Chapter 132: Blood Manipulation
Soon after, Su Hao used two more shots to blast An. When the radar sensed that the blood rapidly dissipated, confirming that An was dead, he landed and walked over to An’s skinless body.
To be honest, Su Hao admired An. He couldn’t imagine himself ever doing what An had done – skinning himself. It sent shivers down his spine. If it weren’t for being enemies, they might have been friends. However, there were no “ifs” when you made a mistake from the beginning. It simply wasn’t meant to be.
Su Hao cut off a piece of An’s flesh, buried his body in a pit, and then jumped into the air, using his powers to fly back to Temple Forest City.
He felt like he might have forgotten something but decided to let it go. Now that the situation was resolved, he wanted to return to his research. The rest could be handled by others.
Regarding the precise gene manipulation to generate the desired Cas9, he had some ideas. The next step was to conduct numerous experiments. With the care of Taini, the Round Mouse had reproduced well and would be sufficient for his experiments.
On the other side, Yashan held a captive in a desolate, deserted area.
“Where is this? The Speed Demon? When did they suddenly disappear? What about Boss Wei? Why hasn’t he arrived?”
“Do I need to run again? Boss Wei said the farther, the better.”
“Or maybe run a bit more!”
Several third-level mutants from the Temple Forest Association surrounded Corrosion Beast Alai from a distance, continuously throwing stones at him.
No matter how Alai dodged, she was still hit by quite a few stones. With time passing, her injuries grew worse, and the stones were coming at her with increasing ferocity, as if the people throwing them were enjoying themselves.
Alai felt utterly trapped in this situation and had no way to escape. Her toxicity was unstoppable, but the cunning individuals across from her didn’t give her any chance. They just threw stones from a distance.
She wanted to run, but speed wasn’t her strength, and she couldn’t get away. Trying to rush into the city to take hostages wouldn’t work either. Whenever she tried to run in that direction, more stones rained down upon her, driving her further from the city. This was a dead end!
She had no strength left to struggle and thought, “If An were here, he would know what to do… What a pity.”
She eventually gave up resistance and was overwhelmed by the stones.
One day later, during the night, Charlotte, the Mimic Shifter, transformed into a wolfhound, following her scent and found An’s body.
Upon learning that An had already died, Charlotte couldn’t help but tremble all over. “If even An is dead, what can I do to avenge you? My sister, Charlotte…”
“You’ve always believed I killed our mother, but it wasn’t me; it was An, for some unknown reason, who designed our mother’s death. I just consumed a piece of her flesh and happened to be discovered by you, my foolish sister…”
“We don’t need to seek revenge! Let’s leave this city and start anew in a place where no one knows us. Get married, become an ordinary person; that would be great!”
After burying An’s body, Charlotte vanished into the darkness. This was Charlotte’s last struggle to stay alive. For An, there were no “ifs.” He had done all he could, and now he awaited the judgment of fate. He understood that, in the end, saving Fred and Eve or not wouldn’t change the outcome. When he and his three subordinates entered this city, their fate was already sealed.
As for Su Hao, he was back in his laboratory, conducting his experiments. He occasionally thought of Yashan but dismissed the idea of letting Yashan know he could stop running. Surely, someone of Yashan’s stature wouldn’t lose himself.
However, three days later, Yashan returned to Temple Forest City, looking puzzled. He held two nearly lifeless individuals.
That day, when Su Hao left his laboratory, he spotted Yashan and greeted him, “Yashan, it seems like you’ve been gone for quite a few days. Where have you been?”
Yashan was momentarily at a loss for words but managed a forced smile, “Let’s not talk about it! Boss Wei, I’ve personally prepared a table of good food for you. Come and taste it.”
Su Hao took a seat, pointed at Taini, who was already prepared, and said, “How’s the teacher you were looking for to teach her to read and write?”
Yashan replied, “Don’t worry, Boss Wei. I’ll have her here tomorrow.”
Taini asked, puzzled, “What teacher?”
Su Hao smiled and said, “A teacher who will teach you knowledge and make you smarter. Taini, you have to study hard, and I believe you’ll come to enjoy learning.”
Taini’s eyes lit up, and she happily exclaimed, “Really?”
Soon, Su Hao returned to his laboratory and focused on decoding the method of manipulating blood qi. He considered using his own consciousness to control it but gave up after an attempt because he lacked the kind of divine consciousness found in the cultivation world. It allowed individuals to observe their body’s microscopic state using inner vision.
Perhaps, in the future, if he were reborn into the cultivation world, he could learn these mysterious abilities. But as a current ordinary human, he didn’t have the power to change the microscopic aspects of his body with his consciousness.
