"... That's roughly the scope of the exploration mission."
Inside the command center, Shen Heng reported on the exploration process and intelligence gathered over the past few days.
Zhang Weijun sat in the main seat and nodded slightly.
"What about that crystal you mentioned?"
Shen Heng glanced sideways at Li Daoyi, who was sitting to the side.
Seeing this, Zhang Weijun and the other two looked over.
Li Daoyi was sitting to one side, stroking a palm-sized, ice-blue crystal in his hand.
Seeing that the conversation had already reached this point, Li Daoyi stopped investigating and raised his hand, sending a cloud of mist carrying the crystal down in front of Zhang Weijun.
Zhang Weijun raised his hand and touched it lightly a few times, then moved it to Zhou Zhenguo and Wang Yuanshan beside him.
"Has the Daoist priest figured out anything?" Zhang Weijun asked Li Daoyi.
"No, it doesn't belong to any known type of crystal. Let's hand it over to the Research Department and have them study it!" Li Daoyi shook his head slightly.
As he spoke, he seemed to remember something and added:
"By the way, the energy contained within the crystal seems to be related to the Plateau Erosion Zone. It might be a unique mineral found only in this Plateau Erosion Zone. We can mention that when we hand it over to the Research Department."
Zhang Weijun nodded slightly, glanced at Zhou Zhenguo and the other man who were still studying, and then looked at Shen Heng.
Although Shen Heng had already told them what had happened, as someone who had direct contact with the whole incident, he felt it was still necessary to ask further questions.
"What do you think this crystal is for?" Zhang Weijun asked.
Shen Heng pondered for a moment, then said:
I think there are only two possibilities.
One possibility is that this crystal is a cultivation resource for a high-level Calamity Beast, which is why Fifth Tier Calamity Beast is needed to guard it.
Another possibility is that this crystal could aid the Ruins Realm's invasion of Blue Star.
Upon hearing this, a hint of surprise flashed in Zhang Weijun's eyes. He then asked, "Isn't there any other possibility?"
"Perhaps, but I haven't thought of any yet," Shen Heng replied.
"So, how do you think we should handle these two situations?" Zhang Weijun continued to ask.
"If it's the first type, I think it's best not to deal with it."
Firstly, even if this were the cultivation resources of a high-level Calamity Beast, it wouldn't have much impact on us;
Secondly, we lack the capacity to handle this place. Leaving aside the associated high-level Calamity Beast, even the Profound Crystal Griffin and other Calamity Beast there would be difficult for us to deal with in our current situation.
Shen Heng paused for a moment, then continued:
"If it's the second possibility, then the focus of the subsequent investigation will likely revolve around that."
Zhang Weijun nodded slightly, but did not respond to Shen Heng's words.
He took the crystal from Zhou Zhenguo, then handed it to the staff officer beside him, instructing him:
"Write down what I just said, and remember to report it to them during the handover. Also, remind them to focus their research on directions that can help with the invasion of the Ruins Realm."
"Understood," the staff officer nodded in response.
Is this... a case of acceptance?... Shen Heng sat silently watching the scene unfold before him.
Li Daoyi smiled, his eyes slightly narrowed.
"Have you received the information on the distribution locations of the Calamity Beast?" Zhang Weijun asked the staff officer.
"It's all set," the staff officer replied.
"Open!"
Soon, the virtual map was projected onto the battle table.
Everyone turned their attention to that direction.
There were more than a dozen red dots scattered on the map, each marked with information such as the range and the number of Calamity Beast.
Some have a few hundred, while others have over three thousand.
Looking at those figures, Zhang Weijun and the others couldn't help but frown deeply.
"Did you see any Light Gate connecting to the Ruins Realm during your exploration?" asked the portly officer Wang Yuanshan.
"No."
"Boundary?"
"No."
A soft gasp filled the command center. Wang Yuanshan couldn't help but whisper:
"Is the Erosion Zone really that much larger than we imagined? Even ordinary Light Gate, the largest we've discovered so far, are only twenty or thirty kilometers wide."
Shen Heng sat to one side without saying a word.
He was somewhat surprised when he still hadn't found the boundary after traveling more than a thousand kilometers.
Given the circumstances at the time, the Erosion Zone was conservatively estimated to be two to three thousand kilometers long.
Even by a conservative estimate, this is almost equivalent to half a continent!
"More importantly, there's the number of Calamity Beast," General Zhou Zhenguo interjected, his gaze sweeping over the various data points.
"In this area alone, which has been explored, there are already thousands of Calamity Beast, not to mention the areas that haven't been explored yet, which means..."
"The number of Calamity Beast in the Erosion Zone will be greater than we imagined," Zhang Weijun said in a deep voice.
Zhou Zhenguo nodded solemnly, "Based on the current situation, there are probably tens of thousands of Calamity Beast in the Erosion Zone. The Calamity Beast that attacked the base before were only a small part of them."
"If this many Calamity Beast are blocking the entrance, can we still break through?" Wang Yuanshan asked.
Zhang Weijun did not reply, but instead looked at Li Daoyi sitting to the side.
Shen Heng also looked over.
Li Daoyi was staring at the data on the map with his eyes slightly narrowed, seemingly deep in thought.
Seeing everyone looking at him, he looked away and, instead of replying directly, said:
"No matter how many low-level Calamity Beast there are, it's unlikely to affect that kid Jiang Lin."
Upon hearing this, the others wisely refrained from asking further questions.
Wang Yuanshan nodded slightly and said, "So, after being breached, the Calamity Beast have been controlling the scale of their attacks for fear of the Erosion Zone collapsing?"
Zhang Weijun nodded heavily.
This conversation slightly surprised Shen Heng. He looked at Zhang Weijun and asked, "Chief, has it been confirmed that the collapse of the Erosion Zone will not affect Blue Star?"
Zhang Weijun glanced at Shen Heng but didn't reply. Instead, he looked at Li Daoyi.
Li Daoyi stroked his beard and said:
"No, it's still possible. If it's confirmed that the Erosion Zone won't descend upon Blue Star after its collapse, then the first thing headquarters might do is blow up the Erosion Zone, sending it back to where it came from—perfectly eliminating it!"
"Uh..." Shen Heng's lips twitched twice, then he felt that this might indeed be the best method.
All that could be heard was Li Daoyi continuing:
"Based on the research from headquarters and the behavior of the Calamity Beast during this period, we can predict that three scenarios will likely occur after the collapse of the Erosion Zone."
"The first scenario is that the Erosion Zone collapses, returning to the Ruins Realm."
"The second scenario is that the Erosion Zone disappears, and everything inside vanishes."
"The third type will descend upon our Blue Star."
"Based on the current situation, it seems the Calamity Beast are certain that the Erosion Zone will not descend upon Blue Star after its collapse, or the probability of it doing so is very low, so they are doing everything they can to prevent this from happening."
Turning his gaze back, Shen Heng nodded thoughtfully; this was largely in line with what he had expected.
The Calamity Beast may have already determined, or they may not, and are therefore trying to prevent the collapse of the Erosion Zone.
Humanity, due to uncertainty, is also trying to prevent the collapse of the Erosion Zone.