The smelting carried on.

Shen Cong's character was such that once he'd fixed on something, he never turned back.

He conscientiously repeated every step, changed each variable one at a time, to make sure his experimental results were sound. He had money to spare anyway — the Great Iron Bear had made him rich overnight, more than he could spend, so he might as well pour it into experiments. And he was planning to leave the Eastern Theater Command; the currency the Command issued couldn't be used elsewhere.

Melting the ambulance's iron core three times running, he finally tested out the complete state of iron-core solution under resonance.

This state of continuous expansion into a special liquid form was a metal solution of highly active properties — the Activity wave propagated through it so fast it was near-instant, done in a blink.

When Shen Cong guided the Great Vajra to attempt devouring it to increase his Talent, the iron core in this state showed signs of being devoured too — only, each time the alloying was about to complete, the state would suddenly become impossible to sustain and collapse outright.

The iron core couldn't be alloyed.

Talent couldn't be increased.

"Maybe the ambulance's Talent isn't high enough — the biological magnetic field entangled with its Activity is a touch too weak, so this state doesn't measure up to standard… This state is like a banner streaming in the wind. Why not just call it the Banner State." Shen Cong, mid-thought, coined a name in passing.

The Banner State would be the focus of his research going forward.

By now, though, three graphite crucibles had been blown to ruin, and he needed to head back to Huai'an City to buy more.

He packed up, and an hour's drive later reached Huai'an City.

He'd barely arrived when fresh news came in.

The Dafeng District camp had fallen — occupied by sea-beasts.

An audio-visual file was transmitted straight to Shen Cong's computer. Only after watching it did he learn that earlier that very day, twelve super-grade jin beast lobsters, three super-grade jin beast…