Lu Xuanyu truly understood the perspective of the United Nations bigwigs.
Even someone with a lack of scientific knowledge like him found this research to be utterly ridiculous.
He couldn’t help but ask, "Isn’t there anyone in your laboratory who... thinks there’s something wrong with this issue?"
Yawgmoth’s expression became even more somber, "The framework of this research had pretty much been figured out when I performed gene modification surgery on myself, and upon returning, I directly arranged manpower to validate it. And... and..."
Yawgmoth paused in thought, "When I was learning Chinese, the lady who taught me showed me some movies. There was this kung fu movie that mentioned a plotline. A martial arts master took in a little ruffian as an apprentice. Then the master’s wife disliked the ruffian, saying he looked at her with wicked thoughts. Then the martial arts master said, once the ruffian learned martial arts, he would be alright. As long as he learned martial arts, the ruffian would respect him like he would respect a god."
Lu Xuanyu nodded. He had seen that movie too.
Upon reflection... it seemed to make sense. If Bruce Lee were to be resurrected and he lectured him about the principles of boxing, even if parts of those principles were "outdated after decades of development," he couldn’t help but feel there was some truth to them.
Yawgmoth was the greatest biologist in the world.
"Later, Xiang Shan went mad," Yawgmoth sighed, "My earliest students all ended up stained because of this. From then on, I had to insert students from other people into my project team... That’s probably how it should be handled. Now that I think about it, I really owe those guys an apology."
"Xiang Shan often told me to establish mechanisms in the lab to challenge authority, giving researchers and assistants more say. But between conclusions, which one is ’more correct’ is often clear at a glance. I am more correct than others in many matters..." Yawgmoth said, "Things have been going too smoothly for a long time, perhaps I got a bit carried away." Follow current novels on NovelHub(.)net
Lu Xuanyu scratched his head, "But it’s over just like that, right? There shouldn’t be any worse impact, should there?"
"Xiang Shan organized a team to argue with the Ethical Committee, showing an attitude that ’this is just a medical research study.’ However, he thought of the worst application immediately. He was just buying time for negotiations," Yawgmoth sighed.
Lu Xuanyu scratched his head again, then became somewhat wary, "By the way, this... your Plan C and Plan D, they should be okay, right?"
A smile finally appeared on Yawgmoth’s face, "Yes... Do you know where the shortcomings of Plan B are?"
Lu Xuanyu shook his head.
"The price," Yawgmoth smiled, "Plan A only requires viruses and a small amount of active potions. Plan B, however, requires many kinds of potions, used continuously for twenty-one days, with each type’s usage time needing to be monitored with the patient’s state, and then meticulously calculated, which is very troublesome. Moreover, many of the potions in it include those that are difficult to produce or whose biosynthetic pathways have yet to be discovered."
"Additionally, there are large medical devices. All of these create huge obstacles for mass modification. You must find a solution that’s even cheaper and faster than Plan A—the cost must be lower. The days needed in isolation wards should also be shorter than with Plan B."
Lu Xuanyu felt somewhat uneasy, "Your Plan C and Plan D aren’t going to use... something alive, right? What’s it called, pathogens?"
Yawgmoth shook his head, "No. Both Plan C and Plan D are based on Homo sapiens’ own genome or epigenetics... Well, due to regulations, I can’t tell you too much at this stage."
Lu Xuanyu waved his hand, "Then don’t mention it."
He had received great kindness from the company, and it would be rather presumptuous to inquire about their corporate secrets.
Yawgmoth made a pressing down motion with his hands, as though signaling for him to be quiet.
After a few seconds, he chuckled, "I know how to describe it now..."
He said to Lu Xuanyu, "All I can hint at is this: in Taoist culture, don’t ’babies’ and ’pregnant women’ seem to have a special significance?"
That night, Lu Xuanyu had some trouble sleeping.
He couldn’t help but ponder what the heck "babies and pregnant women having special significance in Taoist culture" meant.
In Taoist alchemy culture, there indeed are concepts like "Charming Lady and infants." But when such terms are mentioned in the classics, they are metaphors that must be explained in context. For instance, "Charming Lady" could refer to cinnabar, "infant" to mercury, or "Charming Lady" to Qi, "infant" to spirit, and so on.
These indeed are metaphors favored by Taoists, carrying theological significance.
And martial artists also like to borrow these concepts from Taoist culture to "encrypt" their martial arts, deliberately shrouding them in mystery.
There are those idiots who twist the scriptures’ literal meaning without any cultural understanding, whether in reality or in fictional stories. For example, misinterpreting an obvious "description of power" or "metaphor" like "destroying the enemy’s head as if piercing decayed soil" as "inserting a hand into a skull," which is completely uncultured. Historically, it seems there have indeed been people who literally understood "Charming Lady and infants" to mean eating children or drinking human blood.
Although Mr. Yawgmoth was a great scientist.
What he did before was just a bit too astonishing...
It made it hard not to have such associations.
Amidst a series of inexplicable nightmares, Lu Xuanyu concluded his extraordinary day.
In the blink of an eye, the end of the first treatment session had arrived.
These days, the frequency and intensity of his cognitive tests also increased.
Fortunately, there wasn’t much else he could do here, so the frail Lu Xuanyu cooperated with full focus.
Starting from the last day, the food served by the medical staff began to look and taste slightly odd.
"You have been told about this before," Miss Florence patiently answered Lu Xuanyu’s question, "Your meals now contain a solution of metal ions added during cooking, a trace amount. For Homo sapiens, consuming such meals over a long period would definitely lead to poisoning, even irreversible damage to your liver function."
"But for Benchmark Man, it’s necessary nutrition."
"We’ll increase the concentration of metal ions in your blood a day or two in advance, ideally allowing it to penetrate into your brain tissue. Once the transformation begins, the first cells to undergo the change can immediately synthesize the necessary proteins."
Lu Xuanyu nodded. Despite feeling queasy, he forced himself to finish all the food.
Then, the time for the surgery finally arrived.