198: Chapter 198 Biology Class: Gene Editing for Monsters

Heavenly River Sword Sect, formerly the Spirit Beast Garden, now renamed as "Tianhe First Life Science Research Institute".

The style here is even more hellish than the "Pharmaceutical Factory" and "Armory" next door.

The originally lush garden is now transformed into a massive, enclosed sterile environment. White curtains hang all around, and the air is filled with the scent of disinfectant (high-concentration strong liquor) and some indescribable fishy smell.

A group of Spirit Beasts (mostly monkeys and apes) wearing white coats, under the command of Fatty Pig Intestine and Big Yellow Dog, are moving various strange transparent vessels.

In the very center of the laboratory stands a person.

He is Sun Yu, a Golden Core Stage Elder from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.

He is the mole who, in the previous chapter, painfully handed over the Sect's secret manual, "Record of Hundred Beasts Psychic Connection", in order to learn "Big Yellow Dog's surgery".

At this moment, Sun Yu is trembling, holding a textbook titled "Fundamentals of Genetics: From Mendel's Peas to Yao Beast Hybridization", his face pale as paper.

"This... this is impossible..."

Sun Yu mutters to himself, as if his faith is collapsing.

"There is 'reproductive isolation' between Yao Beasts; this is the iron law of the Heavenly Dao! How can a fire-element lion have children with a water-element turtle? This not only violates the Five Elements mutual restriction, but it also violates beast ethics!"

"Beast ethics?"

Li Mo, who is debugging a microscope (a high-magnification lens array manifested by the [True Sight] entry) on the dissection table, raises his head upon hearing this, revealing that iconic nuclear-friendly smile.

"Student Sun."

Li Mo pushes up his goggles.

"In the field of science, there is no ethics, only feasibility."

"The so-called reproductive isolation is merely a 'gene lock' added by the Heavenly Dao to prevent species from becoming chaotic."

"And what we are going to do today is use a key called 'genetic editing' to pry this lock... open."

"Squeak. (Prying locks? I'm an expert at this!)"

The Treasure-Seeking Rat, Squeak, wearing a small white coat, raises its hand. It holds a probe as thin as a hair, which is the "genetic scissors" Li Mo specially crafted for it.

"Are you ready?"

Li Mo looks at Sun Yu.

"Didn't you always complain that the Spirit Beasts of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect grow too slowly and have limited potential?"

"Today, I will teach you a brand-new breeding method."

"Scientific name: Chimera Induction."

"Common name: Stitching Monster Manufacturing Technique."

Sun Yu swallows his saliva, looking at the two huge cages in front of him.

In the cage on the left is a restless Tier 2 Fire Cloud Lion. It is covered in flames, baring its fangs, clearly feeling extremely uncomfortable in this place filled with the smell of disinfectant.

In the cage on the right lies a lazy Tier 2 Mysterious Water Turtle. It is retracted in its shell, occasionally spitting out a breath of cold air, indifferent to everything around it.

One fire, one water.

One active, one static.

These two types of Yao Beasts usually fight to the death when they meet, but now they are to be... that?

"T-Teacher..."

Sun Yu's voice trembles, "Do we really have to let them... mate directly? If this Fire Cloud Lion takes a bite, the turtle will be cooked!"

"Superficial."

Li Mo shakes his head.

"Who said we are letting them mate primitively?"

"That is a low-level interest."

Li Mo points to the massive centrifuge and culture tank in the middle, flickering with complex runes.

"What we are going to do is extract their 'Life Source Essence' (germ cells) and reorganize the Spiritual Qi base pairs at the microscopic level."

"Sun Yu, you are an expert from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect. You shouldn't need me to teach you such a small matter as extracting 'Source Essence', right?"

Sun Yu's face instantly turns the color of a pig's liver.

As an Elder of the Beast Taming Sect, he certainly knows how to extract it. But that method is usually used when breeding Spirit Beasts. Now, in front of everyone, with a group of monkeys watching...

"Hurry up."

Big Yellow Dog impatiently taps the table, rubbing its scalpel against a whetstone with a harsh screeching sound.

"Woof! (If you keep dawdling, I'll help you extract it, but I'll just cut it directly.)"

"Don't! I'll do it! I'll do it myself!"

Sun Yu shudders in fear and tearfully walks toward the two innocent Spirit Beasts.

Half an hour later.

Two vials of liquid, emitting red and blue light respectively, are extracted and sent to Li Mo's laboratory table.

"Very good."

Li Mo injects the two vials of liquid into a specially made "Genetic Fusion Formation Plate".

"Students, pay attention."

Li Mo points to the light screen projected above the Formation Plate.

Under the blessing of [True Sight], the microscopic scene is magnified ten million times.

