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

Chapter 279 Fleeting Beauty, Fourth Level of Domain (5K)

"Yes, Master. The application has been submitted. Once approved and military merits deducted, the items will be delivered through the military's top-secret channels. Estimated delivery time: within three standard hours."

Upon hearing that the exchange was successful, Lin Yi finally felt relieved.

He then sat cross-legged, calmed his mind, and tried to get himself into the best possible state.

Two and a half standard hours later.

The door to the quiet room closed silently behind me, completely shutting out all the noise from the outside world.

Lin Yi stood still, not immediately starting to cultivate, but first calming his slightly fluctuating thoughts.

Just half a standard hour ago, he had experienced a "handover" that was unexpectedly high in scale.

When he received Xuanji's notification that the [Fleeting Beauty] he had exchanged had been delivered through the military's top-secret channels and was waiting for him to receive it in person, he thought it would be like the treasures of the past, escorted by a star-domain level expert.

However, when he stepped out of the fortress and into the handover room of the transport ship, which was isolated by multiple force fields, he found that the person waiting there was not the elite Astral Army officer in a crisp military uniform as he had imagined, but a middle-aged man in a simple gray robe.

But just by standing there, it was as if he himself was the core of an independent universe.

Evolutionary level!
Lin Yi felt a chill run down his spine.

"Lin Yi?"

The gray-robed man smiled slightly, a smile that was peaceful yet carried an air of authority. "I am Yan Tu. I am responsible for delivering this rare item that you exchanged."

Lin Yi suppressed his surprise and bowed calmly: "I am flattered that Lord Yantu has come all this way."

Yan Tu looked at Lin Yi with great interest. "No need for formalities."

He waved his hand. "To be honest, according to standard procedure, rare treasures of the 'Fleeting Beauty' level are usually escorted by Star Domain-level Invincible experts. However..."

Yan Tu paused slightly, his smile widening. "When I saw your name on the exchange list, I took the initiative to take on this task. I also wanted to see for myself what kind of young talent could make those insects of the Kunmo Clan jump around so much, even resorting to avoidance strategies, and still stir up such a storm on the Star Sea Network."

"Now that I see it for myself, it truly lives up to its reputation."

Lin Yi was speechless.

They only met once and didn't even exchange two words, so how could they possibly know that the reputation was "well-deserved"?
It's nothing more than polite words.

But Lin Yi also knew that since the other party was from the Yan Realm and was deliberately showing goodwill, he naturally had to accept it.

"Lord Yantu, you flatter me." Lin Yi's tone was humble yet neither servile nor arrogant. "I was merely there by chance and did what I was supposed to do. I do not deserve such high praise."

Upon hearing this, a hint of appreciation flashed in Yan Tu's eyes.

He is neither arrogant nor impatient; his temperament is indeed excellent.

After that, he said no more, raised his hand and gestured, and a sealed box about one meter long, made entirely of a "dark entropy alloy" that shimmered with dark blue starlight, appeared out of thin air and slowly floated in front of Lin Yi.

The surface of the box is covered with countless fine energy patterns, forming a powerful seal to ensure that no internal energy leaks out.

"The fleeting beauty is contained within. The usage and taboos are probably detailed in the exchange list, so I will not repeat them here."

"Thank you for the reminder, senior." Lin Yi solemnly accepted the box. It was extremely heavy in his hand, as if he were holding not a physical object, but a small piece of frozen time and space.

Yan Tu nodded and said, "I look forward to you bringing glory to our human race again in the upcoming Genius Battle. Go now."

Lin Yi bowed slightly, then returned to the fortress with the sealed box.

He didn't return to the quiet room immediately, but went to see Irelia first.

"Commander, you..." Irelia immediately noticed the box in Lin Yi's hand that was emitting a strange fluctuation.

Lin Yi looked at Irelia and said, "Irelia, now that I have the items, I need to go into deep seclusion. It shouldn't be for long, but during this time, all matters within the group and communication with the outside world will be handled by you. Unless it is a matter of life and death, do not disturb me."

