Chapter 350: Gene Programming and the Unexpected Edo Tensei
Kenichi was very satisfied.
Shiori's ocular power was even more useful than he had imagined. In fact, he felt this ability had far more applications than what he had seen so far. With enough development, it could become an excellent combat method as well.
For example, in the middle of a fight, if she directly pulled out an enemy's heart, that would be fatal to almost any ninja.
Even for a Kage level fighter, unless they possessed some especially abnormal physique or had trained an extremely unusual ninjutsu, losing the heart would still mean death.
Still, for Kenichi, that was not the priority right now.
His current work was far more important.
As for Shiori, he could only let her continue researching that ability on her own for the time being.
After placing the two different wheat gene samples into the machine, all he could do now was wait.
"But this machine can only help me filter out the similar genes. It can't identify the useful gene groups for me, so I still have to do that part myself." Kenichi rubbed his scalp and felt a faint numbness there.
There was a reason he had always been reluctant to touch agricultural research in the past.
It was genuinely difficult.
Not only did every agricultural experiment take an absurd amount of time, he also lacked the specialized knowledge for it. Or rather, he knew absolutely nothing. Plant physiology, biochemistry, cultivation principles, crossbreeding logic, all of it belonged to an entirely different discipline.
Back in his previous life, he had worked in scientific research, yes, but he had not majored in agriculture. For him, this was a completely unfamiliar field.
The books he currently had were not about hybrid rice either.
Kenichi's understanding of hybrid rice was extremely shallow. He knew that crossing different rice varieties could increase production and raise yields, but as for the exact process?
He had no idea.
He understood what it was, but not why it worked.
That perfectly described his current situation.
"I really want to know how those transmigrators in ancient settings somehow remembered all this knowledge. They're the real cultured protagonists. I've embarrassed the whole profession." Kenichi massaged his temples with a bitter smile.
Even though identifying cold resistant genes was an exhausting project, it was something that had to be done.
If they wanted to cultivate grain in the Land of Snow, then cold resistance was mandatory. Without it, large scale planting would be almost impossible.
Kenichi had once considered simply taking a ninja force to the Land of Water, crushing the Hidden Mist, and then occupying the country before starting large scale grain production there. But there were too many variables in a plan like that.
If the Land of Snow could serve as a fallback, then even if something went wrong later, there would still be room to recover.
Prepare for failure before planning for success. That way, if something went wrong, it could still be salvaged.
That was one of Kenichi's principles.
A soft beep sounded.
Kenichi immediately walked over and pulled out the comparative charts for the two wheat genomes. The machine had already eliminated a massive number of matching genes, leaving only the genuinely different genetic information behind.
"The good news is that there aren't too many differences. Most of them have already been filtered out. The bad news is that there are still quite a few gene groups left." Kenichi licked his lips as he stared at the remaining data.
There were not many differences, relatively speaking, but that did not solve the real problem.
He still had to find the cold resistant genes hidden among them.
And for that, there was a specific method he could use.
If there were ten thousand cups of water, all colorless and odorless, and only one contained poison, how would you find the poisoned cup?
The simplest answer was obvious. Have ten thousand people each drink one cup. Whoever died was the one who drank the poison.
But what if there were multiple poisoned cups? What if there were not enough people or animals to test them all?
At first glance, that had nothing to do with genes, but the underlying logic was the same.
Kenichi intended to use a similar elimination process to quickly isolate the gene groups, minimizing both the number of experiments and the amount of time wasted.
"These extra gene groups in the cold resistant wheat can be roughly divided into ten categories. I'll plant ten corresponding wheat lines and see which ones can grow normally. The one that survives should contain the cold resistant trait. Then I can subdivide that group again."
The logic sounded simple.
In practice, it was an enormous headache.
Genes were far too mysterious, and a characteristic like cold resistance might not come from a single gene at all. It might be the product of several genes acting together.
Kenichi did not know which genes were responsible.
If none of the ten grouped lines showed the trait after division, then he would have to continue enumerating them in other ways. That was exactly why he had not chosen to program the genes one by one from the start.
That would have required even more brute force elimination.
It was maddening.
And it had to be remembered that the cold resistance of wheat was not defined by a single indicator. It could involve cold resistant proteins, endogenous hormone regulation, and a whole array of physiological responses.
This was doomed to be a long and painful project.
"Can I just use the cheat?" Kenichi briefly considered throwing the wheat into his research target list, but after a moment he gave up.
He had no idea what the reward would turn out to be. If he ended up getting some nonsense result like reversed wheat or a bizarre mutation, that would only make things worse.
"Sigh. So I still can't take shortcuts." Kenichi shook his head and buried himself in the work again.
To reduce the risk of forgetting crucial data, he created several Shadow Clones to help.
With their assistance, the process of gene programming became a little easier, but figuring out how to successfully program wheat genes without causing the gene chain to collapse remained the biggest problem.
"...Is the mother parasite secretion useless here?" Kenichi looked down at the wheat seeds that had already started collapsing in his hand and rubbed his brow again.
"No. The mother parasite secretion only works on biological bodies of a certain type. It's completely ineffective on plants." One of the Shadow Clones shook his head.
Kenichi sighed.
This crop improvement project had not even been underway for a full day, and already problems were piling up one after another.
It truly was an ominous start.
"Still, if the gene programming succeeds, then the wheat grown from it should inherit the modified genes. That at least is good news." Kenichi consoled himself.
There was no shortage of wheat seeds, either. Even if one seed had to be consumed per experiment, it was still bearable.
What he needed now was simply a method.
