Pretending to be a genius starts with the civilization advancement assessment.

Chapter 266 Assessment Considerations, Resetting Policy (5.8K)

"A clone. And a resurrection?"

Lin Yi's pupils contracted, and he repeated the sentence.

"good."

Qianhuan stretched out his finger, and spiritual light gathered at his fingertip, quickly sketching another phantom image that was almost identical to Lin Yi next to him.

The phantom was initially somewhat blurry, but it quickly solidified, and its aura, expression, and even the slight shock that had just been suppressed in its eyes were exactly the same as Lin Yi's.

"Doppelganger, specifically referring to a spacetime clone."

"This is not a simple energy mirror or illusion creation, but a means of truly locking your spacetime coordinates at a certain moment in the past from the river of time, and then using the power of space to summon or transport you to the present world to fight alongside you or handle affairs."

Lin Yi looked at himself beside him, who seemed like a reflection in a mirror, and felt a strange connection. It was as if he could sense the other's thoughts, yet he knew clearly that it was an independent individual.

“Generally speaking,” Qianhuan continued to explain, while his clone made a few simple fighting moves, which were highly synchronized with Lin Yi’s main body.

"Summoning yourself from about a second in the past is the most common and safest option."

"Because of the one-second time difference, the clone's combat power, memory, and thought patterns are basically completely identical to yours in the real world. There will be no cognitive bias or power gap due to the long time that has passed. You can immediately engage in battle or assign tasks when summoned, so you won't be confused and not know what happened."

However, she changed the subject, and a very thin film of light, constantly flowing with tiny grains of time, appeared on the surface of the illusory clone.

"However, the existence of this clone has an unavoidable drawback."

"Because there are two almost identical 'yous' in the present world at the same time, this is a paradox of the continuity of spacetime. Therefore, the existence of the clone requires you to continuously consume the power of time to maintain its connection and stability with the present world. Once your main body stops supplying the power of time, the clone will immediately disintegrate because it loses its anchor point with the present world."

"and."

Qianhuan pointed to the time membrane, "Because of this layer of time power used to maintain existence and prevent backlash, although the clone has the same combat power and memories as you, its cultivation efficiency will be greatly reduced. Comprehending rules or laws will be like looking at flowers through fog, far inferior to the original body. Therefore, time-space clones are generally used to do hard and tiring work, such as handling miscellaneous tasks, exploring dangerous places, or serving as temporary assistance in battle."

"If your main body has made significant progress, the best way is to disband the old clone and summon a new clone from the more recent past. This way, you can ensure that the clone always has your latest strength and state."

Lin Yi nodded in understanding. Although the mechanism of this clone was ingenious, its limitations were also obvious. It was not a perfect skill that could be used without restrictions.

Then, Qianhuan pointed his finger, and the scene in front of him changed again.

A blurry phantom appeared, and then, as if thrown into a torrent, it was quickly swept into the vast river of time, sinking upstream towards the past, growing dimmer and dimmer until it was almost invisible.

Immediately afterwards, a "hand" made of pure spacetime power reached into the river, going upstream with difficulty to trace the direction of the sunken phantom, as if searching for something.

“Besides the clones, the most important thing is,” Qianhuan’s voice carried a solemnity that seemed to touch upon a taboo of life, “resurrection.”

These two words, like a thunderclap, exploded in Lin Yi's mind.

Qianhuan's expression was also extremely solemn.

"The principle of resurrection is similar to that of creating a clone, both of which act on 'past individuals', but the difficulty and risks are worlds apart."

"With a clone, you only need to lock onto the version of yourself from the previous second. The target is clear, the distance is short, and the energy consumption is relatively controllable."

"And resurrected."

Qianhuan pointed to the hand struggling against the current in the river of time, "You need to go against the river of time, trace back to the moment when the target was still alive. This moment could be a day ago, a year ago, or even longer! This requires extremely strong time perception and positioning ability. After finding it, you also need to retrieve it from the past and then transport it to the present."

She explained with a vivid analogy: "It's like rescuing a drowning person! Summoning a clone is like swimming in the river yourself, which is easy. But rescuing a drowning person who is constantly sinking and struggling in the river of time is many times more difficult."

"Therefore, if you want to resurrect someone else, you must have absolute overwhelming power! Generally speaking, you should never try if you are not at least two major realms stronger than the person you are trying to resurrect."

"Otherwise, not only will you fail to save people, but you yourself may also be dragged down by the target, pulled into the depths of the river of time, losing your mind and strength, and ultimately drowning in the river of time, your body and soul destroyed!"

