"How can it be this powerful? Why did we know nothing at all about this life form until now!"

Faced with the Party Secretary's loud demand, not one of those present could answer. The shock of the Firestarter Spirit went far past any nuclear-grade evolved beast. The Sea Snake King was dead, and they couldn't feel the least bit glad about it, because there was a life form more terrifying than the Sea Snake King.

It could change shape and had no vital spot; humanity had almost no means of dealing with it apart from nuclear weapons.

But a nuclear bomb's deterrent power far exceeded its actual usefulness. You had to aim the bomb at an evolved beast, after all, and keep the beast from fleeing while it was being detonated—conditions that were very hard to meet.

And the greater the yield, the more troublesome the detonation. A nuclear bomb that could actually wipe out a nuclear-grade evolved beast would take a high-grade iron person at minimum to set it off. Iron people were not expendable; the industrial system humanity still possessed depended entirely on them, and it could be said that once the iron people were gone, the civilization of the old world would be closed like a book.

Short of absolute necessity, the Provisional Government would not trade iron people for peace.

"If Boss Huang's guess is right, the Firestarter Spirits are not one or two but very likely spread widely beneath our feet." Tao Zhongyang rubbed his forehead, his graying hair somewhat disordered. Roused in the middle of the night, the old man's energy was flagging; C2's side effects had not been cleared, and his body was still an ordinary human one.

Hearing what Tao Zhongyang said, more than a few of the leaders shifted their feet without meaning to and glanced at the floor, feeling a chill welling up through the soles of their feet.

Tao Zhongyang softened his tone. "Fortunately Boss Huang is stationed on our side for the moment. He can hold the Firestarter Spirits off to some degree and buy us breathing room."