Dao Ancestor Hongjun

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Hongjun (鸿钧)
Alias(es)	Dao Ancestor Hongjun (鸿钧道祖); Hongjun of the Heavenly Dao 113
Species/Race	Chaos Earthworm 245
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Primordial World; Heavenly Dao; Purple Firmament Palace 16 113
Occupation/Role	Dao teacher; master of the Purple Firmament Palace; defender of the Primordial World 16 80 160
Status	Alive; accepts Wang Shi’s leadership after his fused form is defeated 246
First Appearance	Chapter 16, through his announcement of attaining Sainthood; previously mentioned in Wang Shi’s thoughts 5 16

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Saint	16	Announces his attainment as the Primordial World’s first recorded Saint and schedules his first Dao sermon.
Progress toward Dao Integration	56	Absorbs merit generated by his second sermon, bringing him closer to merging with the Dao.
Great Dao Saint — confirmed	133	Explicitly identified at this realm. He previously predicts another breakthrough within ten thousand years, but the supplied passages do not date its completion 83.
System-enhanced cultivation talent	229	Spends 300 exchange points on improved talent; his aura strengthens and he enters intensive cultivation. No new named realm is stated.
System-assisted physical strengthening	239	Uses the System’s time domain to accumulate extensive bodily training in a short period of outside time. Aspires to surpass the Great Dao, but does not demonstrate that attainment.
Fusion with a parallel-world Hongjun	245	Merges their origin sources through his Chaos Earthworm racial ability, increasing strength and talent and producing a two-headed, four-armed body. Wang Shi subsequently defeats him 246.

History

Dao-Demon War and the Three Sermons

Hongjun killed the Luohu native to his world. Wang Shi recalls that defeating Luohu’s Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation required Hongjun and three other experts; afterward, the Four Immortal-Slaying Swords passed into Hongjun’s possession 34 35 36.

After becoming a Saint, Hongjun announces that beings with destined affinity may hear him teach at the Purple Firmament Palace beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens. Wang Shi initially regards him as a potential threat, fearing that revealing cultivation knowledge or disrupting expected events might attract his hostility 5 8 16.

The second sermon lasts ten thousand years. Hongjun mourns those lost in the Fierce Beast calamity and asks his listeners to spread the Dao, while the resulting merit advances his own cultivation. His teaching reaches beyond the palace, allowing weaker beings unable to cross Chaos to benefit from fragments of the sermon 56.

Hongjun later orders Saints not to interfere with the Primordial World’s normal development, recognizing that enforcing its previous course could create further disorder. Wang Shi’s intact Pangu Divine Axe particularly troubles him, since he remembers it being destroyed 75.

During the third and final sermon, Hongjun captures a Blood Demon infiltrator, searches its soul, and discovers extensive foreign infiltration. He removes concealed blood-colored control from lower-ranked cultivators and releases the captive to warn its master that the world will resist. After another ten-thousand-year lecture, Hongjun and the Saints share their merit with the audience; he accepts nine direct disciples and makes the remaining listeners nominal disciples 79 80.

At Treasure Distribution Cliff, Hongjun offers spiritual treasures according to affinity rather than force. Wang Shi’s selection of the Three Books of Heaven, Earth, and Man unsettles him: he cannot divine whether their concentration in one person’s hands will bring Heaven, the Underworld, and the mortal realm under a single ruler 81.

Parallel-World Invasion

An invading Luohu confronts Hongjun at the Purple Firmament Palace. Hongjun recognizes that this is not the Luohu he killed and deduces that the outsider is supporting Shen Ni while trying to prevent the Primordial World from producing more Saints 34.

Rather than remain imprisoned, Hongjun detonates his Saint body. The blast destroys the invader’s true body and the palace without damaging the Primordial World. Other cultivators initially believe Hongjun may have fallen, but he later reappears and explains that a Saint is not so easily killed 35 37 50.

Hongjun confirms Wang Shi’s deduction that the attackers come from another Primordial World and asks him to keep that information secret. He praises Wang Shi for destroying a Teleportation Gate and considers him worth nurturing. Hongjun also insists that all nine Sage seats must be filled to strengthen the world, while privately pursuing a realm beyond Dao Integration 49 50 51.

When the reborn native Luohu is brought before him, Hongjun chooses atonement over execution. He sentences Luohu to guard the Western Lands until his karmic debts are repaid, welcomes a future rematch, and encourages him to attend the sermons 55.

The Darkness and the Demon Realm

While exploring the darkness with Yang Mei, Hongjun encounters a remnant soul belonging to another version of himself whose world has lost its origin. Despite Yang Mei’s objections, he merges with it. The counterpart’s unbearable terror and despair pass into Hongjun, leaving him fearful and increasingly focused on escape 125.

