Liu Chengchao stared at the thick stack of documents, his brow tightly furrowed.
He was thinking.
Liu Chengchao read them carefully.
The dozen or so people in the room all remained silent.
It was quiet, with only the sound of Liu Chengchao turning pages.
After about twenty minutes, Liu Chengchao finished reviewing the materials.
Of course, he hadn't read them in detail—only a rough glance.
Otherwise, the people here would have had to wait a long time.
But even so, seeing this information stirred a hint of shock within him.
"Chengchao, you've done some research in biological sciences, so you should know the purpose of our team coming to Cangxi." Qin Jiawei spoke, his voice calm.
The team he led had not only brought most of its personnel but also a portion of the basic equipment.
"The wolf clan's remains in the Great Wilderness Mountain Range have been preserved for over a thousand years without decaying.
With such a massive scale of bones, no one has had the time or energy to handle them specially.
Our people have also been to the Great Wilderness Mountain Range to conduct tests and inspections.
The environment there is quite ordinary; if the bones were left there, they would completely decay in about four or five years."
Qin Jiawei kept his eyes on Liu Chengchao.
Liu Chengchao nodded: "Old Qin, you're right."
The matter of the bones had always been a mystery.
But it seemed the higher-ups had intentionally suppressed this issue, and with a group of experts debunking it, no major uproar had occurred.
Liu Chengchao knew that the fact these bones had been exposed to the open air and remained undecayed for a thousand years was what truly drew people's attention.
"Mm." Qin Jiawei turned on the projector. "We conducted detailed tests and comparisons on these bones."
Liu Chengchao saw that the projector displayed dense rows of data and special symbols.
"We discovered some interesting things."
Qin Jiawei spoke, and everyone in the room remained quiet, watching the images on the projector.
"On the gene fragments of these bones, a certain sequence has disappeared.
We named this sequence the Decay Sequence.
Our team has done considerable research on genes.
But gene sequences are extremely complex, and human understanding of them is only the tip of the iceberg.
We don't know the function of this Decay Sequence fragment."
Qin Jiawei's eyes lit up.
This discovery could be considered very important.
It would be of great help to fields like biology and medicine.
If the Decay Sequence's function was related to decay or the like, then when we perform gene editing and delete this gene sequence, wouldn't that also imply immortality?
Of course, these were just speculations.
"Time was tight, so we conducted a small experiment.
We removed the Decay Sequence gene from one cell of a white mouse, and we found a problem.
The white mouse was still normal, hopping around lively, but there was a subtle difference.
Its body weight had decreased—inexplicably lost 0.2 grams!"
Qin Jiawei's tone had grown somewhat excited.
This no longer seemed like a biological issue, but rather a metaphysical one.
"We only removed a gene sequence from a single cell, yet its weight vanished out of thin air, and the lost mass was far greater than what was excised!
It wasn't due to a reduction of air inside its body, nor was it caused by any other external conditions.
This is very bizarre, defying the law of conservation of energy!"
Liu Chengchao listened attentively the whole time.
He also had considerable knowledge of biology.
Specific gene sequence fragments have different functions.
But removing a gene sequence from a single cell should have no effect on the organism.
Yet in a short time, its weight had dropped by a chunk.
"We've been monitoring that white mouse from all angles.
All its internal metabolism and cell division are perfectly normal."
Yet the weight vanished in that instant.
In the end, we discovered that the blood had decreased by 0.2 grams!
Such a massive loss of blood, yet we didn't notice it at first. Only through meticulous testing did we realize the white mouse's mass was missing from its blood.
It was as if, out of thin air, some deity had reclaimed those 0.2 grams of blood.
Of course, this only happened the first time!"
Qin Jiawei grew more and more excited as he spoke.
Liu Chengchao was also deeply shocked.
If he remembered correctly, the lab white mice usually weighed around 20 grams.
Circulating blood mass accounted for roughly 6% of body weight—that is, about 1.2 grams.
A loss of 0.2 grams of blood meant roughly a sixth of the total was gone.
With that much blood missing, the white mouse would certainly have shown other reactions.
This matter reeked of strangeness.
Liu Chengchao furrowed his brow, utterly perplexed.
What had those Wolf Guards experienced? Why had the Decay Sequence vanished?
Qin Jiawei looked at Liu Chengchao: "Beyond that, we made another special discovery."
"Oh?" Liu Chengchao fixed his gaze on Qin Jiawei, listening intently.
From Qin Jiawei's tone, this special discovery might be no less significant than the missing Decay Sequence.
"On these bones, we found the Tai Liang Element."
"What?" Liu Chengchao was profoundly shaken.
Liu Chengchao had stayed in contact with Qin Jiawei. Once, Qin Jiawei had consulted him on a certain field of expertise, and that was how Liu Chengchao learned of the Tai Liang Element.
He also knew that Qin Jiawei had been researching the Tai Liang Element for years.
It all originated three years ago, when a grand tomb was excavated.
That tomb, dating back over two thousand years, belonged to a noble known as King Tai Liang.
When King Tai Liang's coffin was opened, it caused a stir.
The corpse had undergone no special treatment, yet it was lifelike, preserved without decay even after two millennia.
Qin Jiawei took note of this, and his superiors assigned him a covert mission.
That mission was to study the secret behind King Tai Liang's incorruptible body.
Over the years, Qin Jiawei had researched tirelessly, eventually discovering the difference between King Tai Liang's corpse and that of an ordinary person.
That difference was an extra element.
This element, Qin Jiawei named the Tai Liang Element.
It was extremely peculiar.
It could not be extracted, nor could it be observed directly.
Qin Jiawei only discovered its existence after thousands of comparisons.
To put it simply, imagine two equal volumes of water with different masses.
That would prove one of them wasn't pure water.
"So it's the Tai Liang Element." Liu Chengchao was stunned.
He knew Qin Jiawei had studied this extensively.
The Tai Liang Element was not so simple.
It seemed to hold many secrets.
Qin Jiawei's aged face maintained a mysterious expression: "For now, let's not discuss that. Let's talk about the Great Wilderness Mountain Range and Heize."
Liu Chengchao nodded.
"How did these Wolf Guards die? Who killed them?
Why did their bodies remain incorrupt after death? Why did these two anomalies appear in their bones?" Qin Jiawei looked at Liu Chengchao and asked.
Liu Chengchao pondered.
He knew that if these questions were answered, it might be a startling revelation for the world.
PS: The above content is entirely fabricated. Just enjoy the show!
PS: Thanks to [Hate Yi] for the 500-point tip!
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