Chapter 1457: A Biological Experiment
Xia Fan took the elevator and arrived at the technical division’s laboratories located on the twenty-seventh floor.
Entering the place, he saw plenty of people wearing white lab coats, looking very much the part of researchers.
These lab coat wearers were not Investigators, they were the researchers of the station. They mainly focused on researching techniques related to crime scene investigation and forensics.
A bespectacled young man whom Xia Fan had met before gasped in mild surprise when he saw Xia Fan appear on his floor. “Hey! A rare guest! Why are you here, Xia Fan?”
!!
Xia Fan returned a smile, “I wonder if it’s convenient for me to borrow your laboratory for a bit?”
“The star of the station asking to borrow a laboratory? How could we be inconvenienced by that? Speak, what sort of laboratory are you looking to use? Trace elements, cryoscopy, or the polymer-testing laboratory?”
“Oh. I just need to use the biology laboratory a little.”
“Biology you say? Then you may use number Sixteen, it just so happens to be free. It’s a pity that my area of study is in astrophysics, so I can’t be much help on the biology front. Do you want me to invite Big Cow from our technical division, who specializes in biological research, to help you with your experiments?”
Xia Fan shook his head gratefully. “I appreciate your kind intentions, but I’m just doing some little experiments, so I won’t have any problems accomplishing them on my own.”
“Is there really no need? Colleagues of the Technical Division here are more than happy to lend you a hand after hearing about how you destroyed four warships of the Murder Shrine in one go, and even helped the Union and Chaos Eagle Empire seal an exclusive contract.”
Xia Fan scratched his head, slightly abashed, “Really, it’s just a small experiment. There’s no need to trouble everyone over it.”
“That’s fine too. Come this way.”
That young researcher led Xia Fan to the entrance of laboratory Sixteen, and watched Xia Fan enter the room before he left. He was very courteous the entire time.
Recently, Xia Fan had managed to crack a big case and made great achievements, in the process becoming a figure well-known throughout the station. Though Xia Fan did not know everyone in the station, it seemed like everyone knew him!
The automated door to the laboratory swished open, and a yellow light turned on. When the other researchers saw that light, they would know that the laboratory was in use.
Changing to a biology lab coat, Xia Fan found a test tube and the automatic blood extractor.
He set the necessary amount of blood he wished to be extracted and then placed his arm into it. He made sure it was aligned precisely to his vein and then lightly pressed the button on top.
A single needle pricked his vein, extracting fifty milliliters of blood. The needle automatically retracted once done, and the test tube in which his blood was stored popped out, while spraying a layer of homeostatic film where the blood had been drawn from.
After acquiring a sample of his blood, he made his way to the polymer microscope and placed the test tube into the observation window. He then took out a liquid extractor, setting it to extract 0.01 milliliters of liquid.
Carefully glancing around the sterile laboratory setting, he noted the presence of the automated biological defense system and the poison defense system, and that both were in working order. With that, he brushed his finger lightly over his spatial ring and took out the bottle of Immortality Wine.
The crystal bottle had a high-pressure screw seal. Xia Fan very carefully opened the seal, and then reached that long liquid extractor to retrieve a little Immortality Wine with it.
*Huuu~*
Xia Fan heaved a sigh, and proceeded to pipette the sample of Immortality Wine to the test tube that contained his blood. He then examined it under the microscope once more.
There were changes happening inside the test tube, presented on a 120-inch high definition display.
Xia Fan watched as his blood and the Immortality Wine mixed together, and immediately began a smokeless battle with one another.
White blood cells were the primary defense against viruses, and accounted for one percent of the blood in human bodies.
Meanwhile, the Immortality Wine contained strange spiral-shaped cells, which the white blood cells seemed to perceive as a major threat to themselves. They rushed at the spirals in the first instance, the white blood cells viewing the spiral cells as a virus as they tried to devour each other.
Because the polymer microscope magnified things over a million times, the fight between the cells unfolded right before Xia Fan’s eyes, very realistic and rather thrilling to watch.
There was a lot less of the virus compared to the white blood cells, yet it could rapidly replicate itself. The speed at which the white blood cells swallowed the invasive cells was nowhere as fast as the cellular replication that these spiral cells demonstrated. A large number of platelets and red blood cells were quickly disintegrating and deforming under the attack of the virus.
In just the span of a minute, the white blood cells had been completely surrounded by the now-numerous virus cells, the former forced into clusters to defend against the intruders.
Xia Fan could feel his palms go cold as a pressure built up in his chest.
The replication speed of the virus was simply too high. It had already turned his own blood into poison, while the remaining 0.1 percent of white blood cells left was still resisting in the seemingly foregone battle.
However, Xia Fan reckoned that this resistance would not last much longer, given how the virus very clearly held the upper hand now.
Suddenly, just as Xia Fan was feeling despondent, the remaining white blood cells abruptly launched a counterattack at the final moment. It seemed like the fight had activated a hidden strength within the cells, such that the white blood cells began to split in large amounts, with one becoming, two, and two turning into four.
Before this, over ninety-nine percent of the white blood cells had already been killed by the virus, yet the surviving one percent had unimaginably managed to begin splitting themselves, and were now mounting an impossible retaliation.
About ten minutes later, the number of white blood cells and the spiral virus cells reached an equilibrium.
Twenty minutes later, the virus cells were largely eliminated from the blood in the test tube, with less than ten percent of them remaining.
Thirty minutes later, the battle had ended. The white blood cells had finally managed to snatch back control and had completely wiped out the virus from the blood.
This was not a 9:1 chance of survival, but 100:1!
