Alloy, resonate, devour… raise Talent.

In an almost mechanized manner, Shen Cong tirelessly devoured fire-spirit mediums, raising his own Talent. To others it would be a dull, flavorless repetitive process; to Shen Cong it was, at every moment, a wonderful enjoyment. Talent rising, strength growing — this was Shen Cong's pursuit.

He devoured only high-quality fire-spirit mediums.

One cubic meter of fire-spirit medium could provide roughly 0.0015H of Talent, taking ten minutes to devour.

Ten cubic meters was roughly 0.015H of Talent, taking one hour and forty minutes.

A hundred cubic meters was roughly 0.15H of Talent, taking sixteen hours and forty minutes.

In a day, setting aside eating, drinking, pissing, shitting, morning drill, and repairs, he could devour exactly a hundred cubic meters of fire-spirit medium, gaining roughly 0.15H of Talent.

April 8th: one great battle, gaining untold fire-spirit mediums and the fire-spirit heart, and after researching out results, he began devouring.

Before sleep, Shen Cong's Talent rose from 4.067H to 4.075H.

April 9th: Shen Cong's Talent rose from 4.075H to 4.091H.

April 10th: Shen Cong's Talent rose from 4.091H to 4.107H.

April 11th: Shen Cong's Talent rose from 4.107H to 4.123H.

April 12th: Shen Cong's Talent rose from 4.123H to 4.14H.

Five days running, a full 0.073H of Talent raised. His long-absent physical caliber began growing stronger again, and Shen Cong could no longer accurately calculate just what state he was in now — only that he was very, very strong.

"I feel like I could shatter a planet with one punch…"

These few days, he'd kept three lines of work going without pause — researching the fire-spirit medium's boost to jin cores, researching establishing a Mind-Imprint with the fire-spirit heart, and researching the taming of the king of the half-beasts.

The half-beast could no longer be defined as human; his brain had long lost normal thought and intelligence, acting on animal instinct instead. The Eastern Theater Command had a small number of half-beasts who'd been receiving treatment all along in hopes of recovery — but recovery was, in truth, hopeless.

Over at Mushroom City, Pan Hua's wife…