Irelia naturally understood the importance of this matter, and she nodded emphatically: "Understood. You can go into seclusion without worry, I'll take care of everything."

Lin Yi nodded and said no more; this was a testament to the trust and tacit understanding that had developed over a long period of time.

He then turned and returned to his private meditation room.

At this moment, Lin Yi cleared his mind of all distractions, then sat cross-legged, his gaze like that of a highly precise scanner, carefully examining the two strange objects floating in front of him.

On the left is the Sands of Time, which cost ten million military merits to acquire and is placed on a specially made zero-element inertial base.

There, a small clump of grayish-brown sand lay quietly, indistinguishable from ordinary stardust if not examined closely.

However, if one focuses their attention, they will find that the light and even the spatial structure around it are subtly distorted, emitting a contradictory rhythm in which all things sometimes accelerate their decay and sometimes reverse their rebirth.

On the right is the "Entropy Alloy" sealed box that has just been opened.

The lid had been opened, revealing a soft, liquid nebula-like layer of ordering gel inside.

And resting quietly on the gel, a flower whose beauty and mystery cannot be precisely described in words.

This flower is the fleeting beauty he finally obtained after spending 200 million military merits, going through many twists and turns, and even teaching on the "veteran" platform.

It is not a plant, but rather a solid miracle formed from the manifestation of the first rule involving the origin of "time" at the beginning of the universe.

Its shape is somewhere between a flower and a multidimensional geometric structure. If you look closely, there are countless tiny points of light flowing inside the petals, but the whole thing has a strange sense of transparency.

But this transparency seems to contain all the colors from the birth to the end of the universe, yet it returns to an ultimate "nothingness," leaving only the traces of the flow of time itself.

It has no fragrance in the material sense, but it exudes a strange vibration that stirs the soul and resonates with the rules.

Just by gazing at it, Lin Yi felt that his perception of the rules of time had become slightly clearer.

According to the military, this fleeting beauty does not work through ingestion or energy absorption.

Instead, it requires the user to highly condense their own soul, transforming it into the most subtle tentacles, to gently guide those "time-sequence crystal flakes," which are the true meaning contained in the petals in Lin Yi's eyes.

When the soul successfully connects with the crystal fragment, the user's consciousness will be temporarily pulled into a "dimensional of absolute enlightenment" that transcends the normal flow of time. There, the mysteries of the rules of time will unfold like a scroll, allowing the user to observe and comprehend them.

Each crystal can maintain this state of "absolute enlightenment" for about sixty seconds.

This dreamlike flower has only nine petals.

Nine time-series crystals represent nine minutes of absolute enlightenment time.

This number made Lin Yi's heart sink slightly.

The rules of time, as one of the two pillars of the universe, are far more profound and complex than any other rules.

He had hoped for more time, but these nine minutes were the limit he could get at the moment.

"Nine minutes plus the continuous buffs from the Sands of Time, and the spiritual energy I've accumulated over sixty years."

Lin Yi quickly made up his mind. The opportunity for fleeting beauty only comes once, and it must be made to the fullest extent.

His gaze first fell upon the Sands of Time.

Next, he carefully lifted a small handful of sand and scattered it evenly around himself, forming a simple ring.

Suddenly, the strange rhythm of time became clearer, and he felt that the flow of time within a one-meter radius around him seemed to have a very subtle difference from the rest of the quiet room.

This difference is not about acceleration or deceleration, but rather closer to an "optimization" that makes his perception of the rules of time more acute.

The anticipated 10% increase in perception efficiency has begun to take effect.

Immediately afterwards, Lin Yi focused his mind on the purple mist space within his soul's origin.

There, the misty air representing "spiritual enlightenment" had accumulated into a thick mass, slowly rotating like a nebula. This was his accumulation of over sixty years, and his greatest reliance in challenging the rules of time.

He carefully anchored his efforts over two years, holding back his intentions.

Finally, Lin Yi focused all his attention on that fleeting beauty.

