New Life

A week later, in a transparent culture tank in another laboratory, a blue jelly-like organism floated in a nutrient solution similar in composition to seawater.

It was slightly larger than a human head, roughly thirty centimeters in diameter. It looked somewhat like the head of a jellyfish, except it did not have so many tentacles—only six long, soft ones that swayed gently beneath it.

Ai Liyuan watched the creature and muttered to himself, "I never expected your blood to be so effective. A special protein in those red blood cells has more efficient and precise DNA-cutting effects than Cas9. Your blood itself can edit the genes of other organisms."

Li Heng's voice came from within his mind. He was still in his own room, sharing this body's five senses through the black strand connected to the academician's head:

"I can now control every cell in my body. They no longer affect one another as a single whole like they did in the past. I deliberately altered the properties of these blood cells. After losing their ability to divide infinitely, they gained powerful genetic corrosiveness toward biological cells, allowing other organisms to easily acquire fragments of my genes."

Ai Liyuan thought in some confusion, "You seem unwilling to let these corrosive cells replicate and spread on a large scale."

If these terrifyingly corrosive cells retained their original vitality and ability to divide, they could easily spread throughout the world through creatures in the ocean. By then, these mutated organisms might be enough to destroy the existing order of human society.

Li Heng's calm voice sounded in Ai Liyuan's mind. "Chaotic, frenzied mutations bring disorder, and disorder brings death. I do not need those brainless, stupid Monsters, nor do I intend to destroy the existing order and rule this planet."

"As I have always told you, every Intelligent Being is a precious resource. To me, they are as precious as my own cells."

Ai Liyuan pondered Li Heng's words. Intelligent Beings, not humans.

He stared at the jelly-like organism before him. It appeared to be merely a new species of mutated jellyfish, yet as someone who had participated in the creation of this new life from beginning to end, he knew it possessed intelligence no less than that of humans.

Inside its blue head was a brain created using human genes as a template. Weighing more than three kilograms, it might even be smarter than a human brain.

It was still an ignorant infant, but Li Heng would soon alter the cells in its brain's memory regions. In an extremely short time, it would possess intelligence surpassing that of ordinary people.

If these Intelligent Beings multiplied in great numbers in the ocean and formed their own society, where would an Earth inhabited by two intelligent species go?

Perhaps this scenario was even more frightening than stupid mutated Monsters destroying human order. The intelligence humanity relied upon for survival would no longer be an advantage before these creatures.

Li Heng constantly read the activity of Ai Liyuan's mind. He said within the other man's thoughts, "Don't worry. These Intelligent Beings are only an experiment to me. I do not believe they have any hope of surpassing humanity. Every individual's memories will originate from the first Jelly, which leaves them with almost no room for growth."

"Besides, despite lacking the ability for cells to divide infinitely, it possesses rapid growth. Its lifespan is only a single year."

Li Heng did not conceal the fact that the more Intelligent Beings there were, the stronger he became. On the contrary, this would make the old man lower some of his guard against him.

That was also why he had given these new organisms the appearance of jellyfish.

Creating humanoid Intelligent Beings through replication would trigger humanity's instinctive wariness or sympathy. But harmless-looking, adorable Jelly creatures could lessen Ai Liyuan's psychological burden and allow him to devote himself to his work more fully.

Another black hair extended from afar. This thin strand connected from above the culture tank to the jelly-like organism's brain, and Li Heng began instilling memories into it, shaping its personality.

This method of directly creating memories was efficient and rapid. Combined with cloning and accelerated growth, Li Heng could use it to create large numbers of Intelligent Beings in a short period.

In just a few minutes, the newborn, ignorant creature possessed complete knowledge and memories and had formed its own personality. Lights of various colors began to glow on its round head, eventually forming two round points of light that blinked like eyes.

"It is greeting you. I told it that you are one of its creators. It is now asking you to give it a name."

Ai Liyuan looked at the little creature before him. Round, gentle, intelligent. In only a few days, a new intelligent species had been created from nothing. Even if it had been created by combining Li Heng's cells with human genes, it was undoubtedly a miraculous achievement.

Like Li Heng, they possessed vision beyond the limits of human eyes and could directly observe most electromagnetic waves. They could communicate with one another at high speed, like a computer network exchanging data.

The blue Jelly creature pressed its tentacles against the glass wall of the culture tank. Ai Liyuan extended his own hand as well. The next moment, a childish voice appeared in his mind as Li Heng connected the wills of two different species through him.

"You granted me new life. Please give me a name."

Ai Liyuan quietly watched the little creature before him. After a long while, he said, "I'll call you Jelly."

He had created it, so he naturally knew that its life would last only a few hundred days. It would obey Li Heng's will, establish a Jelly Civilization in the depths of the sea, and pass on its own will.

"Thank you." Jelly's delighted voice rang out. A curved line appeared beneath its two round points of light, forming a smiling face on its head.

Then it leaped out of the culture tank. Its round body moved astonishingly fast as its six tentacles crawled in alternation. In the blink of an eye, it had left the laboratory, leaving only a trail of water on the floor.

