"Medieval Dragonblood Knights..."
Memories of this world's medieval history flashed through Li Mu's mind.
In this world's Middle Ages, there had once been a period when Muggles hunted down Wizards.
Many Wizards died beneath Muggle swords.
Ordinary Muggles couldn't kill Wizards, of course. But after taking large quantities of Dragonblood Potion, ordinary people gained dragons' resistance to magic and their strength. With their advantage in numbers, they had once driven Wizards into hiding.
But as the number of dragons in this world declined, the number of Dragonblood Knights dwindled as well.
Then came the rise of guns and cannons. Dragonblood Knights could chase Wizards down and cut them apart, but firearms brought their glory to an end. Without Dragonblood Knights, Muggles advanced rapidly in technology, yet lost the power to stand against modern Wizards.
Still, it wouldn't be surprising if continued technological progress eventually produced a new force capable of opposing Wizards.
This wasn't Secondary Setting he had added himself; it was the real world's own elaboration on the story's background.
Because Dragonblood Potion posed a threat to Wizards, they had destroyed many of its recipes.
The potion Snape was brewing now came from a fragmentary recipe for Dragonblood Potion preserved at Hogwarts.
According to the books, the Dragonblood Potion consumed by true Dragonblood Knights came in several varieties, each strengthening a different part of the body: the bones, muscles and flesh, heart, or skin. These potions were all essential. Otherwise, if one only strengthened the bones, for example, someone might throw a punch and find their bones unharmed while their flesh was torn apart.
The incomplete recipe at Hogwarts primarily strengthened the body's flesh and muscle.
Snape was trying to develop a Dragonblood Potion that strengthened the skin on that basis. The difficulty was terrifying.
Li Mu's foundations in Potions were far stronger than Snape's, but he couldn't innovate the way Snape could.
Even if he memorized and absorbed all that knowledge, he still lacked the creativity to come up with something new. It was like a top student who scored full marks on every exam—not necessarily someone who would become a great scientist. There was quite a gap between learning ability and creativity.
That was why he had gone to such lengths to bring Snape under his control. What he valued was Snape's ability to innovate in Potions.
"Bring Harry and come with me."
Li Mu spoke to Lily through a Whispering Spell.
Lily picked up Harry and followed Li Mu out of the basement. Li Mu casually cast a Sleeping Charm, putting Harry to sleep.
"I've decided to give you your reward ahead of time,"
Li Mu said with a smile.
"How are you going to save Harry?"
Lily asked eagerly.
"How did you come back to life?"
Li Mu asked in return.
Lily was briefly stunned, then understood. To remove Voldemort's Soul Fragment, he could simply erase it by force. Even if that killed Harry along with the Soul Fragment, all they had to do was bring Harry back to life afterward.
She understood that the method would work, but the thought of Harry dying once still pained her.
Avada Kedavra!
The green-black light of the Killing Curse struck Harry, and he died in his sleep.
Li Mu placed a hand on Harry. The Resurrection Ring consumed ten units of HuoZhong Source Power and successfully brought him back to life.
Now everything was perfect. The lives and deaths of all three members of their family were in the Resurrection Ring's hands.
Li Mu paid no attention to Lily as she held Harry and checked him carefully. Instead, he Apparated away from the shop.
When he appeared again, he was outside London.
One of the Twelve Prisoners was tracking a Half-blood Wizard who had left Knockturn Alley.
As soon as he saw Li Mu, he immediately stood respectfully to one side.
Li Mu took the prisoner's hand and poured his immense Magic Power into the Dark Mark on it. Forcibly using that mark to resonate with the others, he made every Death Eater left behind after Voldemort's defeat in the British Magic World tremble with fear.
The Dark Marks that had lain dormant on their bodies for years suddenly burned with searing pain.
They usually felt this way only when Voldemort was summoning them.
Before long, they sensed a location through the Dark Marks. Nearly all the Death Eaters found excuses to slip away from those around them, then Apparated to Li Mu's location one after another, completely unaware that the one summoning them wasn't Voldemort.
The Death Eaters who arrived saw the ten prisoners kneeling beside Li Mu, and their hearts sank.
They recognized them. Those prisoners had been locked up in Azkaban all these years.
The truth behind Azkaban's destruction some time ago had never been discovered. So Voldemort had destroyed it.
Like the prisoners, the Death Eaters who arrived one by one knelt at Li Mu's feet.
Li Mu knew they had mistaken him for Voldemort, resurrected in a new body.
After all, the Dark Mark had summoned them, and now the Death Eaters who had been imprisoned in Azkaban were kneeling before him.
Except for Snape, who had been excluded from the summons, and a few Death Eaters who had betrayed Voldemort, the rest arrived one after another.
Li Mu cast a Cruciatus Curse on the last one to arrive, terrifying the others so much they didn't dare raise their heads.
"Dumbledore is dead."
Li Mu spoke in a cold voice.
The words were so shocking that several Death Eaters couldn't help looking up at him. When they saw the Elder Wand in his hand, their hearts sank. Dumbledore was famous, and his wand was recognizable to almost everyone.
Back when they had followed Voldemort, a few had been coerced, but most had done it for the interests of the Pure-bloods.
After Voldemort fell, they escaped punishment only because they had powerful connections.
If Voldemort had killed Dumbledore in his early days, they would have cheered.
But at some point, Voldemort had changed from merely suppressing Half-bloods into a complete madman. He would casually cast a Cruciatus Curse on Death Eaters like them, and even force them to kneel and kiss the hem of his robes.
They resented him for all this. They were the ones who least wanted Voldemort to return.
"Raise your heads."
Li Mu ordered.
All the Death Eaters fearfully raised their heads. Li Mu went down the line, branding each of them between the brows with a Black Phoenix Mark. At the same time, he used the mark's power to forcibly dispel the Dark Marks on their left arms, erasing the sign that they had been Death Eaters.
The Death Eaters who had received the new marks could hardly believe the changes in their bodies.
They knew Voldemort's Magic Power all too well. There was no doubt that the Wizard before them wasn't Voldemort. But he was stronger than Voldemort—or even Dumbledore—because even Dumbledore couldn't remove the Dark Marks from their bodies.
Li Mu took out a series of briefcases and tossed one in front of each person.
"I'm not like that madman Voldemort."
His voice, infused with the power of the Confundus Charm, was deeply persuasive. "I've mastered the method for brewing a new kind of Wizard Potion. I don't care whether you're Pure-bloods or Half-bloods. I want Wizards to become the ruling class of the world. I want to build a great Wizard Empire belonging to magical civilization..."
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