Considerations for the Assessment, Re-establishing the Policy

"A clone. And a resurrection?"

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

"Good."

Thousand Illusions extended his finger, and spiritual light gathered at his fingertip, quickly sketching another phantom image that was almost identical to Lin Yi's beside him.

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

"A clone, specifically referring to Time-Space Clone."

"This is not a simple energy mirror or illusion, but a means of truly locking onto your spatiotemporal 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."

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

"Generally speaking," Thousand Illusions 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 Gap, the clone's combat power, memories, and thought patterns are basically identical to yours in the real world. There won't be any cognitive biases or power gaps due to the long time that has passed. You can immediately engage in battle or assign tasks when summoned, without being completely confused and unaware of what's happening."

However, she changed the subject, and a very thin film of light, Severing Flow 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 time power to maintain its connection and stability with the present world. Once your Main Body Time Severance power, the clone will immediately disintegrate because it loses its anchor point with the present world."

"And."

Thousand Illusions pointed to the time-space membrane, "Because of this membrane, which is used to maintain existence and isolate the backlash of time power, although the clone possesses the same combat strength 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 Main Body. Therefore, Time-Space Clone are generally used for hard and tiring tasks, such as handling miscellaneous affairs, exploring dangerous places, or serving as temporary assistance in battle."

"If your Main Body has made significant progress, the best approach is to disband the old clone and summon a new one from the more recent past. This will ensure that the clone always possesses your latest strength and condition."

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, Thousand Illusions pointed her finger, and the scene before her changed once more.

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, tracing the direction of the sunken phantom, as if searching for something.

"Besides the clones, the most important thing is," Thousand Illusions's voice carried a solemnity that seemed to touch upon a taboo subject, "Resurrection."

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

Thousand Illusions's expression was also extremely solemn.

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

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

"And resurrected."

Thousand Illusions pointed to the hand struggling upstream in the river of time, "You need to go against the River of Time, tracing 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 abilities. 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, to resurrect someone, one must possess absolute and overwhelming power! Generally speaking, one should never attempt it unless one's strength is at least two major realms higher than the person to be resurrected."

"Otherwise, not only will you fail to save others, but you yourself may also be dragged down by the goal, pulled into the depths of the River of Time, losing your mind and strength, and ultimately drowning in the River of Time, annihilated in both body and soul!"

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

"However," Thousand Illusions said, "The reason it's called resurrection is precisely because this past self, who has been salvaged, no longer exists in the present world. Therefore, once you successfully bring him to the present world, he can live like a normal person indefinitely. You no longer need to spend extra time and effort to maintain his existence, and his cultivation and life will not be affected in any way."

As she spoke, Thousand Illusions for a moment, then added, "Of course, because after someone dies, their belongings and treasures may be destroyed or become someone else's spoils. Therefore, when resurrecting someone, we usually only retrieve the Main Body. 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 usually doesn't make much sense to bring them."

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 remembered his master Xuchen.

He quickly said, "Senior Sister, I witnessed Master Xuchen perform a resurrection for our Silver Blue Civilization at the end of the Civilization Advancement Assessment, bringing back all those who sacrificed themselves during the assessment!"

Upon hearing this, Thousand Illusions smiled meaningfully, "Guess why the examiners for our Human Race's Civilization Advancement Assessment are all gods like us who wield the Illusory Law?"

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

"Not bad." Thousand Illusions nodded approvingly. "How much do you know about the rules of the Unreal Realities?"

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 is used to construct illusions that are difficult to distinguish from reality."

"Yes, your basic understanding is correct."

Thousand Illusions 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 a less formal, yet widely recognized, additional 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," Thousand Illusions affirmed. "The Illusory Rules, in simulating different levels of rules, follow a general pattern: 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, and continued, "As for the higher-level rules... well, they're a bit special. They can probably simulate about ten percent of their power. Even though it's only ten percent, ten percent of the power of higher-level rules is enough to handle 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 drastic drop in the simulation effect of higher-level rules, the illusory rule might have become a higher-level rule itself.

Thousand Illusions continued, "So, you see, even without relying on the laws of spacetime, the simulation capabilities of the illusory rules themselves, combined with an understanding of other rules, are sufficient to revive some low-level lives. The power of illusion can simulate various effects such as time positioning, soul attraction, and life reshaping."

"Not to mention"

She winked slyly. "To conserve divine power and increase efficiency, we Illusory Law deities responsible for assessments often choose a more economical 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..."

