Chapter 410 - 409: Gene Replication

The writing was a light green, the color of plant sap.

The moment she lifted her hand, a slender, finger-sized vine emerged from her sleeve and brushed against Jiang Qingli’s palm.

Then it wrote another line in her palm: ’Go after ten o’clock. The Mutant Beasts rest then.’

Jiang Qingli realized instantly. "It’s Fang Chi."

The handwriting was cursive and elegant, nothing like a child’s.

’He’s probably recovered his memories.’

But Fang Chi hadn’t spoken directly. Instead, he had written her a set of coordinates...

Jiang Qingli thought about the attack from a few days ago, as well as the recent disappearances.

It was as if everything was slowly being connected by an invisible thread.

Jiang Qingli had a feeling that the answers she was looking for could be found at the location Fang Chi gave her.

’But would it be too reckless to go alone...?’

As if sensing her hesitation, Baili Jing suddenly took her hand. His gaze was earnest. "Advisor Jiang, I request to join the investigation."

030: [I’m requesting to join the investigation, too!]

Jiang Qingli nodded and asked, "Your Superpower, how far has it developed?"

"I can copy any type of Superpower, but it’s still unstable. Whether it’s A Level or S Level depends on the circumstances. I can copy a total of three, but I can only use one at a time. The cooldown for switching between them depends on how long I used the last one," Baili Jing said. "Right now, I have three Superpowers: Gu Nian’s spatial traversal, my manager’s vines, and Xie Youchen’s Time Stop."

"You copied his Superpower, too? Can you copy an ability just by touching someone?" Jiang Qingli was very curious.

"All I have to do is touch the person I want to copy," Baili Jing said, pinching her cheek. "I was actually planning to try it out tonight. I wondered if Time Stop might make the experience even better for my baby."

Jiang Qingli swatted his hand away. "...Alright, you can stop right there. Let’s finish eating and then head out."

...

Before they left, 030 pulled some protective items from its inventory for them to use.

Jiang Qingli handed one to Baili Jing.

She didn’t say where it came from, and Baili Jing didn’t ask. He just put it on carefully.

Baili Jing knew that Jiang Qingli had her little secrets.

But he would always trust her unconditionally, support all of her decisions, and do everything in his power to help her achieve her goals.

-

The Mutant Beasts in the Roaring Forest are, for the most part, distributed by rank.

The deeper you go, the higher the rank of the beasts that live there.

Initially, the Empire had upheld the principle of "harmonious coexistence" and had no intention of disturbing the Mutant Beasts. They merely patrolled the zoned border, prepared defenses for the annual beast tide, and didn’t delve any deeper.

As a result, the Empire’s exploration of the Roaring Forest had only covered about two-thirds of it. Few people ever ventured into the deeper regions.

The coordinates Fang Chi had given them were in an unknown region deep inside Zone X.

Baili Jing cautiously shielded Jiang Qingli with several layers of his "Barrier." He also brought along a signal flare. Only after making ample preparations did he tear open a spatial rift.

He went through first to check the surroundings. Once he confirmed there were no dangerous Mutant Beasts nearby, he brought Jiang Qingli over to his side.

After she landed, Jiang Qingli glanced around.

They were in front of a two-story building.

The building was dilapidated and old, looking as if it had been there for ages.

It looked familiar to Jiang Qingli. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she realized it was the building she had seen in Fang Chi’s memories.

She felt a slight tug on the finger wrapped in the vine.

Jiang Qingli looked down and saw that while one end of the vine was wrapped around her finger, the other was pointing inside.

The vine couldn’t be separated from Fang Chi for long. It pressed against Jiang Qingli’s palm one last time, then crumbled into a dry, withered leaf.

Jiang Qingli had 030 scan the area. Only after confirming there were no Mutant Beasts nearby did she cautiously step inside.

The scenes from Fang Chi’s memory had been chaotic. Jiang Qingli vaguely recalled it was on the second floor, but she would have to search to find the specific room.

Moonlight spilled in, and once her eyes adjusted, she could see clearly enough.

Wary of an ambush, they checked the rooms on the first floor.

By the moonlight, they could tell the place looked like a laboratory.

Mutant Beasts lived as primitively as possible; this building could only have been made by humans.

’This is the territory of Spiritual Mutant Beasts...’

Jiang Qingli said suddenly, "Oh, right. You never told me what happened to the Spiritual Mutant Beasts twenty years ago."

Baili Jing sighed and said slowly, "Ah Li, you must know that Baili Chengyan was conceived through unnatural means, right?"

Similar rumors had always surrounded the Baili family. Twenty years ago, regulations weren’t as strict, so it wasn’t unheard of for women with fertility issues to secretly have children via in-vitro fertilization.

The outside world had always assumed this was how Baili Chengyan came to be, with some gene editing at most.

The Baili family was in the pharmaceutical business and spent a great deal on charity each year. Their public image was excellent, so no major scandal ever erupted.

But Baili Jing’s next words shattered that rumor. "At the time, my mother was already confirmed dead. She couldn’t have provided the reproductive cells needed for a new life."

"So Baili Chengyan isn’t a newborn created through in-vitro fertilization, as the rumors claim."

"He is, through and through... a hybrid of my mother’s genes and those of a high-level Mutant Beast."

"Twenty years ago, someone in the military used Spiritual Mutant Beasts for experiments, combining their genes with human genes in an attempt to create a higher life-form. Baili Qing invested in that project."

At this, Baili Jing gave a sardonic twist of his lips. "Unfortunately for them, in their greed, they wanted to make the specimen even stronger by adding superior genes. But the technology wasn’t mature back then. Gender was uncontrollable, and out of dozens of embryos, only one incompetent male survived."

Jiang Qingli froze.

No wonder. In Baili Jing’s memories, Jiang Qingli had seen the Baili Family Head coddle Baili Chengyan and forbid him from calling Baili Jing "Brother Jing."

Even if she looked down on a family member, such an extreme denial was rare.

’So that was why. Baili Qing had always treated Baili Chengyan as a replacement for her dead daughter.’

’And from her perspective, Baili Jing’s father had made her daughter rebellious and unwilling to stay home. She had insisted on going to the battlefield to prove herself, which led to her death. Therefore, she saw the father and son as the ones who murdered her daughter.’

It also explained why someone as strong-willed as Baili Jing had been willing to give his blood to Baili Chengyan, even after becoming an adult.

Even though his mother’s death had nothing to do with him, under the weight of daily accusations, he had unconsciously started to blame himself.

It wasn’t until his blood donations to Baili Chengyan were reduced to once a week that Baili Jing noticed his Superpower slowly growing stronger. That’s when he found it strange and began to investigate.

Baili Jing had investigated for a long time, even using Xie Youchen’s influence in the military, before he could piece together the truth.

As Jiang Qingli listened, she unconsciously tightened her grip on his hand, her heart aching for him.

"It’s okay. It’s all in the past now," Baili Jing said, stroking the top of her head. "Now that I’ve stopped the blood donations, the Baili family elders have to give him transfusions one by one, so as not to let all their efforts go to waste."

Hearing this, the tension on the girl’s face finally eased.

As they walked up the stairs, Baili Jing paused. "Baby, I found out something else during that investigation..."

Before he could finish, Jiang Qingli suddenly stopped and pointed to a nearby room. "I’ve found it! This is the room where Fang Chi found the information last time."

Afraid of running into a Mutant Beast like Fang Chi had, Jiang Qingli hurried into the room and started searching.

Soon, she found an old, rusty safe in the corner.