Chapter 1232: The Cost of Consuming the Heaven Dao! The Final Choice!

Yet even Luo Fu himself had not expected his schemes to proceed so smoothly.

Not only did he successfully revive the Human Dao, but he also consolidated three half-human Dao Saint positions, becoming the Master of the Human Dao.

Ancestor Hongjun, under Luo Fu's pressure, chose to retreat into the Primordial World, becoming completely restrained—and for the foreseeable future, he could hardly intervene again.

One can only say that the affairs of the world are unpredictable.

Though Luo Fu was supremely confident in himself, he had never imagined he could suppress Ancestor Hongjun so utterly.

Luo Fu still held some awe for Ancestor Hongjun.

Whether in his past life or this one, Ancestor Hongjun had always been an absolute powerhouse in Luo Fu's eyes.

If Luo Fu had not been a transmigrator but a native being of the Primordial World, his awe for Ancestor Hongjun would have been even greater.

Not just Luo Fu—even the Supreme Sage and others held an awe for Ancestor Hongjun that was etched into their very bones.

Even when Ancestor Hongjun fell into disadvantage, the Supreme Sage and others still did not believe Luo Fu could suppress him.

After Ancestor Hongjun was fully restrained, the Supreme Sage and others felt as if they were dreaming.

This was because Ancestor Hongjun's authority had lasted far too long.

Since the Ancient Era, Ancestor Hongjun had already been invincible.

As a Heaven Dao-level powerhouse, Ancestor Hongjun exerted a true dimensional crushing pressure over all beings of the Primordial World.

Of course, Ancestor Hongjun's complete suppression by Luo Fu involved both coincidence and inevitability.

The coincidence was that Ancestor Hongjun had detected not the slightest trace of Luo Fu's many schemes.

After Luo Fu forced the Western Saints to commit suicide, Ancestor Hongjun knew Luo Fu's power was abnormal, yet he did not personally intervene—instead, he followed Luo Fu's lead and sent out his ultimate trump card, allowing Luo Fu to uncover his true nature.

This was undoubtedly a stain on Ancestor Hongjun's life.

Given Ancestor Hongjun's insight and his sensitivity to danger, his complete lack of reaction to Luo Fu's schemes was utterly abnormal.

This abnormality was precisely the inevitable reason for Ancestor Hongjun's defeat.

Consuming the Heaven Dao comes at a cost.

Though Ancestor Hongjun was a Heaven Dao-level powerhouse and possessed the Heaven Dao Jade Disc as a medium, allowing him to consume the Heaven Dao at a relatively low cost, even a Heaven Dao-level being could not fully escape the price of consuming the Heaven Dao.

The Heaven Dao and sentient beings are entirely different species.

Normally, most Heaven Daos develop autonomous consciousness, yet those that develop such consciousness rarely transform into sentient beings.

This is because the Heaven Dao and normal sentient beings are mutually exclusive.

Normal sentient beings experience joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure; they undergo emotional fluctuations.

These are qualities the Heaven Dao does not possess.

With its power, the Heaven Dao could easily simulate emotional fluctuations.

But the nature of the Heaven Dao ensures that even if it could simulate emotions, it could not sustain them.

The Heaven Dao must operate the entire world, processing vast amounts of data at every moment.

An emotional Heaven Dao could not function like a machine—unyielding, tireless, eternally rational—while absorbing torrents of information.

Even if the Heaven Dao acquired emotions, these would gradually be eroded under the deluge of data until they vanished entirely.

Only absolute rationality could become the Heaven Dao.

Having consumed most of the Heaven Dao, Ancestor Hongjun naturally came under its influence.

Fortunately, Ancestor Hongjun was a Heaven Dao-level powerhouse and possessed the Heaven Dao Jade Disc as a medium, which shielded him from the Heaven Dao's informational assault—otherwise, he would long ago have lost his sentient emotions.

For sentient beings, emotions are vital.

Sentient intuition and wisdom are both tied to emotion.

Absolute rationality is not necessarily a good thing.

If Ancestor Hongjun's emotions and intuition had not been entirely suppressed by reason, he might well have sensed the danger.

Luo Fu's concealment ability was indeed powerful, but if Ancestor Hongjun had been willing to pay any cost—using the Heaven Dao to scan every corner of the Primordial World, even tracing Luo Fu's actions along the timeline—Luo Fu's exposure risk would have been extremely high.

Even if Ancestor Hongjun could not detect Luo Fu's traces, he would still have become wary.

After all, failing to detect something is itself unusual.

For normal beings, failing to detect something is unusual—that is a perfectly logical inference.

But this did not apply to the Heaven Dao.

The absolutely rational Heaven Dao had no such thing as self-aware reasoning; for the Heaven Dao, failing to detect meant everything was normal.

Ancestor Hongjun, under the Heaven Dao's influence, perceived all of Luo Fu's anomalies as normal.

Since Ancestor Hongjun chose to consume the Heaven Dao, such occurrences happening to him were only natural.

In addition, Ancestor Hongjun's decision to entrap himself and retreat into the Primordial World was also inevitable.

This was not due to the Heaven Dao's influence on him.

Rather, it was his own optimal choice after his wisdom was restored.

When the seal of Huoyun Cave was completely shattered by the Earth Dao, Ancestor Hongjun already understood his fate.

Everything he did afterward was merely his final struggle.

Retreating into the Primordial World was also his final struggle.

As long as Ancestor Hongjun did not abandon consuming the Heaven Dao, this was the only thing he could do.

He did not act against Luo Fu because, in his view, striking Luo Fu held no meaning.

Luo Fu was protected by the Earth Dao and the Human Dao; even if the Human Dao had not yet fully broken its blockade, Ancestor Hongjun could not suppress Luo Fu.

Unable to suppress him, unable to cripple him—even if Ancestor Hongjun could defeat Luo Fu, it would mean little, serving only to vent his anger.

Venting anger held no real meaning for Ancestor Hongjun.

Ancestor Hongjun had always been a being who valued profit above all else.

Ancestor Hongjun would rarely do anything without profit.

Not striking at the Twelve Ancestral Ancestors and the Three Sovereigns and others was also based on this point.

Luo Fu cared about the Twelve Ancestral Ancestors and the Three Sovereigns and others, but that did not mean Ancestor Hongjun cared.

In Ancestor Hongjun's eyes, even the Supreme Sage and others were merely ants and tools.

Since they were tools, even betrayal meant nothing to Ancestor Hongjun.

Ancestor Hongjun did not even regard the Supreme Sage and others as worthy of notice, let alone the Twelve Ancestral Ancestors and the Three Sovereigns and others.

This was also the mindset of most Heaven Dao-level experts.

Most Heaven Dao-level experts had lived through the Wushuyuan Society's eons.