Thousand Illusions reached out and made a gesture, and a blurry, illusory point of soul light appeared.

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

"This method is much less strenuous and more cost-effective than simply retrieving people from the River of Time."

"Furthermore," Thousand Illusions added, "We Illusory Law deities also possess the ability to create clones. Although these clones are not as real and omnipotent as true Time-Space Clone, and their strength is greatly reduced, they are more than sufficient for 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 standards and proves its worth, then the supervising deity will usually resurrect those who have been sacrificed within a reasonable range 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 performed 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 that year. Although such things are rare, they do happen. 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 inflexible 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!

I see

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 deities, 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, Thousand Illusions 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, performing a resurrection technique, even to resurrect a powerless mortal, will be extremely dangerous. A slight mistake could backfire on you."

"The struggle of a 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've mastered the Time Rule. Although at your stage, limited by your source energy and control, you can only maintain one clone at most, this true Time-Space Clone is far superior to the illusory clones that your senior sister and I create using Illusory Law."

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

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

"An avatar like mine is only good for intimidating people and handling simple tasks. But if I were to encounter a powerful enemy of the same level, I wouldn't last a single move. Your Time-Space Clone, on the other hand, has almost the same combat power, intelligence, and experience as the Main Body, making it a tremendous asset."

"Many dangerous places that the main body cannot go to personally, cultivation technique deductions that require risky attempts, and even some missions with a nine-out-of-ten chance of death can be done by clones. Even if a clone perishes, it only results in the loss of the clone's equipment and the source energy and time to rebuild it; it will not harm your core. This is the most powerful aspect of Time-Space Clone."

At this point, Thousand Illusions waved her hand dismissively 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.

"Now that you've made up your mind and chosen this path, then eliminate distractions and cultivate diligently. First, successfully master the Time Rule you've chosen, and even gain control over them! Without the Time Rule as a foundation, all your brilliant 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 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."

Thousand Illusions nodded slightly, seeing Lin Yi's serious attitude.

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

The titles on the covers are: "Three Basic Models of Time Source Induction", "Dialectical Understanding of Moment and Eternity", and "An Introduction to the Time Ripple Observation Method".

"These classic texts were chosen for you by your senior sister. They are the most suitable introductory guides to the fundamentals of Time Rule, much better than the generic stuff in the training camp."

Thousand Illusions smiled sweetly, with a hint of mischief, "Don't worry, your senior sister has already paid for you. You don't need to spend Star Crystal. Consider it a gift for us. Study hard! If you have any questions about cultivation, you can always ask your senior sister."

She paused, a mysterious glint in her eyes, leaned closer, and lowered her voice, saying, "Also, once you've successfully mastered the Time Rule, I, your senior sister, have 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; it was just that 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!"

Thousand Illusions nodded in satisfaction, her figure gradually fading in the Phantom Light, 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, Thousand Illusions's figure completely disappeared, 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 stemming from the unknown, and more clear understanding and determination about the road ahead.

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

The ironclad laws of time, the supernatural powers of space and time, the mysteries of Illusory Law, and the truth behind the trials of civilization—each one of them challenged his original understanding.

The possibility of "resurrection" and the prospect of "clones" as excellent aids, in particular, were 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 who sacrifice themselves in a mission can be resurrected through specific means,' revive the training program and mission risk assessment system for the East Peak Mercenary Group."

He paused, then clarified further:

The original core principle of "safety first, stability paramount" has been revised to "strengthening first, practical application paramount."

"All training is centered on improving the team members' extreme survival ability, explosive potential, and combat adaptability, and allows 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, their contribution to enhancing team members' capabilities, 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 East Peak Mercenary Group into a truly invincible force.

"Instructions 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 re-evaluation of existing mission sequences will begin simultaneously."

"Very good." Lin Yi nodded and continued, "In addition, use our East Peak Mercenary Group's information-sharing privileges within the Star Realm Army to query all information about that Blade Prince of the Kunmo Race. 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. This included assessing our required combat strength, the best ambush location and timing, potential chain reactions, and corresponding countermeasures."

Xuanji immediately responded, "Yes, Master. Information retrieval permission is being requested. Once approved, a detailed hunting plan and contingency plan will be formulated based on the information."

"Um."

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

Then, he cast his gaze out of the porthole at the endless starry sky, as if he could see through the vast distance and reach the Kunmo Race that had once wreaked havoc on Crimson Blood Star.

"Some grudges have been dragging on long enough; it's time to settle them."