Chapter 366: (EDT) Duranium (6)
"I'm sure our discovery this round would be beneficial for Wind Base's development. Please follow me as I bring you around to inspect the improved version of the leech farm right now." Lucian proudly said what he had in mind while pointing his hand at a separated section in the Research Facility.
[Farm Inspection Passage]
That's was what was engraved on the door they'll be using to get inside. It was a fortified passage between the four separated facilities used to domesticate the virus-carrying Leeches.
"May I ask if Ms. Valerian mentioned anything about the temperament of the recent generation of leeches?" Lucian politely asked if this information was disclosed to Zhang Qin Feng.
"Yes. Valerian did mention this. How sure are you about their temperament? Could it change in case they were forced to a specific situation where they had to change their diet drastically to stay alive?" Zhang Qin Feng nodded at Lucian.
"We have these worries as well. But so far, no matter how we entice them, not a drop of the blood from humans was taken by the specimen until they're either crystallized or died from malnourishment."
"Of course, we dare not underestimate these specimens' tenacity. We'll be conducting the same test once every three days as a precaution if there's a change in their taste." Lucian answered Zhang Qin Feng's question confidently.
From how well prepared he was, it seems he's been taking his teammate's advice lately into account. These changes of his not only helped him make much better decisions but also propelled his research further.
Furthermore, the tour was more refined than before. The hint of his recklessness was gone from how well this Inspection Passage was designed.
Instead of being shown with small, unperfected cultivation tanks with the virus-carrying leeches squirming all over, this facility now looked like a well-planned pasture solely used to breed them efficiently.
It was comparable to the Indoor Farm Project Zhang Qin Feng introduced to the modern world. But instead of planting microgreens, the one here focused on breeding the leeches carefully.
'I wonder if it's possible to make this operation even better than right now. We could have brought this entire operation up to the surface to increase the production in the future.' Zhang Qin Feng thought.
But the worry that this might create a much bigger problem made him cancel what he had in mind. As a leader, stability is his concern, not overexpansion.
The passage after the pasture led them to the second facility, where the virus-carrying leeches were divided into categories. From crystallizing, evolution, propagation to removal, everything here was handled by the operator-controlled robots.
There are significantly more operator-controlled robots in this facility compared to the pasture section.
Zhang Qin Fang openly nodded at the smoothness of their segregation procedure. The operation from moving the propagated leeches back to the pasture to incinerating the failed specimen was done perfectly.
As for the leeches that go through crystallization, two specialized operator robots would sort them into their individual maturing cell to complete the hardening process. And lastly, those who successfully went through the evolution process would be gathered by an operator robot here to be shifted to the next facility.
To allow Zhang Qin Feng to witness how the virus-carrying leeches propagate, Lucian directed one of the robots to come closer to the tempered glass with a fully grown specimen. Although this was not his first time, it was always a sight to behold to observe how the leeches divide themselves.
The twenty inches long leech slowly turned into a dried husk while something was squirming from the inside. After struggling for less than a minute or two, the monster leech soon became twenty individual specimens as they crawled out of the dried husk.
But compared to the fellow siblings delivered back to the pasture section, these leeches were delivered to the next facility instead. It was evident that they're much different compared to those regular virus-carrying leeches based on the Duraniul Crystal protruding out from their head.
"Are these leeches with a crystal horn the Tyrant Leeches you mentioned?" Zhang Qin Feng pointed his finger at the tray with twenty recently born Tyrant Leeches.
"Yes, Boss. Now, please follow me to the third section in this facility. I'm sure you'll be delighted when you look at them." Lucian confidently assured Zhang Qin Feng that he would be happy with what was shown in the next section.
It was an identical pasture from the first section. But the plant here seems to be more nutritious than those grown back there.
Of course, the star here was not the plant with blood-like consistency sap, but the Tyrant Leeches themselves. They're not segregated into a hierarchy, but their maturity can be differentiated through the size of the Prismatic Crystal grown on their forehead.
"Shouldn't I be presented with the crystalization tank right now? How can it be another pasture with horned leeches this time?" Zhang Qin Feng asked. Of course, it's not like he's dissatisfied with what he was shown.
But weirdly, the number of operator-controlled robots is significantly lesser than in the second section. This made Zhang Qin Feng question the reason behind their choice.
"We've created a more efficient maturing cell for the leeches that going through the crystalization process. Since that's their final stage of evolution, there is nothing much for us to do except the harvesting process."
"Instead, the Tyrant Leeches here are more intriguing. For your information, Boss, the specimen here could no longer split themselves. Even if the amount of Viral Concentration within them increases to above 50%, they would only go through a metamorphosis to grow larger."
"Up to date, we only managed to get three different Prismatic Crystals from these Tyrant Leeches," Lucian spoke while tapping on the Luna Device on his wrist.
And in response to his action, a robot brought a tray with three different leeches placed on the surface.
"These are the three samples of Prismatic Crystal I've mentioned. The smallest one comes from the first cycle specimen, the medium from the second cycle, and the large crystal from the third cycle specimen." Lucian said.
It seems that their quality was differentiated by the size of their horn.
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