Chapter 1: Terror at the Selection, the Dao Heart Awakens
On a spring day in Yikun Palace, sunlight streamed through the carved lattice windows and fell across the golden-thread carpet, forming patches of light and shadow. Zhen Huan knelt in the middle of the hall, dressed in a light apricot-colored palace gown, with only a white jade hairpin in her hair. She looked so plain as to be almost drab. Around her were other young women taking part in the selection. Some nervously twisted their handkerchiefs, while others lowered their eyes and pretended to be calm. The air was thick with the scent of powder and suppressed breaths.
"Xuanwei, Xuanwei..." A strange yet familiar voice suddenly rang in Zhen Huan's mind. It was the name she had borne as a cultivator at the Tribulation Transcendence stage. She suddenly
