The Time Worm had lied to Xi Yan about the nature of time.
In truth, while fighting the Extradimensional Demons, the Heavenly People Empire of Faith could indeed contact other space-times-but those were not actually different space-times. They were different universes.
This enormous cosmic computer was like your overloaded CPU0: its computing power was insufficient to support calculations for countless space-time nodes. Time in a lower-dimensional universe therefore progressed linearly, while only in higher dimensions did countless space-time nodes run concurrently.
Nor could the Time Worm see the future. Through countless cycles of eras, it had simply discerned the patterns governing their development. One glance was enough for it to understand what decisions a civilization would make and what effects those decisions would have on the universe.
The Time Worm had said they could use the Heaven-Burning Divine Weapon to gather dark matter and open a Space-Time Gate-but what it actually opened was a gateway to other universes of the same dimensional level.
Only by seeking aid from other parallel universes had this universe barely managed to withstand the Demons' attacks. Before the Demons appeared, the Heavenly People Empire of Faith would sometimes lend its fleets to other universes of equivalent standing.
They supported one another, but only this universe was secretly advancing the ascension plan.
This universe was just one minor crisis away from death. Without ascending, it would rapidly perish within a few eras.
After the higher-dimensional faction led by Jadiga joined the ascension plan, its chances of success increased dramatically.
With access to higher-dimensional knowledge, the scientists and the Time Worm soon devised an entirely new ascension proposal.
Sending only the Needle into a higher-dimensional universe, or having their entire world join the higher dimensions-both proposals were still too narrow in scope.
Those fanatical human scientists came