Everyone (including the watching Servants and Spirit Beasts) holds their breath, witnessing a scene they will never forget for the rest of their lives.

They see that in the red liquid, countless light spots resembling miniature lions (sperm) are swimming crazily, carrying violent fire attributes.

And in the blue liquid is a huge, cold-emitting sphere (egg).

"Under normal circumstances, fire attributes approaching water attributes will cause annihilation."

Li Mo explains while operating the Formation Plate.

"But if we use an 'electromagnetic field' to strip away the outer shell of the fire-attribute particles, exposing the core genetic information inside..."

"Ye Guyun, increase pressure! Power the magnetic field!"

"Received!"

Ye Guyun, standing in the corner of the lab acting as a "human generator", immediately activates the battery pack on his back.

Zzzzzzt—!

A faint and precise current passes through the petri dish.

On the light screen, the flames on the outer layer of those red light spots are instantly stripped away, leaving only strands of spiral-shaped, golden-glowing chains—the DNA double helix structure (Cultivation version).

"Now!"

Li Mo's eyes narrow, and the probe in his hand (controlled by Squeak) instantly pierces in.

"Cut!"

"Remove the 'fire attribute rejection gene'!"

"Embed the 'water attribute Fusion port'!"

This series of operations is like threading a needle at the microscopic level.

Squeak's claws are moving so fast they leave Residual Shadow. Although it doesn't understand the principles, it has the unique "intuition" of a Treasure-Seeking Rat and can accurately find and remove those discordant "Impurities".

Finally.

Under the gaze of everyone.

The red gene chain successfully drills into the blue sphere.

Boom!

A violent tremor erupts in the microscopic world.

The two forces that were originally incompatible like water and fire reach a strange balance at the genetic level.

The red and blue lights intertwine, and in the end, they turn into a... gray-white, turbid light.

"Did... did it succeed?"

Sun Yu stares with wide eyes, looking in disbelief at the embryo rapidly dividing and growing in the culture tank.

"What attribute is this?"

He cannot feel the heat of fire, nor the coldness of water. Instead, he feels a kind of... pressure. A pressure that is constantly expanding, as if it is about to explode at any moment.

"Don't rush, this is just a fertilized egg."

Li Mo takes out a bottle of green potion from his pocket—[Rapid Catalytic Liquid] (sponsored by Liu Qingqing, rich in high-concentration life spirit fluid).

"Pour it in."

Splash.

The potion enters the tank.

The embryo grows crazily like a balloon being inflated. The eggshell forms and cracks.

"Crack."

A creature the size of a palm crawls out of the eggshell.

The whole place is dead silent.

Everyone stretches their necks, wanting to see clearly what this "cross-species love crystal" looks like.

It has a turtle's shell, but the shell is not green; it presents a metallic luster similar to red copper.

It has a lion's head, but no mane, bald and looking a bit funny.

Its limbs are thick and powerful, with barbs on its claws.

The strangest thing is its back. In the center of the turtle shell, there is actually a... tube. A vertical, bone-like tube that looks like a chimney.

"What... what is this?"

Sun Yu is dumbfounded. "Fire Lion Turtle? Or Water Turtle Lion?"

Just then, the little monster opens its eyes. There is no ignorance of ordinary Yao Beasts in its eyes, but rather a hint of irritability.

It opens its mouth. It doesn't roar like a lion, nor does it make a turtle sound. Instead—

"Woo—!!!"

A sharp whistling sound similar to a boiling kettle.

Immediately after, the water and fire Spiritual Qi in its body begins to clash. The fire Spiritual Qi burns in the abdomen, heating the water Spiritual Qi in the body.

The water instantly boils, turning into high-pressure steam.

"Puff—!!!"

A white, scalding, high-pressure steam column shoots out from the "chimney" on its back!

Because of the reaction force (Newton's Third Law manifests again), this little monster instantly turns into a spinning flying saucer, crashing everywhere in the laboratory.

"Hot hot hot!!"

A watching monkey is sprayed by the steam, its butt instantly turns red, and it screams as it jumps onto the chandelier.

"Holy crap! This thing can spray boiling water!"

Sun Yu is so scared he covers his head and runs. "Is this a Yao Beast? This is clearly a living teapot!"

"Teapot?"

Li Mo reaches out and uses the force field formed by [Electromagnetic Control] to fix the little guy flying everywhere in mid-air.

He looks at the little monster spraying gas, covered in red, with what seems like a boiler burning inside its body, a trace of fanaticism flashing in his eyes.

"No."

"This is not a teapot."

"This is... a steam engine."

Li Mo turns around and looks at the stunned Sun Yu.

"Student Sun, congratulations."

"You have broken the shackles of the Heavenly Dao."

"You have created a brand-new species—[Steam Blast Turtle]."

"Think about it."

