THE CRIPPLED SON-IN-LAW UNLOCKED IMMORTAL CULTIVATION

Chapter 14: The Name They Used Against Me

“Show me,” I said.

Crystal held the folded paper between us, glancing toward the ancestral hall before handing it over. We were standing in the corridor, where anyone leaving the meeting could easily discover us talking.

The access record was a copy, not the original log. My name appeared beside an entry made shortly after midnight, followed by an authorization mark I did not recognize. A faint smear crossed the final stroke, as though someone had tried to correct it.

“I never went near the archive,” I told her.

“I know you didn’t.” Crystal lowered her voice. “I checked the household schedule. You were in your room, and the guards assigned to this wing never reported seeing you leave.”

“That proves where I was, not who used my name.”

Her expression tightened. “I found the record while checking the archive entries. I should have taken it to Grandfather, but he would have sealed it away before anyone could ask questions.”

“You were right to show me, but keeping it from everyone else could put you in danger.”

“I didn’t have time to find a safer option.”

I studied the authorization mark again. The entry had been recorded at 12:17 a.m., yet the stamp beside it appeared older than the rest of the writing. One edge was faint, suggesting it had been pressed down and lifted before the ink settled.

“Who can enter the sealed archive?” I asked.

“Grandfather, Elder Wu, and two people who maintain the security formation. Even they need his approval to open the inner door.”

“Then someone either had his permission or wanted us to believe they did.”

Crystal glanced toward the hall. “If the old record is still inside, this may be connected to the object we found at Property Seven.”

I remained silent for a moment. Since the eastern property, every clue had led to another locked door and another person claiming ignorance. The object had called my name, the patriarch had reacted to it with fear, and now someone had placed my name beside an archive entry I could not explain. The connections seemed deliberate, but I had no proof that one person was responsible for all of them.

A cold stir moved through the pathway beneath my ribs.

Do not mistake a pattern for an answer, the entity warned. Someone wants you to move before you understand the board.

I kept my expression unchanged. “Have you shown this to anyone else?”

“No.”

“Keep it that way for now. If the record is genuine, we need the original. If someone altered it, we need to know when and how.”

Crystal folded her arms. “You speak as if we can simply walk into the archive.”

“We can’t. That’s why we need to find out who can.”

Footsteps approached from the far end of the corridor. Crystal slipped the paper into her sleeve just before a young servant appeared and bowed.

“Miss Crystal, the patriarch requests your presence in the ancestral hall. Ryan is to come as well. Elder Wu has returned.”

“Did Grandfather say why?” Crystal asked.

“He said the archive matter could not wait.”

The servant hurried away. Crystal looked at me, and the worry in her face had hardened into anger.

“They already know,” she said.

“Or they want us to think they know.”

I returned the paper to her. “Let them speak first. Don’t reveal what you found unless I ask.”

We entered the ancestral hall together. Elder Wu stood beside the central table, where a long wooden case rested beneath a protective cloth. Grandfather Zhao sat behind it, his expression controlled, though his fingers tapped once against the armrest when he saw me.

“Ryan,” he said. “An entry was made in the sealed archive last night under your name. Explain how you entered a room you were forbidden to approach.”

“I didn’t.”

His eyes narrowed. “You expect me to accept that?”

“I expect you to check the original log before deciding what happened. A name on a record proves that an entry was recorded, not who made it.”

Zhao Ming, standing near a pillar, gave a mocking laugh. “The cripple has learned to argue.”

I ignored him. Grandfather Zhao raised a hand, silencing the room.

“You survived a ritual that should have killed you. You were present when the object from Property Seven awakened. Now your name appears in a sealed archive log. You expect me to believe these things are unrelated?”

“I’m asking you to prove they are related before you punish me.”

His gaze sharpened at the word punish. For a moment, I thought he might use his spiritual pressure to remind everyone who ruled the family. Instead, he turned to Elder Wu.

“Show him the record.”

Elder Wu drew a thin ledger from the wooden case. Its cover was worn, and a narrow metal strip ran along the spine. He opened it to a page marked with red thread. The original entry was there, but the ink beside my name had bled into the paper, making the authorization mark difficult to read.

I leaned closer without touching it.

The time matched the copy. The mark did not.

