This is not mechanical ascension...

Chapter 223 The Role of Gene Source
Due to the angle, Ford could not see the expression on Asmara's face. He could only hear her voice without any emotion: "I see. I'll send you the coordinates later."

Asmara put away the smart terminal, opened the door and walked out without saying a word.

boom!
The door made a creaking sound and the door frame was deformed. Prince Baijan had a dignified look on his face and also had no expression. He shook his head and said, "You take care of yourself."

Ford was surprised, then he sighed, looking a little disappointed. After this incident, his father had realized that he might be in big trouble and began to distance himself from him deliberately.

However, he murmured: "Alright..."

……

On the other side, in the Iron Castle, Li Ming returned to the room.

He had already mastered the [Quantum Cluster Cannon] and used the [Matter Reorganization Fabricator] to make a metal rod of the same length and weight and put it in.

He was checking the description, [Energy Burst: Energy consumption increased by 100%, power increased by 50%]

Simple and crude, he likes it very much.

Half an hour later, the smart terminal placed aside vibrated slightly. Li Ming's action was like a phantom, and he had already caught it in his hand, as if he had been waiting for a long time.

When I opened the page, it was indeed a friend request from Black Hole Network.

After agreeing, the other party immediately popped up a message--
"I am Ceci, the civilization representative of Bernest. Can we have a video call?"

Li Ming waited for a while before replying, "Okay."

Almost the second the message was sent, a communication request popped up from the other party. After the call was connected, a guy who looked similar to Thiago appeared on the screen.

They were wearing ethnic clothing, which seemed to be their formal attire, and their attitude was very polite.

"Your Excellency Qinglong." Saisi said, "I'm glad that you took the initiative to contact us for this communication."

Li Ming interrupted and said calmly: "There's no need to talk so much. Five billion star coins, transfer through the Black Hole Network. I'll let you go once the money arrives."

"If you are worried, you can use the bounty mechanism, which is backed by the Black Hole Network."

Ceci's expression changed slightly, his eyes wandered, and then he said in a deep voice:
"Sir, in the half hour since we received the news, we have checked the public transaction redemption records of all A-level life forms in the interstellar in recent years. The redemption price of A-level life forms with a development progress of less than 30% is mostly billion star coins."

Three billion can buy an A-level life form? Not really.

This is the redemption price. For captured A-level life forms, there is almost no way to ensure that they are obedient or become one's own people. They either have to be killed or redeemed.

It’s almost a fixed market transaction, otherwise you will have to kill.

"How about we add another 500 million star coins?" Ceci further said.

"3.5 billion?" Li Ming shook his head. "Your A-level lifeform came so far to attack, I'm afraid it got a lot of benefits, but you only give 3.5 billion?"

The money from Black Hole Network has to be calculated after depreciation, and this price does not meet Li Ming's expectations at all.

His metal energy has reached its limit, and he is hoping to get the big one.

Cece frowned, "Your price is too high."

As an intermediate civilization, Bernest has its own currency system, which does not use star coins.

The advantage of doing this is that it can maintain the economic stability of one's own civilization, but the disadvantage is that the star coins become foreign exchange reserves.

They don't have any unique cultural products to export in exchange for star coins, and their reserves are not too large, so they don't want to be taken advantage of.

"Then there's nothing to talk about." Li Ming looked indifferent.

Ceci also said solemnly, "You can kill him, but it will be worthless. Three and a half billion is already a lot."

Li Ming glanced at him and asked, "Do you think I dare not kill him?"

Ceci was about to speak when she saw Li Ming raising his hand to stop her, lowering his head to operate something. Then Ceci also looked down, a little stunned.

A prompt popped up on the account and the other party pulled him into a temporary discussion group.

Then, the huge screen in front of him split from the center and a video window appeared. After seeing the other party's appearance clearly, Sissi's face turned grim.

"Mr. Qinglong, what do you mean by this!?"

"Cesi?" The newly joined life form looked like an arthropod, with two huge compound eyes on its head, four gray arms, and a sharp voice.

The Duke Zerg are extremely close to the Bernest civilization and have been in friction with each other for years. They have been fighting for the newly discovered resource galaxies, and the hatred has lasted for more than a thousand years.

