Subtitle: The Heart-Mirror Reflects Me, and I Am the Truth
The Silent Snowplain lived up to its name.
No wind howled. No beasts cried out. Even the sound of breathing seemed swallowed by the endless white expanse beneath their feet. The world existed in perfect silence, like a blank scroll untouched by any sound since creation's dawn. This stillness felt oppressive. A heavy weight pressing down on every heart.
Sect Leader Ling Qingyin stood at the snowplain's edge, her white robes making her appear like an ice sculpture. Her gaze swept across the four figures before settling on Shen Yuzhu. "Remember," she said, her words crisp as ice beads striking stone, "Frostwolves consume not flesh, but heart-thoughts. If falsehood lives in your hearts, this place will become your spirit's burial ground." Her eyes seemed to linger on Shen Yuzhu. "You especially. Cling to your calculations as armor, and you'll be the first this snowplain devours."
Shen Yuzhu avoided her penetrating gaze. His heterochromatic eyes scanned their surroundings while his fingers moved subtly within his sleeves, already building mental models of terrain and energy flows. Reason had always been his strongest defense against the unknown. For the first time, calculation gave him no comfort.
Chu Hongying reacted most directly. She shifted into a half-crouch, her Lie Feng Spear still at her side but her entire body taut as a drawn bowstring. To her battle-honed instincts, this place felt more dangerous than any frontline.
Lu Wanning frowned slightly, sensing the dark heartlock on her arm resonating strangely with the snowplain. It felt like invisible threads were testing her, probing like a physician diagnosing a peculiar pulse.
Gu Changfeng appeared most uncomfortable. He rolled his shoulders irritably, this absolute silence grating against his nature. He'd rather face a thousand charging soldiers than confront the restlessness in his own heart here.
When they stepped forward together, the snowplain changed.
The snow at their feet began glowing with a soft, penetrating light. Then came whispers—not through the air, but rising from the snow itself, emerging from the deepest corners of their hearts.
"I fear repeating my father's and brother's failures..."
Gu Changfeng's face went pale. This was the weakness he buried so deep, he never dared touch it even in dreams.
"I want to save everyone... but I can't... I'm only human..."
Lu Wanning closed her eyes, nails digging into her palms. The confession shattered her healer's facade of invulnerable rationality.
"I'm not afraid of death... only of losing you all..."
Chu Hongying stiffened, her eyes darting to her companions, especially Shen Yuzhu. The foundation of her lifelong vow to protect was this fragile fear.
Then the softest voice, yet the one that shook them most deeply:
"I've calculated a thousand outcomes... yet never factored in... 'I want to stay'."
Shen Yuzhu stood motionless, snowflakes catching on his trembling lashes. He never imagined his carefully hidden feelings would be laid so bare.
The air froze between them. In each other's eyes, they saw not judgment but recognition—equally exposed wounds, equally understood vulnerabilities.
Chu Hongying broke the silence with a low curse. "This place digs up what's hardest to say."
Shen Yuzhu's mouth quirked slightly. "At least it's precise."
Before the moment could settle, the snow mist churned violently. Massive shapes emerged from the fog—wolf forms woven from ice and shimmering light, their eyes containing not animal ferocity but bottomless voids. The Frostwolves had come, manifestations of their deepest heart-thoughts.
Gu Changfeng faced a giant wolf whose eyes burned crimson, its form wreathed in phantom tormented souls. He swung his blade wildly, but the steel passed through the creature, only making the spirit wails clearer, the wolf more substantial. He fought until breathless, until staring into those blood-red eyes, he saw his fallen family. Abruptly, he stilled, letting his Cloud-Edge Blade drop. He drew the blade across his palm, letting blood drip onto snow. "I acknowledge this debt," he vowed. The wolf dissolved into light that flowed into him.
Lu Wanning's Frostwolf was a monstrous construct of shattered silver needles and chaotic geometry, constantly twisting with metallic screeches. Her healing needles only made it more fragmented. Understanding dawned—she stopped trying to fix it, approaching instead with an open hand. "Pain isn't a mistake," she whispered. The broken thing stilled, reassembling into a calm ice wolf that bowed before vanishing.
Chu Hongying's opponent was a Military Soul Wolf woven from phantom legions, radiating solemn killing intent. She raised her spear, then sensed not hostility but tragic heroism. Remembering fallen comrades, she lowered her weapon and struck her chest in formal salute. "I'll carry your will forward." The wolf dissolved into crimson light that joined with her.
Shen Yuzhu faced nothingness—a transparent wolf silhouette, soundless and empty. All his calculations proved useless against this void reflecting his fear of emotional emptiness. As despair neared, he heard Chu Hongying's fear of loss, Gu Changfeng's shame, Lu Wanning's helplessness. Closing his eyes, he abandoned reason completely. "I'm willing... to feel," he breathed. The transparent wolf solidified, gained warm jade tones, nodded almost imperceptibly, and vanished.
No sooner had the wolves faded than the snowplain transformed into a giant resonance chamber. Their Heart-Oath Bond amplified violently, twisting into shared agony.
Chu Hongying buckled under Gu Changfeng's family burdens.
Gu Changfeng choked on Shen Yuzhu's emotional isolation.
Shen Yuzhu's mind blanked under Chu Hongying's terror of loss.
Lu Wanning nearly shattered bearing all three torments simultaneously.
Their formation faltered. The Heart-Oath Crystal flickered wildly.
"This isn't weakness!" Lu Wanning's voice cut through the storm, clear and firm. She drove her silver needle deep into the snow. "This pain proves we can still feel—still resonate!"
Her will became an anchor. The others stopped resisting, pouring their heart-thoughts into the shared frequency. Pain transformed from enemy to shared burden. Their bond evolved from ability-sharing to fate-bearing.
The Heart-Oath Crystal erupted in brilliant light. A four-colored pillar shot skyward, piercing the snowplain's silence, announcing their existence to heaven and earth.
As the light faded, deeper silence followed. Then a primordial vibration hummed through their souls—ancient metal groaning.
The ice turned transparent, revealing bronze energy veins flowing like the world's blood vessels.
The largest Frostwolf remained. It lifted its head, eyes now holding swirling bronze runes. Its thought-voice echoed in their souls:
"Heart-Seal resonance verified."
"Four Candidate Anchors recorded."
"When four hearts return to place, the Heart-Gate shall open."
The bronze veins faded. The Frostwolf dissolved into snow.
The trial was over.
The four stood transformed on the pure white plain—exhausted but renewed, something fundamental changed between them.
Ling Qingyin appeared, her expression grave. "The Frostwolves chose you," she said, her voice resonating with the snowplain. "But you've also awakened what should have slept."
In the distant capital's Mirror Palace, the Web of Order's monitoring array flickered violently. Northern Frontier indicators scattered like panicked fireflies.
The Emperor watched the runaway lights, his gaze that of a player observing chess pieces stirring to life.
"The stars shift course," he murmured, interest coloring his voice. "The game enters its decisive phase." A frost-edged calm settled in his eyes. "Let the variables struggle."
On a remote Northern cliff, Situ Ming watched his ice mirror shatter. "Your Majesty," he reported through the secret channel, "the observatory is aligned. All four variables are in play."
The coming storm would test more than just their hearts.