Gao Wu: You have science, and I have magic!

Each gear is engraved with the ending scenes of different timelines, the most eye-catching of which is Ye Qingzhou Guangchen who is crystallizing.

“I won’t let you succeed.”

Lin Xian inserted the wooden sword into the severed umbilical cord.

The last image of Ye Qingzhou on the sword completely disappeared, and was replaced by the specific expression of the self-referential function, "Start the seeding plan."

Something incredible happened!

The first generation heart bone, the core of the world tree and Lin Xian's woody arms began to merge, and a new root system grew at the fracture - this root system was neither downward nor upward, but extended along the axis of the tenth dimension created by Ye Qingzhou!

Oneilos's clock wave hit the new root system. There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a drastic reconstruction of the mathematical level. Lin Xian saw the Fibonacci sequence running in reverse, the distribution law of prime numbers being rewritten, and even saw that the ninth decimal place of pi suddenly turned into the letter "α"...

"Is this... the true form of dimensional war?"

The World Tree Core unleashed its full computing power: "Analyzing the Gödel loophole in Chaos' True Name!" Its light wings turned into countless rotating mathematical formulas, "It is recommended to use the seventh recursive formula of the Chaos Sword Scripture!"

Lin Xianfu's mind was filled with inspiration, and he used his finger to represent the sword and wrote in the air. This was not an ordinary sword move, but a visualization of the self-referential function left by Ye Qingzhou. With every stroke, the gears of a clock rusted and disintegrated from the inside.

Oneilos let out a harsh metallic whine. The clocks that made up Him began to speed up or reverse chaotically, and finally exploded collectively at a certain critical point. In the moment before absolute stillness arrived, the demon left a final whisper:

"You just...delayed...the heat death..."

The dark space began to collapse.

Lin Xian felt himself being pulled back to the real dimension, but before leaving completely, he took one last look at the new root system - it was stretching out in the tenth dimension, with a small flower made of light dust blooming on the top, and on the petals were countless smiles of Ye Qingzhou.

……

In the ruins of Xuanqiong Imperial Capital, the surviving monks saw Lin Xian walking out of the column of light.

His right half had completely turned to wood, and his left eye had turned into a nebula structure similar to that of Emperor Qingming.

The most eye-catching thing is the crystal embedded in his chest - it is a fusion of the first generation heart bone and the core of the world tree, and it pulsates with his breathing.

"it's over?"

Someone asked in a low voice.

Lin Xian looked up at the sky.

The projections of the Nine Demon Gods were disappearing, but what was even more shocking was the end of the sky—there was a phantom of an upside-down world tree, and a small star was blooming in the place where the question mark "10" was originally marked.

“No, it’s starting.”

Lin Xian said softly.

There was a strange resonance in his voice, as if two people were speaking at the same time: "The tenth dimension is not the end, but... an ocean of possibilities."

He bent down and picked up a broken branch of the World Tree from the ruins. Surprisingly, a tender green bud had sprouted from the broken branch. The moment this bud was planted in the center of the star hub, all the survivors felt that some invisible shackles had been broken.

As night fell, Lin Xian stood alone beside the World Tree seedling. Through the Nebula Left Eye, he saw similar sprouts emerging from the ruins of the Nine Dynasties. Each seedling reflected a different starry sky - it was not the stars of the current universe, but the projection of countless possibilities.

In a particularly bright projection, he vaguely saw Ye Qingzhou existing in another form: not the host of the World Tree, not a legendary swordsman, but just a storyteller in an ordinary teahouse, vividly telling stories of immortals beyond the clouds.

The core of the World Tree felt slightly warm in his chest: "The stable growth of the tenth dimension has been detected. Current possible branch: ∞."

Lin Xian stroked the leaves of the seedling, and a drop of dew rolled down, reflecting thousands of stars.

The dewdrops fell from the tips of the leaves of the World Tree seedlings. They did not break into pieces the moment they touched the ground, but instead remained suspended in the air with the nebula flowing inside.

Lin Xian's left eye of the nebula can see more details - this dewdrop is actually a miniature universe, reflecting a possibility that has not yet happened.

"Results of the 9,721st observation."

The World Tree Core "White Bud" in the chest records data, and its voice now carries multiple echoes, as if speaking in multiple dimensions at the same time.

"The topological structure of the blade texture has changed by 0.003% compared to yesterday."

Lin Xian touched the tender leaves lightly with his woody right hand.

The moment of contact, his consciousness was pulled into a brief illusion: he was standing under a fully grown world tree, in the distance were the rebuilt nine dynasties, and in the sky were ten nested halos floating...

