Homo Sapiens

After the meeting ended, the group’s fear of America and the other great powers had subsided somewhat. At the very least, they no longer felt they stood no chance of winning.

However, to completely eliminate this fear, they would probably need to face the great powers in a real, head-on conflict. Only then could they truly eradicate the deep-seated terror in their hearts.

Xu Yingming and the others returned in batches via submarine.

Meanwhile, Li Qingye went to his private laboratory, where over a hundred Soldier assistants and five Spider Web Managers with research capabilities were busily at work.

"Boss, Project 506 has completed its final tests," Manager Buck reported to him.

Li Qingye raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Let’s go have a look."

A short while later, Buck led him to the dedicated research area for Lab 506, which was an edible fungi laboratory.

In reality, the five managers primarily worked on civilian projects. As for weapons-related projects, Li Qingye personally directed all of them.

After passing through multiple airlocks and disinfection procedures, they entered the interior of the lab.

Through the composite glass window, they could see the room inside. Rows of shelves were covered with small, grayish-white umbrella-like mushrooms.

On the shelves was a culture medium about 15 centimeters thick.

"Through numerous comparisons, we discovered that as termites die, they release large amounts of a special hormone that stimulates the fruiting bodies of Termitomyces mushrooms to enter a reproductive state..."

"Furthermore, termites must continue to be present in the nest. Their activity increases the carbon dioxide concentration inside and also regulates the nest’s temperature and humidity..."

After hearing Buck’s explanation, Li Qingye clearly understood the symbiotic relationship between the Termitomyces mushrooms and the termites.

Buck continued his introduction, "Therefore, we simulated the nest’s temperature, humidity, soil pH, gas concentrations, and the types and amounts of hormones and organic matter. We finally found the most cost-effective solution."

"Based on this solution, we developed a simulated termite nest culture medium. On average, we can get a harvest of Termitomyces every eight days, and each block of medium can produce three crops."

Li Qingye asked casually, "What’s the cost? What’s the yield?"

"The cost is divided into two parts. First is the investment in equipment and facilities. We must build a sealed facility with constant temperature and humidity, where gas concentrations can also be regulated."

Buck continued, "The second part is the cost of consumables, mainly the culture medium and hormones. One square meter of medium costs about three yuan. If we go into mass production, that could probably be reduced further."

"One mu of cultivation area can produce roughly 13,000 to 15,000 kilograms of fresh Termitomyces mushrooms. That’s the total yield for all three crops combined."

Li Qingye assessed the situation. The technology was ready for commercialization. He thought for a moment before speaking.

"Organize the technical data and take up a position as a technical consultant at Haitian Agriculture. I’ll instruct Zhang Wei to promote this technology."

"Thank you, Boss!" Buck knew his time had finally come.

Typically, technical personnel at Homo Sapiens Company had a third source of income besides their base salary and performance points: technology dividends.

Becoming a titular technical consultant meant that a person’s technology was about to be commercialized, and they would automatically receive dividends once the product started generating profit.

The dividend percentage was usually 1-3% of the total profit generated by that technology. This dividend was valid for life but was not inheritable.

In reality, Homo Sapiens Company was already very generous. With other commercial companies, for research projects funded by the company, both the patent ownership and the product profits would be monopolized by the corporation. The researchers would, at most, receive a small bonus.

Nowadays, many graduate students had become little more than research laborers for capitalists. Unless they were an extremely famous scientist, they could only toil away like beasts of burden for their financial backers.

Although Li Qingye was just as ruthless, he at least treated his own people well.

After inspecting the Termitomyces project at the edible fungi lab, he was led by Buck on a tour to see the research progress on other edible fungi, such as matsutake, white truffles, black truffles, and Russula mushrooms.

These edible fungi all shared two characteristics: they were highly prized and could not be artificially cultivated.

If they could develop a low-cost mass production technology, the profits would be quite substantial.

Afterward, Li Qingye inspected several other laboratories. Although there were no technologies of major value, he was quite satisfied with their development momentum. At the very least, they took some research topics off his plate, allowing him to concentrate on more critical projects.

Li Qingye returned to his own laboratory.

His current research was focused on genetic modification, bioweapons, biological computers, and gene therapy.

The problems with his body forced Li Qingye to take this seriously. After all, the length of his chromosomal telomeres was an indicator of cellular aging.

Currently, despite conditioning his body with various drugs, he was still struggling to mitigate the side effects caused by his genetic modification.

Inside a cultivation pod in the laboratory.

An embryo was soaking in simulated amniotic fluid, developing slowly.

This was one of his backup plans.

The clone project.

Before undergoing the genetic modification back then, he had secretly preserved a sample of his own stem cells and stored it in the refrigerator of that laboratory in Jiangcheng.

When he left Huaguo, he had secretly arranged for a younger female schoolmate he knew to mail that stem cell sample to Xiangjiang.

Later, using the name Jack Zhang, he retrieved the frozen stem cell sample in Xiangjiang.

Now, using that stem cell sample, he had cultivated a new embryo. This embryo was his own clone.

Li Qingye knew very well that if he couldn’t find a safe gene therapy solution within the next decade or so, his only option would be to use the clone to resurrect himself.

Therefore, he had made many preparations, including implanting a bio-chip in himself to ensure his memories would not be lost.

Although many people might believe that a clone and the original are not the same person, Li Qingye didn’t mind. As long as his memories became the clone’s memories, then the clone *was* him.

For this reason, the clone currently being cultivated must not possess any memories of its own, to avoid any memory conflicts.

However, ensuring the complete implantation of the original’s memories into the clone’s brain was still a difficult technological hurdle.

Li Qingye’s memory transfer technology couldn’t precisely transmit memory information via neural signals. Instead, it used a compromise: the sensory information simulation memory solution.

The principle of this solution was very simple: cover the body with a special layer of artificial sensory cells, break down his own memories into various forms of sensory information, and then transmit them to the clone’s physical senses through these artificial cells.

This method would allow the clone to experience Li Qingye’s entire life through these artificial senses.

Beyond this, Li Qingye had a second option.

The genetic memory inheritance solution.

This solution involved using DNA storage technology, combined with safe genetic modification techniques, to have his clone undergo genetic modification. During this process, all the information he had stored in his DNA would be activated.

As Li Qingye’s research into genetic modification deepened, the technology had become increasingly mature and refined.

For example, the lifespan reduction for Soldiers. Each modification now only consumed about 12 to 14 years of life.

His clone, on the other hand, would have a lifespan of about 60 to 70 years. Losing a dozen or so years was acceptable.

Of course, unless it was a last resort, he didn’t want to abandon his original body. After all, the process of transferring memories to the clone’s brain came with certain risks.