Ai Liyuan looked at the empty culture tank and, for some reason, felt a little sad. Li Heng's voice sounded in the old man's mind:

"You see the organism you created as your son? You really are sentimental. These creatures may threaten humanity's position in the future, yet you are saddened by its brief life."

"The future is the future, and the present is the present. I cannot hate it for crimes it has not committed." The old man replied calmly.

He asked, "Does a creature like you possess human emotions?"

Li Heng's voice sounded. "Of course. I was once an ordinary human. Now, my memories are formed from information created by humans. I possess all human emotions, and perhaps feel them even more deeply than ordinary people. I told you before—Intelligent Beings are as precious to me as my own cells."

Hearing this, the old man asked in his mind, "If that is so, why create new Intelligent Beings? You possess an infinite life and endless time to wait. You only need to keep living, and you will grow stronger and stronger. There is no need to take actions that will make humanity hostile toward you."

Li Heng's voice carried a faint smile. "Because I view every person equally. I sincerely hope that every person can attain immortality."

"In human society, appearance, wealth, education, social status, race, gender—these differences divide humans into different categories."

"But to me, the value of human life is equal. Every person is as important as a brain's nerve cells. I need humanity to reproduce faster and possess longer lives."

After thinking briefly, Ai Liyuan said in his mind, "So that is why you gave your modified corrosive blood to the other researchers of the Hong Alliance."

With the more efficient gene-editing protein in Li Heng's red blood cells, the scientists of the Hong Alliance could undoubtedly greatly accelerate their research. Even without Li Heng's ability to manipulate brain cells and instill memories, the resource-rich Hong Alliance could still develop many new biotechnologies.

The next moment, numerous images appeared in Ai Liyuan's mind. They were the latest research results from various laboratories. Li Heng could now go almost anywhere on the internet, and this information could not be hidden from him.

In the images, some laboratories had already developed more precise and efficient immune T-cell editing technology targeting cancer cells, successfully eliminating the spread cancer cells within several terminal cancer patients.

A round, flesh-colored sac sat inside a culture tank. Within it was an artificially gestated baby. It no longer needed to be naturally carried by a mother; these Incubation Bags, made to imitate the human womb, could directly allow babies to grow healthily.

Organs such as hearts and kidneys were being cultured and grown.

Induced stem cell technology could restore human cells' ability to differentiate. The new editing technology had greatly reduced the difficulty and cost, making the large-scale replication and growth of human organs and tissues possible.

Dozens of black threads similar to those used by Li Heng connected to a soldier's head. He was now inside a true virtual world, while researchers nearby analyzed his brain signals.

"The Hong Alliance has developed many new technologies. But just as you once resisted cloning humans and creating new life due to moral and emotional restraints, these new technologies must cross the ethical boundaries of all human society before they can go from creation to use. Vast numbers of ordinary people will resist these advanced technologies even more than researchers do."

"Too slow. Tens of millions of people still die around the world every year. Population growth in the economically developed Hong Alliance and Commercial Alliance has even stagnated. The global population growth rate is less than one percent."

Li Heng revealed his intention:

"There will be countless obscure individuals consumed by grand narratives. These Jelly creatures are the consumables I have prepared. They possess rapid growth, live less than a year, and lack humanity's variability and creativity because they reproduce entirely on their own."

To an individual human, brain nerve cells and cardiac muscle cells were naturally more important than skin cells.

Over the course of a human life, those short-lived cells would be replaced countless times, becoming the expendable portion among that great individual's tens of trillions of cells.

Now, humans were like brain nerve cells to Li Heng, while Jelly creatures were the replaceable parts.

From the beginning, these Jelly creatures were limited by the memories Li Heng instilled in them. They would reproduce asexually through self-division and, combined with their brains' rapid information transmission, grow and multiply at an exponential rate, forming a massive population in a short time.

Every one of them possessed the memories of the original Jelly. Like replicas, they could possess organizational power surpassing that of human Civilization.

But this also deprived them of humanity's chaotic, ever-changing creativity. Asexual reproduction made their genes nearly identical. They had limits from the very beginning.

To preserve humanity's potential, Li Heng could not restrict humans as he restricted Jelly. That would only lead Civilization toward death, with less and less new information being created.

Using the Jelly Civilization to place external pressure upon humanity and redirect internal conflicts could reduce humanity's many meaningless disputes.

When faced with a completely new Civilization composed of intelligent life utterly different from humans, all internal conflicts could be suppressed.

"Use low-value Jelly creatures to obtain progress for high-value humans."

That was the meaning of these Jelly creatures' existence. They would multiply into a highly ordered social organization, form a unique Civilization system, and ultimately die on the battlefield against humanity at Li Heng's command, offering the lives of their entire species for the advancement of Human Civilization.

"Consumables in a grand narrative."

Ai Liyuan repeated those words. In Li Heng's eyes, what mattered was allowing the tens of millions who died every year to survive. Humans were far more valuable than these Jelly creatures with no potential.

The old man looked at the trail of water stretching toward the laboratory door and, for some reason, thought of his son, who had died many years ago. There had also been a patch of water before him then.

At that moment, he seemed to overlap with his former self from years ago. Both were lives created by his own hands, and both faced the same inevitable fate of death.