Even the appearance of the Itlan civilization itself was unable to stop them.

"Mr. Qinglong, I am Leonard. I didn't expect you to contact them."

Li Ming smiled, "After all, Tiago is an A-level life form of their civilization. How can we not notify the person involved?"

"Well, Mr. Sisi, this Leonard seems to be interested in Thiago as well. Interestingly, the offer they gave me is the same as yours."

"This is a difficult situation. There is only one Thiago. We can't split him in half, one half for each of us. So, who among you will take the initiative to withdraw?"

Despicable and shameless!
Sissi's face turned pale. This bastard was clearly planning to start an auction. The Duke Zerg hated them to the core and would definitely offer a high price to disgust them.

"Okay, you two continue talking. I'll go talk to Thiago." Li Ming ended the call directly.

"Loner, you should be able to see what he means. This man is cunning and shameless. Even if you offer a high price to bring Thiago back, it will be useless. He will never work for you." Sisi analyzed clearly.

"If you were faced with a situation like this, I would never participate in a hostile bid."

"You make a lot of sense." Leonard nodded. Before Ceci's expression eased, he continued, "But I'm going to bid maliciously."

Seya gritted his teeth. They could even choose not to redeem Thiago, but they could not watch Thiago fall into the hands of the other party.

"And our A-level life forms won't come to a place like the Land of the Stars to cause trouble recklessly." Leonard said, "Or, if you give me 3.5 billion, I'll quit."

Cissi's forehead was smoking and he ended the call immediately, his chest heaving.

After ending the communication, Li Ming came to the third underground floor of the Iron Castle. This was Ulrich, where some disobedient but valuable life forms were imprisoned.

As a Class A life form, Tiago enjoyed extremely high treatment and was imprisoned at the end of the corridor, where all the cells were specially made.

After verifying his identity, he walked into the room and was hit by the smell of blood. Thiago's injuries seemed to be more serious, with several slap marks on his face.

He glanced at several surveillance cameras in the corner, and heard an electromagnetic flash and sparks from the surveillance cameras.

"Who hit him?" Li Ming frowned and stared at him for a long time. "Could it be Sandro?"

Tiago looked at him coldly with a blank expression.

Li Ming brought a stool and sat in front of him, and asked with interest: "What price did Asmara offer you to come and ambush me?"

"I have nothing to say." Tiago's voice was cold and silent. Li Ming shook his head. A-level life forms were all stubborn, and conventional torture would definitely not work.

Moreover, due to its high degree of evolution, its brain structure has undergone multiple transformations, making it difficult for ordinary psychics to break through. As for high-level psychics, they are extremely rare.

"Forget it..." Li Ming took out a syringe from behind and walked towards Tiago.

"What are you going to do?" Thiago didn't understand, but he had a bad feeling in his heart.

"Take something." Li Ming walked to his side, compared his body structure, inserted the needle into his artery, placed his fingers on his skin, and activated the ability of [Gene Warrior].

This syringe is just a cover, his real purpose is to extract genetic essence.

Tiago was confused and said coldly: "What's the point of you interrogating me? I'm just following Asuma's orders."

"You know exactly why I came here, even more than I know. Is there any need to interrogate me?"

"You must know something that I don't know." Li Ming shook his head. His main purpose was to extract the genetic material, and interrogation was just a side job.

Tiago couldn't help but frown. "You mean, you don't know what I know, but you think I know some secrets. If I can't give you a satisfactory answer, what are you going to do? Kill me?"

Li Ming felt something being drawn out of Tiago's body, as if absorbing metal energy, and said at the same time: "You followed Asuma's orders to attack me, and I killed your men."

"To be honest, there is no deep hatred between us. I have contacted your civilization and am waiting for their quotation."

Tiago was not surprised, this was the choice that maximized benefits. Although the other party killed several B-level life forms, it was impossible for him to attack again because of this incident.

He twisted his body and felt as if something was being drained out of his body, not just blood.

This made him extremely uncomfortable.

"However, the deal hasn't been concluded yet. To be honest, I want to squeeze out all your value." Li Ming said warmly, looking very sincere.

