THE CRIPPLED SON-IN-LAW UNLOCKED IMMORTAL CULTIVATION

Chapter 9: The Property That Recognized Me

The first warning came before we reached the property.

I was sitting in the back of the Zhao family's vehicle when the primordial entity stirred inside me, interrupting my attempt to control the energy moving through my body.

“Pay attention,” it warned.

I looked through the window at the buildings passing along the eastern outskirts of the city. “What is it?”

“The energy beneath this property is stronger than I expected. Do not approach it carelessly.”

That was all it said before falling silent.

I tightened my grip on Grandfather Zhao's sealed order. He had sent me here to prove whether my survival had changed anything, but the entity's warning suggested that the assignment carried a danger even the patriarch might not understand.

The vehicle turned onto a narrow road and stopped beside a neglected compound surrounded by a rusted fence. A faded sign identified it as Zhao Property Seven, an old cultivation resource station that had been abandoned several years earlier.

Zhao Lei climbed out first, adjusting the protective band around his wrist. He was a young cultivator with enough confidence to make every conversation feel like a competition.

“Stay behind us,” he told me. “If something happens, don't expect anyone to carry you out.”

“I'll try not to slow you down,” I replied.

He gave me a dismissive look and walked toward the gate.

The steward, a thin middle-aged man named Han, followed with two guards. He had barely spoken during the journey, but I had caught him watching me whenever he thought I wasn't looking. Grandfather Zhao had clearly chosen the team to observe my behavior as much as investigate the property.

Inside the compound, the team found broken monitoring equipment, an overturned cabinet, and several protective talismans scattered across the ground. There was no sign of the caretaker who had reported the disturbance.

Han examined the empty reception room before turning toward the others.

“The caretaker sent an emergency report three days ago. He said the underground energy readings had become unstable, then stopped responding to our calls.”

“Then he probably ran away,” Zhao Lei said. “People who take these jobs aren't always brave enough to finish them.”

I examined the marks on the floor. The damage was concentrated near the rear of the building, where a heavy stone entrance had been sealed with several layers of old protective material.

“Why seal the entrance?” I asked.

Han glanced at me. “The station was built over an underground storage chamber. The family closed it when the property was abandoned.”

“Was the chamber inspected before it was sealed?”

“The records are incomplete.”

Zhao Lei laughed under his breath. “Are we here to investigate or listen to the cripple ask questions?”

I ignored him and studied the entrance. Thin cracks had appeared around its edges, but the surrounding stones remained intact. Whatever had disturbed the property seemed to be pressing outward from below rather than attacking from outside.

“We should examine the readings before opening it,” I said. “Something is pushing against the seal.”

Zhao Lei turned toward me with open irritation. “You cannot even sense ordinary spiritual energy properly. Stop pretending you understand what you're looking at.”

He ordered one of the guards to remove the loose protective strips.

The guard hesitated when he saw the cracks, but Zhao Lei's expression left little room for disagreement. He pulled away the final strip, exposing a small metal plate fixed to the stone.

The moment he touched it, the ground shuddered.

A surge of spiritual energy burst through the entrance, throwing the guard backward. The second guard raised a protective barrier, but the force struck it hard enough to send him sliding across the floor. Han grabbed the doorframe while Zhao Lei struggled to maintain his footing.

The energy did not spread randomly. It twisted through the room in three distinct currents, each feeding the next until the pressure became strong enough to crack the walls.

I could see the pattern.

My new cultivation path allowed me to sense the movement beneath the visible disturbance, something the others were too overwhelmed to notice. The currents were converging toward the entrance, but a smaller stream was feeding them from the side.

If that stream continued, the entire structure could collapse.

“Move away from the entrance!” I shouted.

Zhao Lei looked at me as though I had insulted him, but another wave struck the floor before he could respond. A stone beam broke loose above Han, who had no time to escape.

I moved before I could reconsider.

Drawing only a narrow thread of the primordial energy, I pushed it against the smaller current. The effort felt like forcing a river through a crack in a dam. Pain shot through my arm, and the energy inside me resisted the direction I tried to impose on it.

For a moment, I thought I had misjudged the flow.

Then the currents shifted.

The pressure weakened just enough for Han to throw himself away from the falling beam. The guards dragged themselves toward the doorway while Zhao Lei reinforced the barrier around his body.

A final tremor passed through the building before the disturbance subsided.

I lowered my hand, concealing the tremor in my fingers by curling them into a fist. The intervention had cost more strength than I expected, and my legs felt unsteady.

Zhao Lei stared at me.

