Wei Lanshan looked at the incubator, where a life was taking shape. Yet the ripples in her heart were buried deep, beyond anyone's reach.
Lin Zeyu and the others obtained the experimental data from Wu Yuan: various indicators, simulation footage, and the experiment subjects.
The five of them remained silent on the way back. They felt terrible. This was the helplessness of yielding to reality and power.
Song Wei was in pain. He did not understand whether what they were doing was right or wrong.
After returning to his own laboratory, Song Wei went to find Lin Zeyu. "Zeyu, I can't live with this. I can't face this experiment subject, much less perform experiments on her."
"Song Wei, do you have any other options? You should know that our previous experiments were already skirting the line. If anyone looked too closely, they would have violated Alliance Law as well. This time, we're merely violating it more severely. If we move forward, we may survive. If we retreat, there isn't even the slightest possibility."
Like Wei Lanshan, Lin Zeyu had decided to stake everything on a final gamble.
There were corners of the universe that even starlight could not reach. Some darkness was far worse than what they were doing.
"If we fail, we'll vanish along with this satellite planet, and no one will know what happened to us. But what if we succeed? The entire Tianning Star System will know us. We'll become heroes of the Tianning Star System. Think about Miss Ye's talent.
"And the Central Brain. If we succeed, our rank will rise by three levels, and our contribution points will increase tremendously."
With Ye Zhenwei's talent, Tianning Star would go even farther under her leadership in the future. It might even stand alongside Capital Star Gaia.
No one would know about this experiment, and General Ye would not allow it to be leaked.
Because if it leaked, his position as general would be over as well. The Ye Family would be blacklisted by the entire Alliance, and the Central Brain would impose its ultimate punishment upon the Ye Family.
When the Ye Family planned this experiment, they had already made every preparation. Lin Zeyu guessed that the Ye Family had reached an agreement with the Central Brain, because the old head of the Ye Family had not appeared in public for a long time.
Lin Zeyu had been prepared for this outcome ever since he was forcibly recruited. The worst possible result was no more than death.
But he had misjudged human nature. He had not taken Ye Yunhan's wife, Tang Yongyu, into account.
Lin Zeyu's words gave the wavering heart Song Wei had carried all the way here a trace of resolve.
And so, Wei Lanshan and the other five began their days of separately cultivating experiment subjects.
There were only a few brief video calls during that time. Wei Lanshan never stepped outside her laboratory.
Experiment Subject 99 in the incubator grew day by day, looking different every day. As her features became clearer and clearer, Wei Lanshan looked at the subject inside the transparent incubator, and a complicated feeling finally surged within her.
During the early stages of cultivation, Wei Lanshan conducted a gene-insertion test for the M Virus. It was then that the M Virus was successfully written into Subject 99's genes.
During the cultivation period, the M Virus in Subject 99 showed no fluctuations whatsoever. As expected, the M Virus needed to be suppressed by Mental Power for an experiment subject to avoid collapsing. Wei Lanshan knew she had taken another step toward success.
Lin Zeyu and the others also sent good news. The other four experiment subjects were growing healthily, and they had all overcome the hurdle of inserting the M Virus gene into their subjects.
Moreover, all of the experiment subjects were healthy. Unlike those previously created directly from Ye Zhenwei's cells, these subjects had powerful mental fluctuations and resistance so strong it was horrifying.
Wei Lanshan's approach had been correct. Only this way could they endure all kinds of drug testing and the pain of repeated gene insertions.
More than nine Tianning Star Months passed. Wei Lanshan looked at the experiment subject who was about to be born in the incubator. She was a healthy baby girl, her eyes still unopened.
But Wei Lanshan could already imagine how lively those eyes would be when they opened.
She was very beautiful, although there were no unattractive humans in the interstellar era.
But Wei Lanshan knew that, from the perspectives of biology and genetics, this baby had inherited the looks of the owners of the two cells that had given her life remarkably well.
When she grew up, she would surely possess breathtaking beauty—if she could live to that day...
There were too many unknowns in the depths of the universe. At that moment, Wei Lanshan did not know that several Tianning Star Years later, she would make such a decision.
Alliance Year 2800, September 9th, she was born from the incubator and was directly named 99 by Wei Lanshan.
This day would later become an unavoidable exam question in Alliance interstellar history.
No matter what subject one studied, this question would appear on the exam. That day became a legend and was entered into the Central Brain's database.
The baby girl was born at dawn. When she opened her eyes, she seemed frightened. Her vision was too blurry for her to make out her surroundings, and she thought that she had not died but had gone blind.
So after only a few seconds, she closed her eyes again, testing her control over her body. She found that everything about it was wrong. This body was not hers.
She said to herself, Holy crap, I really overdid it. Did I possess someone else's body, or was I reborn?
What was going on? She forced her eyes open as wide as possible, but her vision remained blurry. With great effort, she lifted her hand and tried to bring it close to inspect it. Then—then she barely saw a chubby little hand with several whorls on its back!
A thousand galloping horses thundered through her mind, but she did not dare show it.
This was an unfamiliar place, filled with unfamiliar things. Terrified, she hurriedly closed her eyes again.
Apparently, she had worried too much. With her current infantile face, how many expressions could she possibly make?
When Wei Lanshan saw that she neither cried nor fussed, she thought something might be wrong. Anxiously, she performed a full-body examination on her. Only after finding nothing amiss did she finally relax.
Lying in the crib, 99 had lost all will to live. Was rebirth Heaven's reward for sacrificing herself to save others?
But if it was a reward, it should at least have given her a better body.
From what little she could see, as well as the woman who had leaned close and lifted her up to perform all kinds of tests, she was certain that woman was wearing a white lab coat.
She was! Sick! Otherwise, why would she be in a monitoring room the moment she was born?
This was too miserable, so miserable that words could not describe it. Could she not just live properly for once?
Tears flowed like a river in her heart.
She had already been here for five days. Her body always felt exhausted, completely weak, and her chest felt tight and stuffy.
So she could only keep her eyes closed and sleep as much as possible, controlling her thoughts and calming herself. She ignored everything outside, including the woman observing her.
Whenever she emptied her mind, she felt especially comfortable.
In her previous life, she had studied the Dao with someone for several years and memorized a long Daoist mantra for calming the mind. Whenever this body felt tired, she recited it, and it actually worked very well.
Only when Wei Lanshan saw that she ate and drank normally, and that all her data remained stable, did she feel at ease.
More than four months after she was born, her eyesight began to recover. Once she saw the surroundings, she was even more shocked. This was not the hospital she had assumed it was, but a laboratory. Could this body have a terminal illness?
Panic rose in her heart. Heaven would not toy with her like this, would it?
In her previous life, she had truly been a model citizen, abiding by the twenty-four-character socialist core values and striving to contribute to society!
She had died young because she saved someone. It was fine if rebirth did not come with a cheat ability, but all she wanted was a body strong enough to eat anything with gusto! Was that too much to ask for?
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