Chapter 611 - 401: Reviving the Ice Ridge Dragon (Part 2)
For instance, the Antarctic Blue Whale, the largest existing creature on Earth, inhabits the seas around Antarctica. It exceeds 33 meters in length and weighs over 190 tons. Its tongue alone can accommodate fifty people standing on it simultaneously, and its arterial blood vessels resemble large pipelines, allowing humans to crawl inside.
This suggests that large creatures can easily be nurtured in lakes.
Moreover, due to the current limited level of human technology, drill bits tend to carry bacteria or pollutants. To prevent damage or pollution to the lake’s original ecosystem, humanity has not yet explored the depths of the lakes. Therefore, it can be said that this is the place most likely to harbor unknown creatures globally.
The mystery remains as to what might exist in the depths of the lakes.
Unfortunately, upon Wang Ye’s investigation, he has yet to see the rumored unknown creatures.
There seems to be some reason causing microorganisms to struggle to evolve into large creatures.
Of course, it’s possible that unknown species do not exist in this lake but may dwell in other lakes.
These possibilities await Wang Ye’s exploration.
Fortunately, Wang Ye’s visit was not entirely in vain. During his exploration in the lake, he found a skeleton, presumably of an Ice Ridge Dragon, deeper within the subterranean ground. This skeleton’s shoulder height is approximately four to five meters tall, about twice the height of a human.
Although he also discovered other fossilized remains, they seemed to have deteriorated with time and lacked completeness, so Wang Ye did not focus on those.
Instead of returning directly to the ice surface, Wang Ye created a small space between the ice layer and the lake, where he could stand and move around, similar to a basement.
Then, he excavated the skeleton of the Ice Ridge Dragon and transported it to the ice layer basement.
Wang Ye channeled the heat from his body, releasing flames from his palms, melting all the ice debris surrounding the Ice Ridge Dragon’s remains.
A vast dinosaur skeleton then appeared before him, dwarfed him several times over.
This Ice Ridge Dragon measures about seven meters in length, considered a relatively large specimen among its kind.
Though Wang Ye has witnessed countless grand scenes,
seeing this ancient dinosaur skeleton for the first time,
his heart involuntarily surged with fear.
It is a fear deeply ingrained in his genes.
The fear of gigantic creatures.
However, if Wang Ye were to fully unleash his Law of Heaven and Earth Skill now, his size could exceed that of the Ice Ridge Dragon. Thus, the fear only lingered in his mind for about half a second before dissipating.
After melting the ice, Wang Ye began examining the remains, pondering how to utilize the Ice Ridge Dragon skeleton.
The highest value method he envisioned was reviving this Ice Ridge Dragon.
This revival technology, in essence, is cloning technology.
Through the DNA fragments retained within the bones.
A new embryo can be cultivated.
However, there are numerous challenges in terms of technology,
the foremost being DNA degradation. Ancient DNA, particularly that of dinosaurs long extinct, is poorly preserved and typically exists in short fragments. This is not concerning for the Ice Ridge Dragon remains, as the freezing could prevent DNA degradation, and the remains have remained sealed within the ice cap, maintaining their appearance from millions of years ago.
Next is the irreversibility of cell differentiation; bone cells are highly differentiated somatic cells that have lost their omnipotence, even with complete DNA, requiring reprogramming into pluripotent stem cells.
In cloning technology, current nuclear transfer demands intact cell nuclei, while ancient DNA fragments cannot form complete nuclei.
Using conventional technological means to revive this Ice Ridge Dragon would undoubtedly be fraught with difficulties, and the financial cost would be staggering.
At the bare minimum, Wang Ye’s current wealth would be insufficient.
So he clearly cannot employ ordinary technological methods to revive the Ice Ridge Dragon.
He needs to use his own means.
Namely the Creation Skill.
In short, Mediation Creation.
creating life through Divine Techniques.
Ever since initially acquiring the Creation Skill,
Wang Ye has been able to rely on his own Primordial Qi,
to create thriving plants.
Over time, he has accumulated experience, even training several times to enhance wild animals.
He feels ready to attempt creating life now.
Moreover, his situation is not entirely about creating life from scratch,
since the Ice Ridge Dragon remains still contain complete DNA,
he just needs to find a way to restore these remains to their pre-death condition.
Simply put, it’s a resurrection.
After some thought, Wang Ye began implementing the plan within his mind.
His Primordial Qi transformed into a beam of gold light, scanning the Ice Ridge Dragon remains before him.
As the golden light scanned the remains,
myriad information was relayed back to his mind.
Included are dangerous encounters the Ice Ridge Dragon faced before its death, as well as experiences from its growth environment, all etched like reliefs on its bones and genes... All these transformed into intricate data streams, manifesting before Wang Ye.
Then, Wang Ye extended his hand, channeling more Primordial Qi, beginning to use Mediation Creation Divine Techniques to repair the Ice Ridge Dragon’s genes, restoring the bones, slightly damaged from prolonged freezing.
Bone cells emerged, starting to develop. The long-dormant bones visibly began to grow, as the bone cells separated the weathered portions, overlaying new bone material. The entire process lasted merely about thirty seconds, and the skeleton regained its vitality.
Wang Ye continued channeling Primordial Qi. As it flowed, his mind raced with thoughts.
Mediation Creation is not just simply outputting Primordial Qi to create life.
Rather, it involves understanding life and other entities,
deconstructing everything into Primordial Qi.
And using Primordial Qi to recreate them.
Thus.
To revive the Ice Ridge Dragon.
Wang Ye needs to deduce its structure from its genes.
and recreate it according to the same structure.
This requires him to possess extremely potent computational and deductive abilities.
Current human technology is obviously incapable of achieving this level, yet not entirely without possibilities, as today’s Oxford Nanopore Technology can read ultra-long DNA fragments and predict missing sequences using AI algorithms. In 2023, scientists used this technology to reconstruct parts of the genome of the extinct Tasmanian Tiger. However, current technology is not mature enough, only capable of deducing partial genes, unable to reconstruct the complete genome.
However, Wang Ye is different. At his current level of evolution, if he were to activate the entire potential of his brain, his computational abilities would far surpass contemporary supercomputers and AI.
His head began to bulge with countless veins, and the surrounding temperature rapidly rose, with the ice overhead quickly melting into liquid.
Meanwhile, the Ice Ridge Dragon’s skeleton had been repaired.
Wang Ye suddenly activated bone cells, developed the teeth into fangs, and pierced his fingertip. A drop of pitch-black blood immediately oozed out, which he applied to the eye socket of the Ice Ridge Dragon’s skull. This pitch-black blood did not freeze in the cold environment. Instead, it moved like a living organism along the bone seams, akin to the Venom symbiote in Marvel Movies, swiftly enveloping the entire Ice Ridge Dragon.
His blood can provide flesh for organisms and, under the control of Mediation Creation, link with the ancient genes of the Ice Ridge Dragon, reanimating this creature.
The black blood continuously devoured the surrounding rocks and ice layers, growing increasingly fierce,
like a slippery monster lurking in the night, howling and clawing.
Strands of flesh emerged from the Ice Ridge Dragon’s spine and began growing. The translucent muscle fibers spread like tendrils and buds, quickly expanding and covering more bones.
Within the Ice Ridge Dragon skeleton, the internal organs began to form in shape,
but for now, they remain a collective of numerous congealed flesh masses, without differentiated organs, akin to the unseparated continental plate back in the day.