Cost

With money paving the way, Li Jinglan soon purchased a large number of mature and semi-mature eels along the coast of Min Nan Province.

They were then transported to Calagua Island aboard specialized live-seafood transport ships.

Meanwhile,

Li Qingye received another piece of news.

Over a satellite phone, Kang Nan, who had gone out to catch eel fry, reported an important development: glass eels had become unusually scarce in the wild eel breeding grounds near the Luzon Trench.

According to Kang Nan's conversations with more than a dozen others in the trade, glass eel numbers were now only a few dozen times lower than in previous years.

Many fishing boats had worked for weeks and caught just a few dozen pounds of fry, when in previous years they could bring in several tons. It was a downright precipitous decline.

Li Qingye naturally understood that the consequences of overfishing were beginning to show. At the same time, this was an opportunity—a massive opening in the market.

With wild resources growing scarce, the price of fry would quickly rise, while also attracting investment.

He now had to develop a low-cost eel breeding technology quickly, before other companies came up with something similar.

The research institution that had made the most progress in artificial eel breeding was a research institute from Japan. They had already managed to breed eels artificially, but the production costs were outrageously high.

The technology developed by the Japanese research institute used hormones and environmental adjustments to induce mature eels to enter reproductive condition.

At present, producing a single artificially bred eel cost as much as 60,000 US dollars.

Wild eel fry, meanwhile, sold wholesale for 7,000 to 12,000 US dollars per 5,000 glass eels.

The price difference was enormous. Artificial eel fry simply couldn't compete.

Li Qingye had read the institute's relevant papers and had even used hacking techniques to turn their network inside out.

Although the institute had concealed some key data, it had recently managed to bring production costs down to around 40,000 US dollars per eel.

Still, Li Qingye had little faith in them. The key to this artificial breeding technology lay in a special sex hormone, and the cost of those particular hormones was simply too high.

Using data from the Japanese researchers, he had worked out an entire system of his own.

"The key is the eel's special sex hormone. It can't currently be made through Artificial synthesis, and the several hormones that could replace it aren't cheap either. They can also cause abnormal development in the eels." Li Qingye sorted through his thoughts.

Soon, he began experimenting.

First, he used a combination of different hormones, along with simulated environmental pressure, to induce the eels to reach sexual maturity.

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

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

The next step was simple: use CRISPR sequences together with the Jianmu Factor to deactivate some of the eel genes.

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

Under environmental pressure, the gene-recombined yeast soon began producing eel sex hormones.

Aside from the equipment costs, the cost of producing this hormone had fallen dramatically, to around five US dollars per gram.

That was still the cost of using a laboratory process. With an industrial-scale production process, the cost would fall even further.

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

In Zone C5 of the Research Base,

more than a dozen employees responsible for checking the eel tanks recorded the condition of each one with pens in hand.

Li Qingye and Li Jinglan watched the eels in the tanks.

"Did we succeed?" Li Jinglan asked, thrilled. Looking at the glass eels in the tanks, he seemed to see gold swimming through the water.

Li Qingye said calmly, "Yes. The technology is ready. Two mature eels can produce one to three million eggs. Without interference from predators, 30 percent of those eggs can develop into glass eels."

"Boss, we've struck it rich! A single batch of eel fry was going for 30,000 US dollars this January, and there wasn't even any stock available."

Li Qingye instructed him, "Take a team to China, Japan, and Southeast Asia as soon as possible. Sell our eel fry in small batches, but don't let anyone find out we have an artificial breeding technology."

"Keep up the good work, and the company will give you shares with dividends in the future. Also, have Kang Nan come back. There's no need for him to keep catching fry. He can work under you for now."

"Understood. I'll give it everything I've got." Li Jinglan beamed.

Watching Li Jinglan hurry away, Li Qingye remained expressionless, though there was a deeper meaning in his gaze.

Betrayal was human nature.

His father had put too much faith in what people called ideals. His former kindred spirits had stabbed him in the back time and again, until his family was ruined.

Rather than trust in ideals, I'd rather rely on my methods. Father, I won't be naive. I can't afford to be.

With his hands in his pockets, Li Qingye thought in silence. His white lab coat was pristine and cold. He set off toward the area marked Zone A.

The entire Research Base was divided into four levels of areas: A, B, C, and D. Only Li Qingye had clearance to enter Zones A and B.

Although he had spent more than a month studying eel breeding, that was only one small project among many.

Surviving in this brutal world and becoming someone who could hold up the sky was incredibly difficult.

Without strength, he couldn't protect Homo sapiens Company.

If he didn't want to be someone else's dog, then he could only beat to death the people who wanted to train him.

While researching eel breeding technology, he had also launched a project to study biological weapons.

He entered the innermost Zone A.

He looked at the orange liquid in the glass vial, where cells too small to see with the naked eye floated. It contained malaria parasites modified using Gene Recombination Technology, microorganisms that could cause malaria.

Li Qingye had comprehensively modified them.

First, he increased their drug resistance. None of the antimalarial drugs on the market could affect them;

Second, he disabled their ability to reproduce, so the malaria parasites could not multiply naturally.

Third, he inserted the tardigrade's dormancy gene sequence, giving them a latent period of roughly seven years.

Fourth, he inserted an insect metamorphosis gene sequence. Once activated by a specific pheromone, they would awaken from dormancy and begin rampaging and causing destruction.

Fifth, a cellular symbiosis mechanism. This was to ensure that the malaria parasites would not be digested and broken down by the human body while dormant. The cells Li Qingye chose to have them inhabit were human brain cells.

The initial modification of [Parasite Type 1—Malaria Parasite] was now complete.

But Li Qingye still felt it wasn't perfect, because [Parasite—Malaria Parasite Type 1] had a few shortcomings.

For example, it could only be administered by syringe. That was far too conspicuous. How was he supposed to trick people into getting injected? That was a problem.

Another problem was that the special pheromone needed to activate them also had to be injected, adding another unpredictable factor.

He now had to find a way to solve both problems.

Besides, this kind of externally triggered mechanism could be thwarted by anyone who was prepared: they could wear Protective Clothing to block the pheromone.

As things stood, the internally triggered Three Corpses God-Nourishing Pill seemed to make a certain amount of sense.

Thanks to all my dear readers for your support, and special thanks to book friend "Zimo Sh童" for the tip (ω｀).