Transcendents, as the name implies, were people who possessed extraordinary abilities.
Where did their extraordinary abilities come from?
The answer was simple.
In this world mixed with steam machinery, swords, and magic settings, they were naturally bestowed by deities.
Therefore, Transcendents could also be known as Divine Givers.
Generally speaking, to become a Transcendent, one first needed to choose a faith and join the corresponding deity's church, then one could go to the cathedral for a qualification test.
This test differentiated ordinary people from those with extraordinary talents, and those who passed the test would be promoted to candidates.
Once the opportunity arose, the church would gather the candidates and systematically arrange the Divine Giver Ritual.
At the ritual, those with sufficient devotion had a much higher chance of passing.
And when you passed the Divine Giver Ritual, you would receive a trial from the deity—generally, the difficulty of the trial was related to the rank.
The lower the rank, the simpler the trial required.
For example, to become a First Rank Transcendent, one often received simple trials like pleasing the deity, requiring only the sacrifice of some treasures.
As the rank increased, the difficulty of the trials would exponentially increase.
Take, for instance, the Empire's renowned strongman, Beo from the Holy Dragon Family, known as the Dragon Slayer, whose trial to ascend to Fifth Rank Legend was to slay a living giant dragon!
Once you completed all the trials, you could actively communicate with the deity and pray for an upgrade to the next rank.
Upgrading brought tremendous benefits.
Not only could you gain new extraordinary abilities, but you could also ignite more Divine-given factors, enabling your abilities to have stronger effects.
However, generally speaking, the types of abilities awakened by Transcendents were often tied to the authority of the deity.
Take for example a previous follower of the Heavenly Principle Church.
The deity worshiped by this church was the Lord of Billion Stars, so the abilities awakened by Transcendents were mostly related to airflow, gravity, weather, or even magnetic fields.
After choosing a faith, it was no longer possible to involve another.
Thus, the abilities of Transcendents in this world often had limitations or were relatively singular.
Very few people could master several types of faith-based extraordinary abilities.
Or rather, there had never been such a precedent.
From now on, Lynn would become such a precedent.
Though his Divine-given factors had been stripped and his faith had dissipated, with the system's existence, everything was readily resolved.
He simply needed to increase the deviation of the original character's storyline to continuously gain system points, which he could use to draw or strengthen extraordinary abilities.
According to the system, he could even ignite the Divine-given factors by his own power!
The effect was nothing short of astonishing.
Improving someone else's storyline deviation seemed not to be an easy task.
For that 0.01% change, he had almost been killed by the antagonist, Imperial Princess!
So at this moment, watching the rapidly spinning bas-relief disc in front of him, Lynn was unusually anxious.
What would the first ability from the system be?
For him, this was a matter of life and death, directly determining whether he could survive this experiment.
Under Lynn's gaze, the spinning speed of the bas-relief disc finally slowed down, and then gradually stopped in front of him.
The pointer stopped at a strange symbol.
The symbol was very abstract and complex, resembling a crying clown or a puppet controlled by silk threads.
[Congratulations on drawing a First Rank ability—Lie Swallowing.]
Lynn gasped in shock.
Very well, as expected of you, crafty system.
He had thought there might be a chance to draw a physical strengthening ability, or an effect like Morris's ability to merge into shadows.
In any case, as long as he could escape from here, anything would do.
Yet, the system had bestowed him with something resembling a conceptual type of thing.
Lynn rigidly clicked to open the skill introduction and started browsing.
[Name: Lie Swallowing]
[Effect: The lies you tell will become more believable; conversely, you can easily discern lies told by others.]
[Activation Condition: None]
[Points Required to Upgrade: 10]
As expected, it seemed to be a somewhat lackluster ability.
Perhaps it could occasionally produce miraculous effects in daily life and combat, but it seemed unlikely to resolve Lynn's current predicament.
It seemed that only after upgrading would the effects gradually strengthen.
Right now, it was merely a common ability corresponding to a First Rank Transcendent.
Moreover, it was unclear which faith it belonged to.
Feeling helpless, Lynn attempted to activate the ability.
The next second, his vision was abruptly filled with layers of ripples, and suddenly, the underground laboratory scene disappeared before his eyes.
In its place was an entirely different scene.
Lynn suddenly felt as if he could move freely and stood up dazedly.
However, his gaze remained fixed on the bizarre sight before him.
Before him was a boundless void, yet it was more than just a boundless void.
Aside from emptiness and desolation, threads as if breaking through the confines of time and space, traversed from the void.
They moved like slender worms, dancing in bizarre postures.
These threads seemed to have life and intelligence, and they had a very unified goal, continuously surging toward that destination.
Countless threads gathered into a vast ocean, eventually converging toward a point high above.
He saw a withered humanoid figure enshrouded and pulled by those threads, the whole person twisted into a crucifix shape, suspended high above.
Especially many threads gathered on Its arms, Its expression was of pain, eyes tightly shut.
Even so, those threads still rushed over like rivers and seas, torturing It over and over again, seemingly taking pleasure in it.
"Prisoner... of... Destiny..."
For some reason, Lynn slowly spoke out the name.
The next second, layers of ripples attacked once again, a strong sense of falsehood instantly snapping him back to reality.
"What are you spacing out for?"
Milani waved her hands forcefully in front of him.
Lynn replied as if unconcerned.
In reality, his heart had already been thrown into turmoil, and it took a long time to calm.
What did that scene really mean?
Lynn's mind felt empty, only a severe dryness in his mouth.
"If there's nothing, the experiment is about to start."
He had almost forgotten the most important thing at the moment.
The will to survive made Lynn temporarily suppress the shock and confusion in his heart, focusing his attention on the young girl before him.
He took a deep breath.
Then, under the effect of Lie Swallowing, he slowly said, "Ms. Milani, there is something I need to tell you."