earth was not like the Central Star Zone, where deities and humans were worlds apart, one like a star and the other a speck of dust.
Whether Ronan held Acting Godhood or a True God called himself a deity, they were all still human.
The Secret Cults here might well have wanted greater "scale," too. But a human body could not command an excessively vast Information Torrent, and an Abyss Zone Configuration had limits to what its structure could bear. They had to keep the scale in check, work together to absorb it, and divide authority and responsibility. That called for an internal system of management and distribution, not one person supported by the resources of countless billions.
Under those circumstances, saying they "didn't pursue scale" and preferred to "band together for warmth" was fair enough.
Strictly speaking, the Myriad Heavens Divine Kingdoms also had a system for distributing power between Nation-Founding Gods and their subordinate deities. Genetic Species simply had a hard time understanding it.
The atmosphere in the tent remained fairly calm. Ronan was not trying to embarrass High Priest Lanier, and Lanier showed no desire to strike back. He replied evenly, "Even the light of an ideal has a limit to its speed and an order in which it spreads. Some come first and others later; some stand inside and others outside. Naturally, we have to weigh, assess, and choose. Take the cult and you, Dongsheng..."
He glanced at An Dongsheng, then turned back to Ronan.