Shen Cong didn't move. His particle-grade Activity waves circled the Firestarter Spirit, probing it carefully. This one was much the same size as the first he had killed—a sphere a hundred meters across.

Back then it had taken a whole group working together to kill a Firestarter Spirit; now Shen Cong could crush one to death by himself.

But his own lack of hurry didn't mean anyone else felt the same. Yellow Great-Immortal could hardly hold itself back, the four-legged dragon was just as agitated, and the Sea Snake King went so far as to push down its fear of Shen Cong and creep quietly toward the Firestarter Spirit.

"None of you go in."

Shen Cong soothed Yellow Great-Immortal and the four-legged dragon, meaning to watch how the Firestarter Spirit and the Sea Snake King fought it out. He wasn't going to let the Firestarter Spirit go—at the least he wanted the Superbrain, and some of the high-quality fire-spirit medium too; the rest could be thrown away. As for the Sea Snake King, best if the two killed each other, and fine if it fled, but he wouldn't allow it to take the Firestarter Spirit.

And so.

With Shen Cong permitting it, the other evolved beasts began attacking the Firestarter Spirit under the lethal pull of its radiative fluctuation—all but Yellow Great-Immortal, the four-legged dragon, and the Langfang theater troops, who hung back at a distance and didn't dare approach.

The Sea Snake King bore the brunt.

The Firestarter Spirit, mimicking Yellow Great-Immortal, had fighting strength where it had possessed none before. At first the Sea Snake King simply wrapped it up and tried to squeeze it to death. Unfortunately a Firestarter Spirit had no need to breathe; instead its body swelled, forcing the Sea Snake King's coils apart, and then it opened its mouth and bit, crushing the Sea Snake King's scales outright.

Two enormous living things fought at the fissure's edge, with the ultimate-grade yellow-bellied sea snake and the black bear that seemed to be ultimate-grade taking occasional swipes at the Firestarter Spirit.

For a while the ground…