Giving Himself "Fortune"

"Jiang Gui, you won't need to bring Drug Trial Participants over anymore."

Having completed the final experiment, Zhang Ming wiped the blood from his hands and spoke to Jiang Gui.

"Young Master, why?"

Zhang Ming explained.

"The experiments are basically complete. There's no point in continuing to accumulate trials on ordinary people."

"For the next while, I plan to transplant the results into the estate guards."

"And while I'm at it, I'll see what differences there are when the Cycle Devour Art is implanted into the bodies of people who are already Warriors."

Over the course of a month, Zhang Ming conducted nearly a hundred experiments and successfully created dozens of successes.

Through them, Zhang Ming accumulated ample experience, reducing the experiment's mortality rate to under 2% and raising the success rate as high as 70%. The remaining 28%...

With such a low mortality rate, Zhang Ming no longer needed test subjects.

It could even be said that the experiments were now entirely about "bestowing fortune."

Dragging people in off the streets would not be impossible either.

In that case, there was no further meaning in continuing the experiments.

And Zhang Ming was also preparing to bestow this "fortune" upon the estate guards.

How could "fortune" be given only to outsiders and not to one's own people?

A few days later.

Because he had already conducted sufficient experiments on death-row prisoners and refugee Drug Trial Participants, accumulating vast amounts of experience and data,

The results of the experiments were reproduced on the estate guards without causing so much as a ripple.

Moreover, because the guards regularly trained and possessed sturdy physiques and abundant Vital Energy, the mortality rate decreased further while the success rate increased.

Among the nearly one hundred guards, there was only a single death, with a success rate approaching eighty percent.

And among guards whose foundations were already somewhat stronger, the Cycle Devouring Art's compatibility was generally higher than that of the refugee test subjects.

This delighted Zhang Ming immensely.

He realized that a powerful body and abundant Vital Energy themselves had an enormous positive effect on the experiments.

The 96% compatibility displayed by Wang Song, captain of the guards, gave Zhang Ming an even deeper understanding of the Cycle Devouring Art.

With such an extraordinarily low mortality rate and a maximum compatibility record of 96%, Zhang Ming felt that he could now give it a try himself.

"From discovering the Zombies to today, three months have passed. I've finally succeeded."

Zhang Ming sighed with emotion.

"[Ignite Comprehension] deserves the credit."

Without [Ignite Comprehension], creating within three months a Cycle Devouring Art whose martial level began at Grandmaster and had no ceiling in sight would have been no different from a fool's dream.

"Whew—"

Letting out a long breath, Zhang Ming suppressed the stirring in his heart.

"Tomorrow is the next [Ignite Comprehension]."

"Tomorrow, I'll begin the experiment! I'll condense the Cycle Devouring Art's circuit within my body."

The Cycle Devouring Art—or rather, the Zombie Skill—was, bluntly put, a unique circuit for energy within the body.

It had originally only existed within Zombies, but now it was being transplanted or replicated inside human bodies.

There were two paths to transplanting or replicating it.

The first was Zhang Ming's experimental method: using external guidance and stimulation to forcibly imprint the circuit within the body.

Its advantage was speed, but it was highly dangerous.

The second was to condense it independently, just as ordinary Warriors practiced martial arts.

Its advantage was safety; its disadvantage was difficulty—extreme difficulty.

Even with [Ignite Comprehension] to help him, and even though he had watched the Cycle Devouring Art come into being from start to finish, Zhang Ming himself would find it difficult to accomplish.

But Zhang Ming was its creator, after all.

Though the second path remained difficult, he could combine the first and second paths.

He could guide and stimulate it while cultivating it on his own.

In terms of safety, it was far superior to directly conducting an experiment through the first path.

That was also where Zhang Ming's confidence in success came from.

In truth, Zhang Ming knew as well.

According to the normal martial inheritance of this world,

The second path was actually the correct one.

As long as Zhang Ming put in some effort and hard work, modifying and simplifying certain aspects of the Cycle Devouring Art,

A cultivation method that might be extremely difficult, but could at least allow Warriors to cultivate on their own up to the Innate realm—or even the Grandmaster realm—would emerge.

But why bother?

He had [Ignite Comprehension]. If he was going to challenge something, naturally he had to challenge what was hardest and offered the greatest benefits.

It was not as if there was no hope.

Why give up? Why take a step back?

The next day.

Zhang Ming did not go to the underground Laboratory.

Instead, he appeared in the Zhang Family's Underground Fortress.

Compared with the underground Laboratory, which quite a few people already knew about, the Underground Fortress beneath the Zhang Family estate was known by fewer people and was safer and more confidential.

When it came to performing surgery and experiments on himself,

Zhang Ming did not trust anyone else with the knowledge.

Inside the Underground Fortress.

Within a hidden Laboratory.

Zhang Ming sat cross-legged, adjusting his state as he quietly waited for his body and mind to reach their peak.

A moment later.

Once his mind had completely calmed and the moment for insight had arrived,

Zhang Ming abruptly opened his eyes.

"[Ignite Comprehension], activate!"

In an instant, heaven and earth changed, and everything in the world became incomparably clear.

His brain ran at high speed. All information from his surroundings surged into his mind like a tide, analyzed by his brain as though it were a machine devoid of all emotion.

The next moment.

"I want to replicate the Cycle Devouring Art!"

Having understood the purpose of this [Ignite Comprehension], Zhang Ming picked up the scalpel beside him, along with several auxiliary devices, without the slightest hesitation.

The white blade went in; the red blade came out.

Zhang Ming remained expressionless, unnaturally calm.

It was as though the one being pierced by the scalpel was not himself, but someone else.

That was why Zhang Ming had waited for [Ignite Comprehension].

In the [Ignite Comprehension] state, the brain's thinking improved by hundreds or thousands of times, passively suppressing the emotional side of a person and turning them into a machine that seemed capable only of weighing pros and cons.

Unfearing of any emotional interference.

In this state, let alone cutting open a hole in his own body,

Even if he lifted his own skull, took out his brain, and let it catch some air, his hands would not tremble in the slightest!

Time passed.

In the [Ignite Comprehension] state, Zhang Ming's mind was clearer than ever, and his hands were exceptionally steady.

Combined with the surgical experience he had gained from over a hundred people, including death-row prisoners, refugee test subjects, and estate guards,

With all those accumulations,

A few minutes later.

Everything went smoothly and naturally. The operation was complete!

"Hmm?"

"It didn't even take ten minutes."

Zhang Ming was somewhat surprised, but on second thought, it was only natural.

He had prepared so thoroughly beforehand, performed so many experiments, and had the thousandfold boost of [Ignite Comprehension].

It would have been strange if he could not complete the operation in a few minutes.

His thoughts did not stop turning. Just one second later, Zhang Ming had completely sensed the current state of his body after the surgery,

The body that had been preliminarily imprinted with the Cycle Devouring Art.

"Initial compatibility: 96%!"

Feeling the circuit within his body continuously circulate and continuously merge with his body,

"Because I chose the second path of self-cultivation combined with the first path of surgical replication,

The two paths combined. I can feel the compatibility slowly rising."

"Perhaps it will not be long before it reaches 97%, 98%, or even 100%."

Joy surfaced in his mind, only to last for an instant.

The next moment, his rapidly operating brain cleared it away as useless emotional garbage.