But if he believed he had a way out, lacked that resolve, and hoped to use it to advance, he would be violating the true meaning of Above Sacrificial Dao.
His breakthrough would fail. That was obvious; there was no other possibility.
In the original story's final battle, if advancing from Sacrificial Dao to Above Sacrificial Dao had not followed such an unusual path, Shi Hao and the others would truly have died. They could not have been resurrected in any form.
If Shi Hao and the others had known this beforehand, they might still have had the resolve, but undeniably, a sliver of hope would have remained in their hearts.
That was wrong. Only by utterly abandoning everything, with no hope whatsoever, could they create a miracle.
This was precisely what The Ancient One had worried about all along, and why she had been unwilling to tell Meng Chuan about Above Sacrificial Dao. She feared it would affect his breakthrough.
She genuinely had his interests at heart. She was not trying to sabotage him or hold back his progress.
On the contrary, she wanted him to advance.
The founder of the Pollen Path had died in battle outside the Plateau without breaking through to the unknown realm Above Sacrificial Dao.
Whether her accumulated strength and foundations had been enough to carry her into that realm was another matter.
The mere fact that she had left herself a means of resurrection, that she had held on to the hope of surviving, had barred her path to Above Sacrificial Dao.
As for the Weird Ancestors, they could never advance any further.
With the Plateau behind them, they feared nothing. They believed they would never truly die, that even if killed, they would be resurrected.
Before they were killed, the Weird Immortal