Technological advancement begins with devouring.

Chapter 412 Nine-Rank Classification

The promotion of cultural heritage is a major issue concerning the future of our community.

A group of high-ranking members of the ethnic group gathered together to investigate, research, and discuss, spending hundreds of years before they finally finalized the initial promotion plan.

Alongside this promotional plan, a reform program for cultivating geniuses was also completed.

According to this plan, the lineage of the Ghost Insect Tribe and the lineage of the outer region of the Broken East River will be merged and placed into the 'traditional system', while the 'scientific system' will be separated and managed separately by the Cosmic Technology Company under Jiang Chen's name.

The traditional system and the scientific system are the two major schools of thought, which can be further subdivided into more than a thousand branches.

Of course, it is only after reaching a certain stage that so many branches will emerge.

In the early, foundational stages, within the same school of thought, the things taught and trained are quite similar.

Every member of the human race undergoes a test when they are young to determine whether they will follow the traditional or scientific system, thus establishing their training path, and then proceeding with their training step by step.

The testing time may vary depending on the talents and bloodlines of each branch of the race.

However, it wouldn't be earlier than when the junior just enters the 'Apprentice Level 1' and gains the qualification to cultivate 'Genetic Energy'.

At the latest, it will not be later than after entering the planetary level.

In other words, the human race, which had already matured before, is not included.

From the moment the race begins to fully promote the new inheritance system, every human descendant will undergo preliminary talent testing before reaching the planetary level, so that they can be cultivated in the direction most suitable for them and lay a solid foundation.

In the initial stage, very few resources were consumed. The main focus was on the transmission and teaching of some basic secret techniques or knowledge. Almost no additional costs were required from the clan, and it was completely open to all members of the clan.

In traditional cultivation systems, if one follows the 'optimal cultivation route' of the Youchong tribe's inheritance and the Duan Donghe inheritance, most branches require starting from the cosmic level, which consumes a certain amount of precious resources in order to lay a solid foundation to the maximum extent.

This also marks the beginning of moving to the next level in the inheritance of the traditional system.

From this level onward, everything within the inheritance is no longer completely public, but requires a certain degree of secrecy.

According to the consensus reached by the clan's high-ranking members, the entire traditional cultivation system has been divided into nine major levels, from low to high, with the level of secrecy and the threshold for obtaining inheritance increasing accordingly.

The lowest level is completely open and easily accessible to all human beings, without any barriers.

The highest level, the ninth level, requires at least becoming a universe master and passing the "Trial of the Broken East River Inheritance" to access. This mainly involves the core inheritance of the Broken East River, as well as a small portion of profound content from the inheritance of the Nether Insect tribe.

As for the scientific system, although it does not consume much resources, it is fundamental to the group, and some high-end parts need to be kept strictly confidential. It is also classified into nine levels according to this classification.

To complement this system of inheritance, the human race naturally made certain reforms to the system for cultivating geniuses.

The first reform was to change the 'genius evaluation system'.

It is also divided into nine grades.

The lowest two grades are considered 'unacceptable' and will be disregarded for now.

Starting from the third level, even with a little talent, there is at least a sliver of a chance to become an immortal god. In the past, humans would have been qualified to enter the core secret realm of a high-level universe kingdom for training, such as the Qianwu Secret Realm.

As for the fifth rank, they are already qualified to become core geniuses of several giants, at least reaching the level of breaking into the top 1,000 in the 'Cosmic Genius Battle'.

Of course, if one's talent is insufficient during a weak period, but later encounters a fortuitous event or for other reasons, and breaks through to become an immortal god on one's own, one can also enjoy the 'privileges' of a fifth-class genius.

The seventh rank, in the past, would be considered a genius that appeared only once every hundreds of thousands of epochs among humans, at the level of Bolan and Rong Jun.

Of course, what we are referring to here is the talent they displayed in the 'Battle of Geniuses' back then, not their final achievements.

After all, they were in the same year as Jiang Chen and Luo Feng, and their relationship was fairly good. Even if Jiang Chen and Luo Feng gave them some help, it would be enough for them to break through their original limits.

