Cost

With money paving the way, Li Jinglan quickly procured a large batch of mature or semi-mature eels in the coastal areas of Min Nan Province.

He then transported these eels to Calagua Island via specialized live seafood transport ships.

Meanwhile.

Li Qingye also received another piece of news.

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

According to Kang Nan and the exchanges with over a dozen peers, the current number of glass eels was only one-thirtieth of that in previous years.

Many fishing boats had been busy for weeks, catching only tens of kilograms of fry, whereas in previous years they could catch tons, a cliff-like drop.

Li Qingye naturally understood that this was the consequence of overfishing beginning to manifest, and at the same time, it was an opportunity and a massive trend.

With the scarcity of wild resources, the price of fry would rapidly increase, and capital investment would be stimulated.

He now needed to quickly develop low-cost eel breeding technology to prevent other companies from researching similar technologies.

The research institution most deeply involved in artificial eel breeding was from Japan. They had already achieved artificial eel breeding, but the production cost was truly staggering.

The technology developed by the Japanese research institution involved stimulating mature eels with hormones and environmental regulation to enter a reproductive state.

Currently, the production cost of one artificially bred eel reached 60,000 US dollars.

The wholesale price of wild eel fry was 7,000 to 12,000 US dollars for 5,000 glass eels.

The price difference was too large; artificially bred eels were not competitive at all.

Li Qingye had read the relevant papers from that research institution and had even used hacking methods to thoroughly search their network.

Although the research institution had concealed some key data, they had recently reduced their production cost to around 40,000 US dollars per eel.

However, Li Qingye was not optimistic about them because the key to this artificial breeding technology lay in special hormones, and the cost of those special hormones was fixed.

Using the data from the Japanese researchers, he deduced an entire set of technologies.

"The key is the special eel sex hormone. Currently, this hormone cannot be synthesized artificially, and the alternative hormones are not cheap and can easily lead to abnormal eel development," Li Qingye clarified his thoughts.

He soon began his experiments.

First, he used a combination of various hormones, along with simulated environmental stress, to induce eels into a state of sexual maturity.

He then found that special eel sex hormone and extracted it.

By comparing the gene sequences of eels before and after sexual maturation, he identified some gene sequences that might be related to sexual maturity.

The next step was very simple: using CRISPR sequences combined with Jianmu Factor to deactivate a portion of the eel's genes.

After more than a month of research, he quickly pinpointed the gene sequences responsible for eel sexual maturity, excised these genes, and inserted them into yeast using CRISPR-Cas9.

Soon, under environmental stress, the genetically recombined yeast rapidly produced eel sex hormone.

Excluding equipment costs, the production cost of this hormone dropped significantly, costing around 5 US dollars per gram.

This was the production cost using a laboratory setup; if an industrialized production plan were adopted, the production cost would decrease further.

With this special eel sex hormone, he quickly injected mature eels.

In Zone C5 of the experimental base.

Over a dozen employees responsible for monitoring the eel breeding tanks diligently recorded the condition of each tank.

Li Qingye and Li Jinglan observed the situation in each tank.

"Has it been successful?" Li Jinglan asked excitedly, looking at the glass eels in the tanks as if they were swimming gold.

Li Qingye calmly replied, "Yes, the technology is mature. Two mature eels can produce 1 to 3 million eggs. Without interference from other predators, 30% of these eggs can develop into glass eels."

"Boss, we're going to be rich! The price of eel fry in January this year has already reached 30,000 US dollars, and there's no stock."

Li Qingye instructed, "Take people to China, Japan, and various parts of Southeast Asia as soon as possible and sell our eel fry in small batches, but do not reveal that we have artificial breeding technology."

"Work hard, and the company will give you bonus shares in the future. Also, tell Kang Nan to come back! He doesn't need to catch fry anymore; he can follow you."

"Understood, I will definitely work hard." Li Jinglan beamed.

Watching Li Jinglan rush off, Li Qingye's expression was very calm, but his eyes held a profound meaning.

Betrayal was human nature.

His father had trusted too much in so-called beliefs and was repeatedly stabbed in the back by former like-minded partners, leading to the ruin of his family.

'Instead of believing in beliefs, it's better to carry out methods. Father, I won't be naive, nor do I have the right to be naive.'

Li Qingye thought to himself as he put his hands in his pockets, his white coat looking clean and cold as he walked towards the area marked Zone A.

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

Although he had spent over a month researching eel breeding technology, it was actually just a small project.

To survive in this cruel world and be a person of integrity was an extremely difficult task.

Without strength, one could not protect Homo sapiens Company.

If you don't want to be a dog to others, you can only kill those who want to train dogs.

At the same time he was researching eel breeding technology, he had also initiated a biological weapon research project.

Entered the most core, Zone A.

Looking at the orange liquid in the glass test tube, within which floated some cells imperceptible to the naked eye, these were Plasmodium modified through gene recombination technology, a microorganism capable of causing malaria.

Li Qingye had comprehensively modified it.

First, its drug resistance was enhanced, rendering common antimalarial drugs ineffective against it.

Second, its reproductive capabilities were knocked out, preventing the Plasmodium from naturally multiplying.

Third, the dormancy gene sequence of a tardigrade was inserted, giving it a latent period of approximately seven years.

Fourth, the metamorphosis gene sequence of insects was inserted, allowing them to awaken from dormancy and begin rampaging destruction once activated by a special pheromone.

Fifth, a cellular symbiosis model was implemented. This was to ensure the Plasmodium would not be digested and broken down by the human body during its dormant period. The cells Li Qingye chose for them to parasitize were human brain cells.

Currently, [Gu Worm Type 1 - Plasmodium] had completed its initial modulation.

However, Li Qingye still felt it wasn't perfect, as [Gu Worm - Plasmodium Type 1] still had some flaws.

For instance, it could only be administered via syringe, which was too obvious. How could he trick others into injecting it? This was a problem.

Another issue was that the special pheromone required for activation also needed to be administered via injection, increasing the uncontrollable factors involved.

He now needed to find a way to resolve these two problems.

Moreover, this externally triggered type, if precautions were taken, could be prevented by wearing protective clothing to block the pheromone trigger.

It now seemed that the internally, periodically triggered Three Corpses God-Nourishing Pill had some merit.

Thank you all for your support, and thanks to the book friend "Zi Mo Shu Tong" for the reward (ω｀).