Bai Xiaowen said, "Judging from the report, there were probably two reasons."
For one thing, Xinpu and the Longze Team had been too confident. Rather than act together, they had entered the depths of No-Man's Zone by separate routes, competing with each other. They had run straight into the fiend army, while Southeast Asian experts harassed the official special forces.
For another, the official response to the upheaval in the Great Southwest had not been strong enough. Only one Special Forces Brigade of fewer than a hundred people had been sent in. The Special Forces Battalion that followed was stationed in Spring City and had not joined the operation.
In short, both A-Tier teams and the authorities had underestimated the threat. Their first operation had ended in failure: the two teams returned battered, and the special forces lost two soldiers.
That led to the second official operation. This time, the preparations were far more thorough. The authorities had invited the White Phoenix Team, a Grand Unification-level team, and deployed the Special Forces Battalion as well—a total of over three hundred Awakened marksmen!
As it turned out, that caution had been warranted.
Southeast Asia's harsh environment produced fewer Awakened experts, but those it did produce were ruthless, both to their enemies and to themselves.
They could not resist the full force of China's state machinery. Even so, they had tried to strike back before dying and make the authorities pay.
The White Phoenix Team still had to be careful. The fiend army had yet to appear.
After briefly explaining, Bai Xiaowen said, "Zhalun dropped a Bloodstained Treasure Chest when he died. I picked it up."
"Zhalun attacked us first, didn't he? With that swarm of venomous insects," Li Shuyi said.
"Right. The Spirit Realm Rules didn't give me a self-defense notice,