The eighth tier, named "Outstanding" geniuses, is comparable to the geniuses who appeared once every billion epochs in the past, namely the level of "Kodi," the former disciple of the Chaos City Lord.

Even before the human race received the inheritance, geniuses of this level would almost certainly become Universe Venerables, and even have a considerable chance of becoming Universe Lords, as long as they do not perish along the way.

With a complete lineage, a genius of this level, as long as they can survive life-and-death trials to the end, is almost destined to become the master of the universe.

The current rulers of the universe, the humans, displayed talents that were mostly at this level when they were weak.

As for the ninth rank, the 'legendary' genius, they are comparable to beings like the Chaos City Lord, the Dark God, the Giant Axe Founder, and the Primal Ancestor.

As long as he doesn't perish along the way, he will surely become a legendary figure in the universe.

After the human race developed a complete inheritance system, geniuses of this level have an extremely high probability of becoming true gods, and even have a considerable chance of breaking through the limits of true gods and entering a higher level.

Of course, limited by the supreme rules of the cosmic sea, the 'significant chance' here is probably less than one percent, or even lower.

However, compared to the countless strongest beings in the universe who failed to break through the cycle of reincarnation throughout the history of the cosmic sea, this probability can be described as terrifyingly high.

If humanity can produce hundreds of geniuses of this caliber before the end of this cosmic era, then after three cycles of reincarnation, humanity might be able to create one or two more holy land universes.

Above this ninth rank, of course, there are others.

However, there are only two geniuses of this caliber in the entire history of humanity, and even in the entire universe.

One is Jiang Chen, and the other is Luo Feng.

This was selected by Jiang Chen himself, rather than by the established standards within the human race.

According to Jiang Chen's definition, there is only one standard to become a genius of this level: having the potential to break free from constraints.

That is, surpassing the limits of the God-King and reaching the Hunyuan level.

At this level, even after countless cataclysmic destructions, only a handful of these source worlds might emerge.

Life forms within the source world could never achieve this without special abilities or relying solely on talent.

Naturally, one shouldn't expect to discover such geniuses through things like 'talent tests'.

Even if it existed, there was no way to confirm it before he rose to prominence, so there was no point in setting a rating.

Of the nine levels of geniuses, the first and second levels are actually considered 'unprofessional' and have no value in being nurtured.

As for the smaller factions within the clan that are willing to cultivate [their forces], that's their own business; the clan won't invest any resources or energy in that regard.

Geniuses of the third rank or above are selected based on their respective ratings and are either sent to the Cosmic Kingdom or join one of the Seven Great Giants for further training.

If a genius is ranked fifth or higher, the clan will conduct a comprehensive investigation to ensure their loyalty and reliability before allocating substantial resources to nurture them.

Although the standard for a fifth-rate genius is only 'having a certain probability of entering immortality', it is already considered very valuable to the race.

When this cosmic era ends, the number of immortal gods will directly affect the foundation of the race.

Moreover, immortal gods theoretically have an endless lifespan. Even if they hit a bottleneck, they might obtain some opportunity over the long years and undergo a significant transformation, thus having the chance to step into a higher level.

Even without that, the very fact that lifespan is endless is of great value.

The genius rating process is not a one-time event, but rather involves multiple screenings at different stages of each member's life through various methods, ensuring that truly outstanding geniuses receive the best possible training.

Humanity currently has no enemies within the primordial universe, allowing them to dedicate the vast majority of their energy and resources to this endeavor.

Competition mechanisms such as the Genius Battle and the Strongest Battle have been preserved, and have even increased in scale and frequency.

Apart from the Earthlings and the Space Technology Company, the other five giants will take turns conducting selections across the entire universe every two thousand years.

Those who stand out in the 'Universal Finals' will naturally be able to join the five giants, become their core geniuses, and receive the best training.

Considering the population explosion caused by the expansion of the human race's territory, the number of geniuses selected each year has also increased.

In addition, various selection and competition mechanisms of different scales within each universe nation were rapidly improved to ensure that any talented genius could be discovered as early as possible, so as not to delay the development of their talents.

