CHAPTER 167: CHAPTER 167: THREE MAJOR CRITERIA_1

She was not someone to submit to adversity. On the contrary, she was quite strong-willed. It was precisely because of this that she developed her bad temper, showing no mercy when it came to deceiving the Imperial People.

But today, the person she encountered seemed specially designed to counter her, and instead of outmaneuvering him, she found herself ensnared.

The ring’s effect took hold, and Tamara fell into a "paralyzed" state.

"Now can you tell me the real situation?"

"Had you really not encountered it before?" Tamara regained her senses, looking at Lance with a puzzled expression. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed off. Why did it feel as though I was the one ’committing numerous evil deeds,’ and then someone came to my door pretending to be a newcomer just to fool me?

Lance helplessly nodded. Do I really look like someone pretending to be a newbie? I certainly don’t have that kind of perverse taste, right?

"The prophecy is real, the [World] is real, the [Iron Crown] that emerged from it is real, and the fact that someone is investigating and collecting these related items is also real. Spiritual Essence is real, the situation with the Heretics is real, the Church situation is also real, and they will hunt down those talents."

At this point, Tamara looked up at Lance. "Your inspiration shaking my Spiritual Essence is also real, and the loss is considerable—almost like losing a life."

Lance understood her implication. Amidst a string of truths, the lie was her boasting about her Romani identity as a savior, simply to glorify herself, when in reality, she just wanted to resell the ring.

Indeed, his feeling that something was amiss had been correct. This individual had ill intentions from the beginning. Fortunately, I’m no good person either.

As for her claims of great misfortune, Lance felt no pity. Her objective had always been the same: to deceive him into giving up his ring.

If it hadn’t been for that accident, Lance was sure she would have claimed he had no talent and then advised him to go back home and farm. But unfortunately for her, she couldn’t withstand it and was directly overwhelmed by his vast... inspiration.

Losing a means of saving her life, she had only herself to blame.

"What’s the situation with the ring?"

"The ring was made with Spiritual Materials from an Extraordinary creature, the [Petrifying Giant Lizard]. It can unleash its innate ability, [Paralysis Ray]. Within a ten-meter range, anyone struck will have their muscles become rigid, as if turned to stone. Hence the name."

"Then why not trigger it directly? Why require contact?"

"Of course, it’s to pursue potency. If used from a distance, there will be some loss; the farther away, the weaker the effect. Some individuals with strong constitutions can resist it. But with direct contact, even an icefield elephant would fall..."

As she spoke, Tamara couldn’t help but glance at Lance, her eyes showing intense curiosity. She had already noticed his strong constitution, which was why she induced him to make contact. But why was he unaffected?

"A stable, single-target crowd control ability with no side effects. No wonder you’re so reluctant to let go of it." Lance directly articulated the critical situation and couldn’t resist teasing, "You’re telling me all this; aren’t you afraid I’ll take it away?"

"You still need me," Tamara stated flatly, clearly not so easily swayed by his words.

She quickly understood how she had ended up in this situation.

"Do you have any introductory books? Like the Extraordinary Creatures Compendium, Spiritual Material Compendium, accounts of Transcendent factions and their historical evolution, that sort of thing?"

Asking one question at a time was too slow. Lance urgently wanted to understand the ways of the Supernormal Realm more quickly.

Hearing this, Tamara frowned and emphasized, "One of the three principles every Transcendent must adhere to is never to try and decipher any texts from unknown sources."

"Why is that?"

"The most valuable thing for a Transcendent is knowledge, but it’s also the most dangerous because what lies within is not just power, but also contamination. If one’s abilities are insufficient and they come into contact with it, it can, at the very least, shake your Spiritual Essence, and at worst, contaminate it. That’s why most Transcendents are very cautious with carriers of knowledge, even taking all sorts of precautions before reading, lest an accident occur.

For this reason, even teachers and students do not casually disclose information to each other. Similarly, books passed down by some Transcendents have many prerequisites. Only those who meet the conditions can understand the information hidden within.

This practice originally aimed to protect readers, but it also meant that if the author died, it would become very difficult for later generations to interpret the work, resulting in the loss of considerable research.

At the same time, some malicious Transcendents use books as a vessel to cast Curses or set traps, luring in curious individuals..."

As Tamara recounted, Lance realized that this rule, though just a single sentence, had such a story behind it. These were lessons left behind by predecessors at the cost of their lives.

After sorting this out, it seemed:

1: Differences in inspiration among individuals lead to varying levels of receptiveness to ’knowledge,’ thus affecting one’s own Spiritual Essence.

2: To protect readers, most knowledge has been encrypted by the authors.

4: Some authors set traps to protect their knowledge.

3: Some people like to use writing as a medium to achieve their nefarious aims, further increasing the danger.

Lance recalled that he hadn’t paid any attention to these points when he had previously acquired the Barbarian Tribes’ Secret Scrolls and the evil cult’s manuscripts, directly starting to study them. The fact that no harm came to me could only mean my inspiration was high, and my luck, strong. And the one backing me is even ’taller’ and ’stronger’!

"What about the other two rules?"

"The second is not to use any Extraordinary items that have not been appraised. The third is not to attempt to perform any rituals without clear knowledge of their specific functions."

As she spoke, Tamara suddenly looked at Lance very seriously and added, "Above the three main principles is the First Law."

"What is it?"

"Do not trust any Transcendent."

Lance couldn’t help but laugh when he heard this. What a Dark Forest Rule. But it was true. Facing external suppression and persecution by the Church, along with internal competition for resources, there really was no one trustworthy in such an environment.

"It’s fine, I don’t quite count as a Transcendent yet, so I’ll trust you for now."

Lance’s jesting words directly shattered the serious atmosphere Tamara had finally managed to create, leaving her quite speechless.

But his attitude did indeed lighten Tamara’s pressure. Becoming a Transcendent, pursuing power on that path, one could so easily lose oneself—sometimes purely for the sake of survival.

"Of course, the books I mentioned are imbued with Supernatural Power. To some extent, they can’t be considered books but Extraordinary items. However, there are still books that simply record information without any attached Supernatural Power.

In Totnes, there is a shop that specializes in collecting various manuscripts, located on Rat Street."

"But I just walked through that street, and I didn’t see it."

The street was full of pawnshops and antique stores. I have no recollection of such a bookshop.

"Of course not, because if ordinary people could see it, it would be meaningless."