Hongjun supplies the Jade Disc of Creation for the Demon Realm and opens the Primordial Origin Sea to Wang Shi and Di Jun. These opportunities help Di Jun comprehend his path, but Hongjun subsequently diverts the merit and fortune due to Di Jun’s Sainthood. He promises compensation while acknowledging that Di Jun has lost his opportunity to become a Great Dao Saint 118 120 121 123.

Wang Shi confronts Hongjun over this manipulation. Hongjun argues that too many Saints would drain the Primordial World’s source; Wang Shi rejects this as protection of Hongjun’s own authority. Their clash destroys the palace, and Hongjun announces a hundred-thousand-year seclusion. Merit then flows to the Demon Emperors 123 124.

Retreat, Responsibility, and Dark Infection

After Wang Shi and the other explorers have been absent for over ten thousand years, Hongjun urges the remaining leaders to abandon the Primordial World. He has already severed his connection to its Great Dao and hopes to preserve selected survivors and the Investiture of the Gods List as the basis for a refuge. Di Jun persuades him to remain and defend the world, with retreat reserved for a truly hopeless situation 150.

The modified List challenges Hongjun’s belief that defeat is inevitable. Haotian and Yaochi direct him to Wang Shi’s preparations at Buzhou Mountain, where he realizes that his actions have been anticipated and constrained. He eventually promises to resist the darkness, supports Haotian’s effort to rebuild the Heavenly Court, and admits that his avoidance has worsened the crisis 151 152 153.

Against a Great Dao-level Shen Ni from a destroyed parallel world, Hongjun deliberately provokes his opponent to buy time for the defenders. Shen Ni turns the tactic against him by self-destructing. Hongjun contains most of the blast but becomes infected by darkness bound to his soul, making self-detonation an ineffective escape 160 161.

Wang Shi returns and begins purging the corruption through an intensely painful, scorching treatment. Hongjun lashes out at the teasing Saints, but their Six Paths of Reincarnation Formation restrains him. After hearing how their coordination arose from prolonged isolation and combat, he regains composure and thanks them for their suffering 162.

System Dependence and Final Submission

Hongjun later rallies the Saints against Wang Shi’s support for Human Race unification, presenting it as an attack on their influence. His sprite-like System adviser claims that its Truth Spell can gradually bring others into his service. Hongjun completes missions, seeks a Chaos Disk, and purchases cultivation talent when he cannot afford the treasure 228 229.

After Wang Shi’s Transmigrator identity is exposed, the native Hongjun joins the Saints attacking him. A separate parallel-world Hongjun, calling himself Hong, admits that his account of another world enabled their deductions, though he denies deliberately causing the hostility 236.

The native Hongjun openly trusts his System to raise him beyond the Great Dao and secure control of the world. Its time domain has strengthened his body, but Wang Shi overwhelms him. When Hongjun begs for help, the System abandons him, assumes a humanlike form resembling its host, and reveals that hosts were nourishment 238 239.

During a renewed invasion, Wang Shi brings the separate Hongjun to restore the native Dao Ancestor’s fighting spirit. The two instead fuse and challenge Wang Shi for mastery of the Primordial World. After another defeat, Hongjun accepts Wang Shi as its foremost figure, pledges to follow him, and supports the title Dao Venerable 245 246.

Appearance

• True form: A Chaos Earthworm, a race Hongjun describes as few in number 245.
• System-trained body: Develops conspicuous, powerful musculature through prolonged physical training 239.
• Fused form: Has two heads and four arms after merging with his parallel-world counterpart 245.

Personality

Early Hongjun is composed, perceptive, and difficult to intimidate. He disdains the invading Luohu’s ultimatum and chooses calculated self-destruction over captivity. His treatment of the reborn native Luohu also shows restraint: he allows redemption and accepts the prospect of another challenge without hostility 34 35 55.

His teaching combines genuine service with personal ambition. The sermons strengthen cultivators throughout the world, but their merit also advances his pursuit of Dao Integration. His later distribution of merit demonstrates a willingness to support collective growth rather than always retaining its benefits 56 80.

The remnant-soul merger profoundly alters him. Fear, fatalism, and dread of loneliness drive his retreat plans and possessiveness toward the Investiture of the Gods List. Nevertheless, he remains capable of admiration for those who risk death and eventually accepts personal danger to protect the world 125 150 160.

Hongjun’s pride makes Wang Shi’s superiority especially painful. His desire to recover authority encourages blind dependence on the System and another challenge after fusion. Once defeated, however, he acknowledges the result directly and pledges cooperation 239 245 246.