The power of the soul transformed into the gentlest tentacles, slowly touching the first transparent petal, while simultaneously drawing in the anchored spiritual energy with a powerful breath.

"Buzz!"

The instant his soul power touched the petals, Lin Yi's entire consciousness seemed to be thrown into an invisible singularity, which then exploded violently.

The quiet room, the body, the Sands of Time, and all external perceptions blurred and faded away until they disappeared completely.

His entire existence was forcibly pulled into a dimension composed of pure time rules.

Here, there is no up, down, left, right, past, or future.

Only countless lines of time that are constantly intertwining and colliding.

Some are like gentle streams, calm and peaceful; some are like rushing rivers, surging and turbulent; and some are like cosmic storms, violent and destructive, tearing everything apart.

The slowing and speeding of time, the cycles and breaks, and even countless paradoxes and possibilities, all presented themselves to him with unprecedented clarity and were imprinted on his soul.

This is the state of "absolute enlightenment"!
What used to take months or years to decipher, relying on spiritual enlightenment, now surged into his perception like a tide.

Those obstacles that had troubled him for so long, those bottlenecks that seemed like insurmountable chasms, now appeared as smooth roads. Lin Yi "saw" a phantom of a river of time.

It is not a real river, but a collection of the trajectories of the movement, change, and decay of all things.

The first petal, as he immersed himself in this vast sea of ​​rules, quietly transformed into tiny, shimmering particles of light, vanishing without a trace.

A minute passes in the blink of an eye.

The second petal began to glow.

Another wave of even more turbulent and overwhelming information about the rules assaulted Lin Yi's consciousness.

He began to delve into deeper mysteries. The essence of "time stop" is not to stop everything, but to construct an absolutely "static" rule framework at the rule level, forcibly covering the operation of rules in local areas.

The prototype of the "time loop" involved marking specific time and space segments and then extracting and connecting them with the beginning and end of the loop.
Lin Yi's understanding of the rules of time began to rise at an unprecedented speed.

15% 32% 51% 58%
Every second, a new insight is born.

Every moment, old confusions crumble.

Soon, the second petal disappeared.

The third petal is attached.

Lin Yi's consciousness swam freely in the ocean of time rules, absorbing everything with great thirst.

The constant gain from the Sands of Time made him process the flood of information more efficiently.

The spiritual energy, on the other hand, acted as the highest quality fuel, supporting him in carrying out extremely high-intensity deduction and fusion.

Lin Yi began to try to understand the feasibility of "time reversal," which involved reversing the flow of time, and its difficulty increased exponentially.

But he was not afraid. In a state of enlightenment, he keenly grasped a faint possibility. It was not about truly reversing the time of the entire universe, but about "overwriting" the state of matter in a local area, which required unimaginable energy and absolute control over the rules.

The fourth and fifth petals were consumed one after another.

With a comprehension level exceeding 70%, we are moving towards a deeper understanding.

Lin Yi's perception of time became increasingly refined, and he could even clearly sense the slow passage of his own lifespan and vaguely perceive the "traces of time" on the surrounding objects.

In his eyes, time is no longer an abstract concept, but a concrete existence that can be perceived, understood, and even tried to touch.

The sixth petal is activated.

The level of comprehension is approaching 80%.

He began to explore the interaction between time rules and other rules.

How do time and space work together to create a stable spatiotemporal structure?

Time and life, how do the passing years leave their mark on our genes and souls?

How can time and gold keep sharpness forever, or hasten its decay?

All sorts of mysteries came one after another.

The seventh petal.

The comprehension level reached 85%.

His control over the rules of time has surpassed the comprehension of most star-domain level powerhouses.

Some basic time applications, such as small-scale time delay fields and weak single-target acceleration spells, have already formed a clear pattern in his mind.

The eighth petal, which is also the penultimate petal, begins to take effect.

My comprehension level has soared to 90%!

This is a critical point.

We are just one step away from complete control.

He was already standing at the very core of the Hall of Time Rules, only one step away from pushing open that final door.