The copy showed a complete seal, while the original contained a broken line at its base. Someone had either altered the copy or made it from a different impression.

“This isn’t the same mark,” I said.

Elder Wu’s mouth tightened. “The copy was made before the ledger was removed from the archive.”

“By whom?”

“The clerk on duty.”

“Bring him here.”

“He is missing.”

The answer changed the mood in the room. Grandfather Zhao stopped tapping his fingers, while Crystal took a careful step toward the table.

“When did he disappear?” she asked.

“Before dawn,” Elder Wu replied. “His room was empty, and his identification token was left behind.”

Zhao Ming straightened. “Then Ryan arranged it. He used the archive, removed the clerk, and now pretends he knows nothing.”

“If I had access, why would I leave my name in the log? And why would I create a copy with a different seal?” I asked.

“To make us think you were framed.”

“Then whoever did it has made a poor job of framing me.”

Zhao Ming moved toward me, but Grandfather Zhao stopped him with a raised hand. The patriarch was no longer looking at me as though I were a foolish son-in-law. He was studying the ledger, and the missing clerk seemed to trouble him more than my denial.

“Elder Wu,” he said, “who had authority to use this seal?”

“Only you, Patriarch. The authorization was retired years ago, after the inner archive was closed.”

“Retired?” Crystal asked. “Then why is it on this record?”

“No one should be able to use it,” Elder Wu replied. “The seal itself was kept in the patriarch’s private vault.”

Grandfather Zhao’s face became unreadable. He pulled the ledger toward himself, then stopped before touching the page.

“No one leaves this hall until I know how this happened. Seal the archive again, double the guards, and allow no one inside without my personal order.”

He turned to me. “You will remain available for questioning.”

“I have no reason to leave.”

It was the safest answer. If I tried to escape, I would look guilty; if I cooperated too eagerly, he might wonder what I wanted to find. For now, I needed him to believe I was as confused as everyone else.

Elder Wu began closing the ledger. As its cover came down, a faint vibration passed through the table, and the metal strip along the spine gave off a brief, pale glow.

My hidden pathway tightened.

The sensation was unmistakable. It resembled the strange response I had felt when the object called my name, though this time it was weaker. I kept my breathing steady as the entity stirred inside me.

Do not reach for it.

I had no intention of doing so. I wanted to understand why the ledger had reacted, but curiosity could become a trap when the thing watching me knew more than it admitted.

Grandfather Zhao noticed the glow. “Open it again.”

Elder Wu obeyed. The light had vanished, but a faint symbol showed beneath the metal strip when he tilted the ledger. Its lines formed a circle broken by three short cuts.

I had seen that pattern before, on the stone chamber beneath Property Seven and on the mysterious object.

Crystal noticed it too. Our eyes met briefly before she looked away.

The patriarch ordered the ledger locked inside its wooden case. He offered no explanation for the symbol, and none of the elders dared demand one. The meeting ended with guards stationed at every exit and orders that the missing clerk be found before sunrise.

Crystal and I were allowed to leave separately. Near the doorway, she caught up with me.

“The authorization mark was supposed to have been destroyed years ago,” she whispered.

“Who told you that?”

“I read it in the archive index. The destruction order was signed by Grandfather himself.”

She moved away before I could ask anything else. I continued down the corridor, keeping my expression blank while the questions gathered in my mind. Someone had used an obsolete authority, a clerk had vanished, and a record connected to the sealed chamber had reacted to the object. Whatever the Zhao family had buried in its past, someone was willing to risk exposure to keep it hidden.

Inside me, the entity finally spoke again.

They are trying to make you carry the blame for a secret older than your marriage. Do not let them decide what you are looking for.

“What do you know about the retired seal?” I asked silently.

Enough to know that you must reach the truth before they do.

“That isn’t an answer.”

It is the only one you can afford right now.

I reached the turn leading toward my room when Crystal appeared from a side passage, pale and breathless. She pressed the access record into my hand and pointed to a small line at the bottom that I had missed.

“This was added after the copy was made,” she whispered. “The archive system recorded the authorization as valid, even though the seal should no longer exist.”

I stared at the line, then at the broken mark on the copy.

Someone had not merely forged my name. Someone had used an authority the Zhao family believed had been destroyed, and the archive itself had accepted it.