Civilization Advancement Assessment

Lin Yi quickly collected himself.

Years of tempering had taught him not to dwell on his emotions. After a brief moment of reflection, he turned his attention to the approaching Civilization Advancement Assessment.

Seven days could seem like a long time, but they could pass in a blink.

He had been given the extraordinary chance to live his life again. If he wanted things to turn out differently, he needed to plan ahead.

Before the assessment began, he had to make every preparation he could.

Lin Yi paced for a moment, then dropped into the chair at his desk. As he tidied its cluttered surface, he began carefully sorting through everything he knew about the Civilization Advancement Assessment.

The Cosmic Human Race held a vast territory. Every day, countless human civilizations on primitive planets reached a critical point and sought to join the ranks of Interstellar Civilizations.

After untold hardship, the Cosmic Human Race had barely established itself as a powerful race among the billions scattered across the stars. But the universe held hundreds of other powerful races.

Above them stood the pinnacle races.

So within the Pan-Spirit Alliance, whose undisputed core was the Spirit Race, the Cosmic Human Race was only somewhat stronger than an ordinary member.

To survive and grow amid the universe's brutal competition, coordinate limited resources, and identify promising new human civilizations capable of producing powerful individuals, the Human Race Supreme Council established the Civilization Advancement Assessment Mechanism.

Eternal Divine level beings who specialized in the Illusory Law would oversee assessments of every civilization that qualified for advancement.

After ages of development in isolation, the human civilization on Blue Star had finally reached the threshold of an Interstellar Civilization.

In seven days, a Divine Spirit Avatar wielding the Illusory Law would arrive in the space beyond Blue Star. It would envelop the entire planet in a Divine Kingdom Projection and administer the Human Race's cruel but fair advancement assessment to this emerging civilization.

A high score meant preferential access to resources and extensive support. A planet like Blue Star, located in an Origin Energy Barren Belt, might even be relocated to an Origin Energy Abundant Zone.

A low score meant becoming nothing more than a Resource Star or a source of soldiers. Its people would struggle through hardship, hoping the pressure might produce someone strong enough to change their civilization's fate.

This was a civilization's coming-of-age trial.

Abyssal Beasts descended from the heavens! The apocalypse began!

Abyssal Beasts were terrifying monsters between reality and illusion, simulated by an Eternal Divinity's supreme power.

They possessed real destructive power and an instinct to kill, yet sprang from the Illusory Law and were endless in number.

Tides of Abyssal Beasts poured from their nests, tearing apart order and devouring lives.

At the thought, Lin Yi could not help feeling rueful.

In his previous life, when Blue Star's thousand-year assessment finally ended, the people of Blue Star were furious to learn the truth behind the apocalypse.

Countless people had died. Dozens of generations had struggled to survive. Their entire civilization's fate had been toyed with, and because it had failed to reach the required assessment standard, it received only a level-two civilization rating.

All of Blue Star became a tool for supplying resources, and nearly everyone on the planet struggled in poverty.

Lin Yi and the other Star Core level individuals who had earned level-four personal ratings during the assessment could leave Blue Star as free people. They entered the wider universe burning with that resentment.

But as time passed and they traveled among the stars, their horizons broadened—especially through the Virtual Network. Their deepest resentment shifted from the Human Race Supreme Council, which had created the Civilization Advancement Assessment Mechanism, to themselves.

What did they hate?

They hated that they had not measured up. They hated that they had not worked hard enough.

Most of all, they hated that after reaching Star Core level, they had slowed their cultivation and let petty concerns hold them back, missing the extraordinary opportunity offered by the Civilization Advancement Assessment.

Only later did they learn that the Human Race Supreme Council protected every Primary Civilization before its advancement assessment.

That protection ensured a fledgling human civilization could develop normally rather than be destroyed by outside forces.

Why had Blue Star remained safe when the stars were fraught with danger?

No Star Pirate raids. No dying sun. No planetary collisions.

Because the Civilization Guardians dispatched by the Purple Gold Star Union under the Supreme Council had dealt with them all.

Without the Supreme Council, ninety-nine percent of Primary Civilizations would long ago have been wiped out by natural disasters or enslaved by advanced civilizations and Star Pirates.

Lin Yi recalled a fellow member of his Mercenary Group who had also joined after his civilization's advancement assessment.

The man had once mentioned in casual conversation that his civilization, Kanbo, had recorded more than thirty world-ending crises throughout its history. Every one of them had somehow been resolved.

In the most outrageous case, an asteroid had nearly reached the atmosphere before suddenly disintegrating into dust.

Perhaps the Kanbo Civilization Guardian's habit of waiting until the last moment explained why religion was so prevalent there. When trouble came, the gods really did intervene.

The one time they had not intervened, of course, was during the Civilization Advancement Assessment...

Lin Yi and the others had complicated feelings about it. Above all, they resented their former selves even more.

Because beyond the protection they received early on, the advancement assessment itself was more than a disaster. For individuals and civilizations alike, it was also an opportunity.

For one thing, the fact that an Eternal Divine level being's avatar presided over it showed how seriously the Human Race Supreme Council took the Civilization Advancement Assessment.

What did Eternal Divine level mean? According to public information on the Virtual Network, the entire Purple Gold Star Union had only one Eternal Divinity: Ming Luo, chairman of the Star Union Executive Committee.

Ordinarily, from its birth to its extinction, a civilization would cross paths with an Eternal Divine level being only during its advancement assessment.

Lin Yi thought of the Gaokao, which had ended not long ago, and the acceptance letter he had received from Qingteng University today. He could not help reflecting on the similarity.

How different is the Civilization Advancement Assessment from Blue Star's Gaokao and university education? The Gaokao is the best chance an ordinary person has to change their fate, and a principal may be the only member of society's upper ranks they ever get to meet.

And the enormous supply of resources during the Assessment Period is like four years at university. If you fail to use those unlimited resources to develop and can't even earn a level-three rating—your diploma—who can you blame when the wider Interstellar Civilization gives you a beating?

They could only blame themselves for falling short.

Back then, Abyssal Beasts had descended without warning. Blue Star Civilization had fought back in haste and chaos, struggling to survive.

Cities became ruins, order teetered on the brink of collapse, and humanity clung to life in the monsters' shadow, building fragile shelters amid the wreckage.

Technology advanced slowly through the struggle, while individuals evolved with difficulty through blood and fire.

Yet once the Abyssal Beasts had been brought somewhat under control and humanity had moved from desperate defense to a strategic stalemate, Blue Star's nations did not launch a full counterattack to wipe them out. Their early cooperation gave way to obstruction and infighting.

One major reason was their greed for the resources Abyssal Beasts produced.

Killing an Abyssal Beast of any rank caused a strange energy crystal to condense—a Spirit Shine Crystal!

Inside was a randomly generated "reward" of varying value.

These crystals were meant to nurture and reward the civilization undergoing assessment. They were the assessment's most crucial resource.

A Spirit Shine Crystal's grade was directly tied to the strength of the Abyssal Beast. Every kill was a mystery box.

The reward might be a rare cosmic metal or biological material, a fragment of an Origin Energy cultivation method or a complete inheritance, or a highly compressed crystal of pure Source Energy...

It might even be a weapon or equipment blueprint far beyond Blue Star's current technological level.

This crucial resource divided Blue Star Civilization's leaders over how to deal with the Abyssal Beasts.

Some believed the beasts were continuing to evolve and had to be wiped out at all costs.

Others saw them as a renewable resource.

As long as they could be kept under control, the beasts could greatly aid the civilization's development. They might even negotiate with intelligent, high-ranking Beast Kings and find a way for both sides to benefit.