Years were not counted in Chaos.
Within Pangu Hall, the quiet chamber at the deepest point had lain silent for no one knew how many Kalpas.
Today, for the first time, a disturbance came from within.
Houtu, sitting cross-legged inside the hall, opened her eyes without the slightest warning.
She looked toward that tightly shut stone door. An extremely faint ripple, yet one that seemed capable of piercing through all antiquity, was coming from behind it.
At first, that ripple was only a faint undulation, but in the blink of an eye, it became a vast Dao Rhythm that swept through the entire Pangu Hall.
This Dao Rhythm was no longer simple tyranny, no longer a blade with its edge fully bared. It was harmony, it was unity, it was the silence at the end of all laws, and it was also the origin from which ten thousand Daos first opened.
Houtu rose and stood quietly before the door.
At last, that fluctuation, powerful enough to make even Chaos bow in submission, vanished without a trace in an instant, as if it had never appeared at all.
Creak—
The heavy stone door opened inward without a sound.
A figure walked out from within.
It was still that calm, unruffled face, looking no different from before his seclusion.
But Houtu knew it was different.
Houtu felt as though what she faced was an entire expanse of Chaos, the endless Great Dao itself.
He stood there, and he was Dao.
Houtu stood up and went to meet him.
"Elder Brother."
"You broke through?" Houtu's voice carried a thread of tension even she herself had not noticed.
Zhou Ming looked at her, those deep eyes harder to see through than Chaos itself.
He nodded.
"I broke through."
"Peak Hunyuan Grand Ultimate Golden Immortal."