THE CRIPPLED SON-IN-LAW UNLOCKED IMMORTAL CULTIVATION

Chapter 13: The Patriarch Who Feared the Object

Grandfather Zhao stepped away from the table when the object began to glow.

For a man who had spent his life making others fear him, that single movement revealed more than any explanation could have. The elders noticed it too. Nobody spoke as the light spread across the object's dark surface, illuminating the strange symbol I had seen beneath the eastern property.

Then Grandfather Zhao recovered his composure and ordered the doors closed.

“Nobody touches it,” he said. “Until I understand what we're dealing with, this matter stays inside this hall.”

The guards obeyed immediately. Zhao Lei remained beside the table, watching the object with a mixture of suspicion and anger. Han stood near the entrance, his hands clasped before him, looking as though he regretted ever collecting the thing.

I kept my distance, although the energy inside me had already begun responding to the glow. I concentrated on controlling my breathing, unwilling to let anyone notice the strange pressure gathering beneath my skin.

Grandfather Zhao turned toward the oldest elder present, Zhao Qian, who had conducted my earlier spiritual assessment.

“Examine it without touching the surface.”

Zhao Qian approached with a bronze instrument used to measure spiritual disturbances. He held it above the table, keeping several inches between the device and the object. The instrument's needle moved slowly at first, then spun so violently that the elder nearly dropped it.

The object released a pulse.

Every protective lamp in the hall went dark.

Someone cursed near the doorway, and a guard raised his weapon before Grandfather Zhao ordered him to stand down. The darkness lasted only a few seconds, but when the lamps returned, the symbol on the object had changed. Its lines had rearranged themselves into a pattern that looked disturbingly similar to the marking beside the underground chamber.

I recognized it immediately.

I said nothing.

Zhao Qian stepped back, his face drained of color. “I've never seen a spiritual instrument react like that.”

“Then stop testing it,” Grandfather Zhao replied.

His voice was controlled, but his eyes remained fixed on the symbol. He was not merely frightened by an unknown object. He recognized something about it, and whatever he knew had made him more cautious than I had ever seen him.

Zhao Lei broke the silence. “We need to know what happened at the property. The object reacted when Ryan approached it, and the voice called his name. If he knows anything, we should make him explain.”

Several elders turned toward me.

I met their stares without moving. “I heard the voice. I don't know who spoke, and I don't know why the object reacted to me.”

“You expect us to believe that?” Zhao Lei demanded.

“I expect you to separate what you saw from what you're guessing.”

His jaw tightened, but Grandfather Zhao raised a hand before he could answer.

“Everyone except Zhao Qian, Elder Wu, Crystal, and Ryan will leave.”

The order surprised me. Grandfather Zhao rarely allowed family members to witness a matter he considered sensitive, and his decision to keep me in the room suggested that he wanted answers he could not obtain from the others.

Han carried the metal case toward the table, but the patriarch stopped him before he could put the object away.

“Leave it there. Nobody moves it until I give the order.”

Han obeyed and retreated to the wall.

The doors opened again, and Crystal entered with a concerned expression. She had evidently heard about the disturbance and come to find out what was happening. Her gaze moved from the darkened lamps to the object on the table before settling on me.

“Why is everyone standing around that thing?” she asked.

“Because it is dangerous,” Grandfather Zhao replied. “You should return to your room.”

Crystal ignored the instruction and approached me instead. “Are you hurt?”

“I'm fine.”

She studied my face as though she doubted the answer, but she did not press me. Her attention shifted to the symbol on the object, and the concern in her expression changed to recognition.

“Where did this come from?”

“The eastern property,” I answered. “We found it beside the underground entrance.”

Crystal moved closer to the table, then stopped when Grandfather Zhao's voice sharpened.

“Don't approach it.”

She turned toward him. “I've seen that symbol before.”

The elders exchanged glances. Grandfather Zhao's expression hardened, but I noticed a brief flicker of alarm before he concealed it.

“Where?” he asked.

“I don't remember exactly. I saw something similar in an old family record, probably among the documents kept in the sealed archive.”

The patriarch's fingers tightened around the edge of the table. “You have no reason to concern yourself with those records.”

“That doesn't explain why you're afraid of this object.”

