Snow fell softly over the northern ridges, blanketing the battlefield scars from past campaigns. The world looked peaceful—deceptively so. Jeng Minh rode at the head of a small unit: Bai Ye, Gao Ren, Yuan Shan, and four members of the Elite Guard specially chosen for stealth and tracking.
Six soldiers had vanished here.
Not killed.
Not ambushed.
Simply gone.
And that alone made this mission different from any previous battlefield maneuver.
They dismounted at the peak where the patrol had last given a signal. The area was still untouched—no civilian traffic, no patrols, no tampering. A perfect place for secrets to rot beneath the snow.
Bai Ye swept the area with narrowed eyes.
"No tracks," he murmured. "Not even animal prints."
Gao Ren crouched near a scattering of disturbed frost.
"These marks… are not foot patterns. These are drag marks. But not normal ones—straight lines, no stagger, no weight shifts."
"Carried?" Bai Ye asked.
"Carried," Gao Ren confirmed, "by something strong and silent."
Jeng Minh knelt beside the markings.
"No," he said quietly. "Not something. Someone."
Yuan Shan stepped forward. "Commander, what do you see?"
Jeng Minh traced the faint lines with a gloved hand.
"These are fabric impressions. Rope—not rough hemp, but smooth silk. The kind used by elite assassins to bind without bruising."
Bai Ye inhaled sharply. "The Silver Divide."
Yuan Shan frowned. "But why leave such traces deliberately?"
Jeng Minh rose slowly.
"Because they want me to follow."
The odd markings led them down the slope toward a narrow fissure between two cliffs. A cold wind blew from within—unnatural, far colder than mountain air.
A hidden cave.
Bai Ye gripped his sword. "This looks like a trap."
"It is," Jeng Minh said. "But it is also the only path they've opened for us."
He motioned to two Elite Guards to check for traps. They moved forward, methodical and silent, probing the ground, the rock walls, the entrance shadows.
A moment later, one guard raised a fist.
"Commander," he whispered. "No physical traps. But… there's something else."
He pointed to the cave walls.
Symbols.
The same three-stroke circle—but altered.
The strokes were sharper, angled, as if slashed by a blade.
Gao Ren exhaled, recognizing the meaning.
"That's not the Whispering Sect mark. It's the Silver Divide's adaptation."
"Yes," Jeng Minh said, voice low. "A declaration. They claim this place."
And deeper inside, something called out.
Not a noise.
Not a presence.
Something stranger—a sense of intent.
Torches were forbidden. The Silver Divide would expect flames. Jeng Minh ordered cold lanterns filled with glow stone powder instead.
The group descended deeper.
The air changed.
Sound faded.
Breathing felt muted.
Footsteps seemed swallowed whole.
Bai Ye shivered. "This place… absorbs sound."
"Designed," Jeng Minh murmured. "Engineered."
Gao Ren scanned the walls. "Commander, look at this—scratches."
Lines etched into stone.
Claw marks.
Fingernail marks.
And—Blood, dried black from cold.
Yuan Shan clenched his jaw. "Someone was dragged through here. Forced to resist."
Bai Ye whispered, "Our missing patrol…"
Jeng Minh didn't answer.
He only moved forward.
They reached a wide cavern illuminated by glowing mineral veins in the walls. But what chilled them was not the light—
—it was the mirrors.
Polished silver plates hung from the ceiling by silk threads, suspended at odd angles. They reflected every shadow, multiplied every movement into dozens of silhouettes.
Bai Ye shuddered. "These are… ritual mirrors."
Gao Ren nodded. "Used to disorient. To warp perspective."
Yuan Shan growled. "But why here? Why show us this?"
Jeng Minh stepped into the maze of mirrors, unmoving, analyzing.
"They want us to see something."
He paused.
"Or someone."
A faint sound broke the silence.
A breath.
A human breath.
The entire group tensed.
"Form a circle," Jeng Minh ordered quietly.
The Elite Guard shifted, blades drawn, eyes scanning the reflections.
Then—
A figure appeared in the farthest mirror.
Captain Heiman.
Pale.
Expression blank.
Eyes unfocused.
Alive.
But wrong.
Bai Ye gasped. "Heiman! Captain—can you hear us?"
Jeng Minh raised a hand sharply."No. Don't move."
Because something else was wrong.
Heiman's reflection in the mirror… did not match his posture.
The real man stood slack, barely breathing.
But the reflection stood straight, eyes sharp, watching them.
Yuan Shan whispered, "Commander… what is this?"
Jeng Minh's voice was iron.
"Not a mirror."
He stepped forward.
"A message."
The reflection of Captain Heiman moved independently, raising its head.
But the real Heiman did not.
A hollow voice echoed through the cavern—emanating not from the air, but from everywhere at once.
"Lord Zhou."
The Elite Guard tensed.
The reflection smiled unnaturally.
"We know your mind.
We know your strategies.
Now we will know your loyalties."
Jeng Minh's eyes narrowed.
"This is the Silver Divide."
"Correct."
The voice sharpened like cold blades.
"You captured the north with intellect and subtlety. Admirable. But you stand at a crossroads."
The reflection tilted its head.
"Join us.
Or oppose us."
Bai Ye stepped forward. "We will never—"
"Silence," Jeng Minh ordered.
He stared directly at the reflection.
"What did you do to my men?"
A soft, humorless chuckle.
"We borrowed them. Their minds remain… intact."
The reflection leaned closer.
"For now."
The temperature dropped.
Bai Ye's breath frosted.
Yuan Shan stepped between Jeng Minh and the mirror. "Say the word, Commander, and I'll smash this entire cavern—"
"No."Jeng Minh's calm cut through the tension.
He looked at the reflection.
"You want me to chase you."
"We want you to choose."
The mirror flickered—the image dissolving like smoke.
Real Captain Heiman collapsed to the floor, unconscious but alive.
As Gao Ren and the Elite Guard rushed to him, the reflection's voice whispered one last message:
"We will test the shape of your destiny, Lord Zhou. Prepare yourself."
Then every mirror shattered at once—without a single sound.
Minutes later, with Captain Heiman carried carefully by Yuan Shan, the group exited the cavern into the cold dawn air.
Bai Ye's voice cracked with tension.
"Commander… they're taunting us. They're showing power but withholding true strength."
"No," Jeng Minh said quietly.
"They're studying us.
Me."
Gao Ren shuddered. "What kind of faction uses mirrors as conduits?"
"Not mirrors," Jeng Minh corrected.
"Techniques. Psychology. Conditioning."
He looked back at the cavern entrance.
"They took six trained soldiers in silence, manipulated their senses, and returned one alive to send a message."
Yuan Shan asked quietly, "What now?"
Jeng Minh's eyes hardened like steel.
"Now," he said, mounting his horse, "we prepare for the next move."
A breath.
"And we ensure that when the Silver Divide begins their game…We hit back with a mind sharper than theirs."