For all the flash of its entrance, what came out wasn't a Firestarter Spirit. Or at least, not a pure Firestarter Spirit.

"A very dangerous aura. The radiative fluctuations are strong and powerful. Judging by that, this strange thing seems to have reached particle-grade!" Shen Cong's gaze was deep, his Activity waves sensing every faint scrap of information carried through the air.

There was a time when particle-grade had meant the strongest thing on earth.

Now more and more particle-grades were taking the stage one after another, and it grated on Shen Cong. He'd have liked nothing better than to be the only particle-grade in the world. That would have been perfect.

But since particle-grade individuals kept appearing and there was no changing that fact, he had to take them seriously.

At the same time, thoughts flickered in his proto-Firestarter, turning nonstop. "Can Firestarter Spirits evolve to particle-grade now? This strange thing looks like it has a Firestarter Spirit's form, but it isn't a Firestarter Spirit. These flames all over it aren't stolen from the lava. They're some material spraying out of its body."

A pure Firestarter Spirit's body looked like grayish-brown rock, covered with dense folds, with red light shining out of the folds.

It was a red version of an Infernal, through and through.

But the one in front of him, though its body had rocklike folds too, had no red light shining out. Its surface was bright yellow, and out of its folds sprayed a material just as bright yellow, which formed into the shape of flames over its skin.

Or, put another way, the color of its surface actually came from the flame material.

The moment his Activity waves touched the flame material, they were shredded, and no useful information came back. All he could tell was that these weren't real flames.

In that very instant.

An Activity wave full of intense, chaotic emotion leaked out of the strange thing and radiated in every direction.

Through the Vajra, Shen Cong shredded the leaking Activity waves with Activity waves of his own, so the thing couldn't pry…