Chapter 1951: Gene Pollution

Zhang He continued her explanation. "Gene editing involves injecting edited gene segments via viral vectors into the paw tissue during the embryonic stage or very early puppyhood, so that the nail growth pattern is reprogrammed from the very beginning. This technique has the highest technical difficulty. But if it succeeds, the nail changes are permanent and stable — they won't show the later degeneration seen in the first two methods."

Xia Qing asked, "Senior Sister, what's the success rate of this technique?"

Zhang He shook her head. "There's no public data on that."

Zhang San spoke up. "Hui-1's underground lab has this project. Under lab conditions, the success rate is 30% to 35%. The experimental subjects they used weren't limited to canines."

When it came to specialized knowledge discussion, Broken-Waist Wolf wasn't present, so the idol had once again changed "wolf-family animals" to "canines."

Xia Qing nodded, without asking which animals besides canines Guo Hanmo's team had used for gene-editing experiments.

Zhang He continued, "This wild dog's nail form is straight, thick, with no obvious fractures or pathological overgrowth — it looks natural. If it really was human intervention, I think the third method, gene editing, is the most likely."

Xia Qing nodded; she agreed with her senior sister's view.

"Hui-1's underground lab's main data was obtained in the fourth to fifth year of the Catastrophe. If this research organization is conducting gene-editing experiments based on Hui-1's underground lab's research results, then their current experimental success rate can reasonably be estimated at over 50%, possibly even over 70%. In this process, the number of individuals that died from immune rejection, localized necrosis, or even systemic cytokine storms may have exceeded four digits."

Zhang He's voice remained calm, but the knuckles of the fingers gripping her dried dragon fruit were protruding and white from the force. "Setting aside the severe consequences this inflicts on the experimental subjects themselves, just the uncontrollability of these artificial gene segments expressing traits in natural hybrid offspring — once gene-edited individuals spread into natural populations through breeding, and interact with the Evolution Forest's microorganisms and parasites, they could give rise to entirely unpredictable new traits. It would inevitably pollute the already fragile Evolution Forest ecosystem, and might even cause the entire ecosystem to collapse!"

The fury in Xia Qing's heart was also rising. What was the purpose of these inhuman bastards running this experiment? Did they think humanity's living environment wasn't harsh enough already?!

"Thank you, Senior Sister, I understand." After thanking her senior sister, Xia Qing asked the idol, "Third Brother, you sent the wild dog's corpse to Hui-3 Research Institute to confirm whether Gou Xunsheng participated in this project?"

Zhang San nodded and let out a long breath, his expression grave as well. "First we need to confirm whether this wild dog is a product of gene editing, and the authenticity of Gou Xunsheng's test report."

After speaking, Zhang San looked at Zhang He. "Once the wild dog's nail bed tissue samples arrive, you and Zhang Tang will be responsible for targeted sequencing."

Xie Yu's team had not only collected the wild dog's corpse and sent it to Hui-3 Research Institute, but had also taken the opportunity to secretly gather samples and smuggle them to Territory Seven. Collecting a bit of tissue sample from a body that had been gnawed to pieces wasn't easy to detect.

Next, they would just wait for Zhang He's and Gou Xunsheng's reports. Zhang San of course hoped it was a false alarm, but all the signs indicated the situation wasn't optimistic.

"Good." Zhang He, whose mouth was parched from talking, finished the water in her cup, took the dried dragon fruit her teacher had given her, and hurried off. Her work was very busy; the half hour she'd been delayed had to be made up as quickly as possible.

Zhang San, leaning back against the soft chair, raised his thin eyelids and looked at the new human across from him.

Xia Qing reassured the idol. "Don't worry, Third Brother. Fourth is a top-tier speed evolver — it definitely won't lose track of that raven."

Zhang San drawled, "Reason."