"Master!"

A quick shout brought him back to reality. A monk covered in blood stumbled over and said, "The exploration team... the tenth dimension... something went wrong..."

Lin Xian's figure flashed, and the roots of the World Tree automatically formed a dimensional channel under his feet.

After three steps, he was already standing on the newly built "Temple of Heaven" on the site of the old capital of Xuanqiong Imperial City.

The seven monks solidified radially in the central magic circle. Each of their expressions was frozen in a moment of extreme horror, and their bodies were in a strange quantum state - like both crystal and flesh and blood.

“They were exposed to a projection of the tenth dimension.”

The remaining array master's voice trembled, his face terrified: "I saw... countless myself..."

Bai Ya separated a silver-white branch from Lin Xian's chest and lightly touched one of the monks.

A branch diagram of the monk's life possibilities immediately appeared at the tip of the branch - the densely packed lines were like a glowing spider web, and each node was the fate created by a different choice.

“Cognitive overload.”

Bai Ya retracted the branch: "The tenth dimension is not an ordinary space, but a superposition of all possibilities. The brain of an ordinary monk cannot process this kind of information."

Lin Xian's nebula's left eye felt slightly hot.

Through the resonance with the World Tree sapling during this period, he gradually understood the meaning of Ye Qingzhou's last words - the tenth dimension is not a destination, but a portal to infinite possibilities.

"Move them to the World Tree."

Lin Xian cut his wrist, and dark golden sap dripped into the center of the magic circle: "Use my world tree fluid to stabilize the quantum state."

At this moment, the sky suddenly changed.

Nine beams of light of different colors shot up into the sky from the direction of the Surviving Imperial Dynasty, interweaving into a nine-sided pattern in the clouds.

What is even more disturbing is that the afterimage of the devil can be vaguely seen in each beam of light - the nine pillars of gods that should have dissipated with the birth of the tenth dimension seem to be reorganizing in some form.

"Warning! Chaos True Name Fluctuation Detected!"

The white bud suddenly raised an alarm, and all its silver branches stood up: "Something is using the imperial luck to reconstruct the dimensional anchor point!"

Just as Lin Xian was about to go over to investigate, countless memory chips suddenly emerged from the ground - the same ones that fell when the Qingming Dynasty was destroyed.

These chips reassembled in the air and condensed into vague human shapes.

When the figure opened his eyes, the right eye was a familiar nebula vortex, while the left eye had turned into a dark golden tree pupil that echoed Lin Xian's.

"Qingming...Emperor?"

Lin Xian's wooden sword automatically unsheathed half an inch. The figure shook his head slightly, and his voice was like countless fragments of memory: "Not entirely, I am the 'anti-entropy code' she left in the Dream Breaker Blade, a personality backup reconstructed with the help of the energy of the World Tree."

She could now confirm that she was in female form. She raised her arm slightly and pointed to the glowing nine-sided sky. "Chaos has not really died. The Nine Pillars of Demons were the hosts of the World Tree in the last era. Their failure polluted the World Tree in another form."

Baiya suddenly projected a holographic image: the picture showed an upside-down world tree, with nine main roots each entwined with a tree-like remains.

The most horrifying thing is that inside the tree trunk, one can vaguely see the shadow of a tenth root system, trying to break free from some kind of restraints.

“That’s the truth.”

The right eye of the nebula in the memory Qingming flickered: "At the end of each era, the host of the World Tree will try to break through the dimensional limitations. The successful ones will open a new era, and the unsuccessful ones will become the source of chaos in the next era."

Lin Xian suddenly understood the significance of Ye Qingzhou's final sacrifice.

He did not simply create the tenth dimension, but used himself as a sacrifice to ensure that the new roots would not be contaminated.

"What should we do now? Those beams of light..."

“The collective subconscious of the imperial subjects.”

Qingming's memory began to flicker unsteadily: "They are used to being ruled by the Nine Pillars Demon God. This mindset is reconstructing the dimensional shackles."

A sharp sound of metallic friction suddenly tore through the sky.

Everyone looked up and saw a huge clock gear emerging in the center of the nine-sided light net - the iconic symbol of Oneilos! Although it was only a shadow, the cold "click" sound had already caused the grass and trees within a hundred miles to begin to crystallize.

“It’s too late.”

Qingming's memory suddenly grabbed Lin Xian's wrist: "You must go deep into the tenth dimension now and find the 'Gardener'!"

"gardener?"

Without waiting for a reply, the memory suddenly disintegrated and reassembled into a miniature dimensional door.

