THE CRIPPLED SON-IN-LAW UNLOCKED IMMORTAL CULTIVATION

Chapter 7: The First Price of Power

Master Shen’s warning followed me back to my room.

The man had looked at my damaged roots and found something that the Zhao elders could not explain, yet he had left without accusing me or offering help. Outside my door, the guards changed shifts and reported every movement to someone higher in the family. Even the smallest sound reminded me that I was being watched.

I sat on the floor and turned my attention inward. The current beneath my ribs felt quieter than it had during the examination, but when I tried to guide it toward my palm, it tightened and pushed back. I remembered how I had redirected the altar’s energy and stopped the tunnel from collapsing. Both times, I had acted before I could think, and both times I had paid for it afterward.

“You knew Shen would notice,” I said to the entity.

“I knew the energy might respond to his test.”

“That’s not the same as warning me.”

“You were already being examined. A warning would not have changed the risk.”

I pressed my fingers against the floor, fighting the urge to let anger take hold. “You could have helped me hide it.”

“You are asking for control you have not earned. Your power answered the threat before your judgment could guide it. Until you learn the difference, every attempt to conceal it may expose you.”

I hated the truth in its answer. The Zhao family had taught me to fear power because I never possessed any, and now the thing that had given me a chance to fight back was teaching me that strength could be another kind of danger. I asked for a method that would let me sense the current without drawing it into my body. The entity instructed me to breathe slowly and observe the energy as if it belonged to someone else.

At first, I felt only the ache in my chest and the stiffness in my legs. Then warmth appeared beneath my ribs, spreading through narrow channels that seemed to end before reaching my hands. I followed the warmth with my attention, careful not to push it. For several breaths, it remained steady. When I tried to hold it in place, pain shot through my chest and forced me to break the exercise.

I leaned against the bed, sweating. The room tilted before my sight settled again, and a dull weakness spread through my arms. The entity waited until my breathing returned to normal before speaking.

“You drew too much energy during the ritual, then forced the bond to respond again during Shen’s examination. Your body cannot sustain that pressure yet.”

“Then why give me power I can barely use?”

“Because you were dying, and the bond required a host. Survival came first. Mastery comes after.”

The answer offered no comfort, but it explained the cost. I had imagined that escaping the altar meant I could finally decide my own future. Instead, I had exchanged one immediate threat for a more complicated one, and the only way forward was to learn before my mistakes became fatal.

A knock sounded at the door. Crystal entered with a covered bowl of food and the medicine she had brought earlier. Her eyes moved to my face, then to the hand I was pressing against my chest.

“You look worse than you did this morning.”

“I’m tired.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

The remark almost drew a smile from me, but I let it pass. Crystal set the bowl down and lowered her voice. “I found a reference in the records room. The ancestral ritual was changed several years ago, and the approval carries my grandfather’s seal.”

“What was changed?”

“The surviving page doesn’t say. It only mentions a revised formation and stricter rules about witnesses. The original record is in the locked archive.”

“Does it name anyone who was sacrificed before me?”

“Not in the pages I saw. I can’t tell you that others died there, Ryan, only that the family has hidden more about the ritual than it admits.”

I studied her expression, trying to separate what she knew from what she feared. “Find out who made the changes and why. Don’t risk getting caught for a guess.”

“I’ll be careful,” she said. “But I won’t stop looking.”

She left the food beside me and returned to the corridor before the guards could question her visit. The records might explain why the family chose me, but I needed evidence strong enough to survive Grandfather Zhao’s denial. Until then, I would keep my questions to myself.

Later, when I stepped into the corridor to fetch water, one of the relatives who had watched the ritual blocked my path. Zhao Ming, a cousin who liked to boast about his cultivation rank, looked me over with the same contempt he had worn before the altar broke.

“You should have stayed dead,” he said. “Now the elders have to waste time investigating you.”

“I didn’t ask them to bring me back.”

“You expect us to believe the ritual failed by accident?”

“I expect you to stop shouting in the hallway.”

His face reddened. He shoved at my shoulder, apparently expecting the old, helpless response. I sensed the movement before his hand landed and shifted aside, letting his own momentum carry him into the wall. I did not strike him or reach for the current inside me. I simply stepped past while two servants watched from the far end of the corridor.

Ming turned, embarrassed by the witnesses. “You think you’re better than me now?”

“No,” I said. “I think you should learn to stand without pushing people who aren’t fighting you.”

I continued toward the water room, leaving him with nothing to answer except his own anger. The exchange changed the way the servants looked at me afterward. They had spent years seeing a man who accepted every insult. Now they had seen someone refuse to bend, and I knew the story would travel through the estate before dinner.

That evening, I returned to the floor and tried the exercise again. This time, I did not attempt to move the current. I listened for it, keeping my breathing slow while the sounds of the estate faded around me. The warmth appeared, faint but steady, and I sensed traces of energy beyond the walls: the guards’ presence in the corridor, the distant pulse of a formation near the gardens, and a weaker current moving through the old stones beneath the room.

The entity guided me to separate each sensation instead of gathering everything at once. It was harder than fighting, because there was no opponent to read and no single moment when I could decide to win. When I grew impatient, the energy thickened. When I relaxed, I could sense more without drawing it inside me.

“What is the deadline you mentioned in the cave?” I asked.

“The first threshold must be reached before the bond’s appointed limit.”

“How much time do I have?”

“You will recognize the mark when the deadline begins to press upon you. I will not invent a date to make you comfortable.”

I disliked the answer, but I understood that demanding certainty would not create it. “Then teach me the foundation properly. I won’t force a breakthrough just because I’m afraid.”

“Fear can keep you alive. It can also make you careless.”

I continued until the current remained steady for several breaths, then stopped before exhaustion returned. It was not a breakthrough, but it was the first time I had practiced without hurting myself. For now, that counted as progress.

A guard knocked after dark and handed me an order sealed with the Zhao crest. Grandfather Zhao required my presence at a family gathering the following morning, where the elders would assess my condition and decide what should happen next. The message made no mention of Master Shen, but I suspected the specialist’s findings had already reached the patriarch.

The guard waited for a response, so I folded the order and handed it back. “Tell him I’ll be there.”

When the door closed, I looked toward the window and considered my choices. I could keep pretending to be the same broken man they had always known, or I could reveal enough strength to make them hesitate. Either path carried a risk, and neither would protect me if the elders discovered how little I understood about the power inside me.

The entity stirred, almost amused by my uncertainty. I ignored it and began planning what I would show the family, what I would hide, and which questions I needed answered first. Tomorrow, they would demand proof that I was still powerless.

I would have to give them an answer that kept me alive without letting them see what I might become.