The room became still.

Crystal had said what none of the elders dared to ask. Grandfather Zhao stared at her, and for a moment I thought he would order her out by force. Instead, he lowered his voice.

“Some matters remain sealed because opening them creates dangers that cannot easily be controlled. You would be wise to remember that.”

Crystal did not retreat. “Then stop treating everyone as though we're too foolish to understand anything.”

I watched her carefully. She was frightened, but she did not let fear make the decision for her. Her willingness to challenge the patriarch mattered, though it did not erase the years when she had remained silent while the family prepared to sacrifice me.

Grandfather Zhao finally ordered her to leave. This time, she obeyed, but not before giving me a brief look that seemed to promise she would continue searching for answers.

When the doors closed, the patriarch turned toward me.

“Tell me exactly what happened beneath the eastern property.”

I described the disturbance, the collapsing entrance, and the voice that had called my name. I did not mention the full extent of my reaction to the energy, nor did I reveal that the primordial entity had spoken to me. Those details belonged to a part of my life that the Zhao family could never be allowed to control.

“Did the voice tell you what it was?” Grandfather Zhao asked.

“No.”

“Did it say why it recognized you?”

“No.”

He studied me for a long moment. “You survived the ancestral ritual, appeared at the western grounds when the seal was disturbed, and now an object from an abandoned property responds to you. You ask me to believe these are separate events.”

“I didn't ask you to believe anything. I told you what happened.”

His expression darkened. “Do not mistake my questions for weakness, Ryan. If you are hiding something that threatens this family, I will find out.”

I almost laughed at the word family. These people had chosen me as a sacrifice, yet Grandfather Zhao spoke as though I owed them complete honesty while they concealed their own secrets.

Still, I kept my anger under control. I needed information more than I needed the satisfaction of insulting him.

“If the object is dangerous, why are you keeping it here instead of destroying it?”

For the first time, he did not answer immediately.

“Because we do not destroy things we do not understand,” he said at last.

It was a reasonable answer, but his reaction told me there was more behind it. He feared what the object might reveal, and Crystal's reference to the sealed archive had unsettled him even further.

I turned toward the table as the object began glowing again.

The energy inside me stirred, moving toward my wrist before I could suppress it. I curled my fingers into my palm and focused on the exercise I had practiced during the previous nights, sensing the energy without drawing it inward.

The glow weakened.

A faint black line appeared across my wrist, stretching from the base of my thumb toward my forearm. I pulled my sleeve down before anyone could examine it closely, but Grandfather Zhao had already noticed the movement.

“What happened to your hand?”

“Nothing.”

“Show me.”

I held his gaze. “You have examined me enough for one day.”

The elders stiffened at my refusal. Grandfather Zhao stepped closer, but before he could seize my arm, the black line faded beneath my skin.

His eyes narrowed.

Whatever he had seen was enough to increase his suspicion, yet he had no proof that I possessed any power beyond what the family had already witnessed. I intended to keep it that way.

“Take the object to the secured chamber,” he ordered. “No one is to discuss what happened here. The team that visited the eastern property will remain available for questioning.”

Two guards approached the table, but Grandfather Zhao stopped them and turned to Elder Wu.

“Retrieve the old record from the sealed archive. The one placed under restriction years ago.”

Elder Wu hesitated. “That record was sealed under your own order. If we open it now, the other elders may demand to know why.”

“Then let them demand it. If the object has awakened, we may already be too late.”

I remained still, pretending the words meant nothing to me. When Grandfather Zhao dismissed me, I left without looking back, but his order followed me into the corridor.

The primordial entity spoke as soon as I was beyond the hall's doors.

“Ryan, whatever you do, don't let them read that record before you understand what it contains.”

I stopped walking.

“You know what's in it.”

The entity remained silent for several seconds before answering.

“I know enough to understand why you must reach it first.”

Before I could demand more, the pressure inside me tightened, warning me that someone was approaching from the other end of the corridor.

I turned toward the sound of footsteps, and the first person I saw was Crystal, holding an old key in one hand and a folded sheet of paper in the other.

“Ryan,” she whispered, “I found the archive's access record. Someone entered it last night, and the name beside the entry is yours.”