Lin Yi felt a chill run down his spine; he hadn't expected the resurrection technique to be so dangerous.

“However,” Qianhuan said, “the reason it is called resurrection is because the past self that was salvaged no longer exists in the present world. Therefore, once it is successfully brought to the present world, it can live like a normal person without you having to spend extra time and effort to maintain its existence. Its cultivation and life will not be affected in any way.”

As she spoke, Qianxiang paused for a moment, then added, "Of course, because after someone dies, their belongings and treasures may have been destroyed or become someone else's spoils. Therefore, when resurrecting someone, usually only the body is retrieved. Items and treasures are not brought along unless it is known for certain that they have been destroyed along with the target and they have sufficient value to be retrieved. This is not only because it would consume extra effort, but also because it would usually be meaningless to bring them along."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi gained a clear and profound understanding of clones and resurrection under the laws of spacetime.

These two supernatural powers are undoubtedly powerful, but the costs and risks involved are equally staggering.

Just then, a thought flashed through Lin Yi's mind, and he suddenly thought of his master, Xu Chen.

He quickly said, "Senior sister, I saw with my own eyes that when Master Xuchen finished the civilization advancement assessment, he used resurrection on my Silver Blue Civilization, bringing back all those who sacrificed themselves in the assessment!"

Upon hearing this, Qianhuan smiled meaningfully, "Guess why the examiners for our human race's civilization advancement assessment are all gods like us who wield the laws of illusion?"

Lin Yi was taken aback. He had never thought deeply about this question before. Now that he was asked it, he pondered for a moment and then frankly said, "At first, I thought it was because the Illusionary Law makes it convenient to directly create various realistic crises during the assessment to test the potential of a civilization. But now that I've heard my senior sister ask this, and thinking about resurrection, I think it should be related to the methods of resurrection?"

"Not bad." Qianhuan nodded approvingly. "How much do you know about the rules of the virtual world?"

Lin Yi recalled the information he had found in the training camp and said, "There isn't much information about the Illusionary Rules. Most of the publicly available information mentions it, but its core lies in the transformation between reality and illusion. It can simulate some of the effects of other rules and be used to construct illusions that are difficult to distinguish from reality."

"Yes, your basic understanding is correct."

Qianhuan smiled slightly, a hint of pride in her voice, "But I suppose you don't know that among the higher rules, the Illusory Rules have an additional, less formal but widely recognized title."

She paused, then said, word by word, "The First Higher Rule."

Lin Yi was taken aback: "The First Higher Rule?"

This was the first time he had ever heard of this title.

“That’s right,” Qianhuan affirmed. “The illusory rules have a general pattern in their simulation of rules at different levels: they can simulate 90% of the power of foundational rules, 70% of the power of advanced rules, and 50% of the power of high-level rules.”

She paused slightly, a strange expression on her face: "As for the higher-level rules... well, they're a bit special, probably only able to simulate about 10% of their power. Even though it's only 10%, 10% of the power of higher-level rules is enough to deal with many situations."

Lin Yi was shocked. The simulation of the foundational rules was 90%, the advanced level was 70%, and the high level was 50%!
Mastering one rule is equivalent to mastering all rules; the effect is simply incredible.

No wonder it's called the first superior rule. If it weren't for the sharp drop in the simulation effect of higher-level rules, the illusory rule might have become a superior rule itself.

Qianhuan continued, "So you see, even without relying on the laws of spacetime, the simulation ability of the illusory rules themselves, combined with an understanding of other rules, is enough to revive some low-level lives. The power of illusion can simulate a variety of effects such as time positioning, soul attraction, and life reshaping."

"not to mention"

She winked mischievously. "To conserve divine power and increase efficiency, we illusory law deities responsible for assessments often choose a more economical and practical method of resurrection."

"During the assessment period, we will use our divine kingdom to cover the assessment targets, then we will record the entire assessment process, and we will have intelligent life record the specific time of the death of all life forms, and then..."

Qianhuan reached out and made a swipe, and a blurry, illusory point of soul light appeared.

"When resurrection is needed, we lock onto the soul imprint based on this time. We don't even need to painstakingly retrieve the past body from the river of time. We only need to capture the unique soul imprint, bring it to the present world, and then use the laws of life and death to directly consume energy to reshape a physical body for it."

"This method is much less laborious and more cost-effective than simply retrieving people from the river of time."

