Setting Out

Final Tribulation.

This was news Chen Mu had heard from the Celestial Peak Master, and it also perfectly matched his own comprehension of the Dao.

The Firmament Cosmos, too, had its day of annihilation and existed within an endless cycle of reincarnation. Though a single annihilation might last an exceedingly long time—millions of calamity years—it would eventually come to an end.

The Dao would not decay, but past and future formed a ring, and the Void likewise cycled endlessly between nihility and existence. Thus, when all things were annihilated, everything in this cosmos would vanish without a trace. Even Divine Lords of the Nine Heavens could not withstand the annihilation of the Source Path.

Only Great Dao Honored Ones could resist such cosmic annihilation.

They had completely comprehended the Dao and become one with it. They themselves were part of the Source Path; since the Source Path was eternal and indestructible, they too were eternal and imperishable.

Yet this imperishability came at a certain price. Chen Mu had never understood these matters before. It was only through discussing them with the Celestial Peak Master, the North Royal Master, and many other Nine Heavens existences that he learned these supreme secrets of the cosmos.

From the birth of the cosmos to its annihilation was one cycle.

Great Dao Honored Ones fused themselves into the Dao, so they could naturally pass through the cycle and enter the next creation of the cosmos, undying, incorruptible, and imperishable.

However,

The Source Path was simply too vast and possessed an immensely powerful assimilating nature. Thus, although Great Dao Honored Ones joined with the Dao and became undying and imperishable, over the long passage of time, they would gradually be assimilated by the Dao, lose themselves, and become part of it.

They had not died. The