The empowered systems in each region differ from one another.

For instance, the Church System of the Chamomile Alliance and the Yellow Springs System domestically have significant differences.

The power of the former comes from the one God they worship.

To obtain this power, one must be baptized.

However, this does not mean that one cannot become an empowered person without joining the Church; it is entirely possible.

Because the Chamomile Alliance is not only influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church but also by Slavic mythology and numerous folk legends.

So theoretically, if an ordinary person in the Chamomile Alliance encounters the activation of a legend and becomes an empowered person, they can entirely choose not to join the Church but to depend on the local extraordinary system for survival, like domestic empowered individuals.

However, this theory might... not be easy to achieve.

Or to put it bluntly, it could be called hell-level difficulty.

Since the Russian Orthodox Church controls over ninety-five percent of ordinary empowered individuals and ninety-nine percent of advanced empowered individuals.

In such a situation, their local extraordinary ability system has hardly developed at all; combined with the lack of talent retention and the presence of the Inquisition, a common empowered person trying to remain untouched in this environment... the difficulty can be imagined.

Domestically, it's a different matter; there isn't a super religion here. Whether it's Buddhism or Daoism, compared to the local extraordinary system, they pale in comparison.

Moreover, throughout their long development, both have gradually synchronized and integrated. Daoism, in particular, originally developed from the local extraordinary system and is entirely different from the Russian Orthodox Church.

As for Buddhism, since the emergence of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, it has long been transformed, although some autonomy remains, it is fundamentally limited.

This resembles Japan's Divine Buddha Synthesis, albeit not as thorough, and the higher-ups are unwilling to fully integrate, particularly after learning of the corrupted state of Japan's High Celestial Plain… because this may not be a good thing. A minor misstep could drive the local legendary gods insane.

And differing extraordinary systems result in different combat methods for empowered individuals in each region.

The ways to ascend tiers also vary.

Domestically, empowered individuals focus on Authority Ability, supplemented by techniques. Apart from learning abilities, the creative ability of the empowered person is highly regarded, as each empowered individual has a unique Authority Ability. The choice of techniques to complement one's Authority Ability for maximal effect depends entirely on the empowered person.

The empowered individuals of the Chamomile Alliance, on the other hand, focus on techniques, with Authority Ability being secondary, because the Church's sheepskin paper technique system is so convenient... The Church doesn't require most ordinary believers to create techniques, so many empowered individuals willingly let their Authority Ability serve the techniques recorded on sheepskin paper.

The Russian Orthodox Church and domestic empowered individuals can be said to have taken entirely different paths in this area.

In addition, due to different systems, the methods of ascension for empowered individuals on both sides also differ.

The biggest difference being—upon baptism and becoming a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, even believers as strong and renowned as Catherine, driven by Authority Ability Source Canon, must pass a faith assessment to ascend.

Domestically, there are no such restrictions.

However.

Despite these differences, there is one point... empowered individuals in every region share, and that is—condensation of stones.

The Russian Orthodox Church refers to it as 'Divine Format'.

This stage is extremely important to both domestic and Russian Orthodox Church empowered individuals.

Because all abilities of an empowered individual originate from the soul.

The Russian Orthodox Church believes that when all spirits within an empowered individual gather at one point and a Divine Format successfully condenses in the heart, recognized by God, it proves that the person is devout enough... At this point, one can truly serve God.

When an empowered individual not only condenses a Divine Format but also stabilizes it, even undergoing Soul Cutting to place their entire soul within the Divine Format.

At this stage, this empowered individual is considered... sufficient to stand by God's side.

Because it proves that the believer is not only devout, but the soul is pure enough to even approach God.

Achieving this is not a simple feat for ordinary believers.

It is extremely rare within the Russian Orthodox Church.

Even domestically, such empowered individuals are few, so this stage is named 'Che Xin' locally.

Catherine condensed her stone at the age of forty-one and spent nearly three years stabilizing it.

Afterward.

She joined the Inquisition, zealously adjudicating and exterminating heretics, to prove her faith was devout enough, her soul pure enough.

But even so.

She spent six years... a full six years to successfully excise about one-tenth of her soul, placing it within the stone.

When she successfully placed her soul in the stone, all spirits within her gathered to a single point, instantly retracting into the stone, and her previously paused heart thudded loudly, resounding throughout half of the church.

She received two new titles then—'Gifted Inquisitor' and... 'Terrifying Witch'.

Simultaneously, she became a terrifying cloud looming over all heretics. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

She has always taken pride in this, one could even say this was the proudest and most thrilling moment of her life! An Inquisitor proving their faith, enough to stand by God's side! What could be more worth boasting about?