The Lich, who was staring at a group of insects, fantasized about wearing silk and satin. Could such a person be left idle?
Of course not.
But a lot of the work now was trivial and boring. She wouldn't be happy to be handed over to her. And the machine that he was exploring was even more distant from her. When she was obsessed with the automatic control program of the silver bearded dwarf's peace weapon, Fen only edited the program. She didn't touch the weapon itself.
So a certain someone suggested that the Lich, who had nothing to do all day, do something that she should be interested in and belonged to the high-end research category: crossbreeding.
The first step was to record the DNA sequences of all the collected moth species. This wasn't for genetic modification, but to determine the reproductive isolation between these moth species.
Fen still remembered that she had learned about Darwin's theory of evolution. Many of the creatures that the old man compared to highlighted the theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest. According to the DNA sequences of later generations, many of them were simply different species that just happened to look similar.
It was like aliens seeing humans and chimpanzees and coming to the conclusion of natural selection and survival of the fittest. That was why there was a conclusion that one had more hair and was stronger, and the other had less hair and was thin and weak. That was f * cking bullshit! Therefore, she had to confirm the situation of the moth species first before she could make suitable arrangements for the subsequent crossbreeding experiments.
Fen was undoubtedly at the forefront of a certain someone's knowledge about genetic modification. But what she did to herself was actually just creating a unique super human. However, an individual couldn't be considered a species. If the goal was silk, one or two super moths wouldn't be of any use. It had to be able to reproduce continuously and produce silk cocoons.
Secondly, if this Lich was really allowed to research in the direction of genetically modified species, who knew what kind of monsters she would create. That part was too cutting-edge and a certain someone wasn't familiar with it, so it was still strongly recommended that she do crossbreeding.
A certain someone used a very good reason. Since they didn't know what kind of silk thread was the most suitable, why take the same uncertain and most troublesome path? Do the easy things first, it wasn't suitable to go further. Fortunately, Fen accepted.
After determining the reproductive isolation situation, Fen began to make a preliminary plan for the different moth species that might cross-breed with each other. Under Hallumi's care, each pair of moths could produce three to four hundred eggs. Even if only half of them survived, eighty percent of the remaining half would be used to try out the silk thread, fifteen percent would be used for breeding, and the remaining five percent would be used for her to mess around.
Studying the collected moth species on a biological level, there were some interesting discoveries.
First of all, the 18 types of Devil Moths and the 4 types of Common Moths were actually subspecies of three different species. Moreover, they were not categorized by innate authority or lack of authority, but by the shape of their wings. There were those with triangular front and back wings, those with distinct eye patterns on their front and back wings, and those with straight stripes on their front wings. All three species were born with Authority, and those that did not.
However, the DNA of these three moth species still belonged to the structure of a double helix. However, the only Golden Demon Moth was different. She had a four-strand spiral structure, which was similar to the dragon race. However, the information contained in her genome and sequence was far less than that of the dragon race.
By the way, the Homo sapiens that Lin had encountered so far, including the native humans – Hallumi and Kaya, the male Uzov Gantia, the silver-bearded dwarves Jermaine and Marit, the goblin Totokani and his daughter Polly, many wood elves and elves, the dark elf Malcolm, and so on, all of their DNA sequences were 22 pairs of chromosomes plus two. Males were XY, and females were XX.
In other words, all the Homo sapiens that Lin Huang had encountered so far did not have reproductive isolation. Even their origins could be the same. As for why … It was too brain-burning for a physics student to explore biological questions, so he skipped it.
However, the dragon race had a strong reproductive ability across species. Not only could they reproduce with other creatures with dragon bloodlines, but these descendants could even become a species and continue to reproduce with their characteristics. As for the principle behind this, Lin Huang's biological knowledge was too weak to guess.
However, he had a guess. Could it be that the Golden Demon Moth, which also had a four-strand spiral structure, had the same reproductive ability as the dragon race? When he casually mentioned this thought, he saw the Lich's excited and mischievous smile. Lin Huang knew … Forget it, let her be.
Apart from Fen preparing to show off her skills, Hallumi's observation also made some interesting discoveries.
First, all the larvae of the moth species could be vegetarian. Adults might not eat meat, but larvae had to be fed meat. Of course, it would eat the meat that was fed to it.
Secondly, the larvae of ordinary moths could not. However, for moths that were born with magical powers, if magic stones were ground into powder and sprinkled on the leaves or meat, there was a chance that the larvae would mutate. Whether it was good or bad was unknown. On the other hand, it would also speed up their growth. Originally, it would take twenty days for the larvae to enter the next ecdysis. At most, it could be reduced to ten days.