So, what should he do?
He still needed Little Light’s help to transfer control over blood qi to Little Light, allowing Little Light to complete the synthesis of Cas9.
Su Hao had a well-defined method in mind. He needed to match the brainwave patterns for controlling blood qi with those generated during activities like listening, speaking, reading, writing, and imagining. Then, he could instruct Little Light to generate and map the desired effects. Su Hao would follow these instructions to achieve them.
To accomplish this, Su Hao had to do two things.
First, he needed to fine-tune the control of blood qi movement and gather the brainwave patterns produced during blood qi movement. This movement followed specific patterns, and he needed to account for as many directions and lengths as possible. To do this, Su Hao established a spatial coordinate system, defining a nanometer or micrometer as a unit length. This way, he could record various directions and sizes of blood qi movements.
However, this process would be quite time-consuming.
The second task was to engage in various activities to generate brainwave patterns and then match them to the brainwave patterns for controlling blood qi. The best choice for this behavior was imagination, followed by symbolic patterns, then manual writing, and lastly speaking and physical actions.
Su Hao wasn’t comfortable with using speech, as it felt like casting spells. He didn’t like performing physical actions either, as it resembled performing rituals. Therefore, his primary focus was on trying various imaginative scenarios, followed by symbolic patterns and so on.
All of this required a significant amount of time, which Su Hao had in abundance at the moment.
Time flew by, and two years passed in the blink of an eye. Su Hao turned thirteen years old, and he finally completed the encoding and pairing of the brainwave patterns for blood qi control. The method he used was a combination of imagination and symbolic representation.
For instance, if Su Hao wanted to execute a blood qi vector movement of (5, -3, 2), he only needed Little Light to provide a series of imaginative concepts and symbols, such as “#%…&@~?!#$…”
Su Hao was filled with confidence and said, “Next, let’s start the genetic experiments with Little Round Mouse!”
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 133: Experiment
Su Hao first entered the pinball space and, after properly organizing the collected genetic sequences, he entered the room where Little Round Mouse was kept. As he was about to leave with one of the mice, a petite girl of around 1.6 meters in height approached him. She wore a blue and white outfit that matched her well-coordinated and graceful figure. There were soft, fluffy white fur tufts on her pointy ears, and her wavy hair cascaded down to her waist. Her round eyes blinked cutely, making her look very adorable.
It was none other than the growing young girl, Taini, who was already over nine years old. The powerful Zhu Huo genes were perfectly manifested in her, enabling her to grow faster, more agile, and even more beautiful.
Taini blocked Su Hao, her eyes brimming with tears, and she whined, “Uncle Wei… I don’t want to study! It’s too painful; I can’t bear this torture anymore! I get sleepy as soon as the teacher starts talking.”
Su Hao’s face suddenly turned very serious, and he said, “Taini, your attitude is all wrong. How could studying be a painful thing? You need to learn to feel the joy of studying.”
Taini immediately retorted with a distressed expression, “How could studying be joyful? Look at me now, Uncle Wei. Do you see any joy in this?”
Su Hao observed her seriously for a moment and nodded, “Indeed, you look much better than before, and you have a more elegant demeanor now!”
Taini instantly felt annoyed. Clearly, it was just because she had grown taller and more mature. What did that have to do with studying?
Su Hao continued, “Besides, what can you do if you don’t study? Do you want to be a gang boss like Yashan?”
Taini’s eyes lit up, “Yeah! Yeah! I want to be just like my dad, a boss!”
Su Hao had a big question mark on his face, so he stopped talking and turned to leave.
Taini panicked and hurriedly grabbed Su Hao. “Uncle Wei, please, don’t make me study anymore! It’s completely pointless…”
Su Hao ignored her and continued to drag her along.
Taini pleaded, “Uncle Wei, I was wrong. I don’t want to be a boss. I can help you take care of Little Round Mouse…”
Su Hao suddenly stopped and revealed a satisfied smile. “Alright, then. You can start by studying the books I gave you earlier: ‘Methods and Ongoing Optimization for Raising Little Round Mice,’ ‘Reproduction Theories of Little Round Mice,’ ‘Common Behavior Analysis of Little Round Mice,’ and ‘Common Diseases and Preventive Measures for Little Round Mice.’”
Taini: “…”
With a loud thud, Su Hao closed the door and returned to the experimental table.
And Taini instantly felt disheartened, displaying a look of despair.
Just as she turned to leave, a deep and authoritative voice sounded, “Taini, break time is over. Let’s get back to studying.”
Taini shivered, turned around, and saw a middle-aged man with greying hair. He looked at her with a stern expression, but a hint of amusement couldn’t be hidden in his eyes.
