Great Dao

Biodata

Nature

• Universal presence: Great Dao power exists in both the Immortal Domain and the smaller worlds of All Heavens. It is described as elusive and intangible, yet its manifestations can transform heaven and earth 659.
• Goal of cultivation: Human Dao cultivators seek it through immortality, while Immortal Dao cultivators pursue it through ultimate transcendence 659.
• Many distinct paths: The Three Thousand Great Daos differ from one another. Sword, Strength, Fire, Time, and Space are among the individual paths represented by their own wills 382 1027 1032.
• Accumulated understanding: Individual Great Daos are formed from the accumulated wills of countless cultivators. A true Great Dao gathers the strengths of different schools and melds myriad laws with nature 1151.
• Personal cultivation: Cultivators can develop a Great Dao of their own rather than simply follow an existing path. Su Changge’s understanding emphasizes that his footsteps themselves forge his Dao 531 552.
• Acceptance of other paths: At the Dao Inquiry Pass, respecting and understanding another person’s Way of Faith is presented as a means of perfecting one’s own Dao. The supreme Great Dao is described as capable of accommodating every other Dao 382.

Origins and Historical Damage

The Great Dao Origin Gate nurtured the origins of the Three Thousand Great Daos. Its birth was indirectly connected to the First-Generation Five Great Creators: after their War of Origin Break, scattered fragments of the Origin Realm formed All Heavens Myriad Domains, with the nine largest fragments becoming the original Nine Great Immortal Domains 1194.

During the Immortal Flourishing Era, the paths of the Great Dao throughout the Immortal Domains reached their peak. Innumerable cultivators, Dao lineages, and experts above Immortal Emperor emerged during this period 697.

The Immeasurable Tribulation and War of Annihilation grievously damaged the Great Daos. Many were shattered, while even foremost paths suffered severe injuries. Their surviving will projections consequently possessed far less power than they once had 1032.

One confirmed casualty was the Great Dao of Life and Death Reincarnation, forcibly shattered by a heaven-defying expert during the Immeasurable Tribulation. Without it, countless beings killed in the conflict could not reincarnate and remained in the Immortal Domain with their resentment and regrets 874.

Role in Cultivation

Comprehension and Resonance

Understanding the Great Dao affects both a cultivator’s techniques and their route toward immortality 24 531.

• Great Dao Resonance signifies that mastery of a Dao has reached its utmost limit. It reflects understanding of the Dao, not merely cultivation realm 365.
• Natural affinity can aid comprehension. The Innate Saintly Body Dao Embryo is naturally attuned to the Great Dao 24.
• Special physiques can support independent understanding. The Profound Enlightenment Physique can eventually condense unique Immortal Intent Laws through comprehension of the Great Dao alone 682.
• Integration with techniques can be a prerequisite for their strongest forms. The Dao Severing Art requires comprehension of heaven and earth’s Great Dao and union with it to unleash its Dao-severing strike 24.
• Forging a new path is possible through experimentation with existing powers. Luo Yan Yu attempts to combine her Chaos Body and Supreme Bone to create her own Great Dao 591.

Paths of Transcendence

Limits of the Immortal Dao

• Immortal Emperor is not the end: Yuan Hong’s descent demonstrates laws and order far beyond the understanding of Immortal Emperors, revealing that the true end of the Great Dao lies much farther away 1175.
• Fate and karma remain elusive: Immortal Emperors can enter the River of Time and wield spatial arts, yet cannot ordinarily master or alter their own fate and karma 1189.
• Transcendence can escape local control: Supreme experts who have transcended this world are no longer bound by its Great Dao rules. Origin Realm existences influence the fate of the lower worlds and their Great Daos 1031 1035.

Great Dao Wills

Great Dao Wills possess projections and incarnations distinct from their true bodies. The academy’s incarnations are only parts of the Great Dao operating within All Heavens Myriad Domains, not the entirety of those Daos 1127 1175.

Known Will Projections

Relationship with the Heavenly Dao

• Shared source, different roles: The Immortal Domain Heavenly Dao and the Great Dao Wills originally shared a source but followed different paths 1033.
• Observers rather than world administrators: The will projections describe themselves as observers. The Heavenly Dao, formed from the World Spirit and Heaven and Earth Laws, holds executive authority to intervene in the world 1033.
• Severed contact: The Immortal Domain Heavenly Dao cut ties with the Great Dao Wills countless eras earlier. They recognized that the true Heavenly Dao had vanished and been replaced by an unknown being, but lacked the power to resolve the situation 1033.
• Limited worldly influence: Despite their restrictions on directly interfering in factional affairs, the Great Dao Academy and its wills retain some influence over the world 1071.

