Throughout history, there had always been a mystery.
—The mystery of the Ghost Immortal.
Without any warning whatsoever, the Immortal Path had suddenly collapsed. Back then, the emergence of the Ghost Immortals had sparked an unprecedented riot.
In later generations, the more mainstream belief was that the appearance of the Ghost Immortals had been caused by the Dao Ancestor's death. Although the Dao Ancestor had killed that First Apostle and contained the Tide, it had also contaminated the source of the Immortal Path.
Just as the collapse of the Mechanical Empire had locked down the limits of technology, the Dao Ancestor's death had likewise caused the Immortal Path to collapse.
...But what was the truth?
Everything had been orchestrated by the Dao Ancestor himself.
Although, in his life as the Restaurant Owner, he had gone so far as to kill himself in order to escape the entanglement of the [Doom] aura, that thing was like gangrene in the bone. It was never so easy to shake off.
After awakening once more, he had realized this.
But at that time, he had no mind to deal with it. In that situation, if no one stepped forward, countless worlds would have been completely overrun by the anomalous army.
If it truly came to that, forget gathering strength to face the final Doom Era—everything would have been over long before then.
Under those circumstances, the Dao Ancestor emerged.
In order to temporarily isolate himself from the effects of the Doom Aura, he had no choice but to take the risk of using the Human Emperor Authority to link his consciousness to the entire Human Race, entering a state of Absolute Rationality... commonly known as merging with the Heavenly Dao.
Although, in that state, his thoughts would not be disturbed by any external factors,