At dawn, the sacred Nine-Tone Jade Chimes of the imperial capital struck seven times.
The solemn, silver-toned chimes echoed through the cold morning air, signaling the official commencement of the Triennial Imperial Examination.
Inside the newly renovated, five-hundred-acre Taichu Examination Compound, three thousand crystal testing cells gleamed under a warm, golden glow.
Ten thousand examinees from across the Nine Provinces sat at their Star-Gold Truth-Seeking Desks.
The automated thermal arrays kept the air at a comfortable spring warmth, and steaming porcelain cups of ginger-ginseng tea sat beside their polished inkstones.
For the first time in imperial history, examinees didn’t have to shiver in drafty wooden pens or blow warm breath onto frozen ink.
The transparent crystal walls allowed every scholar to see the clear morning sky, while preventing any sound or spiritual transmission from entering from the outside.
Outside the transparent formation walls, fifty thousand citizens, merchants, and examiners stood along the spectator galleries, watching every movement inside the hall in real time.
