Chapter 1541: Destroying Her Research Value

Yang Jin looked toward the mission's originator, Xia Qing. Xia Qing looked up at the idol standing behind the medicine chest and asked, "Third Brother, based on the crimes Deng Yufeng committed, she should be sentenced to death, right?"

This question touches the fundamental conflict between law, utility, humanity, and survival, so it is an ethical dilemma.

The new human, who had failed ethics, was voluntarily pondering an ethical dilemma, which greatly gratified Zhang San. He set the medicine chest aside, sat back down in his chair, and gave a rigorous and detailed answer.

"From a legal standpoint, Deng Yufeng should be sentenced to death and executed immediately. This is the necessary choice for upholding social order and the foundation of the rule of law. The purpose of the death penalty is to punish extreme evil and deter others from committing the same crimes. If we let her go, it would effectively encourage other people with special abilities to commit crimes, and the consequences would be unthinkable."

Xia Qing nodded; that was exactly what she had been thinking.

After laying out the legal aspect, Zhang San raised considerations of utility and survival: "From the 'utilitarian' angle of maximizing group survival, the unique recovery factor in the blood of recovery-type evolvers — which current human technology cannot artificially synthesize — is an irreplaceable strategic resource, the key to treating severe injuries and ensuring the survival of critical figures. So, keeping her alive and extracting the recovery factor from her body could save far more lives than the ones she harmed."

Xia Qing nodded again; she had considered this point too, which was why she wanted to know what would happen to Deng Yufeng after she was captured.

Finally, Zhang San brought up the third layer — ethical and humanitarian considerations: "If we keep Deng Yufeng around to draw her blood, that means we no longer regard her as a 'person,' but as a 'tool' or a 'resource.' That act itself tramples the bottom line of human decency."

After clearly explaining this ethical dilemma, Zhang San gave the official conclusion: "Based on the considerations across all the layers above, the answer to your question is: if Yang Jin captures Deng Yufeng alive and brings her back, she will be sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, and the execution of the death sentence will be the day humanity cracks the artificial synthesis of the recovery factor."

The brain-domain evolver Yang Jin quickly drew his conclusion: sentencing Deng Yufeng to death with reprieve and life imprisonment, having her blood drawn and studied, still does not resolve the ethical problem of treating Deng Yufeng the "person" as a tool.

Deng Yufeng is a precious recovery-type evolver. Once she is locked up in prison and bled, more research will follow — for instance, extracting her egg cells or directly using her skin cells to cultivate or clone more recovery-type evolvers. So are these recovery-type evolvers "people," or "tools" for humanity to fight the celestial disasters?

Therefore, as long as Deng Yufeng is alive, she will once again trigger the underground experimental projects at Huiyi. With her extremely strong survival instinct and her ability to bewitch people's hearts, she will very likely break open the laboratory doors again and be reborn in blood.

However, Yang Jin did not speak up to offer his own view.

Because what Zhang San had just said was not directed at him, but at Xia Qing. And only Xia Qing — whom this top-tier bigshot of Blue Star regarded as an important ally, companion, or even a junior — could make him patiently answer this kind of question.

Yang Jin was certain that if he spoke up at this moment and disrupted Xia Qing's independent thinking and judgment after hearing the bigshot's analysis, he would not only earn the bigshot's cold stare but would also be put on the bigshot's blacklist for a period of time.

How long? Depends on the bigshot's mood.

After hearing her idol's analysis, Xia Qing quickly made her decision: "Since she won't be executed if we bring her back, then don't let her come back alive. But we can't kill her too cleanly either — we need to put on an act so people think we only want to capture her alive, otherwise people will suspect we know Shi Jiaran's whereabouts."

After making her choice, Xia Qing explained her reasons: "Based on what Liao Wen said before he died, Liehuo has already guessed that we have pollution-free spring water, and has also deduced that we found Shi Jiaran. They haven't spread this information publicly — maybe they want to keep the spring water and Shi Jiaran for themselves, or maybe Deng Yufeng doesn't want to fall out with you, still hoping that one day she can cooperate with you and have you save her life. Once she falls into official hands, she won't keep these secrets anymore, so we can't let her live."

After stating her personal reasons, Xia Qing brought up the wolf pack's factor: "Deng Yufeng didn't just kill a lot of people, she also harmed a lot of wolves. The captain of this capture operation is Fourth Brother, and it won't let Deng Yufeng leave Mount Thirty-Three alive."

Xia Qing's choice was within Zhang San's expectations. He waited a few seconds, and when Xia Qing didn't give a reason from ethics or society for why Deng Yufeng had to die, he understood that this new human simply hadn't thought that far ahead.

So Zhang San spoke up to state his own view and guide Xia Qing to look at this kind of problem from a broader perspective: "We fight the celestial disasters to rebuild human civilization, and the dignity of the law is civilization's last line of defense. If we don't kill Deng Yufeng, tomorrow more people will trample every rule that human civilization depends on to survive and develop, in the name of 'survival.'"

Xia Qing immediately nodded with shining eyes: "You're right!"

Worthy of being her idol — this reason for killing was very solid!

Zhang San glanced at the new human, who hadn't taken in a single word and was full of nonsense in her head, then turned to look at Yang Jin: "Not only must we not let Deng Yufeng come back alive, we must also thoroughly destroy her corpse's research value."

Yang Jin asked, "You mean — burn her to ash?"

Zhang San nodded: "Once the toxins contained in Deng Yufeng's body spread, they will trigger an extremely severe ecological disaster. So if Deng Yufeng is spotted during this mission, within an extremely short time we must use temperatures of several thousand degrees to instantly carbonize or directly vaporize her entire body — every tissue, including cells, blood, and the toxins within the blood."

Just as Xia Qing and Yang Jin were thinking about what weapon to use to carbonize and vaporize Deng Yufeng, Zhang San stood up, pointed at the durian-sized black box in the medicine chest on the table, and introduced it:

"This is a high-powered air-fuel bomb I made. At the center of the explosion, it will form a fireball with a temperature of up to 3000°C and a diameter of 5 meters, directly turning all combustibles within its coverage to ash."

And there's such a good thing? Xia Qing and Yang Jin's eyes lit up at the same time!!!

Zhang San coldly cut off these two's thoughts: "This is an extremely dangerous weapon, classified as non-tradable supplies."

Xia Qing's eyes darted, and Yang Jin immediately nodded: "Understood. Third Brother, when this bomb explodes, it will create an oxygen-deprived environment around it, right?"

Zhang San answered: "Right. The explosion process will rapidly consume the oxygen in the surrounding environment, and within a short time after the explosion it will form a localized oxygen-deprived environment. Don't get within 25 meters of the explosion's burning point, or you'll die of suffocation. Also, you must pick the location carefully before detonating, to avoid triggering a forest fire and causing major casualties."

Yang Jin stood up and solemnly promised: "We will definitely burn Deng Yufeng to ash in a zero-pollution way."

The allure of a recovery-type evolver was too great. If other people were carrying out this mission, Zhang San would worry that they would capture Deng Yufeng alive and hide her away as the team's private blood bank — but the Azure Dragon Squad wouldn't. Because they have a grudge against Deng Yufeng, and they also know that he and Xia Qing have already reached a cooperation with Shi Jiaran. With Yang Jin's shrewdness, he definitely wouldn't take the risk of keeping Deng Yufeng around.

So Zhang San waved his hand, signaling these two to take the box and leave quickly.

Making these medicines and weapons had cost Zhang San two days. He had to return to the lab immediately to catch up on his research progress.