Deep within the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect's grotto-heaven stood a lofty tower, its flying eaves and upturned corners meeting the clouds as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered into mist.
Within the tower lay a vast firmament. Brilliant colors glittered like stars, reflecting throughout the hall. These million lights were the Soul Lamps of the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect's million disciples. At their center, a thousand sect cultivators sat in meditation, using the million cultivators' Soul Lamps—their kindling, burning, extinguishing, and perishing—to contemplate and cultivate the Dao.
Among them was a woman whose eyes resembled stars fallen into a deep, shadowy pool. Her black hair cascaded like a waterfall, her bangs level with her delicate brows. Clad in a loose, pitch-black Daoist robe, she seemed all the more mysterious within this lofty tower.
The Fourth Heaven-Chosen One, Divine Maiden Xia Yan, also guarded the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect's vital hub—the Bureau of Heavenly Observation.
To the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect's disciples, her mysterious existence ranked below only the sect master. The Bureau of Heavenly Observation not only controlled the Soul Lamps of the sect's million disciples, knowing who lived and who died; Divine Maiden Xia Yan had far more to manage. The births, spiritual roots, and aptitudes of the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect's disciples—all fell under her care. She was like the Heavenly Dao of this small place known as the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect, ensuring that the sect maintained reasonable populations and resources, so that it would not descend into internal strife through countless years.
She was well versed in the principles of fate and cultivated the Divine Selection Heavenly Dao Fate-Decreeing Chapter, refined and strengthened by every successive head of the Bureau of Heavenly Observation since the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect's founding. This cultivation technique allowed her, like a representative wielding the authority