Homo Sapiens

With money paving the way, Li Jinglan quickly purchased a large batch of mature and semi-mature eels from the coastal regions of Min Nan Province.

He then used specialized live seafood transport ships to bring the eels to Kalaqua Island.

Meanwhile, Li Qingye received another piece of news.

Kang Nan, who was out at sea catching eel fry, reported some important information to him over a satellite phone: in the wild eel breeding grounds near the Luzon Trench, the number of glass eels had become abnormally scarce.

According to Kang Nan’s conversations with over a dozen of his peers, the current number of glass eels was just a tiny fraction of what it had been in previous years.

Many fishing boats had been busy for weeks, only to catch a few dozen kilograms of fry. In previous years, they could have caught several tons. The numbers had plummeted.

Li Qingye naturally understood. The bitter consequences of overfishing were beginning to show. At the same time, this was an opportunity—a huge golden opportunity.

The scarcity of wild resources would rapidly drive up the price of fry, which in turn would stimulate capital investment.

He now had to quickly develop a low-cost eel breeding technology and beat other companies to the punch.

The research institution most advanced in the artificial breeding of eels was an institute from East Japan. They had already achieved artificial breeding, but the production cost was just too staggering.

The technology developed by the institute in East Japan used hormonal stimulation and environmental conditioning to induce mature eels into a reproductive state.

The production cost for a single artificially bred eel was as high as 60,000 US Dollars.

In contrast, the wholesale price for wild fry was between 7,000 and 12,000 US Dollars for 5,000 glass eels.

The price disparity was so great that artificially bred fry had absolutely no market competitiveness.

Li Qingye had read the institute’s research papers and had even hacked into their network, turning it inside out.

Although the institute had concealed some key data, they had recently managed to lower the production cost to around 40,000 US Dollars per eel.

But Li Qingye wasn’t optimistic about their method, because the key to their artificial breeding technique lay in special hormones, and the cost of those hormones was a fixed, prohibitive barrier.

Using the data from the East Japan researchers, he deduced a complete methodology of his own.

’The key is the eel’s specific sex hormones. Currently, these hormones can’t be artificially synthesized, and the substitutes aren’t cheap. They also tend to cause developmental abnormalities in the eels.’ Li Qingye sorted through his thoughts.

He began his experiments shortly after.

First, by using a combination of various hormones and simulating environmental pressures, he induced the eels to reach sexual maturity.

This allowed him to identify and extract the specific eel sex hormone.

By comparing the eels’ genetic sequences before and after sexual maturation, he identified several sequences possibly related to the process.

The next step was quite simple: use a CRISPR sequence in conjunction with the Jianmu Factor to deactivate certain eel genes.

After more than a month of research, he quickly isolated the gene sequence for eel sexual maturation. He then excised these genes and inserted them into yeast using CRISPR-Cas9.

Soon, under environmental pressure, the genetically recombined yeast began to rapidly produce the eel sex hormone.

Excluding equipment costs, the production cost of this hormone plummeted to about 5 US Dollars per gram.

And this was just the production cost at a laboratory scale. With industrial-scale production, the cost would drop even further.

Armed with this special eel sex hormone, he quickly began injecting the mature eels.

In Zone C5 of the experimental base.

A dozen or so employees in charge of the eel tanks were taking notes, recording the conditions in each one.

Li Qingye and Li Jinglan observed the tanks one by one.

”Have we succeeded?” Li Jinglan was incredibly excited. Staring at the glass eels in the tank, he looked as if he were seeing swimming gold.

Li Qingye replied calmly, ”Yes, the technology is mature. Two mature eels can produce one to three million eggs. Without interference from predators, 30% of those eggs can develop into glass eels.”

”Boss, we’re going to be rich! In January, the price for a batch of eel fry hit 30,000 US Dollars, and there wasn’t even any stock available.”

Li Qingye instructed, ”I want you to take some people to Huaguo, East Japan, and various parts of Southeast Asia as soon as possible. Sell the eel fry we have in small batches, but do not reveal that we possess artificial breeding technology.”

”Do a good job, and the company will give you dividend shares in the future. Also, have Kang Nan come back. There’s no need to keep catching fry. He’ll follow your lead for now.”

”Understood. I’ll be sure to do my best,” Li Jinglan said, beaming.

Watching Li Jinglan hurry away, Li Qingye’s expression remained placid, but his gaze held a profound, knowing look.

Betrayal is human nature.

His father had put too much faith in so-called ideals, only to be backstabbed again and again by partners who once shared his vision. In the end, it led to his ruin and the destruction of his family.

’Rather than trust in ideals, it’s better to rely on methods. Father, I won’t be naive. I don’t have the luxury of being naive.’

Li Qingye thought to himself, his hands shoved in his pockets. The white lab coat he wore was pristine and cold as he strode toward the area marked ”Zone A.”

The entire research base was divided into four security levels: Zones A, B, C, and D. Only Li Qingye had clearance to enter Zones A and B.

Although he had spent over a month researching eel breeding technology, that was, in fact, just one of his smaller projects.

Surviving in this cruel world, becoming a man who could stand tall and indomitable... what a difficult thing that was.

Without power, he could not protect the Homo Sapiens Company.

If you don’t want to be another man’s dog, then you have no choice but to kill those who would try to put a leash on you.

While he was researching eel breeding techniques, he had also initiated a bioweapon research project.

He entered the core area, Zone A.

He looked at the orange liquid in a glass vial. Floating inside were cells barely visible to the naked eye. These were Malaria Parasites, microorganisms that cause malaria, which he had modified using genetic recombination technology.

Li Qingye had modified them in several comprehensive ways.

First, he enhanced their drug resistance to the point that no commercially available anti-malarial drugs would be effective against them.

Second, he knocked out their ability to reproduce, preventing the Malaria Parasites from multiplying naturally.

Third, he inserted the dormancy gene sequence from tardigrades, giving the parasites a latent period of up to seven years.

Fourth, he inserted the metamorphosis gene sequence from insects. Once activated by a specific pheromone, they would awaken from their dormant state and begin a destructive rampage.

Fifth, he engineered a cellular symbiosis model. This was to ensure the Malaria Parasites would not be broken down by the host’s body during their dormancy. The host cells Li Qingye had chosen for them were human brain cells.

Currently, the initial development of [Gu Insect Type 1 - Malaria Parasite] was complete.

But Li Qingye still felt it was imperfect, because [Gu Insect Type 1 - Malaria Parasite] had a few drawbacks.

For instance, it could only be administered via syringe, which was far too conspicuous. How to trick someone into getting an injection was a problem.

Another issue was that the special pheromone required for activation also needed to be injected, which added too many uncontrollable variables.

He now had to figure out how to solve these two problems.

Furthermore, with this type of external trigger, a prepared target could simply wear a protective suit to block the activating pheromone.

From this perspective, the internally and periodically triggered Three Corpses Brain God Pill seemed to have its merits.