It's important to remember that while Ding Yun needed to fulfill the original body's commissions, her primary objective was to test her golden fingers. The income from testing these golden fingers far surpassed what her clients could offer.
As for this particular golden finger test, Ding Yun had already explored and gained a rough understanding of most aspects. The only area where she had made no progress was with viruses.
Viruses, by their nature, were dangerous. Ding Yun wouldn't dare to tamper with them without absolute certainty. If she were to bless a virus in a particular way and it caused unforeseen accidents, unexpected mutations, or even a leak, the consequences would be dire.
Since she couldn't easily join research institutions for this purpose, she had initially put aside the study of viruses. It wasn't until she was recently promoted within the Special Events Administration, gaining certain privileges, coupled with her abundant financial resources and free time, that she decided to revive this plan.
However, constructing a top-level virus research laboratory wasn't a simple feat. Even with substantial investment from Ding Yun, it took five years to complete. She then dedicated a portion of her time daily to blessing various collected viruses, meticulously recording the effects of her abilities.
Ding Yun never considered publicizing her research in this area. She conducted it in secrecy, destroying all research results after recording them in her consciousness chip to prevent any leaks. Furthermore, she enforced the strictest sterilization protocols for herself when entering and exiting the facility.
Consequently, over the years, her virus research lab remained incident-free. Of course, there were no tangible results either, as she had destroyed them all.
Ding Yun had initially intended to continue this way indefinitely. However, the emergence of a new discovery ten years later ultimately compelled her to break her original plan and decide to extract one outcome from the virus research lab: the Super Immunity Reconstruction Virus.
This virus was one of thousands of new strains she accidentally created by blessing and mixing dozens of viruses that compromised the human immune system. Unlike other viruses that harmed humans, this one was peculiar; it destroyed and rebuilt simultaneously. While it attacked the human immune system, it also reconstructed a new one, granting immunity to the vast majority of known viruses. If subjected to extreme external damage, such as radiation, as long as it wasn't immediately fatal, the virus could absorb the radiation to a certain extent and further strengthen immunity. The same applied to newly mutated viruses.
How to describe it? The virus's nature was domineering. Once it occupied the human immune system, it would not allow anything else to harm the life it now protected. The virus would form a symbiotic system with the human body, and because it caused no substantial harm to the host, it presented itself in a positive light.
The creation of this virus was an absolute surprise to Ding Yun. Her previous plan of selectively blessing certain fetal cells and tissues to evolve human fetuses into "superhumans" had a flaw. Even if the evolved superhumans possessed self-healing abilities, great strength, and enhanced senses, their immune systems remained that of normal humans. They were still susceptible to viruses and other infections, at best being slightly more resilient. The self-healing characteristic couldn't eliminate viruses.
The Immunity Reconstruction Virus perfectly addressed this flaw, transforming potentially flawed superhumans into beings who could truly thrive in special environments without fear of viruses, and possibly even evolve to survive inter-stellar travel in the future. This, she felt, was what a true superhuman entailed.
For this reason, Ding Yun deliberately deviated from her original plan. She conducted more in-depth research and experimental trials on this virus. Once it was confirmed to be harmless, she brought it out of the lab. Coincidentally, the experiments on the apes had also concluded successfully. Ding Yun thus launched a two-pronged approach:
One path involved submitting the experimental reports on the apes and applying for human trials.
The other path involved packaging the Super Immunity Reconstruction Virus into an immune reconstruction drug, undergoing drug approval and testing.
This was followed by a lengthy validation phase. The immune reconstruction drug itself progressed relatively smoothly, taking about six to seven years to complete. Upon its release, it was hailed as the greatest invention of the century, with some even hyperbolically stating that past claims of universal cures were false, but this was the true universal cure. The immune reconstruction agent could indeed cure the vast majority of diseases by rebuilding the immune system. Even if a cure wasn't possible, the enhanced immunity could prolong life, or enable individuals too weak for surgery to become viable candidates. For healthy individuals, injection meant they were virtually immune to all diseases.
As a result of this achievement, Ding Yun received numerous medical awards. While she personally accepted a few particularly significant ones, she had others collected on her behalf, citing a busy work schedule. In reality, she disliked traveling globally and worried about assassination attempts abroad.
This was the story of the immune reconstruction agent.
On the other hand, the progress of modifying human fetuses into superhumans remained a lengthy process. Human gestation periods and maturation times were significantly longer. Unlike the apes, which Ding Yun could compel to reproduce when they reached maturity, forcing humans to continue experiments after childbirth was more difficult. It relied on their voluntary participation, and even then, persuading them to undergo further experimental stages was a challenge. This made the process exceedingly troublesome.
However, altering the human race was an undertaking fraught with immense risk. Without absolute certainty, no one would dare to approve widespread implementation. Such a change might yield positive results for decades, even centuries, but if problems arose later, the earlier praise would turn into severe criticism. Many were afraid of becoming the "sinner" responsible for such a catastrophe.
Ding Yun could do little but continue to find ways to prove over time that the modifications were indeed harmless. However, after nearly a decade of animal experiments and thirty years of ape experiments, she was exhausted. She could no longer sustain the subsequent fifty to seventy years of human trials. Despite using newly developed drugs, yet to undergo clinical trials, to extend her lifespan, she ultimately succumbed to exhaustion forty years into the human trials, passing away at the age of one hundred and eighteen. She departed from this world with a tinge of regret.