This experiment had shown that Xia Fan possessed a strength that could resist poisonous toxins inside his body, but due to the overly violent nature of the Immortality Wine, the first one minute would be extremely dangerous, and only about one percent of the white blood cells being attacked would survive.
Although the subsequent attack ended with the white blood cells emerging victorious, what he had just witnessed regarding the entire process with the white blood cells nearly being completely eradicated meant it was not difficult to tell just how much danger Xia Fan would be in if he were to imbibe the Immortality Wine.
This experiment had also proven that the Immortality Wine truly possessed an inconceivable level of strength. If Xia Fan were to acquire it, there was no doubt it could help him rise through the ranks considerably.
Xia Fan cleaned up the laboratory, and completely destroyed the extractors and test tubes that he had used in a small fusion incinerator. He was deep in thought as he made his way out of the Technical Division’s laboratory.
…
…
Xia Fan did not tell Traveling Buddha of his plans. He quietly chose a location on the map and took two sets of tools from the Technical Division that could precisely extract the Immortality Wine.
On the second day after he had performed his blood experimentation, Xia Fan flew Black Egg and arrived at the isolated beach outside the city all by himself. He planned to try administering the Immortality Wine here.
Though the training rooms in the Special Bureau were quiet and closed off, there were automated body monitoring systems installed that would surely set off alarms the moment they detected unusual readings from Xia Fan.
According to the results of his experiment, even if Xia Fan was able to resist the poison from the Immortality Wine, he would still need to endure excruciating pain that might last for up to thirty minutes. His body might convulse during that period, and perhaps even lose consciousness. He could not make such an attempt within the confines of the Special Bureau.
This desolate beach that no one went to was a good location. After imbibing the Immortality Wine, he’d still have a beach he could stroll down. If Traveling Buddha asked, he could just claim he had taken a trip to the beach to unwind, and he would not risk being found out even if Traveling Buddha checked Black Egg’s flight records.
After Black Egg settled down on the beach, Xia Fan opened the landing bay doors and took a deep breath of the ocean air, instantly feeling invigorated by it.
He then shut the door and entered the second cargo hold on the undercarriage of the ship. Though the first cargo hold was bigger in size, it had become an ammunition bay after Xia Fan had finished retrofitting the ship.
Sitting on the floor, he took out the Immortality Wine, pulled off the screw cap, and set the liquid extractor accordingly.
Xia Fan was like most Skywings. Due to his inherited genetics, his figure had always been toward the lean side, standing at 1.78 meters in height, with a body weight that was just shy of 65 kilograms.
During the blood experiment, Xia Fan had used a 5000:1 ratio. This time, he decided to play it slightly safer, only taking five millimeters of Immortality Wine, making it a 13,000:1 ratio of the wine against his body weight.
The thin needle extracted the exact amount from the wine bottle, then Xia Fan sealed the bottle shut and stowed it away.
The Immortality Wine was contained in a large crystal bottle, holding roughly three liters of the liquid within. Xia Fan had only taken out a mere drop of the wine in comparison.
After some thought, Xia Fan took out nine Grade Nine energy crystals as well.
Grade Nine energy crystals were completely transparent, and contained only the purest form of natural energy.
When he was younger, Xia Fan had to eat one of these crystals practically every day until he became of age. Only after Xia Fan’s bones were fully grown and he could no longer grow any taller did he stop treating this most precious resource in the universe as a nutrient.
Energy crystals were god’s bounty of the natural world, and the different grades of crystals all came in different colors.
A grade one crystal would be gray, a two was orange, a three was green, a four was yellow, a five was purple, a six was red, a seven was blue, an eight was green, and a nine was completely colorless.
All energy crystals, no matter their grade, could be consumed. Due to them being the rawest and purest form of energy from nature, the energy crystals would not do any harm to the human body, and many special-ability warriors enjoy carried a few of these crystals with them, using the crystals to refill their energy during battle, a tactic much more effective than any medicine.
Aside from the nine grades of crystals, there were also three special energy crystals that were respectively gold, black, and white in color. It was said that those three special crystals could also be eaten, but it required a corresponding constitution similar to the crystals for it to work.
Black energy crystals needed Dark power, while white energy crystals needed Holy power. The most unique gold energy crystals required their user to have Gold power.
Xia Fan reckoned that Blind Grandpa’s Twin Golden Pupils had been a display of Gold power.
However, with how powerful Blind Grandpa was, all he had was eyes that turned gold, so was there anyone out in the vast universe who had a body completely imbued with Gold power?
Xia Fan had no idea. He also had yet to come across anyone with Dark power, or Holy power. It seemed there were individuals that wielded Holy power with the church of the Sacred Federation, but Xia Fan had not visited the place, so he had not met them in person before.
In any case, energy crystals were amazing items, which was why Xia Fan had prepared some Grade Nine energy crystals, as an emergency source of replenishment in the event he could not endure the experience.
Of course, not using them would be the best case scenario. Given how Xia Fan had expended so many since he as young, out of the entire stock of Grade Nine energy crystals in the Holy Tomb, he had practically finished off all but the final forty-seven crystals that he still had in his possession.
Furthermore, there was a disadvantage that came with eating too many of these peak-grade energy crystals: every energy crystal that was beneath Grade Nine was now completely useless to Xia Fan. His body had already gotten used to the use of the highest grade of nature’s energy, and all other crystals were no different from drinking a glass of refreshing water.
After he was done with his preparations, Xia Fan gritted his teeth and drummed up his courage. He raised the liquid extractor high above his head and opened his mouth wide.
*Click!* His finger lightly pushed the red button on the top of the extractor.
Instantly, a drop of scarlet red liquid rolled down Xia Fan’s throat, passing right through before settling in his stomach.
