THE CRIPPLED SON-IN-LAW UNLOCKED IMMORTAL CULTIVATION

Chapter 21: The Man Behind My Voice

The figure behind the sealed door had warned me not to open it, and now the voice claiming to be mine was asking me to stay away. I stepped back, keeping my eyes on the circular formation while Crystal tightened her grip on my arm.

“Whatever is inside that chamber, we cannot let it come out,” she whispered.

“I know, but the guards are still missing. We need to find out whether anyone survived before we leave.”

The primordial entity stirred inside my consciousness, its presence unusually tense. Do not trust either voice. The energy beneath this chamber is copying your spiritual imprint, but I cannot tell whether the warning comes from the original source or something created to deceive you.

I examined the stone door without touching it. The three cuts dividing the circular symbol had shifted since our arrival, forming a pattern that resembled the mark beneath my wrist. When I moved closer, the symbol brightened, sending a faint vibration through the floor. I stepped away, and its light gradually faded.

Crystal noticed the reaction. “It responds whenever you approach. Whatever is behind that door seems to recognize you.”

“It recognizes something in me, but that doesn't mean it knows who I am.”

I lowered my breathing and extended my perception without drawing energy from the entity. Two currents moved beneath the stone. The first carried the familiar signature of the ancient formation, while the second felt colder and strangely familiar, like someone repeating a sentence after hearing it only once.

The currents circled each other without merging, although the distance between them continued to shrink.

Keep them separate, the entity warned. If those forces combine through your mark, the connection may spread into your consciousness.

Before I could ask how to stop it, Crystal noticed something caught between two broken stones near the entrance. She crouched and pulled out a torn piece of dark fabric bearing the Zhao family's guard insignia.

“This belongs to one of the men who came here with the inspection team,” she said, examining the damaged edge. “They must have passed through this section before something happened.”

I followed the faint spiritual residue along the wall and discovered a narrow opening behind a fallen stone slab. The marks on the ground suggested that someone had been dragged through it, and a weak pulse of life energy came from the darkness beyond.

“Stay behind me,” I told Crystal as I moved the stone aside.

The opening led into a cramped passage connected to the underground chamber. Broken equipment covered the floor, and several scratches marked the walls as though someone had desperately tried to escape. Near the far corner, a man lay beneath a collapsed support beam, his uniform torn and his face covered in dust.

I recognized him as one of the guards who had accompanied the inspection team.

Crystal hurried forward and checked his breathing while I lifted the beam using a controlled burst of alternative energy. The debris shifted without the violent spiritual pressure a conventional cultivator would have produced, but I still felt the effort pulling at my weakened body.

“He is alive,” she said, pressing two fingers against his neck. “His breathing is weak, but we can still get him out.”

The guard's eyes opened as she tried to move him. His fingers caught her sleeve, and his frightened gaze shifted toward me.

“Don't let it near us,” he whispered.

“What happened to the others?” I asked, kneeling beside him.

His breathing became uneven as he struggled to remember. “We followed the signal into the chamber. The caretaker wasn't there, but we heard someone calling for help from behind the inner door. It sounded like you, so our captain ordered us to open the side entrance.”

I felt the mark beneath my wrist grow warm.

“What came out?”

The guard swallowed, looking toward the darkness behind me. “A man with your face. He wore your clothes, moved like you, and even had the same mark on his wrist. But something was wrong with his eyes, and he didn't speak like a normal person.”

Crystal looked at me before turning back to the injured man. “Where are the others?”

“He asked us where the retired seal was kept. When the captain refused to answer, the thing attacked. I was thrown against the wall, and everything went dark.”

His fingers loosened around her sleeve. I checked his condition and found that most of his spiritual energy had been drained, leaving only a faint trace around his heart.

“Can you walk?” I asked.

He shook his head.

Crystal supported his shoulders while I examined the passage. There was no sign of the other guards, but the strange energy had grown stronger since we entered. I could not leave the injured man alone, yet carrying him away without understanding what had escaped might expose everyone at the estate to danger.

“We need to take him outside and alert the patriarch,” Crystal said. “We don't know what we're dealing with, and staying here gives it another chance to attack.”

“If that thing has already left the chamber, warning the patriarch may be too late.”

“And what happens if you try to fight something you don't understand?”

Her question held more concern than anger. I looked at the unconscious guard and then toward the sealed entrance, knowing that the entity's warning was probably correct. The safest choice was to retreat, but safety would mean little if the imitation reached the Zhao estate before we understood what it wanted.

I decided to interrupt the formation rather than open it.

“Move him behind the stone wall,” I told Crystal. “Don't approach the entrance, no matter what happens.”

She helped drag the guard into a protected corner before returning to my side. I positioned myself before the circular symbol and extended a narrow stream of alternative energy toward its centre, careful not to expose the full power hidden within me.

The first current responded immediately, spreading across the carved lines before separating from the colder energy beneath it. For a brief moment, the two forces moved in opposite directions, and the symbol stopped glowing.

Then the colder current changed direction.

It rushed through the formation and struck the mark beneath my wrist, sending a violent pulse through my arm. I staggered as the connection tightened, and the primordial entity surged forward to block it.

Break the connection! Do not let it enter!

I forced the energy away, but the formation resisted. The pressure increased until the stone beneath my feet cracked, and a section of the wall shifted with a deep grinding sound.

Crystal grabbed the injured guard and pulled him farther from the entrance. “Ryan, get away from it!”

I released the remaining energy and stepped backward. The circular symbol dimmed, but the wall beside the chamber continued moving, revealing a narrow passage that had been hidden behind the stone.

Cold air swept through the opening, carrying the same metallic scent we had encountered near the western passage. Something moved beyond the darkness, its footsteps slow and deliberate.

Crystal stood beside me, her face pale. “Tell me that isn't another entrance.”

I had no answer. The entity had gone strangely quiet, and I could feel its attention fixed on whatever was approaching.

A figure appeared at the far end of the newly revealed passage.

My body went still.

The man wore the same dark clothes I had chosen that morning, and his face was identical to mine. Even the faint mark beneath his wrist matched the symbol that had appeared on my skin after the stranger emerged from the western passage.

Only his eyes were different. They were completely dark, without any visible reflection, and his expression carried a weariness that made him look as though he had spent years trapped somewhere beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Crystal stepped backward. “Ryan, what am I looking at?”

I moved in front of her, gathering only enough energy to defend myself if the figure attacked. The stranger raised one hand, showing the mark on his wrist before speaking in my voice.

“You shouldn't have come looking for me. Now it knows where we both are.”

I could not tell whether he was threatening me or warning me, but the entity's sudden silence frightened me more than his appearance.

Then the figure looked past us toward the sealed chamber and whispered, “It's awake.”