Of course, the five giants only selected geniuses from the 'traditional cultivation system'.

All matters suitable for the 'technology system' will be handled by the Space Technology Company.

After discussing with Number One and Jarvis, Jiang Chen decided to adopt a system similar to the 'college entrance examination', and to regularly set up assessments in all universes within the human territory.

In any case, the core of this system is 'knowledge', and there is no need for combat; a 'written test' is sufficient.

Through exams of different subjects, levels, and difficulties, the geniuses who pass the assessments will be recruited into the Space Technology Company for training. Then, they will still be assessed through 'promotion exams' to determine whether they are qualified to be promoted and acquire the next level of knowledge.

Even if they are not necessarily good at cultivation, if their talent is really high enough, simply piling on resources is enough to make them immortal and allow them to enjoy eternal life.

The technology system differs from the traditional cultivation system. Those who are skilled in technology may not be particularly strong in themselves, but they are extremely important to the development of a faction.

It would be difficult to find another 'all-rounder' like Jiang Chen.

However, given enough time, some geniuses who excel in a specific sub-discipline can still be cultivated.

If someone develops a new technology, even if the improvement is small, the benefits will be considerable given the vast size of the original universe.

Jiang Chen didn't expect anyone to be as good as him.

However, Jiang Chen needs to focus more on his own cultivation and improving the strength of himself and his mechanical legion, so he cannot be good at everything.

Cultivating more scientific research talents would also save Jiang Chen a lot of trouble.

As for the Earthlings, they did not have the privilege of 'selecting geniuses from the entire race'.

However, Earthlings don't need this privilege; they will prioritize training those who are "their own people" with Earthling blood.

With Jiang Chen and Luo Feng as their powerful backers, geniuses of Earthling lineage don't need to go through any kind of selection process like 'Genius Battles' or 'Cosmic Technology Company Level Exams'. As long as they have talent, they will definitely not be buried.

Even with equal talent, the resources available to Earthling geniuses are unimaginable to other races.

Although a genius level has been established, it only represents the 'lower limit' of the treatment a genius can receive.

As for the upper limit, it depends on the context.

Given the same talent, it's clear that an indigenous person from an unknown minor branch of the race could not possibly obtain more resources than a direct descendant of a cosmic ruler.

The Earthlings lineage includes a group of cosmic masters such as Jiang Chen, Luo Feng, and Jia Zheng.

Although, apart from Jiang Chen and Luo Feng, the other universe masters were all forcibly elevated using 'memory fragments,' and their advancements were largely unreliable, they were still universe masters nonetheless.

Even a small amount of resources slipping through their fingers could be an enormous sum that a genius who hasn't yet reached maturity could never spend in hundreds of lifetimes.

Of course, the resources available to Jiang Chen, Luo Feng, and others are not unlimited.

Even among those born into the Earthling lineage, talent is required to obtain the corresponding resources. It's just that, compared to other branches of the race, Earthling geniuses obtain more resources with the same level of talent.

Even so, it's enough to make other subgroups envious.

Even those branch races that also have a cosmic master or the strongest being in the universe do not enjoy such high treatment.

After all, there is more than one powerful figure standing behind the Earthlings.

-

In short, after spending hundreds of years establishing the system for cultivating geniuses and the plan for its inheritance and promotion, the human race convened a high-level meeting to gather all the cosmic venerables and make public the decisions made by the race's leadership.

There were naturally no objections.

The status of the Universe Venerable is indeed not low, but in front of the Lord of the Universe and the strongest being in the universe, he still has no choice but to obediently follow orders.

Moreover, publicly passing on and promoting this knowledge would also benefit them.

Although they have missed the 'foundation-laying' stage, they are still qualified to receive the subsequent inheritance.

Perhaps someone will be able to take this opportunity to break through to the level of a universe master, or even higher, and become one of the giants of their race.

The same applies to those immortals, realm lords, and so on below.

Many who are stuck in a bottleneck may be able to break through their original bottlenecks and reach a higher level by taking advantage of this opportunity for large-scale promotion of the heritage.

When the news spread throughout the entire race, all the strong and talented members of the human race were overjoyed!