Upper Realms: two hundred and thirty-two.
Mortal Realms: three thousand, six hundred and sixty-eight.
Lower Realms: one hundred and three thousand, two hundred and twenty-six.
Regardless of whether they were Upper, Mortal, or Lower Realms, every single world was a star, drifting across the vast and boundless expanse of the cosmos.
These hundred thousand or more stars together formed a single star domain.
That star domain was the Ancestral Martial Starfield.
Within the Ancestral Martial Starfield, every star was governed by some faction, connected to one another through formation arrays.
Only a rare few stars belonged to no faction — not even the Starfield's Main Realm managed them.
Among those was a star called the Heavenly Secrets Star, and it belonged to a single person.
That person was known as the Heavenly Secrets Exalted.
Because the Heavenly Secrets Exalted resided there, no faction, no individual, dared to set foot upon the Heavenly Secrets Star and cause offense.
And though the Heavenly Secrets Exalted possessed formidable strength and could be considered a top-tier expert, when looking at the Ancestral Martial Starfield as a whole, he was not actually counted among the very strongest.
Precisely because of this, his lofty status in the Ancstral Martial Starfield did not rest upon martial power, but rather on a unique ability he possessed — the art of prophecy.
The Heavenly Secrets Exalted's art of prophecy was extraordinarily accurate. He had never once been mistaken.
Every matter he prophesied had come to pass.
Moreover, at the request of the Starfield's Main Realm, the Heavenly Secrets Exalted would perform a prophecy for the entire Ancestral Martial Starfield once each year, using his foresight to perceive the changes that lay ahead for the starfield.
Today marked the day of the Heavenly Secrets Exalted's annual divination.
At this moment, deep in the night, the boundless void above was utterly cloudless, and a sky full of stars was clearly visible. Stars filled the heavens, and every river of starlight could be seen in vivid detail — the spectacle was breathtakingly beautiful.
Deep within that void stood a towering platform, so high that it seemed on the verge of merging with the cosmos itself, ready to mingle among the myriad stars.
Three great characters were inscribed upon the platform: Heavenly Secrets Tower.
And upon the Heavenly Secrets Tower sat a palace — the Heavenly Secrets Hall.
The hall was not large, yet it was highly unusual. Its walls were transparent, like crystal, and the starlight shining through them projected reflections of the starry sky, making it seem as though the entire cosmos resided within the palace itself.
Because the palace was transparent, everything inside was clearly visible.
The interior was quite sparse. Apart from a writing desk, there were no furnishings of any kind.
The desk stood at the center of the Heavenly Secrets Hall, and upon it rested a crystalline orb of radiant light.
The orb was barely a foot tall, yet its shape was remarkable — it was an exact miniature replica of the Heavenly Secrets Hall itself.
However, compared to the actual hall, this crystalline orb was far more extraordinary. One glance was enough to know it was no ordinary object.
Within the orb, starlight swirled densely, so thick and numerous that it seemed the entire vast cosmos had been gathered inside. Simply looking at it was enough to fill one with wonder.
Before the desk, a person knelt.
The figure wore a robe of black, but scattered across that black fabric were countless pinpricks of starlight, making it seem less like a robe and more like a swath of the night sky.
Yet the robe was not the most striking thing about this person. What truly drew the eye was the long black hair cascading behind him.
That dark hair fell loosely and drifted through the air, extending over a hundred meters in length, swaying around his body like a black dragon coiling through the heavens.