THE CRIPPLED SON-IN-LAW UNLOCKED IMMORTAL CULTIVATION

Chapter 32: The Facility They Tried to Erase

The formation record remained open on the desk long after the visitor disappeared. The line marking the abandoned facility had become clearer, and Crystal was still studying it when Grandfather Zhao ordered the estate sealed. His guards checked the corridors while Elder Wu searched the ancestral wing.

“We are leaving,” Crystal said.

Her grandfather turned sharply. “No one leaves this estate until I say so.”

“You can seal every gate, but you cannot make the evidence disappear,” she replied. “Someone is activating the old formation, and you are more interested in keeping us here than stopping them.”

Grandfather Zhao's expression hardened. “You have no idea what you are walking into.”

“Then tell us.”

He offered no answer. That settled it for me. If we waited for his permission, the facility might be emptied before we reached it.

I folded the formation record and placed it inside my coat. The metal fragment and identification token went into separate pockets. Crystal watched me, then nodded toward a narrow doorway behind the study shelves.

“There is a service route leading to the old vehicle court,” she whispered. “The family stopped using it after the northern facility was closed.”

“Can it get us outside?”

“If the passage hasn't been blocked.”

We slipped quietly through the doorway before the guards returned. The corridor descended behind the ancestral wing. Dust covered the floor, but fresh marks showed that someone had used the route recently.

Crystal noticed them too. “We are not the only ones who know about this entrance.”

“Could it be the visitor?”

“Possibly. He knew the old passages better than the guards.”

At the end of the corridor, a metal door opened into the vehicle court. We found an older car beneath a cover and used it to leave the estate without drawing attention. Crystal drove while I studied the location on the record, comparing its marked access road with the map displayed on the dashboard.

The abandoned facility stood beyond the northern industrial district, behind a compound that had once housed several Zhao businesses. The main gate leaned against one hinge, and weeds had grown through cracks in the concrete. A faded sign identified the property as a private cultivation training centre, though the family name had been removed.

“This place trained the younger members before I was old enough to join,” Crystal said. “After the incident, they told everyone the facility had become unsafe. The equipment was moved, and the staff were transferred.”

“Did anyone explain what happened?”

“No. My grandfather said there had been an accident with the spiritual chambers. Nobody was allowed to ask questions.”

I sensed energy beneath the ground as soon as I stepped beyond the gate. It was weak near the surface, but a steady current travelled through the foundations. The facility was not abandoned in the way the family wanted people to believe.

Crystal examined the security panel beside the entrance. Its display was dark, but a narrow indicator flashed when she touched the casing.

“Someone has accessed this system,” she said. “The panel was repaired recently.”

I placed my fingers against the wall. A faint vibration answered from deep below us.

“Then we should assume someone is still here.”

We entered through the side door. The main training hall was covered in dust, with damaged practice frames arranged along one wall. Several cultivation stones had been smashed, and old examination boards lay scattered across the floor. The destruction looked deliberate. Whoever cleared the facility had not simply moved its equipment; they had made sure certain things could not be used again.

Crystal searched the records cabinet while I examined the training platforms. Most of the files had been removed, but a maintenance log remained wedged behind a broken drawer. Its last entries showed that the underground system had been inspected shortly before the disturbance at Property Seven.

“Look at this,” Crystal said, holding up a page. “The facility was accessed three times in the past month. The entries are signed with an authorization code that should have been cancelled.”

“Can you identify who used it?”

“The name field has been erased. The code is older than the current family system.”

The same old authority again. It had opened the archive and allowed someone to enter the estate through a passage the guards believed was sealed. Now it had been used at this facility.

A thin trail of energy led from the training hall toward a storage room at the rear. Behind a row of cabinets, Crystal found a metal handle set into the floor. She pulled it, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.

The primordial entity stirred inside my mind. “The third control point lies below you. Do not activate it.”

“I was not planning to.”

“You should understand that the formation was designed to respond to your presence. Even a small mistake could connect your channels to the gate.”

I glanced at the stairs. “You knew this facility existed.”

“I recognized its purpose.”

“That is not the same as telling me what you know.”

The entity offered no reply. Its silence only strengthened my suspicion that it was withholding something important.

Crystal switched on the light from her phone and began descending. I followed, keeping my senses open. The stairs ended at a circular chamber built from dark stone. Three metal pillars stood around a central platform, each carved with the broken-circle emblem and the three cuts.

Two pillars were completely dark. The third carried a faint blue glow that pulsed at uneven intervals.

“This is the third control point,” Crystal said.

A metal panel stood beside the central platform. An old Zhao seal had been fixed to its surface, but the edges had been scratched as if someone had tried to remove it. Crystal knelt to examine the markings.

“The family seal is still connected to the system,” she said. “This facility was not just a training centre. It monitored the formation beneath Property Seven.”

I approached the glowing pillar. My wrist mark warmed before I reached it, and the pillar answered with a low vibration. The blue light spread across its carved lines, then travelled toward the central platform.

“Step back,” the entity warned.

The current surged before I could withdraw. Energy rushed through the chamber and pulled at my cultivation channels. My shattered roots did not respond like ordinary spiritual roots, but the force still tried to draw my energy into the formation. Pain tightened across my chest as the connection strengthened.

“Ryan!” Crystal called.

“Stay away from the platform. Find the control switch.”

She moved toward the panel, studying the markings instead of panicking. The energy had locked the panel's first mechanism, but she found a narrow lever beneath the Zhao seal and forced it upward. The pillar's glow weakened for a moment.

“Now!” the entity ordered. “Redirect the current through the outer channel.”

I followed the instruction, drawing the energy away from my core and guiding it toward the stone ring around the chamber. The pressure resisted, twisting through my channels, but I held my breathing steady and forced the current to follow the circular groove. The pillar dimmed, and the connection broke.

I staggered back, catching myself against the wall. Crystal reached me, but I waved away her hand and checked the pillar.

“You nearly got pulled into it,” she said.

“I know.”

“Then don't touch anything else until we understand this place.”

I examined the central platform. “The formation reacted to my mark. It was waiting for me.”

Crystal returned to the panel and found a narrow record slot. Inside lay an access card with the old broken-circle symbol. The name had been scratched away, but the authorization code matched the one from the archive.

“Someone used this recently,” she said. “The system kept a partial record.”

Before she could remove the card, the two dark pillars began to vibrate. Their carved lines flickered, although neither had fully lit. A second current moved through the floor, stronger than the one I had interrupted.

The entity's voice tightened. “This activation is not coming from the facility.”

“Then where?”

“From the other side of the second gate.”

The chamber shook. Crystal grabbed the edge of the panel as the central platform began turning. A voice emerged from the formation, distorted by distance but clear enough to understand.

“The third point has recognized its host. Prepare the remaining gates.”

My wrist burned. Three symbols appeared above the platform. Two remained dark, while the third glowed with the same blue light that had marked the pillar. Beneath them, a line of characters formed across the stone.

HOST CONFIRMED: RYAN SHAW.

Crystal stared at the words. “How does it know your name?”

I had no answer. The entity's silence had become more frightening than the voice coming through the formation.

“Ryan, destroy that formation before it completes the connection,” it warned. “Someone has just learned exactly where you are.”

The central platform turned faster, and the two inactive pillars began to glow.