The revived fire-spirit heart, its thought pure as a blank sheet of paper, held only the most instinctive needs.

Shen Cong stared at the luminance turning like a nebula, countless notions rising and falling in his mind — thinking of much of his research on Activity, his research on Firestarter fragments.

The fire-spirit heart had come back to life because of a Firestarter fragment.

Jin cores and iron cores were both new "Firestarters" formed when the radiative substance dispersed from a Firestarter fragment — Firestarter grains — recombined with metal. The fire-spirit medium was, without doubt, likewise a combination of Firestarter grains and metal, cut from the same cloth as iron cores and jin cores. Only by devouring fire-spirit mediums could the Great Vajra raise its Talent.

And the fire-spirit heart, in Shen Cong's understanding, was an even more peculiar product of Firestarter grains combined with metal.

In terms of structural nature, the fire-spirit heart was of a higher order than the fire-spirit medium.

"It's precisely because the fire-spirit heart is of a higher order that I felt a kind of natural-predator sensation toward the Firestarter Spirit — because its 'Firestarter' was clearly higher than my 'Firestarter'… The composing materials are the same, so does that mean my Firestarter is a seed, and the fire-spirit heart is a seed already sprouted?"

Setting jin cores aside for now and speaking only of iron cores, Shen Cong was quite certain: an iron core devoured Firestarter grains to grow mighty.

An iron core was one mode of a Firestarter's composition, and between one iron core and another, a craving to devour would arise, rooted in the need for Firestarter grains.

So his first Talent increase had come from Shen Cong melting down the iron core of someone else's carrier vehicle, making the Firestarter grains' nature turn active, easy to devour. His second Talent increase had come from the irradiation of a Firestarter fragment, gaining new Firestarter grains. The third came from an iron core in the Banner State, making the Firestarter grains grow more active, and thus devourable.

The fourth — this time,…