Chapter 146: A Breakthrough

"My rabbit died again this morning." A middle-aged man furrowed his brows, a contemplative light flashing in his eyes.

"Even with your gene therapy, it still didn't work?" asked an elderly man beside him.

These two were from the virology laboratory, and Tang Banxia was not very familiar with them.

Sui Yin shook his head. "The gene therapy altered the rabbit's genetic arrangement, but it still failed to prevent its death."

"In other words, Agent Zero does not disrupt genetic arrangement," the elderly man nearby said thoughtfully.

"I observed the cellular changes in the white mice after administering the drug. Aside from a momentary swelling at the very beginning, they returned to normal immediately afterward. Why is that?"

Biology was entirely outside Tang Banxia's field of expertise. To her, it sounded like heavenly scripture; she couldn't understand a single word.

"By the way, did your rabbits experience shortness of breath after taking the drug?" the old man asked Sui Yin.

"Yes, just like in humans: rapid breathing, hyper-excitement, bleeding from the seven orifices, and death," Sui Yin replied.

After finishing a cup of water, Tang Banxia stood up and left. She found a quiet corner to ponder the mystery of Agent Zero.

Being young and lacking seniority, she still had no clue about Agent Zero.

At first, she assumed Agent Zero acted on the nervous system, much like modern drugs that induce intense excitement while causing severe addiction.

However, after experimenting on white mice, she rejected this hypothesis. Agent Zero was not addictive, and the mental excitement it caused was completely different from that of narcotics. More importantly, it could not be detected by standard drug screenings.

Even so, she had not entirely abandoned the neurological hypothesis and had even brought it up to several senior experts.

The veterans had told her it was a valid line of thought and encouraged her to continue her research.

Just now, however, Tang Banxia had suddenly wondered: could it be a dual destruction of both the nervous system and the genes?

After all, exposure to Agent Zero leads to mental excitement followed by bleeding from the seven orifices, yet medical examinations reveal nothing abnormal in the body.

This was precisely why everyone had been making zero progress. First, they needed to pinpoint which part of the body Agent Zero targeted so they could formulate prescriptions accordingly and develop an antidote.

With a new direction in mind, Tang Banxia could no longer sit still. She called Liu Yuan and hurried back to the laboratory.

She pulled out a grey rabbit, used a syringe to inject diluted blood into its body, and the moment the rabbit showed its first reaction, she unhesitatingly performed a live dissection.

A live dissection would reveal the rabbit's exact state at the moment of poisoning.

As soon as the first dissection was finished, she immediately increased the blood concentration ratio and pulled out another rabbit...

She repeated this process over and over until the sun rose in the east. Wiping a splatter of rabbit blood off the protective shield on her face, a gleam of joy appeared in her eyes...

She felt she might finally know what Agent Zero targeted.

However, before she could be certain, she needed to make direct contact with Agent Zero itself.

***

Thinking is doing. She called Liu Yuan to clean up the rabbit carcasses scattered across the floor, then went to find the head of the laboratory, Professor Wei Chuji.

After listening to the purpose of her visit, Professor Wei raised his gaze and scrutinized her seriously for a moment. "You want to apply for access to Agent Zero?"

Tang Banxia nodded. "Professor Wei, I believe I can pinpoint what part of the body Agent Zero targets, but to be one hundred percent sure, I need to observe up close the specific reactions after exposure to it."

Up until now, all the materials they had used for research were blood samples from humans who had already been infected with Agent Zero, making the observed effects less than direct.

Upon hearing what Tang Banxia said, Professor Wei stood up excitedly. "You're saying you have a lead?"

His booming voice immediately attracted several professors who had just arrived. A group of them swarmed around her, speaking all at once:

"Who has a lead?"

"What kind of lead?"

"Care to share it with an old man?"

"Old Wei, not bad at all! You haven't lost your touch!"

"..."

"It's not me, it's this young comrade here who says she has a lead." Professor Wei waved his hand to quiet the crowd and pointed toward Tang Banxia, who had been squeezed to the side.

