The Green Maple Gorge lay along the southern rim of the Northern Wastes, its cliffs split like a blade's wound.Wind flowed upward all year, cold and sharp.Since the sea tide of Lingyuan, that wind had begun to sing — a metallic hum that set even stone trembling.To mortals, it was mere noise. To those who heard qi, it was the voice of a restless ley line.
At the gorge's entrance, an imperial banner snapped in the gale: the red mark of the Inspection Bureau.Ye Xuan, dressed in a plain blue robe, bore at his waist a humble copper badge stamped Acting Inspector.Four followed him: Lan Qi, Lin Ge, Su Lin, and a mild-faced scholar known as Brushdust — the newest thread in the Night Ravens' hidden net.
"The seal's true," Lan Qi murmured. "But the writ's forged. How did you—"
Ye Xuan tapped the copper badge. "Borrowed it."
"From… them?"
"The Ministry of Works." A thin smile touched his lips. "A good law never dies — so long as the ink still holds."
Lan Qi could only sigh.In three short days, Ye Xuan had spun a paper trail through the empire's ledgers, emerging as an "Assistant Inspector for Reserve Mines."The same decree now traveled north to the imperial registry.On paper — Ye Xuan was lawfully here.
The wind howled through the gorge.Ye Xuan caught a drifting maple leaf. Its veins shivered."The air's unstable," he murmured. "The ley lines are twisted. Two forces: one of earth's breath… one of human hands."
"Human?" Su Lin frowned.
"The Void Sect." Ye Xuan's tone cooled. "They buried the Mirror's aura beneath a formation — a siphon for both qi and attention.But we won't dismantle it."He raised a finger. "We'll borrow it."
Unrolling a blank dossier page, he pressed his fingertip to it.Ink rose of its own accord, sketching traces of the formation below — the Sect's Tide Conduit Array.Ye Xuan added several crooked lines, meaningless to the eye, yet perfect in logic: a Counter-Law Array, drawn in civil script.
"A spiritual formation uses qi as its body," he said quietly. "A legal one uses principle as its bones.Their array draws from Heaven; mine draws from the Law of Records.Where the Empire records, Heaven must yield."
Lan Qi blinked. "You're sealing their array with bureaucracy?"
"Not sealing. Writing."Ye Xuan's final stroke curved — four characters formed: Heaven Returns to Man.
The wind shuddered.Far below, the gorge's breath turned from whistle to chord.Lin Ge's eyes widened. "The wind— it's shifting!"
"As it should." Ye Xuan's gaze sharpened. "They've begun to move."
Three miles below, a squad of Void Sect disciples stood within a glowing circle.Their leader was Huo, the fire-blooded enforcer who had once faced Ye Xuan.Two adepts maintained a silversand array, rippling with heat.
"The ley line's unstable," one said. "The Division ordered us to stabilize—"
"Stabilize nothing," Huo cut in, voice thin. "The Elder wants the culprit.The mortal realm's Law Qi deviates here — he's close."
He looked up.Above the gorge, a thread of wind light descended — thin as silk, forming the single sigil 凡 (mortal).The silversand quaked; the array split apart.
"Someone's writing a formation in imperial code! It's him—!"
At the gorge top, wind coiled like ink.Ye Xuan stood on the ridge, his sleeve glowing faintly."Seal of Law — Mortal Chapter, awaken."
The canyon erupted.Air compressed, then burst outward.All wind streams converged into a transparent spiral, a vast turning scroll of invisible script.Qi and wind intertwined — a mortal array devouring a spiritual one.
"Filed. Recorded. Certified."Ye Xuan cast several sealed papers into the air.They burned without flame, transforming into words that drifted down the gorge:Surveyed · Entered · Archived.
Each word struck like a hammer.Below, sigils cracked and collapsed.
Huo felt the pressure change — the weight of a law, not a spell."He's… using an official writ as formation!"
"How— the seal—"
"Shut up! Hold the line!"
But the array was already unraveling, its geometry splitting at the seams.Huo gathered fire, the copper ring on his wrist blazing."If he fights with paper, then I'll burn the paper!"
Ye Xuan's mirror shard trembled inside his sleeve.His Mind Domain flared open —Wind, Fire, Salt, Script, Law, Force — six mortal threads aligned.He whispered the ancient line:
"Mortal tools may bear divine intent.Mortal designs may borrow Heaven's path."
The world roared.Fire and wind collided.In the gorge's center bloomed a reflection — a mirror of pure light, showing Huo's startled face."Mirror…" he breathed. "That's—"
Ye Xuan closed his hand.The light folded.Silence fell, broken only by the soft flutter of maple leaves turning to white salt as they touched the ground —marking the site as recorded under imperial law.
Lan Qi knelt amid the fading mist, awe in his eyes."Sir… mortal law can defeat a spiritual array?"
"Not defeat." Ye Xuan's tone was calm. "Parallels.They rise by Heaven's will; we rise by Heaven's rules.They seek transcendence; I seek definition.Where Heaven writes lines, there will always be gaps.And gaps are where a strategist lives."
"Then… we've won?" Su Lin asked softly.
Ye Xuan shook his head."No victory — only a signature.The first line between mortal and immortal has been written."
He looked southward.The wind carried a faint hum — too precise to be natural.The Mirror of Nine Stratagems quivered inside his sleeve, glowing red.
"Sir!" Lin Ge cried. "The mirror— it's resonating!"
Ye Xuan's eyes darkened."The second fragment… rides the wind."
That night, three signal fires flared on the cliffs outside the gorge.The Night Ravens' first field operation was complete.Lan Qi's messenger returned to Qing Shi Village with a single coded line:
"Wind disturbed. Law moves. Mirror sings."
Under the temple lamp, Ye Xuan opened a new ledger, writing its title with care:The Codex of Mortal Law — Volume I: The Green Maple Clause.
His final words gleamed faintly on the page:
When the wind rises, men must stand.
He set down the brush, a quiet smile in his eyes."Wind rises at Green Maple," he murmured. "The game moves to its second line."