The gate of the new world was slowly pushed open by Shen Cong.

The secret of Activity, the secret of the Firestarter, the secret of Talent, the secret of evolution — all of it still hazy, but its outline had begun to show.

A Firestarter fragment was the wellspring of Talent.

A half-cubic-meter red-glinting stone, guided by Shen Cong into alloying with the Great Vajra, resonated and devoured, had raised his Talent by a trace amount — roughly 0.0005H. Though the increase was small, these red-glinting stones were only the Firestarter Spirit's outer stones; it surely had a core, the place in its body where the red light blazed strongest.

That core should be the site where it produced thought and emotion.

Even without such a core, at its size, if it could be devoured entirely, that would mean at least 5H, even 6H or more of Talent.

Of course, Shen Cong didn't think his Talent could rise without limit — but that was no obstacle to his determination to seize the most core part.

Fine stuff like this, even if he couldn't use it himself, mustn't be lightly given for others to use.

Amid his thinking, seeing that the battle would go on a while longer — the Firestarter Spirit, though besieged and beset with peril, still had considerable combat power — Shen Cong settled in to wait. While watching quietly for developments, he went on trying to alloy the red-glinting stones and, after resonance, devour the Firestarter-fragment substance.

He named the red-glinting stones "fire-spirit mediums," with a double meaning: one, a medium for communicating with the Firestarter fragment; two, the spirit-mediums of the Firestarter Spirit.

And the Firestarter-fragment substance he named "Firestarter grains."

For the conjectured core of the Firestarter Spirit, Shen Cong gave a name too — "fire-spirit heart."

Three minutes later.

Another half-cubic-meter fire-spirit medium was devoured by Shen Cong, his Talent rising once more by roughly 0.0005H. Two devourings, and the Talent of Shen Cong and the Great Vajra rose from 4.067H to 4.068H.

"That's a 0.001H Talent increase — not bad at all!" Shen…