Behind the door was the towering World Tree that Lin Xian had seen in his vision, and beneath the tree stood a blurry figure.

The most incredible thing was that when Lin Xian tried to see the figure clearly, he found that the other party's appearance was constantly changing - sometimes it was Ye Qingzhou, sometimes it was the first generation host, and even occasionally the face of Emperor Qingming would flash...

“I can’t keep this up for long.”

The voice of the memory is getting weaker and weaker: "Remember, only you have the key to the tenth dimension..."

The sound of gears meshing drowned out her words.

Oneilos's shadow had already materialized to one third of its original size, and there was a tremor like a landslide in the direction of the Nine Emperors.

Lin Xian knew that this was a sign that the demons would be reborn with the help of the imperial dynasty's luck.

"White Bud, prepare for dimension jump."

Lin Xian stood still and drew his wooden sword completely out of its sheath. The patterns on the sword began to resonate with the tree core on his chest. "I'm going to meet this 'gardener'."

Bai Ya did not respond immediately.

Its silver-white branches suddenly split into nine strands, and different versions of the World Tree's Core emerged at the top of each branch - some were more mechanized, some were almost completely plant-like, and there was even a version with obvious signs of chaos contamination.

“Quantum state differentiation is complete.”

Nine white buds said at the same time: "Nine possibilities exploration protocol initiated."

Lin Xian understood its plan instantly.

Faced with the uncertainty of the tenth dimension, White Bud splits itself into parallel versions, each exploring a different branch of possibilities.

"careful."

He only had time to say these two words before nine white buds simultaneously pierced into the dimensional gate created by Qingming's memory.

Surprisingly, the gate did not close immediately, but instead became more stable due to the nine-weight quantum interference.

Lin Xian followed closely and jumped into the door. The process of passing through was like being thrown into a kaleidoscope composed of fractal geometry, and every corner showed different possibilities of the universe.

When the dizziness subsided, he stood under the towering World Tree that he had seen in the vision.

This tree is completely different from the seedling. Its trunk is covered with dimensional cracks in the shape of annual rings, its leaves are made of solidified light dust, and its roots...

Lin Xian took a deep breath as the roots penetrated the nine tree-like remains. This was exactly what he saw in Bai Ya's projection!
“Do you like my collection?”

The voice came from behind.

Lin Xian turned around and saw the being called "the gardener" - now he maintained Ye Qingzhou's appearance, but his eyes were pure dark gold, without pupils or whites.

“You are not Master Ye.”

Lin Xian’s wooden sword pointed at the opponent’s throat.

“Of course not.”

The "Gardener" smiled and plucked a leaf from the World Tree, which turned into a crystal hourglass in his palm. "I am the gatekeeper of the tenth dimension and a witness to the changes of all eras. You can call me... the Pruner."

He suddenly changed back to the appearance of the first generation host: "Or a gardener, or an observer, whatever you want to call it. The important thing is that you bring interesting variables."

Bai Ya's nine clones suddenly returned from different directions, each carrying different fragments of information.

Lin Xian understood everything instantly through the World Tree link: in one possible branch, the Nine Pillar Demon Gods had completed their rebirth; in another branch, the World Tree seedlings were contaminated by chaos; but the most shocking was the third branch - the gardener broke off the new roots with his own hands and reset the universe to the beginning of the era!

“I see your concerns.”

The "Gardener" now appears as the Qingming Emperor, with data flowing in Nebula's right eye: "But please understand, my duty is to ensure the health of the World Tree. Excessive possibilities will lead to disorder and chaos, which will become a cancer of the dimension."

Lin Xian suddenly realized something: "The World Tree Host from the previous eras... was it you who cleared it?"

"Just trimming the dead branches."

The "Gardener" sighed and changed back to Ye Qingzhou's appearance: "They are either unable to withstand the torrent of possibilities, or they are greedy and want to monopolize the tenth dimension. Only your master...he chose to preach instead of asking for the origin of the world."

At this moment, the sky suddenly darkened.

Lin Xian looked up and saw that Oneilos's gear clock had materialized to 80%, and the phantoms of the other eight demons were also condensing.

What was even more terrifying was that through Nebula’s left eye, he saw that the sapling of the World Tree in the real dimension was trembling violently—nine beams of light were wrapped around its tender trunk like chains.

"Time is running out!"

The nine white buds suddenly merged into one and evolved into a form that Lin Xian had never seen before.

Its main body is a translucent dark gold crystal, with a silvery-white data stream flowing inside, and light wings made of Riemann surfaces stretching out behind it: "The collective consciousness of the nine dynasties is forming a new dimensional shackle!" (End of this chapter)