However, the ninth and final petal is slowly fading away.

The nine-minute state of absolute enlightenment is about to end.

Lin Yi's mind was perfectly clear, without the slightest panic.

He had already calculated everything.

"93%, leaving only 7% of my comprehension. And I have accumulated enough spiritual energy for over fifty years!"

This number gave him boundless confidence.

Even without the fleeting beauty, with the remaining spiritual energy and the aid of the Sands of Time, and by methodically comprehending the rules of time, he would absolutely be able to push them to perfection.

Moreover, he was currently in the afterglow of a state of enlightenment, and his affinity and understanding of the rules of time were still at their peak.

"Let's press on with our momentum, starting today!"

Lin Yi did not hesitate at all, nor did he have any intention of quitting while he was ahead.

The path of cultivation is like rowing against the current; one must forge ahead relentlessly!

He forcefully calmed his slightly agitated mind, which was still reeling from the end of his state of enlightenment, and continued to draw upon the remaining spiritual energy year by year.

At the same time, the Sands of Time's stable and lasting buffs acted as the most faithful foundation, supporting his understanding.

The increase from 93% to 95% represents a qualitative leap.

Lin Yi felt as if his soul had merged into the phantom of that river of time, no longer an observer on the shore, but a drop of water in the river, able to feel the flow and power of time more vividly.

95.5% 96% 97.5%
While the speed of progress couldn't match the explosive advancement of a state of enlightenment, it was remarkably stable.

Every insight he gained was incredibly solid, completely transforming into the foundation of his own set of rules.

His concept of "time stop" became clearer, his understanding of the structure of "time loop" became more thorough, and he even began to feel that the seemingly unattainable "time rewind" was something he could actually reach.

98% 98.5% 99%!

The moment his comprehension reached 99%, Lin Yi's entire consciousness seemed to hear a roar from the depths of the universe's origin.

He "saw" that the countless flowing and intertwined lines of time suddenly converged on him, like hundreds of rivers flowing into the sea, and finally condensed into a complete rule rune containing endless mysteries at the core of his soul.

This rune represents the ultimate mystery of the rules of time.

100%!

Time rules, perfectly controlled.

However, this is not the end.

At the very moment the rules of time were perfected, Lin Yi had a sudden inspiration and, without any hesitation, immediately disassembled and restored the three domain fusion runes that had been fused together.

Subsequently.

"melt!"

From the depths of his soul, he uttered a deep, resonant shout.

In an instant, with the newly formed time rule rune as its core, the platinum rune representing the extreme sharpness of gold, the emerald green rune representing the nourishment of life, and the bright silver rune representing the transformation of space, as if summoned by a king, suddenly rotated and intertwined around the time rune.

This is an extremely difficult process.

Lin Yi's first two domain fusions were almost effortless, because fusing high-level rules with low-level rules is very easy and can be accomplished in one fell swoop.

But this time is different. Time and space are both superior rules, but their power attributes are very different, greatly increasing the difficulty. If you are not careful, at best your soul will be shaken, and at worst the rule imprint will be shattered, and you will suffer serious injuries.

However, Lin Yi believed he still had over thirty years of spiritual enlightenment remaining, coupled with the lingering effects of the Sands of Time and the unique governing power of the newly perfected Time Rule, which seemed to transcend all other rules.
After a brief period of initial repulsion and tremors, the runes of the four rules finally began to truly merge.

Its platinum-gold sharpness, integrated with time and space, endows it with the ability to cut through everything.

The vibrant green life, integrated into time and space, endows it with the qualities of nourishment and continuation.

The bright silver space, which is the twin brother of time, is now tightly bound together under the rule of time, with each part of the other.

After an unknown amount of time, all the strange phenomena suddenly subsided.

At the core of Lin Yi's soul, the four dazzling rule runes had disappeared, replaced by a composite rule rune that emitted a faint silver-gray glow.

Four realms!

　I've been a bit busy today, the second update will be at 11 PM.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)