Xia Qing began to explain. "Three days ago, when H5 directed a trained goshawk to invade Mountain 50, your Little Broken spotted at a glance that the goshawk was an intruder. Afterwards I specifically asked it how it recognized the bird. It said it was based on flight posture. When I got back I consulted Seeing Xin Yu, and Seeing Xin Yu said that each bird has its own habits in the arc of its turns in flight, the rhythm of its wingbeats, and the way it takes off and lands. So even if Guagua flies together with a hundred ravens, Seeing Xin Yu can quickly find it."

Hearing that it was a reason consistent with normal logic, Zhang San took a dragon fruit out of the refrigerator and handed it to Xia Qing. Unlike Zhang He, who liked dried fruit, Xia Qing liked fresh fruit.

"Thanks, Third Brother." Holding the dragon fruit, Xia Qing continued explaining why she said Fourth could do it. "The night before last, when I was dyeing the fur of Fourth and Missing-Ear Wolf, I chatted with them about this. I asked them whether they could tell which bird was which based on flight habits. Missing-Ear said it couldn't; Fourth said it could."

Actually, after Xia Qing chatted with the two wolves about Broken-Waist Wolf discovering the intruding bird, she bragged to them that she had specifically observed Bai Yan's raven subordinates Blue One and Blue Two, and discovered that their flight habits really were different. So now, she could already quickly tell which subordinate was Blue One and which was Blue Two.

Blue Three? Blue Three was slightly smaller in build, very easy to identify.

Hearing how impressive Xia Qing was, the damp Missing-Ear Wolf expressed its admiration toward her with bright, sparkling eyes; the equally damp Fourth had no reaction at all. Later, when Xia Qing pressed it, Fourth only then nodded to indicate it could do so too, and used its expression to make Xia Qing understand that this was a very basic skill, nothing to brag about...

Xia Qing got angry on the spot, pinned Fourth down and gave it a thorough rub-down, which was why its dye job came out more even than Missing-Ear Wolf's...

Based on Xia Qing's understanding of Fourth, it probably wasn't the first time it had spotted that raven, so it had already memorized that raven's flight habits and characteristics. Confirming it had the ability but wasn't certain it could complete the task Xia Qing mentioned, it had replied "I'll try."

Seeing the new human across from him with a glazed look, clearly starting to drift off, Zhang San rapped on the table to pull her attention back. "Why did you chat with two wolves about this?"

Huh? Xia Qing blinked. "We were just hanging out chatting, and the topic came up naturally."

Zhang San asked again, "When you're with Little Fourth, is it you who outputs more content, or it?"

Seeing the idol so serious, Xia Qing immediately straightened up. Following the idol's logical pattern, she answered carefully and rigorously. "Fourth and I are both very busy. When we're together we mainly discuss business; we don't have many chances to chat. If we do chat, generally I'm the one talking and asking, and it listens and answers. As for the 'content' you mentioned, I can't quantify or compare it."

After speaking, Xia Qing, holding the dragon fruit, was on tenterhooks, not even daring to breathe loudly, afraid the idol would make her write a quantitative comparison report on chat content.

She still had one paper and one self-criticism report unwritten...

Zhang San gave Xia Qing a look. "Did you record the process of treating the jackal this morning?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "No, Fourth wouldn't let me record."

Zhang San had long anticipated this. "Tell me in detail everything that happened between you and Little Fourth this morning. Don't leave out any detail."

Xia Qing replied, "Third Brother, I can talk about everything else, but the Black Wolf King's evolution ability can't be discussed — Fourth made me keep it secret."

Zhang San gazed deeply at the new human across from him, until he made her bristle, then spoke seriously, getting straight to the point. "Based on the performance of the former Southern Wolf King in the wild dog incident, we can confirm that its brain evolution, strategic command, and coordination abilities have surpassed at least 80% of humans. It moves among the various beast groups of the Evolution Forest — including the humans of Northern Zone One's territory — and has built a vast network of alliances."

After analyzing the old wolf's capabilities, Zhang San reminded the new human across from him. "Have you thought that the harm Little Fourth brings might exceed that of Hui-6's Evolution Forest's Evolution Macaque King who leads monkey troops against humans — Hui-6 Number 8?"