Card Room

The current conclusions were based on Xiao Lou's speculation but the team members knew the possibility of this speculation being correct was extremely high.

The time clue was completely accurate.

The Morse code left by Shao Qingge's father and the business plan for the company's investment project that Shao Qingge found clearly showed that the Noah's Ark project was launched twice.

The first time was in 2975 which was the same as Xiao Lou's birth date. However, all the babies cloned that time died due to defects because of the culture medium and the plan was forced to be terminated. The second time was in the year 2980. The cloning project was successful but there was a problem in the middle, resulting in the elimination of all insiders.

In the same year, the captain of the Dark Night starship was captured and taken back to the capital. It was the first time the empire's people discovered the alien bugs.

They were seemingly weak bugs but they had strong evolutionary and reproductive abilities. The rapid reproduction of the fungus blanket gave the scientists new inspiration. They let the cells of the human clones fuse with the genes of the bugs, causing rapid growth. It was even possible to grow from a newborn baby to five years old, which explained why the three Xiao Lous in the palace were the same age.

Ye Qi couldn't believe such a crazy thing. He couldn't help looking at Xiao Lou and asking in a trembling voice, "They are studying humans like they would plants? How can they fuse the genes from other races into the human cells? Isn't it like growing genetically modified vegetables and hybrid fruits?"

Xiao Lou's face was calm. "There are many examples of plant hybridization, such as thick skinned oranges and the hybrid between a pomelo and mandarin to produce oranges. There is also the orange and citron hybrid to produce lemons… However, these plants have no consciousness or thoughts. The study of new species won't harm the original species. Meanwhile, researching humans is beyond the scope of scientific ethics! No one can be sure if variations or difficult to treat genetic diseases will emerge when bug and human genes are mixed!"

Human beings had been researching for so many years and gene sequencing had long been carried out. Then why had the scientists never modified and fused human genes? Was it because they didn't have the ability?

No, they just didn't dare to be the sinner of the era.

Many family inherited diseases came from genes. Who knew what consequences there would be from modifying genes at will? What if the genetically modified people combined with normal humans and gave birth to an offspring with serious genetic diseases? Once this type of defective gene entered human society, it might even deal a devastating blow to humanity!

Let alone the fusion of alien genes into a human body.

Once this precedent was set, wasn't it possible for future scientists to edit the genes of birds or beasts at will into human cells to create all types of weird clones? What exactly would the experimental products produced be? A human-bird hybrid? A human and cat? Perhaps even a human and pig?

The reason why nature had 'reproductive isolation' and made it so that different species couldn't reproduce with each other was in order to preserve the uniqueness of each species. Once this natural law was broken, humans would no longer be humans.

Xiao Lou thought about how there might be bug genes in his body and felt all the hairs on his body standing up. He closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. Then he looked over at Yu Hanjiang. "My guess is that after capturing the captain, they found that the captain's climbing and jumping ability had improved beyond human limits. He could even heal from injuries. They felt that it would be good if human beings had this ability so they took the captain's genes and studied them."

Yu Hanjiang nodded in agreement. "Yes, in their eyes, the captain is similar to Superman. Taking his genes for research is indeed in line with the style of mad scientists."

Xiao Lou wondered, “So there are likely to be bug genes in my body?”

Yu Hanjiang gently pressed a hand to his shoulder and answered in a gentle voice, “Don’t care about this. You are you. Your identity, experience and even your genes in this secret room are set by the keepers. We will eventually leave this room.”

Xiao Lou smiled. "I understand. I just want to give it a try. If I have the bug genes, have I inherited some of their great abilities?" He walked to Chu Huaying. "Huaying, let me borrow your dagger."

Although Chu Huaying didn't know what he was going to do, she still handed him the dagger.

Xiao Lou grabbed the dagger and pointed it at his left arm. He didn't hesitate to cut himself in a simple and neat action!

Yu Hanjiang's expression changed and he immediately stepped forward to grab Xiao Lou's wrist. "What are you doing?"

Xiao Lou observed the blood on his arm. The moment the dagger cut him, he clearly felt pain. Blood flowed from the wound to the ground and there were no signs of healing.

Only then did Yu Hanjiang understand. Xiao Lou actually used this method to test whether he had the healing ability?

Yu Hanjiang's heart felt slightly pained seeing Xiao Lou cut himself and he glanced at Shao Qingge. "Help."

Shao Qingge smiled and walked over to Xiao Lou. "You obviously haven't inherited the bugs' healing ability. I guess it depends on me." He placed his finger gently on Xiao Lou's wound.

The wound was very shallow so it was easy for the bugs to heal it. The scratch on Xiao Lou's arm healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. The skin that grew back was smooth and delicate. There were no visible scars at all.

Xiao Lou looked at the healed wound and thought about it. "Is it because the captain didn't evolve enough to gain the ability to heal wounds? Or did the bug genes mutate after fusing with human genes and it didn't allow humans to inherit this ability?"

