Test Subject

Memorizing these runes would not be difficult for him. As for their specific effects, he would understand their meaning after trying them a few times.

Yang Mu put on the Crimson Ring and tried communicating with it using his spiritual power. The ring quickly glowed red, but the light did not spread across his entire body like it had with Parker.

"Useless."

As Yang Mu spoke, he removed the Crimson Ring from his hand. This ring was a magical item, likely crafted by a Wizard or witch from this world.

It had only two abilities. One was to strengthen the body, like Parker had done. The other was storing a spell called Crimson Light, which fired a red beam that turned any target it struck into red powder.

For an ordinary Apprentice, this magical item was undoubtedly quite valuable. Not only could it strengthen the user's body, it also granted an extra casting opportunity and contained a powerful offensive spell.

By Yang Mu's estimate, Crimson Light had an attack strength above eighty degrees. For an ordinary Intermediate Apprentice, it was an excellent magical item.

But for Yang Mu, it was truly of little use. With the same amount of spiritual power, he could cast twice as many spells as an ordinary Apprentice.

Not to mention that he possessed an Undead Servant like the Floating Skull. The Floating Skull alone had nineteen casting opportunities at once, so he did not lack casting ability at all.

If this Crimson Ring could amplify spiritual power, even by just one percent, Yang Mu would not consider it useless.

After placing the Crimson Ring beside his pillow, Yang Mu once again immersed himself in deducing the Dark Forge Meditation.

The basic framework of the Dark Forge Meditation up to Third-Level Wizard had already been perfected. The problem now was that cultivating this thing required an exceptionally high degree of spiritual control and all kinds of mysterious knowledge.

Mysterious knowledge was easy to solve. Yang Mu had already anchored the source of deep mysticism onto himself, eliminating the basic requirements for mysticism. After all, what he intended to distribute was not the original version; that had always been part of the plan.

What truly gave him a headache was the issue of spiritual control. The height from which he had created this meditation method was one that billions of Mages could hardly hope to reach.

Even after repeatedly lowering the cultivation standards, this meditation method remained extremely dangerous for Apprentice Rank practitioners. If Mages classified it as extremely dangerous, that meant that out of a hundred Apprentices who cultivated it, ninety-eight would die, while the remaining two would go mad.

In the end, after considering it for so long, he still decided to reduce its cultivation speed. In other words, ordinary practitioners would no longer be able to burn things as freely as he could. Instead, after every burn, they would need to meditate quietly for a period and stabilize their spiritual power.

To that end, he set restrictions on it and equipped it with additional methods to stabilize spiritual power, including but not limited to potions and meditation.

But this also created a problem: Flame of Annihilation would no longer be an attack method that practitioners of this meditation method could use regularly, greatly weakening their combat strength.

Yang Mu once more incorporated part of the casting trajectory of the Zombie Reanimation spell into it, obtaining the first Dark Furnace Apprentice-Rank Version.

Next came the search for test subjects, and he had long since chosen his target.

The next day, when the morning sunlight shone into the bedroom, Yang Mu had already opened his eyes. His mind did not need rest. As long as his powerful spiritual power was not overly depleted, he would be fine even without resting for months.

But his body was different, so he had still slept for two hours the previous night, restoring his body to peak condition.

After getting dressed and picking up his cane, he cast Cleaning and Dust Removal on himself, leaving his entire body looking refreshed.

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When he stepped out of his residence again, many pirates looked at him with awe and admiration.

Pirates revered the strong, because only the strong could lead them to plunder more wealth and make it easier for them to survive in battle.

The five groups of pirates Yang Mu had killed last night were no nobodies, especially Crimson Parker. As someone who possessed extraordinary power, his abilities might have seemed pitifully weak to Yang Mu.

But in this era, where combat still mostly relied on swords and blades, he still possessed considerable fame.

Yet now, the head of that somewhat famous pirate hung outside Yang Mu's door, while Yang Mu himself appeared completely unharmed. Naturally, his reputation spread in an instant.

The strongest proof came when he sat before Old Jack's bar counter, and Old Jack pulled out a huge stack of lists for him.

"Here, have a look. You're a celebrity now. These lads are all quite good, and they all want to be your crewmen. Pick some. Your ship will be repaired by tomorrow night, so if you want to put to sea early, hurry up and find the people you need."

Old Jack spoke with a cigar clenched between his teeth and one eye narrowed from the smoke. Clearly, his cigar was not very good.

It was not that he could not afford better ones. He simply liked smoking these cheap cigars. In his words, only this kind had enough kick.

"No rush. Compared to them, have you considered my proposal? If you agree, I'll give you this as a gift."

As Yang Mu spoke, he took out the Crimson Ring. With a slight stir of spiritual power, the ring emitted a crimson glow.

"This is..."

"This is the red light from Crimson Parker. So his ability came from this ring."

"Captain Yang Mu, I'm willing to become your first mate. Just give me that ring. Believe me, my sailing experience is no worse than Old Jack's."

"Captain Yang Mu, choose me. I may not have Old Jack's wealth of experience, but I know two secret sea routes. Even without plundering, we could still make a fortune."

As soon as Yang Mu brought out the Crimson Ring, the tavern immediately became incredibly noisy. Many people thumped their chests and declared that they were more suited than Old Jack to become his first mate. Some were even already captains of their own ships.

But Yang Mu remained unmoved. Compared with them, he favored this middle-aged man named Old Jack more. At only forty years old, he was not nearly as old as his name suggested.

He was strong, ruthless, steady, and capable. Most importantly, he knew when to retreat and could fully restrain his own desires.

This was the most important quality for cultivating the Dark Forge Meditation: choosing suitable targets to burn, restraining one's desires, and not dreaming of reaching the heavens in a single step.

Yang Mu had ways to control the frequency of burning, but he could not control the targets chosen by practitioners.

Even if there were only one opportunity to burn, there was nothing he could do if a practitioner chose to burn an Evil God. Such cases were everywhere among the followers of the Furnace Lord that he had studied.

Therefore, Yang Mu's first requirement in selecting test subjects was the ability to restrain one's desires.

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