THE CRIPPLED SON-IN-LAW UNLOCKED IMMORTAL CULTIVATION

CHAPTER 24: THE PASSAGE BENEATH THE CHAMBER

The captain's final warning remained in my mind as I lowered the communication device. Another door had my name carved into it, and the primordial entity had confirmed that the entrance was already open. I wanted answers, but the injured guard beside Crystal could barely keep his eyes open.

“We need to get him outside first,” Crystal said, tightening her hold around his waist. “He won't survive another collapse.”

I looked toward the sealed chamber. The pressure beneath the floor had not eased, and the missing team was somewhere below us. Leaving them here was not an option, but taking an injured man deeper into an unknown structure would be foolish.

“Help me get him to the entrance. Then we'll find a place where he can wait safely.”

We supported him to a recess protected by a thick stone pillar. Crystal helped him sit while I checked his wound. The bleeding had slowed, but his face remained pale.

“Stay here. Use the device if anything approaches,” I told him.

He caught my sleeve. “Don't go down there. That thing knows your name.”

“I know.”

Crystal covered him with the torn outer layer of his uniform, then faced me. “You said we were getting him out.”

“This is the safest place nearby. I won't leave the others trapped below.”

“Then I'm coming with you.”

I had no time to argue. Crystal had kept her head under pressure, and her knowledge of the Zhao family might prove useful.

“Stay behind me. Don't touch anything without warning me.”

“Just don't do anything reckless.”

Beyond the recess, a faint line of energy pulsed across the dusty floor in time with my wrist mark. It led to a section of wall that looked ordinary until I brushed away the dust and uncovered a half-circle groove crossed by three cuts.

“Do not force it open,” the entity warned.

“I wasn't planning to.”

The groove brightened as my wrist approached. Stone clicked and ground against stone, revealing a narrow staircase.

“There was nothing about this in the property plans,” Crystal said.

“Someone made sure it stayed hidden.”

Above the first step, someone had deliberately scratched through the old Zhao family symbol. The energy below felt colder than the pressure around the first chamber.

“Don't release your energy down there,” the entity warned. “This formation is different.”

“You recognise it?”

“I recognise its structure. That is all you need to know.”

Another half-answer. I tried the captain's channel, heard only static, then started down with Crystal behind me.

The narrow stairs were covered with deeply cut symbols. I kept my energy suppressed and watched for traps. After several turns, we found a broken weapon bearing the Zhao security mark and a strip of dark fabric caught on a sharp edge.

Crystal examined it. “It's from the captain's uniform.”

A smear of fresh blood marked the next step. I followed its faint spiritual trace without drawing the energy into my body.

The stairs opened into a passage with three branches. Beside the left entrance lay a broken wrist guard and a communication tag belonging to two missing guards.

“Someone placed these here,” Crystal said.

Footprints led toward the central passage, but none returned. Between the objects, someone had scratched a symbol resembling my wrist mark.

“They were brought here deliberately,” I said.

“Why?”

“Perhaps to make us follow.”

“Do not assume the trail was left for you,” the entity warned. “It may be a test.”

The central passage ended at a broad stone door without a handle, lock, or family seal. Old carvings covered its surface, but one inscription stood out.

RYAN SHAW.

My name had been carved deeply into the stone. The worn edges and dust inside the letters proved it had been there long before I arrived at Property Seven.

Crystal stopped beside me as my wrist began to burn. “How could they know you would come here?”

“I don't know.”

The entity fell silent.

I turned inward. “You know this place.”

“I know that the formation is connected to an ancient structure. I cannot tell you more.”

“That's not good enough.”

“Touch that inscription, and you may not have another chance to ask me anything.”

I held my hand near the stone. The black line spread toward my forearm, and three channels of light appeared beneath the inscription, joining in an incomplete circle.

A voice came from behind the door.

“Ryan?”

It sounded like the captain, but I remembered how the first chamber had used familiar voices to lure us closer.

“It sounds like him,” Crystal said.

“That doesn't mean it is.”

I leaned toward the door. “Captain, what did you say about the eastern gate when we arrived?”

There was a pause. Then the captain answered, his voice strained.

“I said the gate was already open, even though Han's report claimed it had been locked.”

It was correct. The captain had made that observation before we entered the property, and it was not something the voice in the first chamber had mentioned.

I held the device closer to the door, listening for movement behind the captain's voice. There was a rattle, followed by someone coughing. It sounded real, but the formation had already shown that it could imitate more than a person's appearance. I could not risk opening the door simply because one answer had been correct.

“Who is standing with you?” I asked.

“The guards,” the captain replied. “Two are hurt. The others are trying to keep that thing away from us.”

His breathing grew rough. I heard a muffled argument, then an impact that made the communication crackle.

Crystal leaned toward the door. “We have to help them.”

“I know. But if we release whatever is holding this seal, we may put everyone in this passage at risk.”

I looked at the energy channels again, searching for a way to open the door without letting the force behind it escape. The answer was not obvious, and the captain's next cry made it clear that we were running out of time.

A second voice interrupted him.

“Don't open it. The seal is holding for a reason.”

The captain shouted something I could not make out. Then the first voice returned, weaker than before.

“Please, Ryan. Don't leave us here.”

Crystal moved beside me. “They're alive. We can't walk away.”

“I know.”

The door was connected to several energy channels. Forcing it open could damage the entire formation, so I searched for a way to release the mechanism without disturbing its centre.

“Interrupt the outer flow first,” the entity warned. “Leave the centre alone.”

I found a narrow groove beneath the lowest symbol and sent a thin stream of energy against the current. The first channel dimmed, but the others reacted violently, pulling at my wrist and sweeping Crystal off balance.

I caught her and redirected the energy along the wall. The pressure eased, and the door opened a few inches.

Beyond it lay a dim chamber. The captain was on the floor with several guards, their clothes torn and their faces exhausted. He raised his head when he saw me.

“Don't come in,” he warned.

Behind them stood a tall figure facing the far wall. It had not moved, even when the door shifted. A broken-circle symbol was carved across its chest, with three cuts through the centre.

I recognised the mark from the retired seal and the stranger who had emerged from the western passage.

The primordial entity surged inside my mind.

“Ryan, leave. That thing was never imprisoned by the Zhao family.”

The figure slowly turned toward us. Its face remained hidden in shadow, but its attention settled directly on my wrist.

“The host has finally found the second gate,” it said.

I felt Crystal's hand close around my arm as the captain tried to crawl away from the figure. The door remained open between us, and the energy channels continued to tremble beneath the stone.

For the first time since entering Property Seven, I understood that the Zhao family might not have been guarding this place to protect its secrets. They might have been keeping everyone away from something they themselves feared.

And whatever stood in that chamber had been waiting for me.