Swish, swish, swish—

Tang Banxia was instantly submerged in gazes. The light radiating from the eyes of these veteran experts was almost enough to scorch her.

"Xiao Tang? What kind of lead do you have? Let's hear it."

"Young minds really are more agile, aren't they?"

"I'm getting old, getting old and useless!"

"..."

Seeing that she was such a young girl, the professors showed not the slightest bit of contempt; instead, they attached great importance to her. Fearing she might feel nervous, they even cracked a few jokes to ease the atmosphere.

Feeling the goodwill emanating from the experts, Tang Banxia did indeed relax somewhat. She let out a breath and slowly began:

"I was thinking: since Agent Zero's poisoning symptoms are mental excitement followed by bleeding from the seven orifices, I started my research focusing on the nervous system."

"At first, I also thought Agent Zero was a poison. But last night, I dissected over a hundred rabbits and didn't find a single difference. That's when I changed my approach: could it be that Agent Zero isn't a poison at all?"

Not a poison?

Several professors exchanged glances. The symptoms of exposure to Agent Zero were so tragic that they had truly never considered the possibility that it might not be a poison.

"Xiao Tang, go on," Professor Wei said, a thoughtful expression flashing across his face.

***

This girl had real talent. Although her foundation was thin, her mind was surprisingly agile, and she knew how to take an unorthodox path.

Tang Banxia rubbed her nose. "Could it be that Agent Zero is a form of tonic, but one that is excessively potent, causing the human body to instantly lose its balance, leading to bleeding from the seven orifices? Then, as the medicine's potency dissipates and is expelled from the body through vomiting blood and struggling, we fail to detect any trace of it?"

She had dissected so many rabbits, and all of them were live dissections. She had observed the various muscular reactions of the rabbits after being injected with the blood.

Only after more than a hundred attempts did she catch this subtle difference. She noticed that under the microscope, the physical state of the rabbits just after being injected with the blood was slightly better than those that hadn't been injected.

Just by a tiny bit. At first, she hadn't paid it any mind; after all, no two rabbits in the world were completely identical, and microscopic variations were normal.

However, as she dissected more and more, she began to take it seriously. After focusing her observation on this point, she confirmed that the physical fitness of the rabbits injected with the blood containing Agent Zero improved instantaneously, and then this enhancement gradually faded as they bled, vomited blood, and excreted waste.

By that time, however, the rabbits' internal physical balance had already been disrupted, and multiple organs throughout their bodies had been impacted to the point of structural failure, leading directly to their deaths.

Of course, these findings were based on her superficial notes without solid proof. It was also possible that she had simply gone mad from overworking her experiments and imagined the whole thing.

After all, that enhancement was extremely subtle. Had Tang Banxia not performed live dissections on a hundred rabbits in a single night, she never would have noticed it.

That was why she wanted to have direct contact with Agent Zero to confirm her hypothesis. This was drug experimentation, after all; the slightest carelessness could result in the deaths of a vast number of people.

She had only intended to inform the senior experts after she finished her work so they could verify it.

Having finished her explanation, she looked at the experts with hopeful eyes. "I've finished outlining my train of thought. It might all be in vain, but I still want to keep trying."

"Xiao Tang, your train of thought is exceptional," Professor Wei affirmed, giving her his approval. "Young people should not underestimate themselves. I'll go apply for Agent Zero for you right now."

"You girl, you're quite something. Do you have a master?" someone asked.

Tang Banxia nodded. "I do."

"Who is it? Who could teach such a brilliant disciple?"

"My grandmother, Cheng Xiao. I grew up by her side." Tang Banxia stated without hesitation.

"Cheng Xiao?" A woman emerged from the laboratory just as she caught that name.

She was an impeccably dressed elderly woman, carrying a bitter fragrance of medicinal herbs about her. "Did you say Cheng Xiao?"

Tang Banxia nodded.

The elderly woman looked at Tang Banxia with an instantly fervent gaze. "Girl, I am your senior martial sister~"