Test Subject

He committed these runes to memory. Their exact effects would become clear after a few trials, and that would not be difficult for him.

Yang Mu put on the Crimson Ring and tried to communicate with it using his Mental Power. Soon, the ring glowed red, but the light did not spread across his entire body as it had with Parker.

"Useless."

As he spoke, Yang Mu 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 a spell called Crimson Light stored within it. It fired a red beam, and any target struck by it would turn into red dust.

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

By Yang Mu's estimate, Crimson Light's attack power was above eighty degrees. For an ordinary Intermediate Apprentice, it was quite a fine magical item.

But to Yang Mu, it was of little use. With the same amount of Mental Power, his casting ability allowed him to cast twice as many spells as an ordinary Apprentice.

Not to mention that he had an Undead Servant like the Floating Skull. The Floating Skull alone possessed nineteen casting opportunities at once. He had no shortage of casting ability.

If the Crimson Ring could amplify Mental Power, even by just one percent, Yang Mu would not have considered it useless.

He placed the Crimson Ring beside his pillow and once more immersed himself in deducing the Dark Forge Meditation.

The Dark Forge Meditation's basic framework up to Third-Level Wizard had already been perfected. The problem now was that cultivating it demanded an extremely high degree of Mental Power control and various kinds of mysterious knowledge.

Mysterious knowledge was easy to solve. Yang Mu had already anchored the source of deep mysticism within himself, eliminating the foundational requirement for mysticism. In any case, 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 Mental Power control. When he created this Meditation Method, he had stood at a height beyond the reach of countless Mages.

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

In the end, after such a long period of consideration, he decided to reduce its cultivation speed. In other words, ordinary cultivators would not be able to burn things as freely as he could. After every burning, they would need to meditate quietly for a time and stabilize their Mental Power.

To that end, he set restraints and equipped it with additional methods for stabilizing Mental Power, including but not limited to potions and meditation.

But this also created a problem: Flame of Annihilation could no longer serve as a commonly used attack method for cultivators of this Meditation Method, greatly weakening their strength.

Yang Mu once again incorporated part of the casting pattern 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 streamed into the bedroom, Yang Mu had already opened his eyes. His mind did not need rest. As long as he did not overexert himself, his powerful Mental Power allowed him to go months without resting.

But his body could not. So he had still slept for two hours the previous night, restoring his body to its peak condition.

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

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

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

The five groups of pirates Yang Mu had killed the night before were not nobodies, especially Crimson Parker. As someone with extraordinary power, although his abilities seemed pitifully weak in Yang Mu's eyes—

—in this era, where most fighting still relied on swords and blades, he was still quite famous.

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

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

"Here, take a look. You're a celebrity now. These lads are all quite good, and they all want to become your crewmen. Pick a few. Your ship will be refitted by tomorrow night. If you want to set sail early, hurry up and find the people you need."

Old Jack spoke with a cigar clenched between his teeth and one eye narrowed. The cigar smoke had irritated it; clearly, his cigars were not very good.

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

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

As he spoke, Yang Mu took out the Crimson Ring. With the slightest stir of his Mental Power, the ring emitted a crimson glow.

"This is..."

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

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

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

The moment Yang Mu took out the Crimson Ring, the tavern became incredibly noisy. Many people thumped their chests and declared that they were more suited than Old Jack to be his first mate. Some of them were even already Captains of their own ships.

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

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

That 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 a way to control the frequency of burning, but he could not control the targets chosen by cultivators.

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

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