Chapter 1 A Surprise

Bai Jingyan was very surprised.

This matter was proceeding far too smoothly.

So smoothly that it was almost unacceptable to him.

"You... agreed?" Bai Jingyan even wondered if there was something wrong with his ears. He gently touched his earlobe and asked again.

"Yes," Li Tianran said, a faint, mocking smile on his lips, though it was hard to see in the darkness. "Your request isn't too excessive. I agreed."

Bai Jingyan felt that his usually sharp mind had become somewhat dull.

What was this?

He had obtained what he wanted so easily?

Didn't that mean that all the efforts he had made before, the near-death experiences, the guards who had died... had all become a joke?

Bai Jingyan had originally prepared himself for a long negotiation process with Li Tianran.

But Li Tianran's attitude had rendered all his preparations useless!

...

Bright red blood slowly flowed from the tip of a needle into a sealed test tube.

Even now, Bai Jingyan still couldn't believe that all of this was real.

It wasn't until Li Tianran pushed the sealed test tube containing his blood across the table and Bai Jingyan held it in his hand, feeling the temperature of the blood through the thin glass, that he became excited!

This was real!

Li Tianran's blood!

Blood containing the secrets of his genes!

At this moment, Bai Jingyan wanted to burst out laughing.

Li Tianran also wanted to laugh.

But he restrained himself, tapping his fingers on the table, his voice carrying a hint of ferocity. "Don't get carried away. Now, have your people track this number down for me immediately."

"Of course, no problem!" Bai Jingyan took a small ice storage container from his pocket and carefully placed the sealed test tube containing Li Tianran's blood inside, ensuring that the blood would not deteriorate due to prolonged exposure and would maintain its peak activity.

After doing all this, he used Li Tianran's phone to make a call.

"Nan Nan, help me check a number. I need all the call records and the identity of the owner within the last ten days, as well as the owner's activity range and current location within the last ten days!" Bai Jingyan relayed Li Tianran's request to his assistant verbatim.

"Researcher Bai, you... got the key?" The female assistant suddenly received Bai Jingyan's call, her tone a little excited.

"Although I didn't get the key itself, I got something else that is destined to allow us to master the key!" Bai Jingyan suppressed his excitement and said softly, "Now, do as I say immediately!"

"Yes!" The female assistant hung up the phone excitedly.

Finding the location of a number wasn't too difficult. A skilled hacker could easily present Li Tianran with all the information he needed within half an hour.

Even if the number was encrypted, it would only take a little more effort.

After hanging up the phone, Li Tianran and Bai Jingyan remained silent for the time being.

But Li Tianran wasn't just sitting idly. He sat in the darkness, silently observing Bai Jingyan, this scientific maniac.

He still remembered what was recorded in Bai Jingyan's USB drive—those grand ambitions.

He suddenly became interested in Bai Jingyan.

"How did you become a mutant?" Li Tianran used the light from his phone to look at the unusual demonic纹 (wen) on Bai Jingyan's face and the superhuman data that appeared on his body, and asked softly, "Becoming such a thing that is neither human nor ghost, is that what you call... the Age of Gods?"

Bai Jingyan's lips curled up slightly, and he said, "So you looked at the things in my USB drive... Okay, I admit, in terms of the advancement of human life levels, you did better and faster than me!"

"A dozen days after the world changed, my team extracted the V-shaped virus from those radioactive plants, and also discovered that this virus is the source of the mutation of those who consume it."

"But through experiments, I found that while the V-shaped virus causes biological cells to divide, it greatly increases the probability of adverse changes... The ultimate result is to create a pile of disabled or short-lived monsters!"

"So far, I have not found a way to solve this problem. I think, perhaps I can get some inspiration from your genes," Bai Jingyan said, his eyes filled with light and extreme confidence when he talked about his academic field. "If I can solve the problem of the adverse development of the V-shaped virus, then this disaster that changed the world may become an opportunity for mankind!"

There was a hint of astonishment in Li Tianran's eyes.

If what the other party said was true, then the achievements that Bai Jingyan had accomplished were indeed worthy of admiration!

In just a few days after the world disaster, Bai Jingyan extracted this V-shaped virus and applied it to biology. This ability was enough to stand at the forefront of the world!

It's just that...

Li Tianran wasn't optimistic about Bai Jingyan.

Mutation, or evolution, is inherently a matter of probability that cannot be explained by science.

Or rather, at least current technology cannot interfere with their mutation success rate.

And products above LV4 do not belong to the category of science.

Li Tianran speculated that even if Bai Jingyan continued his research, he would most likely go down a dark path and never see the light of day.

This kind of consciousness is too advanced!

In this era, the existing level of technology is not enough to support Bai Jingyan's ambitions!

At least, that's what Li Tianran thought.

"So, you came to these conclusions after conducting a large number of human experiments with this so-called V-shaped virus?" Li Tianran looked at Bai Jingyan coldly and asked softly. He found it hard to accept this kind of inhumane behavior.

"No." Bai Jingyan shook his head. "I have been experimenting on beasts. The only human experiment... was myself."

Li Tianran raised his eyebrows, and his impression of Bai Jingyan changed slightly.

After all, if you really start from the beginning, Bai Jingyan really doesn't have any irreconcilable hatred with him.

Even if Bai Jingyan wanted to capture Xiao Hei based on preconceived notions, he was beaten half to death by Li Tianran, and now he has become neither human nor ghost.

"But human experiments are definitely going to be promoted," Bai Jingyan then said again. "The genes of wild animals are too different from those of humans. Even if the improved V-shaped virus can perfectly match wild animals, it cannot be guaranteed that it can do the same in humans, so... human experiments are essential."

Perhaps noticing that Li Tianran's expression had changed, Bai Jingyan smiled. "Maybe you think I'm a little cold-blooded, but historically, countless important data on human biology have been obtained through cold human experiments."

"Do you know a foreigner named Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier? He was a crazy biologist. In order to verify whether the human head can still retain consciousness after being separated from the body, he personally asked someone to cut off his head and asked the executioner to verify it for him after cutting off his head."

"As a result, his eyes blinked 11 times after his head was cut off."

"Therefore, the world's biological community was able to obtain this important conclusion: there is still consciousness after a person is beheaded."

Li Tianran frowned. "You guys are a bunch of lunatics."

"If you don't go mad, you won't survive! This kind of thing goes against the heavens, so you need to be a little more ruthless!" Bai Jingyan smiled, but behind his calm smile was a hint of madness. "Just like those guards standing outside the door now, after I return to the research institute, they will be killed, because my great research needs them to keep it secret."

Li Tianran didn't want to continue talking to Bai Jingyan. He felt a little suffocated in his chest.

"The development of biology and science has reached its current height by stepping on the countless bones of countless people, and the future... will not change."

This was Bai Jingyan's last sentence.