Li Mo induces.

"If we magnify it a hundred times."

"On its back, it's no longer spraying steam, but connected to huge gears and connecting rods."

"It can not only spray high-pressure steam of thousands of degrees to hurt enemies, but also serve as... a power source."

"The Ten Thousand Beasts Sect used to use Yao Beasts to pull carts, right?"

"Low efficiency, need to be fed, and need to shovel poop."

"But if you use this kind of turtle..."

"It only needs to drink water and eat a little Spirit Stone."

"It can pull a ten-thousand-ton giant ship on the sea at full speed! It can drive huge factories day and night!"

"This is not just a turtle."

"This is—the spark of the first industrial revolution."

Boom!

A lightning bolt seems to streak across Sun Yu's mind.

As an Elder of the Beast Taming Sect, he has always been committed to improving the combat effectiveness of Yao Beasts. But he never thought that Yao Beasts could also become... machines?

Turning Yao Beasts into living engines?

This... this is too crazy! But also... too exciting!

"I... I understand!"

Sun Yu trembles with excitement, looking at the Steam Turtle that is still "woo-woo"-ing, his eyes as if looking at his own son.

"Great Master! I want to continue researching!"

"If I crossbreed a 'Wind Roar Beast' and a 'Thunder Eagle', can I create a 'Jet Turbine Bird'?"

"If I crossbreed a 'Vajra Ape' and an 'Iron-Armored Rhino', can I create a 'Living Tank'?"

"A child who can be taught."

Li Mo nods with satisfaction.

"Go ahead."

"The laboratory is yours."

"Remember, don't take too big a step, be careful not to pull a muscle... oh no, be careful not to blow up the laboratory."

"Also, lend this Steam Turtle to Wang Ermazi in the cafeteria for a few days."

"I heard his steamed buns haven't been cooked well lately, just use this high-pressure steam to fix it."

Watching Sun Yu hold the Steam Turtle and rush to the data room to check the "Species Atlas" like a lunatic, the smile on Li Mo's lips deepens.

The System prompt sounds at the right time.

[Witnessed "Reproductive Isolation" being broken.]

[Witnessed the birth of a "Steam-Powered Creature".]

[Congratulations to the host, read "Sun Yu's Hybridization Experiment Record".]

[Extracted purple entry: [Life Editing (Elementary)].]

[Entry Name: Life Editing]

[Grade: Purple (Growth-type)]

[Description: God created life, and you... are responsible for patching life.]

[Effect 1: Chimera Perspective. You can see the possibility (success rate) of gene Fusion between different species.]

[Effect 2: Benign Mutation. When you conduct biological experiments, the probability of "malignant mutation" (turning into a puddle of mud) is reduced by 50%, and the probability of "benign mutation" (growing mechanical arms, air vents) is increased by 50%.]

"Very good."

Li Mo feels the knowledge about gene chains appearing in his mind.

With this entry, the Heavenly River Sword Sect's "Biological Weapon" plan has officially started.

"Physics has the electromagnetic cannon."

"Chemistry has the dynamite pack."

"Biology has the stitching monster."

"Now, the 'Sea, Land, and Air' three armies have a prototype."

Li Mo walks out of the laboratory and looks at the sky.

Although it is daytime, a few stars are faintly visible twinkling.

That is a mole from the Star Pavilion, setting up a telescope on the roof, trying to observe "gravitational waves".

"Still missing... mathematics."

Li Mo mutters to himself.

"Mathematics is the foundation of all science."

"And it is also the hardest bone to chew."

"I wonder if that Qian Duoduo who went to study "Advanced Mathematics" is still alive?"

Scripture Pavilion, basement.

This place has been transformed into a "Super Computing Center".

Of course, there are no electronic computers.

There are only hundreds of Disciple good at arithmetic, each holding an abacus, performing crazy manual parallel computing.

And in the depths of the center.

Qian Duoduo is sitting in a pile of draft paper, his hair already gone (truly bald), turning into a shiny bald head.

His eyes are empty, but his mouth is muttering at a very fast speed:

"Taylor expansion... Euler formula... Riemann hypothesis..."

Suddenly, he abruptly raises his head, his bald head reflecting an eerie light under the candlelight.

"Great Master!"

"I calculated it!"

"I calculated... the wave-particle duality of Spiritual Qi!"

"As long as we can build a 'Fourier Transform Formation', we can decompose the enemy's Spell... into a pile of useless waves!"

At that moment.

The sound of abacuses in the entire basement stops.

Everyone looks in horror at this Senior Brother who has "become a demon through calculation".

And Li Mo, who senses this scene upstairs, almost drops the thermos in his hand.

"Good guy."

"Fourier dimensionality reduction strike?"

"These leeks... are growing even wilder than I imagined."