Upper Realm — two hundred and thirty-two.
Mortal Realm — three thousand six hundred and sixty-eight.
Lower Realm — one hundred and three thousand two hundred and twenty-six.
Whether in the Upper Realm, the Mortal Realm, or the Lower Realm, every world was a single star, drifting across the vast, boundless expanse of the starry sky.
These hundred-thousand-plus stars gathered together to form a single star domain.
This star domain was the Ancestral Martial Star Domain.
Within the Ancestral Martial Star Domain, every star was ruled by some power and linked through formation arrays.
Only a handful of stars belonged to no faction whatsoever — not even the Star Domain's Main Realm laid claim to them.
Among these was a star called the Celestial Star, and it belonged to a single person.
That person was the Celestial Reverend.
Because the Celestial Reverend resided there, no faction, no individual dared set foot upon the Celestial Star and cause offense.
And the Celestial Reverend — though his strength was formidable, and he counted among the top experts — when measured against the entire Ancestral Martial Star Domain, he actually did not rank among the very strongest.
It was precisely because of this that his lofty status within the Ancestral Martial Star Domain was owed not to martial power but rather to a unique ability he possessed — the art of divination.
The Celestial Reverend's divination was extraordinarily precise and had never once proven wrong.
Every matter he prophesied had come to pass.
Furthermore, at the request of the Star Domain's Main Realm, the Celestial Reverend would perform a divination for the Ancestral Martial Star Domain once each year.
Through his divination, he would peer into the future changes awaiting the Ancestral Martial Star Domain.
Today was once again the day of the Celestial Reverend's annual divination — the day he glimpsed the secrets of heaven.
At this moment, it was deep in the night. High above the vast void, not a cloud marred the sky for ten thousand miles, and the stars stretched out in full splendor.
The stars blanketed the heavens, and stream after stream of galaxies was clearly visible. The sight was truly breathtaking.
Deep within the void stood an towering platform, so high that it seemed on the verge of piercing into the void itself, as though it would merge with the countless stars overhead.
Three great characters were inscribed upon the platform — the Celestial Altar.
And atop the Celestial Altar stood a palace — the Celestial Palace.
The Celestial Palace was not large, yet it was remarkably strange. Its walls were transparent like crystal, and under the glow of starlight, they reflected the myriad stars above, making it seem as though the entire heavens resided within the palace itself.
And because the palace was transparent, everything inside was plainly visible.
The interior was quite empty. Aside from a single writing desk, there was no other furnishing.
The desk stood at the very center of the Celestial Palace, and upon it rested a crystalline luminous orb.
The orb stood only about a foot in height, yet its shape was extraordinarily peculiar — it was a perfect miniature replica of the Celestial Palace itself.
However, compared to the actual Celestial Palace, this crystalline luminous orb was even more wondrous, unmistakably an extraordinary treasure.
Within the orb, starlight blazed in dense profusion, so tightly packed that it seemed as though the entire vast expanse of the starry heavens had been drawn inside. Simply looking at it inspired awe.
And before the desk, a person knelt.
This person wore a long black robe, but dotting its surface were flecks of starlight, as if the garment were not truly a black robe at all but rather a swath of the night sky itself.
Yet it was not the robe that made this figure the most striking. What drew the eye most was the long black hair cascading down behind him.
The black hair tumbled loose, drifting through the air at half its length, stretching well over a hundred meters — like a dark serpent dragon coiling and swaying around his body.
But there was no seeing his face, for a mask covered it. The mask, too, was black — yet unlike his robe, it was a flat, featureless black, seemingly nothing remarkable at all.