Chapter 29
"Maybe people will soon start calling me the Third Generation Dark Lord."
Li Mu muttered to himself.
Victory belonged to the victor. Before he conquered the Wizarding World, he was a Dark Lord. Once he conquered it, the title of Third Generation Dark Lord would be left behind, and he would become the Wizarding World's one and only Wizard Emperor.
With a casual Polymorph Spell, he turned a huge rock beside him into a sofa.
Li Mu sat on the soft sofa, merging with the Elder Wand while waiting for the Basilisk, which had gone out to hunt.
Before long, he heard something slithering through one of the pipes.
Avada Kedavra!
Before the Basilisk even emerged, Li Mu had already sent a Killing Curse into the pipe. Amplified by the Elder Wand, it had reached LV8.
The moment the black-green light struck the Basilisk's head, it lost all signs of life.
The Basilisk was immune to most spells, but the Killing Curse was clearly beyond the reach of its magical immunity.
Li Mu checked the area but found no Fire Seed. With a sigh of regret, he put away the Basilisk's corpse.
He Apparated away from Hogwarts.
Knockturn Alley, Borgin and Burkes.
Boss Bork was in the basement, fretting over his Gold Galleons, when he suddenly felt a surge of Magic Power from upstairs.
He left the basement and saw an unfamiliar man with an Eastern appearance standing in the shop.
The shop's door was locked and undamaged, so the stranger could only have entered by Apparition.
Boss Bork was about to demand an explanation when he noticed the stranger's clothes. They were just like those worn by the Mysterious Wizard who had left an hour earlier. The man was also about the same height and build, though he was holding a different wand.
"Have you made up your mind?"
Li Mu pointed his wand at Boss Bork.
Boss Bork activated an Alchemy Necklace enchanted with the Iron Skin Charm almost instantly. But it had no effect. He collapsed to the ground, convulsing wildly, feeling as though every bone in his body was being smashed to pieces and his flesh ground apart.
The excruciating pain made Boss Bork feel that death would be a mercy.
It lasted a full ten seconds before Li Mu finally stopped casting the Cruciatus Curse on him.
The Cruciatus Curse was one of the three Unforgivable Curses, alongside the Killing Curse and the Imperius Curse. Its pain was far worse than childbirth. Even the most strong-willed Wizard would be driven mad by its torment, and a slightly longer casting could make someone die from the pain.
A man like Boss Bork, who had made his living in Knockturn Alley, wouldn't obey without being taught a lesson.
"Have you made up your mind?"
Li Mu asked again.
Boss Bork lay sprawled on the ground, nodding frantically. The Cruciatus Curse wasn't a Dark Magic spell that directly caused physical harm, and an Iron Skin Charm could easily block it. Yet the Iron Skin Charm on him had been pierced as easily as paper.
He had dealt with powerful Dark Wizards before.
Voldemort had worked in his shop when he was young. Boss Bork was certain that even Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse wouldn't have been this powerful. He even wondered whether Dumbledore was really dead.
"How many Wizards are there in Knockturn Alley?"
Li Mu asked.
Before Boss Bork could answer, Li Mu shook his head and looked straight at him.
His Legilimency had been LV6, but the Elder Wand had boosted it to LV8. With his immense Magic Power further amplifying the spell, he could read Boss Bork's memories directly. He saw the man's fear of him and learned what Boss Bork knew about Knockturn Alley.
Legilimency really was useful.
Anyone far weaker than him had no secrets when standing before him.
Of course, he couldn't rely on Legilimency completely. Some Wizards were skilled in Legilimency Defense and could hide their true thoughts or even plant false memories. Hadn't Snape deceived Voldemort's Legilimency and become a spy that way?
Li Mu took out the shrunken Miracle Building, Azkaban, and cast the Imperius Curse on the Twelve Prisoners inside.
Then he took out twelve wands and used the Anchor of Fantasy to turn them into Kindling Wands.
Finally, he took out some healing Potions. The twelve prisoners soon emerged, looking lively and alert.
These twelve Wizards had escaped when Fiendfyre consumed Azkaban, which meant they were the most elite of all its prisoners. Apart from Sirius Black and one unknown Wizard, the other ten were elite Death Eaters who had once followed Voldemort.
All twelve were powerful, and the Kindling Wands made them even more formidable.
Controlling the minds of twelve Wizards with the Imperius Curse at once was a tremendous burden, even with the Elder Wand in hand.
He split them into pairs and assigned them their tasks. The Twelve Prisoners donned the Illusionary Body Curse and left Borgin and Burkes one after another.
They would scout Knockturn Alley, then track any Wizards who left.
Finally, they would capture them in secret and send them all to Azkaban.
If he took action himself, he would undoubtedly be faster.
But he still lacked a way to control his subordinates. Force and Gold Galleons could win over many Wizards, but there was no guarantee that someone wouldn't turn around and betray him. He needed a way to control the lives of unruly Wizards who were difficult to win over.
He would use both approaches: winning people over with rewards as his main method, and controlling their lives as a backup.
Voldemort controlled the Death Eaters who followed him by means of the Dark Mark branded on them.
Li Mu had studied the Dark Mark on Snape. Casting it required an extremely high level of Magic Power.
He could now cast the Dark Mark, but it was Voldemort's Dark Mark.
While the Twelve Prisoners went to capture Wizards, he could use the opportunity to design a magical mark of his own.
It would take the form of a black Phoenix. A magical mark needed the abilities to sense and communicate, and neither would be difficult to add. The real challenge was using the mark to control life and death. He had racked his brains but still couldn't think of a good way.
In the end, his attention shifted to Alchemy, specifically Alchemical Enchantment.
There was a special kind of Alchemical Enchantment that could attach a spell to the skin through an Enchanted Tattoo.
When Enchanted Tattoos were first invented, their creator believed he had ushered in a new age of magic.
But they were soon abandoned. First, Enchanted Tattoos were extremely difficult to create. Second, the strongest spell they could hold was an Iron Skin Charm. Finally, the spell attached to an Enchanted Tattoo could only be cast once.
The benefits were nowhere near worth the cost. They weren't even as useful as a one-use Enchanted Alchemy Item.
The Wizard who invented Enchanted Tattoos later tried to fix these flaws.
But human skin was too fragile, and the strength of Enchanted Tattoos could never be improved enough.
"If skin won't work, what about bones?"
Li Mu mused.
Enchanted Tattoos could be placed on bones, and their strength could even be increased.
But the same problem remained: the spell held by an Enchanted Tattoo couldn't be used repeatedly. Worse, if an Iron Skin Charm were enchanted onto a bone, activating it would cause the spell to take effect between the bone and the flesh. The Iron Skin Charm would force the flesh away, separating it from the bone.
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