Laws, Recognition, and Restrictions

Great Dao Oaths

A Great Dao Oath is described as the strictest oath in the world, sworn upon the Dao heart and overseen by the Heavenly Dao 3.

• Ancestor Po Jun invokes the Great Dao as witness to Returning Origin Holy Land’s promises to Su Changge 3.
• White lightning and the spread of Great Dao aura confirm the oath’s establishment 3.
• Breaking the oath results in the scattering and destruction of the offender’s soul 3.

Recognition and Blessings

• Recognition of a new Dao: Su Changge’s newborn Dao receives recognition from the Great Dao, accompanied by auspicious purple qi 472.
• Environmental restoration: The resulting blessing restores North Abyss Dao Domain and strengthens its spiritual energy 472.
• Factional fortune: A Great Dao true name allows a faction to connect with the fortune of heaven and earth. The Great Dao Academy offers this blessing to factions established within it 1120.
• Inheritance and protection: Recognition by a Great Dao Will can make a cultivator that Dao’s inheritor and grant its protection 1027.

Suppression and Precepts

• Worldly limitations: Great Dao Laws suppress Half-Immortal Artifacts in the lower world, leaving their killing power below that of Emperor Weapons despite their superior wondrous functions 75.
• Great Dao Precepts: Rules established by the true bodies of the Three Thousand Great Daos restrict experts above Immortal Emperor from freely acting in the lower realms 1175.
• Barrier permission: Such experts require permission from the Great Daos’ true bodies to send Divine Sense through the Great Dao Barrier. Permission to descend does not grant unrestricted freedom to act 1175.
• Unenforced violations: Yuan Hong is allowed through the barrier and attacks the assembled Immortal Emperors despite these precepts. The observing will incarnation cannot explain why the true bodies turn a blind eye 1175.

Great Dao Rankings

The Great Dao reveals rankings to distinguish competing groups of prodigies and distributes rewards through their contests 659 862.

Three Rankings

Sequence Tournament

• Defeating a listed opponent during the second stage allows the victor to strip away that opponent’s Great Dao Luck 862.
• Gifts can temper the Immortal Source, strengthen physiques and bloodlines, and improve cultivation aptitude 862.
• Victories accumulate; more victories produce a richer final reward of Innate Dao Qi 862.
• The ultimate leading prodigy receives the highest sequence title and a special reward from the Great Dao 862.
• Innate Dao Qi is hidden deep within the Great Dao and can only be condensed by Great Dao Will. Sufficient absorption is said to secure invincibility within the same realm 862.

Great Dao Academy

The Great Dao Academy is formed from the Great Dao itself rather than founded by humans or demons. Its teachers are will projections of the Three Thousand Great Daos and the Great Daos of different worlds 1027.

• Divine Pillars: Three thousand pillars contain Great Dao origin power and can transmit supreme divine abilities to those who comprehend them 1031.
• Immortal Academies: Three thousand corresponding institutions allow cultivators to challenge projected will incarnations for origin inheritances 1120.
• No inheritance limit: A sufficiently capable cultivator may obtain recognition from every instructor and acquire all three thousand origin divine abilities 1120.
• Risk of rejection: Rejection can collapse the Dao heart, destroy the Dao foundation, or reduce the challenger to a puppet of the rejecting will 1027.
• Coexisting laws: Within the academy’s hidden space, normally incompatible laws resonate and mingle rather than repel one another 1031.

Associated Treasures and Manifestations

• Great Dao origin ancient characters — The earliest written characters of All Heavens Myriad Domains and tangible manifestations of Great Dao power. Mastering one is equivalent to mastering its corresponding innate power, such as wind, fire, thunder, or lightning 781 1127.
• Great Dao Slough — A treasure developed through countless ages of Great Dao wisdom, capable of accommodating myriad laws and evolving heavenly phenomena. It is used in Red Robe’s reconstruction 1030 1033 1046.
• Myriad Dao Origin Pearl — The final form of the Primordial Beginning Source Key. It gathers the power of the Three Thousand Great Daos, provides origin protection, and opens the Great Dao Origin Gate 1193.
• Great Dao Tea Leaves — Leaves formed through ten thousand years of accumulated Dao rhythm, growing in the Immortal Domain and within the Gate to Immortality 570.
• Dao-Refining Flame — Fire produced by refining the Dao through the Creation Heavenly Evolution Treasure Art; Su Changge uses it in artifact refinement 840.
• Great Dao characters in bloodline awakening — The Immeasurable Distant Ancestor sends characters into Su Changge to awaken his sealed Taboo Su Family bloodline 615.

Major Events

Notable Quotes

“What was the Great Dao? Boundless acceptance. The truly supreme Great Dao could accommodate every other Dao.” 382

“All things are not all things, the myriad Daos are not myriad Daos, but one with me...” 1207

“I am the Dao...” — Su Changge 1207