Great Dao
The Whole Class Ascends to Godhood: The Heavenly Screen Reveals My Path to the Primordial Great Luo
Biodata
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Great Dao |
| Original Name | 大道 |
| Type | Concept; also used to describe individual cultivation paths and principles 8 16. |
| Role | Foundation of cultivation; manifests through laws, Dao resonances, and cultivators’ personal paths 8 10. |
| Status | Withdrew from the Primordial World when the Heavenly Dao emerged 56. |
| First Appearance | Traces within Pangu’s coercion and Dao sounds during Gu Xuan’s gestation 4. |
Nature
- Individual paths remain distinct. Hongjun’s study of the Three Thousand Great Daos, Qing Xuan’s World Dao, and Qing Yi’s Creation Great Dao can illuminate one another without replacing or merging into a single path 8 16.
- A common destination is not guaranteed. After witnessing Qing Xuan’s World Dao, Hongjun reconsidered his belief that every Dao ultimately led to the same endpoint 8.
- Cultivation strength does not fully measure a Dao’s potential. Hongjun recognized the possibility of an unprecedented path in Qing Xuan’s embryonic World Dao despite their difference in cultivation 8.
- Comprehension can produce realm advancement. Qing Xuan reached Middle Taiyi after adding a genuine cycle of creation to his world; the breakthrough followed the development of his Dao rather than a separate struggle to increase power 14.
- Dao Fruits must be proven individually. Qing Xuan and Qing Yi traveled and attained Great Luo together, but each gathered their own possibilities and condensed an independent Dao Fruit 20.
Great Dao and Heavenly Dao
| Aspect | Great Dao | Heavenly Dao |
|---|---|---|
| Presence in the early Primordial World | Its traces and sounds were present during Qing Xuan’s gestation 4. | The Primordial World first developed its own Heavenly Dao Order after the three ancestral leaders stepped beyond Great Luo 51. |
| Connection to worldly laws | Appears through numerous distinct Daos, including World, Creation, Yin-Yang, and Space-Time 8 15. | Emerged as previously independent laws interconnected into an invisible order covering the world 51. |
| Blue Star observers | Deliberately concealed the outside observers from beings within the Primordial World 56. | Its emergence coincided with the Great Dao’s withdrawal and a brief lapse in that concealment 56. |
| Higher attainment | Qing Xuan felt the Great Dao connect to his Dao Fruit during his Primordial Unity breakthrough 156. | Bears the Heavenly Dao Saints’ paths; primordial violet qi connects a cultivator’s Dao Fruit to the Primordial World 138 153. |
Role in Cultivation
| Stage / Realm | Relationship to the Dao |
|---|---|
| Taiyi Golden Immortal | A cultivator still perceives the Dao through heaven and earth. Qing Xuan’s early world manifestations disappeared when his world returned to Chaos 16. |
| Great Luo | A personal Great Dao gains independence from changing worldly phenomena. Attainment gathers past and future possibilities into one True Self across Space-Time 16 20. |
| Great Luo Perfection | The Thirty-Six Heavens culminate in a flawless Dao Fruit. Its completeness prevents further additions, making accumulated mana and comprehension insufficient for a true transformation 34 49 83. |
| Quasi-Sage | Hongjun’s Three Corpses Severing Method creates room for renewed growth by housing good thoughts, evil thoughts, and self-attachment in innate objects. This path remains within the Heavenly Dao’s domain 83. |
| Heavenly Dao Sage | Cultivators return to their own Dao and harmonize it with the Heavenly Dao. Nuwa’s attainment made her Creation Dao present throughout the Primordial World rather than confined to a Great Luo’s regional influence 138 153. |
| Primordial Unity | Qing Xuan and Qing Yi completed their own Great Daos and bore their Dao Fruits themselves, independent of the Heavenly Dao. Qing Xuan attributed this route to their foundations originating in Chaos and before the opening of heaven 156 157. |
Dao-Protecting Treasures
- Protection and combat: Spirit treasures safeguard a cultivator’s path. Although the World Dao could attack, suppress enemies, and defend Qing Xuan, lacking a suitable treasure could disadvantage him against an equally ranked, well-equipped opponent 10.
- Higher cultivation: Innate objects also serve as vessels for the Three Corpses. Their usefulness therefore extends beyond combat to advancement beyond Great Luo 83.
- Recorded principles: The Creation Jade Disc carries the Three Thousand Great Daos. Even incomplete fragments preserve principles capable of supporting profound cultivation and reconstruction of a path 8 147.
Documented Paths
| Path | Practitioner | Distinguishing Features |
|---|---|---|
| Three Thousand Great Daos | Hongjun | Uses the Creation Jade Disc to study myriad Daos and pursue their source 8. |
| World Dao | Qing Xuan | Makes a world the foundation within which myriad Daos arise and evolve; later develops toward Myriad Daos Return to Chaos 8 57 157. |
| Creation Great Dao | Qing Yi | Preserves life imprints through destruction and progresses from creation toward the making of complete worlds 16 71 91. |
| Creation Great Dao | Nuwa | Focuses on living beings. Qing Yi explicitly distinguishes this pursuit from her own world-creation path 71 91. |
| Primordial Pure Yin Dao | Queen Mother of the West | Causes transformations and Dao manifestations to return inward to a single point 66. |
| Slaughter Great Dao | Minghe | Winds around and merges with the innate Dao essence of Yuantu and Abi during their refinement 46. |
| Five Elements Great Dao | Kong Xuan | Incorporates both mutual generation and mutual restraint into the Five-Colored Divine Light 149. |
| Spatial Dao | Yang Mei | Manifests layered spaces and creates a previously nonexistent road into the Outer-Domain Demon Realm 147 150. |
| Time Dao | Shichen | Halts the River of Time and severs a revealed stretch of the past 150. |
Background / History
During Gu Xuan’s thirty-six Epoch Cycles of gestation, traces of the Great Dao remaining in Pangu’s coercion entered his innate spiritual light. Dao sounds first appeared after nine Epoch Cycles and fully awakened at his manifestation. The World Dao preserved in the Chaos Pearl’s remaining origin became his innate path without requiring him to choose or seek it 4.
The search for a route beyond Great Luo drove Ancestor Dragon, Yuanfeng, and First Qilin to bind their Daos to their peoples’ Fate Aura. They eventually extended their paths into the Primordial World’s water, wind and fire, and earth. The Heavenly Dao then emerged, drawing out the accumulated karma of their war and cutting off the path they had opened 34 51 52.
When the Great Dao withdrew, Hongjun briefly perceived the outside beings watching the Primordial World. Their previous invisibility was not a limitation of his cultivation: the Great Dao had deliberately concealed them beyond the orders accessible to beings within the world 56.
Qing Xuan and Qing Yi later pursued a different solution to the Great Luo barrier. By completing their opposing paths—returning myriad Daos to Chaos and developing Creation into world-making—they attained Primordial Unity without relying on primordial violet qi or the Heavenly Dao to bear their Dao Fruits 156 157.
Notable Quotes
“Only after witnessing Fellow Daoist's World Dao today did I realize that the end of the Great Dao may not have only one destination.”
— Hongjun 8
“What Great Luo seeks is to make one's own Great Dao truly stand within heaven and earth.”
— Hongjun 16
“The Great Dao could be traveled together, but the Dao Fruit could only be proven by oneself.”
— Narration 20