“You were standing closest to the entrance,” he said. “How did you avoid being thrown back like everyone else?”

“I moved when the ground shook.”

“That doesn't explain what happened.”

“Then perhaps you should ask the ground.”

His expression darkened, but Han interrupted before he could continue.

“Enough. We need to determine whether the entrance is stable before anyone touches it again.”

The steward's tone carried more authority than it had earlier. Zhao Lei looked annoyed, yet he did not argue. The disturbance had frightened him, even if he refused to admit it.

We inspected the damaged room from a safe distance. Near the entrance, I noticed a narrow stairway partly concealed behind a fallen shelf. The steps descended into darkness, and fresh marks on the stone suggested someone had used them recently.

A small cloth bag lay beside the first step. Han recognized it immediately.

“It belongs to the caretaker.”

He opened it and found a key, a broken communication device, and a folded sheet covered with hurried writing. The message contained only a few words: the seal had begun responding to something below, and the caretaker intended to check the chamber before the disturbance spread.

There was no explanation of what he had found.

Zhao Lei reached for the paper. “He went down there and got himself killed. We should report this and leave.”

“Perhaps,” I said, “but we still don't know whether the disturbance will stop on its own.”

He glared at me. “You want to go underground?”

“No. I want to know whether the entrance is going to collapse while we're standing beside it.”

Han examined the stairway and shook his head. “We should withdraw and request a specialist. We weren't equipped for this.”

His caution made sense. However, I could feel the energy beneath us gathering again, slower this time but moving in the same pattern as before. If the team left without stabilizing the entrance, another group might arrive and repeat the same mistake.

“We don't need to enter the chamber,” I said. “We can examine the outer seal, record the energy pattern, and withdraw if it becomes unstable again.”

Zhao Lei scoffed, but Han considered the proposal.

“Ten minutes,” the steward decided. “No one descends the stairs, and no one touches the metal plate.”

We approached the entrance carefully. Zhao Lei kept his protective barrier active while one guard recorded the readings from a portable device. The numbers fluctuated too quickly to be useful, but I noticed something the instrument could not explain.

The energy was no longer pressing outward.

It was drawing inward, toward the stairs.

I took another step, and a mark appeared on the stone near my hand. It was a thin, circular pattern crossed by several lines, none of which matched the Zhao family's protective symbols.

The primordial entity reacted immediately.

“Move away,” it warned.

I froze. “What is this mark?”

“Do not touch it.”

Before I could ask another question, the mark glowed faintly. The energy beneath the property shifted toward me, passing through the stone as though the barrier between us had become thinner.

My palm grew warm.

I stepped back, and the pressure faded.

Zhao Lei had seen the change. His eyes narrowed as he studied the stone, then looked at me.

“Why did it react when you approached?”

“I don't know.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I expect you to believe what you saw. Everything else is a guess.”

He moved closer to the mark, but nothing happened. He tried again with a small amount of spiritual energy, and the pattern remained dark.

Han's expression grew serious. “We have enough information. Seal the entrance as best you can, then report everything to the family.”

No one objected this time.

The guards began securing the loose stones while Zhao Lei watched me with growing suspicion. I kept my hands away from the entrance, although the warmth in my palm had not entirely disappeared.

We were preparing to leave when I heard a sound beneath the floor.

Three knocks.

They were slow and deliberate, coming from somewhere below the sealed chamber.

Everyone stopped working.

Zhao Lei drew his weapon, and Han ordered the guards away from the stairs. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the knocks came again, louder than before.

Someone was alive beneath us.

Zhao Lei moved toward the entrance, but Han caught his arm. “We don't know what is down there. We leave now and bring a proper team.”

“What if it's the caretaker?”

“Then he can wait until we know how to reach him safely.”

I listened to the silence beneath the stones, trying to determine whether the sound had come from the chamber or from somewhere deeper. The primordial entity had become completely silent, and its sudden absence frightened me more than its warnings.

Then a voice rose from below.

“Ryan Shaw.”

My blood ran cold.

I had never visited this property before, and no one here had called me by name since we arrived. Yet the voice sounded certain, as though it had known I would come.

Zhao Lei turned toward me. “Who is that?”

“I don't know.”

The answer came too quickly, and I knew he did not believe me.

The voice spoke again, weaker but unmistakable.

“Ryan Shaw, you finally came.”

I stared at the sealed entrance, my mind searching for an explanation that made sense. The entity remained silent, offering no warning and no instruction.

Then the voice delivered its final message.

“Don't let them open the door. If they do, none of you will leave this place alive.”