If the larvae of ordinary moths were to eat this kind of food, they would die suddenly. Moreover, the larvae of ordinary moths would not be able to tell whether the food had been spiked or not. They would only stupidly continue to eat. If they accidentally ate magic stone powder, they would not show any symptoms of discomfort. Instead, their bodies would turn black, stiffen, and die.
The grade of the magic stone also affected the feeding effect. However, the better the stone, the better the effect. Basically, the magic stone powder of the Yellow Coat grade magic stone would become poison. Some of the larvae knew how to avoid it, while others would stupidly eat it and die suddenly.
Pure magic stone powder or large amounts of it would not work either. The smarter larvae, after eating a certain amount, would look for food that was not spiked. The less intelligent larvae would naturally eat until they were stuffed to death.
Hallumi, who had been immensely proud of her discovery, immediately frowned upon hearing her teacher's instructions. She almost burst into tears or cursed out loud. Lin Huang said, "Mm, well done. Then the observation team will have to be further divided. Now, all the groups will be divided into those that have been fed magic stone powder and those that have not. Also, pay attention to the upper limit of each stage of the larvae's feeding. "
The golden-haired girl was about to cry when the workload doubled.
However, what saddened her even more was what Lin Huang did after the first batch of larvae spun their cocoons.
Although the silk reeling machine had been completed before that, other than Lin Huang, no one knew the process.
When Lin Huang threw the cocoons into the dryer, the two girls who had been assisting him were shocked. Under such heat, not many small creatures could survive. Hallumi was even more reluctant to part with the larvae she had been taking care of. Although she did not cry, she was not used to it.
The two girls didn't need anyone to comfort them as they quickly adjusted to the situation. Speaking of which, the law of the jungle was the norm in this land. They had grown up in this world, but Lin Huang had not carefully taken care of them. He had completely left them to their own devices. Not to mention chickens, ducks, fish, and rabbits, he had even killed bandits and uncivilized goblins. He had long since gotten used to killing.
It was just that Lin Huang did not tell them before he did it, so his sudden actions scared them.
For the first batch of cocoons, Lin Huang handled them according to the process in his memory. Because the first round was mainly to test the operation of the silk reeling machine, he did not activate the enchantment mode.
However, the trial operation did not go well. He could not figure out how to automate the process of pulling out the threads. He could only watch from the side and do it manually.
The silk reeling machine used seven cocoons for one thread, making it seven-cocoon silk. The adjustment of the reeling force also troubled Lin Huang. Because the machine was too powerful, the threads kept breaking. When any of the threads broke, the machine had to stop automatically.
To solve these problems, he had to install a flywheel, a broken thread sensor, and adjust the lever. In order to keep the threads consistent, there were additional sensors installed in every part of the silk reeling machine. They monitored the air temperature, humidity, wheel speed, water temperature, water level, and other data. They also calculated the length of the sheath and the tension of the silk reeling.
When the semi-automatic silk reeling machine could operate smoothly, Lin Huang had already modified it to the point that it could not be seen from its original appearance. Lin Huang did not even know how different it was from the automatic silk reeling machine on Earth. Because this was completely a layman who was blindly tinkering around and trying to fix a headache and fix a problem when it was a problem.
When the silk reeling machine could finally operate normally, Lin Huang tried to enchant it during the silk reeling process. In the first stage, he did not consider adding too many enchantments. He only considered the most basic requirement, which was to be able to travel between dimensions and resist foreign energy.
If he could not even do this most basic enchantment, all the cocoons made by the moth larvae would not work, then he would have to find other ways to add this protection spell to his equipment.
Fortunately, the worst situation did not happen. There were still some moth threads that passed the first stage of the test. Of course, without exception, they were all moth species that were born with magic power.
Next, he had to test the maximum number of enchantments for each thread, the duration of the enchantment, and the ratio of the enchantment to the conversion effect. At the same time, he also had to consider the growth cycle of the moth larvae, the difficulty of raising them, the cost, the difficulty of processing, and other factors.
If he only considered the former, he could find the most suitable thread for enchantment and obtain the best magic effect. If he considered the latter, he would have to find the most economical thread.
In other words, the effect of enchantment might not be the best, but because it was the easiest to raise and could easily form an economic scale, such moth larvae were the best choice. After all, to make a piece of clothing, it was not enough to make a few cocoons, but tens of thousands of cocoons.
If the clothing was made and only he wanted to wear it, then he could just collect it slowly. However, there were still people waiting in line behind him. If he spent a long time collecting the threads, and only had enough for himself, he didn't need to guess to know that the ending would not be a happy one.
Therefore, it was a test of wisdom to find a suitable balance between economic benefits and magic effects.
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