Chu Huaying frowned. "Based on what Uncle Qin said, the former captain evolved enough to negotiate with the bug queen. His level shouldn't be low. Perhaps it is the second case and humans can't inherit this ability."

Yu Hanjiang opened his mouth. "There is another possibility."

Xiao Lou looked back at him.

Yu Hanjiang's eyes were gentle and he enunciated every word. "You aren't a clone."

Xiao Lou, "……"

This sentence caused everyone to be stunned. The conclusion that Xiao Lou was a clone had been reasoned out not long ago. As a result, Yu Hanjiang now denied this reasoning?

Of course, there had been many times before in previous secret rooms where their reasoning was wrong.

The key reason why they speculated that Xiao Lou was the clone was that he didn't attend the crown prince's engagement banquet, nor did he attend the key birthday banquet. He had been hidden by the emperor in the Twin Palaces all the time…

However, this wasn't based on anything. The emperor was probably the only one who knew if Xiao Lou was a clone or not.

Perhaps the princess would know something?

Xiao Lou thought of this and said, "We should consider the next plan. Do you want to go to Azure Planet to find my sister?"

At that time, they boarded Chu Huaying's spaceship and temporarily decided to go to Hilt No Man's Land. There were two reasons for it. One was to let Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci recall their lost memories. The other reason was to try and find the whereabouts of Liu Qiao and the others along the way.

Their first goal had been achieved but Liu Qiao's group was still missing.

Yu Hanjiang said, "Azure Planet is inhabited by humans and your sister moved there after getting married. Perhaps Liu Qiao's group is also on that planet. In any case, we have nowhere else to go now. We might as well go to Azure Planet."

There was no objection to this decision.

However, Chu Huaying was on the wanted blacklist of all nations in the federation and couldn't directly enter the space station of Azure Planet. Xiao Lou, Yu Hanjiang, Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci had secretly escaped from Capital Star. They didn't apply for a permit and couldn't enter the planet.

Fortunately, there were no restrictions on cards here and there were plenty of ways to do it.

Xiao Lou suggested, "Chief Shao and Ye Qi will go to Azure Planet and then use the Peach Blossom Spring to transport us over."

Chu Huaying added, "I will use the starship to send you to the space station. I won't go with you. It is better for me to stay on the starship. This way, I can provide you with transportation anywhere you want to go and it is more convenient to move."

She was now the leader of the star thieves. It was indeed inconvenient for her to go to Azure Planet. It would be more dangerous if she was caught. It was better for her to stay freely on the starship and continue as a star thief.

Xiao Lou agreed with her. "Yes, you have to be safe."

Chu Huaying nodded. She walked to the console and pressed a few buttons. The Dark Night starship glided across the night sky like a meteor. It soon left the Hilt No Man's Land and took a shortcut to Azure Planet.

***

After several hours, a blue water-covered planet appeared in everyone's vision.

Xiao Lou opened the navigation and pointed to Azure Planet. "This is the human settlement in the Aquarius Star Field. This planet is occupied by the nation called the Azure Empire and they have always had a close relation to the Locke Empire. 20 years ago, my sister married a prince of this empire and now she is a princess of the Azure Empire."

Ye Qi asked curiously, "How much older is your sister than you?"

Xiao Lou had a very vague impression of his sister. He thought about it before answering, "When I was 5 years old, she just got married and should have been 20 years old. She is 15 years older than me."

Ye Qi scratched his head. "It is strange. The emperor and empress gave birth to Princess Xiao Rou and then didn't give birth for the next 15 years?"

Xiao Lou was slightly startled when he heard this. "I had a brother who was one year older than me but he later died. I heard the emperor say that my brother was poisoned."

Ye Qi murmured, "In other words, they gave birth to Princess Xiao Rou and almost 13 years passed before they gave birth to your brother. Then your brother was poisoned by an assassin and they gave birth to you the next year?"

The more they heard, the stranger they felt.

Under normal circumstances, if the couple was in harmony then the time interval for giving birth would be mostly controlled within 2 to 3 years. If women gave birth naturally, it was almost normal for two children to have an interval of one year. Today's fertility technology should be much higher than it was in the past and the risk when having children was very small. How could the emperor and empress not have had children for 13 years?

How could a princess be 14 or 15 years older than her younger brother?

Xiao Lou hadn't thought about this detail before. Now that Ye Qi reminded him, he also felt the situation wasn't right. Perhaps the emperor launched the cloning program due to this matter? What if the emperor or empress had a genetic defect that caused their children to die? Did his older brother die from a genetic disease rather than an assassination?

Perhaps the emperor wanted to clone the prince because he wanted to transform the genes of his offspring?

Xiao Lou lightly pressed a hand to his temples. He couldn't understand why the emperor had done such a thing but Xiao Rou must know something. Perhaps a lot of the mysteries could be unraveled after seeing his sister.