A method that could make plant gene programming possible.
Kenichi sat down in a chair and rubbed his temples again, lost in thought, while the Shadow Clones continued testing in the background, hoping repeated attempts would eventually produce a successful case.
"In my previous life, people usually used things like Cas9 for gene programming... but that kind of method..." Kenichi stroked his chin.
There were plenty of approaches to gene programming. Back in his old world, Cas9 had been commonly used in laboratory work, especially in mouse experiments. But in this world, it simply did not exist.
"The gene programming method Orochimaru researched can be used on humans, but it clearly lacks a certain universality when applied to plants." Kenichi glanced at the scroll in his hand.
That was the technique Orochimaru had given him before.
It was also the core ninjutsu Kenichi was currently using for gene programming, and when paired with the mother parasite secretion, it had an extremely high success rate. So far, there had been no deaths under that system.
But with wheat, something was clearly wrong.
Previously, when Kenichi had attempted plant work, he had only used chakra to induce mutations. Strictly speaking, that was not gene programming at all. At best, it was gene mutation.
And mutation was unreliable.
He could not just expect wheat genes to randomly mutate into cold resistant genes through brute force.
If he could do that, he might as well call himself a god.
"So it has to be improved. Based on Orochimaru's technique..." Kenichi took out paper and pen and began recording his ideas.
That process lasted five full days.
Only when a Shadow Clone came over to remind him did Kenichi finally snap back to reality.
"Has that much time really passed already?" He looked down at the scroll in his hand.
It now contained a new technique.
A ninjutsu he had developed himself, specifically for gene programming.
Creating ninjutsu was always troublesome, but in Kenichi's eyes, ninjutsu at its core was simply the application of chakra under defined principles.
And Orochimaru's previous work on gene programming had already given him the necessary foundation. He had now worked out a rough direction.
Still, this was not the time to keep refining theory.
He had something else to do first.
"Seven days have passed without me noticing. I wonder how Mr. Amado's research in the Pure Land is going." Kenichi hurried out of the lab, though before leaving, he still dispelled the Shadow Clone that had reminded him.
As for the other Shadow Clones, he had kept his habit of dismissing them once per day.
If he did not, the accumulated fatigue would truly be unbearable.
Kenichi took out Amado's preserved body tissue. His expression was a little complicated as he looked at the test tube in his hand.
Amado was now, in every sense, a dead man.
Kenichi wondered whether he would even want to return when summoned this time.
"Orochimaru should be very interested in this..." Kenichi looked at the tube and thought of the teacher who was still buried in research. After a moment's hesitation, he pulled out his phone and pressed the button.
The call connected quickly.
"Kenichi? What is it?" Orochimaru's voice came through, sounding somewhat tired. He had clearly been working nonstop again lately.
Then again, that suited him perfectly. Whenever Orochimaru stumbled across something interesting, he would dive into it and keep researching until the end of reason.
"Teacher, today is the day we use Edo Tensei on Mr. Amado. Do you want to come?" Kenichi asked with a smile while also looking around for Koyuki.
He needed Koyuki to prepare the experimental subject for him.
This time, he needed a genin.
If Amado had just been an ordinary person, Kenichi could have grabbed any servant off the street. But Amado had been a ninja. Using another ninja as the vessel would be safer.
"Hmm? Today? All right, I..." Sounds of hurried packing came from the other end. Orochimaru then asked for the location of Kenichi's laboratory, and after getting it, ended the call.
Kenichi was not worried. He had already told Orochimaru where it was. His teacher would find the place without any trouble.
What mattered now was getting the right sacrifice ready.
Soon, Koyuki delivered the genin he needed.
The man had not received one of the parasite offspring. According to Koyuki, he was a fool who had refused the blessing.
Kenichi did not care about that in the slightest.
He gave the man a glance. He looked like an ordinary ninja, his face full of stubbornness and defiance. The type who thought sheer willpower could solve everything.
Unfortunately for him, Edo Tensei had never cared whether the sacrifice was stubborn.
And so he became the vessel for the reanimation.
That was the last thing he ever did in this world.
"He looked like he wanted to say something." Orochimaru sat on the sofa.
"Probably just useless nonsense." Kenichi coughed awkwardly.
Orochimaru had been in a bad mood lately. Although Kenichi did not know how Jiraiya had managed to escape, this was definitely not the time to poke at the matter.
Orochimaru merely watched without comment.
As Edo Tensei began, the sacrifice's body trembled violently, then suddenly went still.
Kenichi froze.
That should not have happened.
In every previous Edo Tensei experiment, the vessel would tremble, then its appearance would begin changing, after which it could be sealed into the coffin.
"Interesting." Orochimaru's eyes lit up.
He had originally come to observe the Pure Land related experiment, but unexpectedly, he had encountered something different instead.
Before Kenichi could even investigate the anomaly, the sacrifice's face began to distort and change, gradually becoming Amado's.
Kenichi quickly sealed him inside the coffin.
"Teacher, the process changed midway. Should we still continue?" Kenichi asked after a brief hesitation.
The Pure Land was not a good place, and the strangeness of this Edo Tensei process made it difficult for him not to think of the Sage of Six Paths.
"It's not a serious problem. If you've read [Edo Tensei: Experiment Log 29], then you should know this sort of thing does happen occasionally." Orochimaru shook his head.
Although the delay this time was around a dozen seconds, it still had not exceeded one full minute.
In Orochimaru's earlier experiments, there had been cases that delayed for over a minute. By comparison, this one was not abnormal enough to stop for.
So there was no problem.
.....
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