"In addition," Qianhuan added, "we illusory law gods also have the ability to create clones. Although these clones are not as real and omnipotent as true spacetime clones, and their strength is greatly reduced, they are more than enough to undertake functions such as assessment and supervision, maintaining illusions, and performing resurrection when necessary."

"As long as a civilization participating in the assessment meets the set potential standard and proves its value, then the gods in charge of monitoring will usually resurrect those who make reasonable sacrifices during the assessment."

"After all, the fundamental purpose of the civilization advancement assessment is to select civilizations with potential and value for our human race, not to create deadly enmity." "And those civilizations that perform poorly in the assessment, if they rise against the tide under pressure and reach a certain level, can apply to resurrect those who died in the assessment. Such cases are rare, but they do occur. Of course, this information is not allowed to be disseminated on the Pan-Spirit Alliance network; it can be known, but not spoken."

"Because allowing some unresilient civilizations to perish on their own, thus freeing up planets for potentially habitable civilizations, is also one of the purposes of the assessment."

Lin Yi suddenly realized!

That's it
What Master Xuchen used at that time was not the extremely dangerous spacetime resurrection technique, but rather a more ingenious and efficient method of "soul imprint reshaping" that combined the characteristics of the illusory law.

This also explains why he was able to revive a large number of people so effortlessly.

The civilization assessment is led by illusory gods, not only because it is convenient to construct illusions, but also because they are the best candidates to carry out this "low-cost, high-efficiency" resurrection.

Behind this is a mature, efficient, and pragmatic operating mechanism.

Today's conversation with his senior sister not only resolved many of his doubts about the laws of spacetime, but also allowed him to glimpse the tip of the iceberg of the operational logic of the human race's high-level leaders, as well as the various possibilities brought about by the ingenious cooperation between different law systems.

Seeing Lin Yi's expression of realization mixed with contemplation, Qian Huan knew he had digested most of the information, so she steered the conversation back to Lin Yi himself, her tone carrying a hint of warning and reminder:

“Junior brother, you must understand that theory is theory and practice is practice. Even if you successfully master the rules of spacetime in the future, with your current total source energy and soul strength at the star core level, if you want to perform the resurrection technique, even to resurrect a powerless mortal, the process will be extremely dangerous. A slight mistake could backfire.”

"The struggle of that drowning person is still a deadly whirlpool for you now."

But then she changed the subject, "However, you can start practicing the clone technique once you master the rules of time. Although at your stage, you can only maintain one clone at most due to limitations in source energy and control, this real spacetime clone is much stronger than the fake clone that your senior sister of mine simulates using illusory laws."

As she spoke, another illusory clone of her appeared beside Qianhuan.

Although the phantom looked identical, its aura was noticeably weaker, making it appear somewhat frail.

"A clone like mine is only good for fooling people and handling simple matters. But if I were to encounter a powerful enemy of the same level, I wouldn't last a single move. Your spacetime clone, on the other hand, has almost the same combat power, intelligence, and experience as the original body. It is a tremendous help."

"Many dangerous places that the main body cannot go to personally, the deduction of cultivation techniques that require risky attempts, and even some missions with a life-or-death situation can be done by the clone. Even if the clone perishes, it will only result in the loss of the clone's equipment and the source energy and time to reshape the clone, which will not harm your core. This is the most powerful aspect of the spacetime clone."

At this point, Qianhuan waved his hand and chuckled, "Alright, alright, why bother telling you all this now? There's only one thing you need to do first."

She stopped smiling and looked at Lin Yi.

"Since you have made up your mind and chosen this path, then eliminate distractions and cultivate diligently. First, successfully learn the rules of time you have chosen, and even master them! Without the rules of time as a foundation, all your wonderful ideas about time and space are just castles in the air."

Lin Yi's expression turned serious. He suppressed all the chaotic thoughts about the clone, resurrection, and even the mystery of the ancient jade, and bowed respectfully, saying:

"Senior sister's teachings are correct. Junior brother must devote himself to cultivation and live up to senior sister's guidance today."

Qianhuan nodded slightly, seeing Lin Yi's serious attitude.

Then, with a light tap of her slender finger, several streaks of light flashed, and several phantom images of ancient books appeared in front of Lin Yi.

Judging from the covers, they are "Three Basic Models of Time Source Induction", "Dialectical Understanding of Moment and Eternity", and "An Introduction to the Time Ripple Observation Method", among others.

"These classic texts were selected for you by your senior sister. They are the most suitable introductory guides to the rules of time for building a foundation, and they are much better than the common stuff in the training camp."