Abilities & Skills

Dao Instruction

• Teaches the Great Dao on a scale that produces breakthroughs throughout the Primordial World 56 80.
• Enables even beings outside the palace to gain insight from fragments of his sermons 56.
• Provides access to the Primordial Origin Sea, where ten thousand years pass for each year outside, offering exceptional conditions for studying laws and Great Daos 120.

Great Dao and Law Control

• Creates a small world within the Purple Firmament Palace whose laws fall under his authority 80.
• Uses those laws to make the Blood Demon’s otherwise elusive soul vulnerable to binding 80.
• Invokes the Primordial World’s Great Dao and laws to suppress opponents; Wang Shi repeatedly breaks these restraints 238.

Soul Investigation and Cleansing

• Searches the captured Blood Demon’s soul to uncover infiltrators and local collaborators 80.
• Removes hidden blood-colored control from cultivators below Daluo Golden Immortal 80.
• Can access memories within a merged counterpart’s soul, though separating from the partially merged memories is difficult 151.

Saint Survival and Self-Detonation

• Explains that Saints endure as long as the Primordial World survives, allowing bodily destruction to serve as an escape from captivity 35.
• Destroys his body in a controlled counterattack against the invading Luohu 35.
• Cannot escape soul-bound darkness through self-detonation; its corruption requires external cleansing 161 162.

Perception and Divination

• Examines the Primordial World’s history to distinguish its dead native Luohu from an invader 34.
• Cannot initially see beyond his world to establish the invader’s origin 34.
• Fails to divine the future consequences of Wang Shi holding all Three Books 81.

Origin-Source Fusion

• Merges with another Chaos Earthworm version of himself, combining their origin sources and increasing strength and talent 245.
• The earlier remnant-soul merger also transfers psychological trauma, demonstrating that fusion can carry damaging consequences 125.
• His later fused body remains inferior to Wang Shi in their documented duel 246.

Equipment & Items

• Jade Disc of Creation — The foundation of Hongjun’s Dao attainment. Contains primordial chaos qi and Great Dao patterns; supplied to anchor the Demon Realm 118.
• Investiture of the Gods List — Holds true spirits and, after Wang Shi’s modifications, absorbs origin source to help fallen Investiture Spirits recover. Hongjun retains it for a proposed refuge and tests it with his own origin source 150 151.
• Four Immortal-Slaying Swords — Formerly passes into his possession after the native Luohu’s defeat. Later offered at Treasure Distribution Cliff rather than established as his permanent weapons 36 81.
• System adviser — Offers missions, exchange rewards, persuasive influence, and accelerated training time. Ultimately abandons Hongjun after using him as nourishment 229 239.
• Chaos Disk — sought, not obtained — A Chaos-grade time-and-space treasure priced at 13,000 exchange points. Hongjun has earned only 1,300 points when he requests a discount 229.

Relationships

• Wang Shi / Stone Spirit — Begins as a promising junior whom Hongjun praises and discreetly guides. Their relationship becomes antagonistic over manipulation, authority, and System dependence; after repeated defeats, Hongjun pledges to follow him 50 51 123 239 246.
• Yang Mei — Dao-discussion partner and fellow explorer of the darkness. Opposes the remnant-soul merger and later explains its consequences to Wang Shi 83 125.
• Haotian — Raised and taught by Hongjun as an attendant. Later challenges his withdrawal and gains his support for rebuilding the Heavenly Court 151 152 153.
• Yaochi — Palace attendant who joins Haotian in enforcing Wang Shi’s instructions to monitor Hongjun 83 151.
• Direct disciples — Taishang Laozi, Yuanshi, Tongtian, Nuwa, Fuxi, Di Jun, Zhunti, Jieyin, and Houtu are formally named his direct disciples after the third sermon 80.
• Di Jun — Disciple whose progress Hongjun facilitates, then compromises by diverting his Sainthood rewards. Later negotiates Hongjun’s continued participation in the world’s defense 120 123 150.
• Native Luohu — Former mortal enemy whom Hongjun killed, then spares after rebirth on condition of service and atonement 34 55.
• Hong, the displaced counterpart — A separate Dao Ancestor from a destroyed world. Later fuses bodily with the native Hongjun; distinct from the earlier remnant-soul merger described by Yang Mei 125 236 245.
• System Lifeform — Exploits Hongjun’s ambition and dependence, then discards him when it no longer needs its host 229 239.

Notable Quotes

“I am Hongjun. Today, I have become a saint.” 16

“No matter how special your soul is, I determine the laws of heaven and earth here. Once you enter this place, you fall under my authority.” 80

“My skills fell short. There’s nothing more to say. From now on, I’ll follow you. You’re number one in the Primordial World, and I’ll be number two. Your business is my business.” 246