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

Chapter 1: Seven Days to the End of the World

"Uh"

Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes.

The veins on his forehead bulged, his vision was blurred, and every nerve in his body seemed to be screaming.

As a Star-level powerhouse, his unwavering will allowed him to suppress the physical pain, but the intense shock originating from the return of his soul's essence still brought him intense discomfort.

"Huhu."

Lin Yi was panting heavily.

After a while, as his soul gradually adapted, his vision began to clear up.

What comes into view is a ceiling painted with a slightly worn off-white paint.

A lone incandescent bulb hangs in the middle.

Outside the window, the bright sunlight, typical of a summer afternoon, shines through the gaps in the curtains, which are printed with light blue floral patterns, casting bright spots of light on the floor.

The cicadas' chirping grew louder and louder, becoming increasingly bothersome.

This left Lin Yi momentarily stunned.

"I...I'm dead, aren't I?"

His first instinct was to try to mobilize the source energy.

However, as soon as the thought crossed his mind, his body felt completely empty.

Lin Yi's heart sank suddenly.

Then, he took a deep breath and slowly looked around at the familiar surroundings.

Then, Lin Yi silently got up and slowly walked to the full-length mirror in the corner.

A slightly immature face was reflected in the mirror.

"Here."

Seeing his younger self reflected in the mirror, Lin Yi was momentarily dazed.

"I'm alive again?"

Because we know more, we are more respectful.

As one of the few Star Core-level beings from the Blue Star civilization who passed the civilization advancement assessment and entered the ranks of interstellar civilizations, Lin Yi obtained the qualification to become an outer member of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance and was able to join the then relatively weak "Leliat" mercenary group.

After enduring over six thousand years of trials and tribulations, and finally reaching the ninth rank of the Star Core level, he was fortunate enough to advance to the Star Vortex level under the guidance and care of the leader, Lelina, who had already broken through to the Star Domain level.

However, he was on his way to Zichen Star, the capital of the Purple Gold Star Alliance, which had jurisdiction over Blue Star, to conduct on-site level certification in order to apply for Blue Star to be promoted from a lowly "resource star" to an "administrative star" that could develop normally.

He was crushed to death like an ant by the Star Domain Elder simply because he accidentally stumbled upon the Ziles family of the Purple Gold Star Alliance hunting the rare beast "Casro Horned Beast".

Lin Yi still vividly remembers that feeling of powerless despair.

The physical body, which it thought was invincible, was erased from every level of the basic particles that make up matter, collapsing silently.

Consciousness, like a candle flickering in the wind, is gently extinguished by an irresistible force of rules.

Just when Lin Yi thought he could only sink into the abyss of despair and resentment, he suddenly felt an irresistible and overwhelming force, like a giant hand reaching out from the universe itself, forcefully grabbing his almost disintegrating soul essence from the brink of annihilation.

Immediately afterwards, it was as if he had been forcibly stuffed into a fragile, inferior container, and the awakening of every cell was accompanied by a tearing protest.

Then, Lin Yi realized that he had come back to life.

I've returned to a place that feels both familiar and strange.

Lin Yi looked down at his hands.

Those were the hands of a young boy, with long, slender fingers and a healthy glow on his skin.

There were no marks on his knuckles from years of holding weapons; there were only a few thin calluses from holding a pen.

After a moment of silence, Lin Yi slowly raised his head and once again carefully looked around.

The small room had a single bed against the wall, a slightly worn old desk with many books and test papers scattered on it, and a basketball with peeling paint in the corner.

There were several outdated posters of sports stars on the wall, as well as a glass photo frame containing a family photo of the three of them.

Lin Yi's gaze was fixed on that photograph.

Those were parents who looked much younger than I remembered, and a boy in a high school uniform with a slightly awkward smile.

Lin Yi remained silent for a long while, then let out a long sigh.

Then, he slowly walked to the window and pulled back the curtains.

The blinding sunlight poured in instantly, causing him to squint.

Several old residential buildings enclose a small courtyard, where a few lush sycamore trees are planted.

Several worn-out bicycles and electric bikes were parked under the shade of the trees. A few children wearing vests and shorts chased and played as they ran past the building, leaving behind a trail of carefree laughter.

Of course, the extremely annoying sycamore fluff is also a must.

In the distance, the city's uneven skyline stretched out, with several newly built high-rises reflecting the luster of their glass curtain walls in the sunlight.

There are no massive engineering excavators that roar forever, no gray-yellow haze shrouding the blue planet, and no basic material extraction pumps piercing the blue planet's crust from the rings.
Everything overlapped with that distant and hazy summer afternoon deep in my memory.

The powerful soul essence of the Star Vortex level was now like being thrown into a boiling furnace.

Countless images, blurred by the passage of time, surged forth like a flood bursting its banks.

Lin Yi now clearly knew where he was.

This is the blue planet seven thousand years ago.
Yes, it's his home.

Lin Yi slowly took two steps back and leaned his back against the wall.

The cold touch penetrated through the thin T-shirt, but it couldn't suppress the turbulent thoughts churning within him.

