Deep within the Desolate Meteorite Belt in the Northern Territory.
Inside an utterly unremarkable, dark red star core, long since riddled with holes by the erosion of Chaos Qi.
Zhou Ming had carved out a temporary hiding place here.
At this moment, an enormous vortex of fortune slowly revolved at the center of the star core.
At the heart of that vortex sat a figure in blue robes, his legs crossed.
It was Zhou Ming.
He had been in secluded cultivation here for nearly a thousand years.
Over those thousand years, he had paid a "visit" to each of the Rebel-Suppression Alliance's senior members who had offended him most grievously.
In Hongchu's words, this was called "targeted poverty relief."
Only it worked in reverse.
Crack-
An exceedingly faint yet unmistakably clear sound of something breaking came from within Zhou Ming.
It sounded like a glacier frozen for hundreds of millions of years finally developing its first fissure beneath the warm spring sun.
Hongchu, Cang Xuan, Taichu, and Houtu, who stood guard nearby, perked up and looked over together.
Behind them were Qian Ling and the other six fellow cultivators from the Eternal Dao Realm who had been rescued later.
The eleven formed a circle, guarding Zhou Ming at its very center.
"Is it happening?" Excitement and anticipation gleamed in Hongchu's eyes.
He could feel Zhou Ming's aura undergoing a heaven-and-earth-upending transformation.
It felt as though a giant, bound fast by countless iron chains, was finally about to break free of the last and strongest restraint.
Cang Xuan's expression was far more solemn.
He watched Zhou Ming intently, quietly circulating his laws as he remained alert to everything around them.
He knew this was the most critical moment.
Crack... crack, crack...
The sounds of breaking grew ever more frequent, ever