Qianhuan smiled charmingly, with a hint of mischief, "Don't worry, your senior sister has already paid for you. You don't need to spend any star crystals. Consider it a gift for us. Study hard! If you have any questions about cultivation, you can ask your senior sister anytime."

She paused, a mysterious glint in her eyes, leaned closer, and lowered her voice, saying, "Also, once you've successfully mastered the rules of time, I've prepared a little surprise for you, guaranteed to satisfy you!"

Lin Yi was invigorated, feeling both grateful for his senior sister's generous gift of books and meticulous guidance, and also intrigued by the surprise.

It wasn't out of greed, but rather because his senior sister's actions had piqued his curiosity.

Lin Yi suppressed his emotions and bowed solemnly:
"Junior brother must devote himself to cultivation, live up to senior sister's expectations, and definitely obtain that surprise!"

Qianhuan nodded in satisfaction, her figure gradually fading in the dreamlike halo, her ethereal voice drifting over: "Very good, Senior Sister is waiting for you. Keep up the good work, Junior Brother."

As soon as he finished speaking, Qianhuan's figure disappeared completely, and Lin Yi's consciousness returned to the rest cabin of the "Morning Star".

The cabin remained quiet, with only the low hum of the spacecraft engines and the distorted starlight outside the window as a backdrop.

But Lin Yi's state of mind was different from before the conversation.

There was less confusion and self-doubt due to the unknown, and more clear understanding and determination about the road ahead.

Lin Yi sat quietly for a moment, digesting the massive amount of information from his conversation with his senior sister.

The iron law of time, the supernatural power of time and space, the mysteries of illusory laws, and the truth of the civilization test—each one of them challenged his original understanding.

The possibility of "resurrection" and the prospect of "clones" as excellent aids, in particular, are like a bright light, illuminating more possibilities for his future plans and giving him a deeper desire for power.

After a long silence, Lin Yi spoke:

"Xuanji."

Xuanji, dressed in palace attire, quietly appeared before him, bowing slightly.

"Owner."

Lin Yi looked at Xuanji and gave a new instruction:

"Xuanji, based on the premise that 'members can be resurrected through specific means after sacrificing themselves in a mission,' we need to develop a new training program and mission risk assessment system for the Dongfeng Mercenary Group."

He paused, then clarified further:

"The original core principle of 'safety first, stability paramount' has been modified to 'strengthening first, practical combat paramount'."

"All training is centered on improving the team members' ability to survive at extreme levels, unleash their potential, and adapt to real combat situations, while allowing for higher-intensity dangerous confrontations and extreme challenges within a controllable range."

"Mission risk assessment will no longer prioritize 'zero casualties' or 'minimum casualties.' The focus will shift to the strategic value of the mission objectives, the benefits to enhancing the capabilities of team members, and the importance of acquiring key resources. Mission safety factors will be considered last in the assessment sequence."

With resurrection as the ultimate guarantee, many strategies that were previously conservative due to concerns about casualties can become more aggressive and efficient.

He wanted to fully utilize the psychological advantage brought by this information to transform the Dongfeng Mercenary Group into a truly invincible force.

“The instruction has been confirmed, Master.” Xuanji quickly understood and recorded this instruction that would fundamentally change the mercenary group’s development direction. “The new training syllabus and risk assessment model will be drafted within one hour of standard time, and the existing mission sequence will be re-evaluated simultaneously.”

“Very good.” Lin Yi nodded and continued, “In addition, use our Dongfeng Mercenary Group’s information-sharing privileges within the Starbound Army to query all information about that Blade Prince of the Kunmo Clan. This includes his current strength assessment, his usual star regions, his fighting style, known weaknesses and trump cards, and his recent itinerary.”

"Based on the information retrieved, we began to formulate a preliminary framework for the hunt for the Blade Prince. We assessed the combat strength required by our side, the best ambush location and timing, the possible chain reactions, and countermeasures."

Xuanji immediately responded, "Yes, Master. Information query permission is being applied for. After the application is approved, a detailed hunting plan and contingency plan will be formulated based on the information."

"Ah."

Lin Yi waved his hand, signaling Xuanji to step back.

Then, he turned his gaze to the endless starry sky outside the porthole, as if he could penetrate this vast distance and see the Kunmo tribe that had once slaughtered so many on Crimson Blood Star.

"Some grudges have been dragged on long enough, and it's time to settle them."

(End of this chapter)