Taini immediately perked up and bargained, “Teacher Man, can we study a bit less today? Can you let me go early?”
…
Su Hao returned to his laboratory and immediately put Taini’s matter out of his mind. Can she not study? Of course not! He couldn’t allow Taini to be a person with only a beautiful exterior but an empty soul.
Furthermore, she aspired to evolve into a “Bone Demon” in the future, which would require knowledge to sensibly control her powers. Even if she became the gang leader, knowledge would still be necessary.
In his understanding, the probability of an illiterate person becoming a successful gang leader wasn’t zero, but it was incredibly low.
He placed the Little Round Mouse on the experimental table, secured it in place in a spread-eagle position, and then extended a finger to tap on the mouse’s belly.
Blood gas was slowly injected into the mouse’s body. The mouse went from struggling in fear initially to eventually making contented squeaking noises, as if it was receiving a full-body massage.
Su Hao’s purpose in infusing blood gas into the Little Round Mouse’s body was to obtain the mouse’s genetic sequence. Since he had learned the “micro-control” method of blood gas, he realized that there was no need to personally devour flesh and blood to record an object’s information into the Ball Space.
All he had to do was infuse blood gas into the corresponding object’s interior. Once the blood gas concentration reached a certain level, it would essentially achieve a state of saturation, and he would succeed.
Now, blood gas had become another kind of sensation for Su Hao.
Soon, when the Little Round Mouse reached its peak comfort level, Su Hao’s information was also fully recorded. He withdrew his finger, sat down, and entered the Pinball Space to start examining the Little Round Mouse’s genetic sequence.
With the assistance of Little Light, they quickly sorted and compared it, using different colors to label the various sections of genetic information.
“As expected, the other creatures in this world also have ‘databases,’ ‘armories,’ and ‘controllers’ in their genes. This means that if you feed an organism with the flesh and blood of a mutant, it might also undergo evolution.”
Of course, the probability of a successful evolution was quite low for the Little Round Mouse because although it had been well-fed, it lacked exercise, leading to an overall lower blood gas energy level, which was unlikely to sustain its evolution.
Apart from this, Su Hao had more thoughts.
Perhaps this world used to be a world where various evolved beasts roamed freely. These beasts would fight and devour each other to evolve. Eventually, the Zhu Huo people achieved victory and became the masters of this continent.
Perhaps the sequences for mutant evolution weren’t limited to just nine, and there were more in the past. However, through the course of lengthy evolution, survival of the fittest led to only nine remaining sequences.
It was also possible that there were still powerful advanced mutant beasts lurking in the desolate wilderness, but because of the Zhu Huo people’s large-scale hunting, their numbers were dwindling, and they were on the verge of extinction, hiding themselves away.
So, the Zhu Huo people, who couldn’t obtain enough flesh and blood for evolution from the wilderness, turned their sights inward, leading to a series of ruthless killings among mutants.
It was brutal and straightforward!
Su Hao calculated and found that if the Zhu Huo people continued on this path, it wouldn’t lead to success. The most likely outcome would be the disappearance of the mutants.
The reason was quite simple.
As the killings continued, the Zhu Huaq population kept decreasing. When it reached a certain point, there was a high probability that an incredibly powerful awakened mutant would emerge, starting a massive slaughter of the other mutants and wiping them out. This would create a living space for the ordinary Zhu Hua people.
The only uncertainty was when this would happen.
Su Hao cleared his mind of these thoughts and began screening the Little Round Mouse’s genetic sequence.
After a while, Su Hao revealed a mysterious smile. “Alright, let’s start by implanting a set of ‘scale’ genes into both the coding and non-coding regions and see how it goes.”
Once he determined the gene implantation points, Su Hao acted swiftly.
The first step was to cultivate the corresponding Cas9 and extract the ‘scale’ gene segment. The issue of cultivating gene scissors and extracting the ‘scale’ segment had already been resolved by Su Hao.
Su Hao exited the Pinball Space, closed his eyes, and quickly entered a meditative state.
“First, choose a piece of flesh within the body as the cultivation dish… Let’s go with the left forearm! Second, begin controlling the blood gas and extract the DNA segment! Little Light, this step is up to you!”
“Little Light, Roger.”
The next step was the long process of extracting the segment.
The process of micro-controlling blood gas to extract the segment was very simple. Little Light calculated and generated a long sequence of symbols and text. Su Hao just had to focus and read it without getting distracted. The key was to remain completely focused.
“@#¥…”
Soon, Little Light presented a series of symbols.
Su Hao immediately dismissed any distractions and began examining them one by one.
This was the art of micro-controlling blood gas!
(End of this chapter)
