White fire-spirit medium, red fire-spirit medium; a Superbrain, a collapsing Superbrain.

Shen Cong compared them carefully, picking out what differed among them, trying to take the analysis further. He had no scientists leading the research now, and he did not want to tell anyone the Firestarter's secret this early. This was the next stage of evolution, after all, and he needed to have the secret in his own grasp first.

"From red to white, fire-spirit medium changes along with the Superbrain's collapse. So what change of properties is it that brings about the change of color?"

Comparing them, Shen Cong found one key point.

Red fire-spirit medium's radiative fluctuation is somewhat stronger than white fire-spirit medium's radiative fluctuation. Look deeper and more carefully into the particle structure of the radiative fluctuation and you find that red fire-spirit medium's spirit-fire structure at the particle level is looser, while white fire-spirit medium's spirit-fire structure at the particle level is tighter.

"So as the Superbrain collapses, the distribution of Firestarter grains goes from a divergent character to a convergent one?"

Then Shen Cong thought of his earlier "solidification" conjecture. It and the way the spirit-fire structure in white fire-spirit medium had evolved confirmed each other, and from that he filled in a conjecture about a future stage: the spirit-fire system contracting and the body solidifying.

"Everything points the same way. The Firestarter Spirit's future change will be to have a fixed body structure and lose the creeping, mimicking ability it has at this stage... If that change is right, does it mean a Firestarter Spirit uses mimicry in its early stage to accomplish replacement later on?"

If every powerful creature on Earth is mimicked by a Firestarter Spirit, in the end a Firestarter Spirit can rely on its own strength to replace those Earth creatures.

That is a more direct replacement of life than pollution.

Extremely crude.

"The possibility is certainly there... But I don't need to think that far right now. Earth is enormous and I can't hunt down every Firestarter Spirit. Whatever the future holds, all that matters is that I…