The relief of finishing the college entrance exam, the joy of receiving the acceptance letter from a prestigious university, and the parents' happiness mixed with their nagging worries about tuition and living expenses.
And there's that piece too.
His hand unconsciously reached for his chest. His fingertips touched the hard outline beneath the fabric.

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat.

He suddenly lowered his head, his fingers trembling slightly as he hooked it out.

It was a jade pendant slightly larger than a coin, with an extremely warm and understated deep blue color, like a solidified galaxy.

The jade itself was not translucent; instead, it had a heavy, sedimentary feel, as if it had condensed unimaginable long history. It was strung on a dark red rope and hung quietly on his chest.

Family heirloom jade!

The soul essence of the Star-level powerhouse, refined and tempered over countless years, was instantly activated, like the most sophisticated instrument beginning its high-speed search and location.

Seven thousand years of time, countless battles and long memories of wandering, are compressed into a lightning bolt that tears through time and space, anchored precisely at this present moment.

"This jade"

Lin Yi murmured to himself, remembering that it was today that he received the long-awaited admission letter from Qing Teng University.

It was on this very day that his mother, Zhou Jinghua, personally handed him this heirloom jade from the Lin family.

At that moment, his mother gave him the ancient jade and prepared to go out, while he had just hung the jade pendant around his neck and was about to take a nap.

He didn't initially notice anything special about this piece of jade.

It wasn't until he reached the Star Core level and his control over his body improved significantly that he discovered it could make his mind work a tiny bit faster than usual, providing a slight but real benefit for learning and understanding complex things.

At the time, Lin Yi did not take it seriously, thinking it was just an ordinary treasure.

It wasn't until he encountered a powerful enemy and was seriously injured that he realized, even though his protective armor had been torn apart, the ancient jade was completely unharmed.

After that, Lin Yi tried various methods to explore its mysteries, and even attempted to destroy it.

The result was a complete failure; the jade was more solid than anyone could have imagined.

Lin Yi knew this must be an extremely precious treasure, and dared not show it to anyone easily.

However, he exhausted all means but failed to discover its use.

Over time, he could only regard it as a peculiar relic with an unknown purpose, a longing for his hometown, which he always wore close to his body, hoping that one day fate would come and he would discover its purpose.

But now, he, who should have been directly annihilated by the elders of the Ziles family using the power of the rule domain, has inexplicably been reborn seven thousand years ago.

Lin Yi was very self-aware. With the vast population of the interstellar human race, let alone a mere Star Swirl level, there were countless even Star Domain level beings. How could he possibly be resurrected?
Moreover, the moment he was resurrected was the very moment he put on the ancient jade.

As he thought about it, his fingertips habitually caressed the ancient jade.

This is a habit that Lin Yi has developed over many years.

Whenever he needed to comprehend the rules of the universe, or encountered a problem that required him to ponder alone, he would caress the ancient jade.

This was partly to increase his comprehension, and partly because it made him feel that he wasn't too far from home.

But in an instant, something unexpected happened.

The ancient jade in his palm, which had accompanied him for many years and was indestructible, trembled slightly without warning.

Immediately afterwards, a very faint cracking sound rang out.

"click"

The sound was so soft it was like a hallucination.

Lin Yi's expression darkened slightly. He opened his palm and stared intently at it.

On the surface of the deep blue-green ancient jade, a crack as thin as a hair was silently spreading.

This was not an ordinary physical fracture; rather, it was more like a structure within the jade body that had sustained it for countless years, finally reaching its end at this moment.

The cracks spread faster than anyone could have imagined; in the blink of an eye, they covered the entire piece of ancient jade like a spider web.

next moment.
puff!
An extremely slight muffled sound.

Under Lin Yi's focused gaze, the ancient jade, which even he couldn't damage in the slightest with his full strength, silently turned into a small pinch of extremely fine blue powder in his outstretched palm.

The powder is as fine as dust, shimmering with a restrained and profound light, as if it contains fragments of stars.

The old, dark red rope also broke apart inch by inch and scattered.

The whole process happened so quickly and so thoroughly that Lin Yi's palm didn't even have time to feel a change in temperature before the ancient jade, which had existed for who knows how long, had completely turned to ashes.

Only a small pinch of powder with a strange, icy feel remained in my palm.

Immediately, even the powder slowly disappeared, and the entire ancient jade seemed as if it had never existed.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Lin Yi was stunned for a moment, then sighed inwardly.

"Was it you... who saved me and brought me back?"

He then looked down at his empty hands, remained silent for a few moments, and then suddenly looked up.

His gaze pierced through the wall, as if looking towards some distant direction.

In the end, Lin Yi's gaze settled on the old electronic alarm clock in the corner of the desk.

The LCD screen glowed softly.

【2027年7月16日，星期五，13：27】

"At this point in time..."

Lin Yi silently compared and recalled the information in his mind for a moment, his expression serious.

"Seven days!"

"There are only seven days left until the fateful civilization advancement assessment."

(End of this chapter)