Tiago felt a chill in his heart. The awkward feeling in his body made him feel even more uneasy. He said in a deep voice, "I was just following orders. I really don't know anything."

"Maybe." Li Ming did not comment.

Tiago couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

"How do you feel now?" Li Ming asked, tilting his head.

Thiago was stunned for a moment. Is this great mechanic sick?

Now draw his blood and ask him how he feels?
"This is really a problem," Li Ming emphasized.

"It's very uncomfortable. Even though you are just drawing blood, it feels like you are drawing it from all over my body." Tiago said with a gloomy face.

Li Ming was thoughtful. The feeling of extraction was very obvious and took a long time. It would probably be difficult to steal secretly.

“By the way, I’ve actually contacted Duke Zerg, and they seem to be very interested in you as well, so in the end, it’s not certain who will get you.” Li Ming added.

"What!?" Tiago paused, then twitched his body, full of anger: "You...you...how could you do this?"

"Why can't this be done? Are there any unspoken rules?" Li Ming wondered.

Thiago was breathing heavily, his eyes were red and bloodshot. He knew that the Duke Zerg would definitely disgust them on purpose. If he fell into their hands, his fate would probably be very miserable.

As he was gritting his teeth and cursing in his heart, he suddenly felt an piercing pain all over his body, as if someone was knocking out his bones inch by inch, extracting his marrow, and mixing it with his flesh and blood.

"what--"

Tiago wailed, his black blood vessels stretched tight on his red skin, blood was oozing out from deep in his gums, and the wounds on his body that had already healed slightly were torn apart.

"what!"

The pain seemed to be getting worse. Li Ming frowned slightly. His fingers had already left Tiago's skin. Seeing the other party in such a miserable state, he was a little surprised and more curious.

"What on earth is genetic material?"

The reason why Tiago was in so much pain was because the extraction of genetic material had been completed.

His eyes were dazed as he opened the control page. In addition to the neatly arranged energies, there was something new.

[Gene source (A): extracted from A-level life forms, mixed with some of their genetic characteristics and development potential. ]

Li Ming raised his eyebrows slightly, quite surprised. How could they mix genetic characteristics and development potential?
In addition to the instructions, there was more relevant information that emerged in his mind.

Gene source can be used as energy to upgrade genetically controlled objects, abilities, and professions.

For example, to become a [Gene Warrior], one needs one hundred A-level gene essences to be promoted.

He was secretly astonished, yet also quite excited. In this way, both the Theory of Evolution and the Secret Record of Liberation could be upgraded with genetic essence without wasting precious alienation energy.

As for the two A-level evolution theories that he had just mastered, he did not feel it was a waste. It would be difficult to obtain more genetic essence in a short period of time.

At the same time, Thiago's wailing gradually stopped. He was breathing heavily, his body still twitching from time to time, and there was a hint of fear and horror in his eyes when he looked at Li Ming.

"You, what did you do to me, why do I... why do I feel, feel..." He opened his mouth, but couldn't describe the specific feelings coming from his body.

I just feel like something is missing from my body, as if... as if...

"It seems that the road to evolution is blocked." Li Ming added the second half of the sentence for him.

In an instant, the horror on Tiago's face became more obvious.

In fact, not only that, according to the description of the genetic source, he essentially draws out all the evolutionary potential of a living organism.

Although it will not damage the current strength of the living organism, it will prevent it from making any further progress and lock the possibility of evolution.

Li Ming even suspected that Tiago would degenerate in the long years to come, but he didn't know whether he would fall from a Class A life form.

Tiago felt an indescribable confusion in his heart. The desire for evolution is deeply rooted in the genes of every living thing.

Even when he was defeated before, he did not feel this kind of hesitation.

He is a life form specially cultivated by the upper echelons of civilization, and has extremely high genetic potential.

It is even possible to reach S-level life forms. Although the process is extremely difficult, it is still a hope.

But now, this hope was blocked, and what frightened Thiago even more was that he had never heard of such a terrible method.

This made Tiago grit his teeth and said, "I... have important news. I will tell you if you kick Duke the Insect Man out."

He no longer dared to stay under the other party's control, for fear that there would be other terrible means.

(End of this chapter)