The passage did not feel abandoned.
That was the first thing Wei Liang noticed.
Not the cold.
Not the stone.
Not the dense qi pressing against his skin like water at the bottom of a deep well.
Those were obvious.
What mattered was the silence.
It was not empty silence.
It was waiting.
Wei Liang moved one step at a time.
Slow.
Measured.
Controlled.
The tunnel sloped downward, its walls carved from dark gray stone that swallowed most of the faint light leaking from the entrance above. Thin lines ran across the surface, almost like cracks.
No.
Not cracks.
Patterns.
Formation lines.
Old ones.
So old that most of the qi inside them had already faded into the stone itself, leaving only a faint aftertaste behind.
Wei Liang raised his hand slightly, but did not touch the wall.
Touching unknown formations was foolish.
Surviving this long had taught him one thing clearly.
Curiosity killed faster than arrogance.
Ahead, footsteps echoed.
Others had gone deeper.
Some moved quickly.
Some moved carefully.
Some tried to move quietly and failed.
Wei Liang listened to all of them.
Seven people ahead.
No fighting yet.
But tension—
Rising.
The pagoda inside his sea of consciousness pulsed again.
Stronger this time.
The third floor stood open now.
Fully.
Its door was no longer cracked, no longer resisting. Light spilled from within, dark-gold and heavy, spreading across the empty space of his mind like molten metal.
But the light did not offer anything.
It pulled.
Not at his body.
At his awareness.
Toward something below.
Wei Liang stopped.
The moment he stopped, the pull sharpened.
A direction.
Left.
Not down the main passage.
A side path.
Hidden.
He opened his eyes.
The tunnel ahead remained unchanged.
But beside him, between two broken formation lines, there was a narrow split in the wall. So narrow most people would pass without seeing it.
A person could enter.
Barely.
Wei Liang looked ahead again.
The others continued moving.
Shen Jinhai's voice echoed faintly from deeper within.
"Search carefully. Anything you find belongs to the one who finds it."
A foolish rule.
A useful one.
It meant everyone would be looking at treasure.
Not at him.
Wei Liang turned sideways and slipped into the crack.
The stone scraped against his shoulder.
Cold.
Hard.
Too narrow for a normal path.
Which meant it was not meant for ordinary entry.
Or it had been sealed once.
The passage twisted sharply after three steps, then opened into a smaller corridor.
No sound reached here.
Not from the group.
Not from the forest.
Not from above.
Only his breathing.
And the pagoda.
Pulse.
Pulse.
Pulse.
Wei Liang's gaze lowered.
The floor beneath him had changed.
Not stone slabs.
A single carved surface.
Circular markings spread across it in broken rings, layered over each other like ripples frozen in time. At the center of each ring, there were small empty holes.
Slots.
Something had once been placed there.
Removed.
Or stolen.
Wei Liang crouched slowly.
He studied the nearest ring.
The formation was dead.
Mostly.
But not entirely.
A faint strand of qi still moved inside it, so thin that it would have been easy to miss.
It flowed toward the deeper corridor.
No.
Not flowed.
Dragged.
Something ahead was consuming what remained of this ruin.
Wei Liang stood.
His expression did not change.
Inside, his thoughts sharpened.
If there was a treasure here, it was not waiting to be taken.
It was feeding.
That was different.
And more dangerous.
He continued forward.
The corridor ended at a stone door.
Half broken.
Not from age.
From force.
Someone had opened it badly a long time ago.
The fracture marks spread outward from the center, jagged and uneven.
Wei Liang leaned closer.
There were finger marks in the stone.
Not blade marks.
Not tool marks.
Fingers.
Someone had torn the door open with their hands.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Strong.
Very strong.
He stepped through.
The chamber beyond was small.
Too small for a treasure hall.
Too clean for storage.
Too carefully shaped for a burial room.
At its center stood a broken pedestal.
On top of it—
Nothing.
Wei Liang did not feel disappointed.
Empty rooms were rarely empty.
He stepped closer.
The pagoda pulsed violently.
His vision darkened for a fraction of a second.
Then—
The chamber changed.
Not physically.
In his perception.
The broken pedestal remained, but now he could see faint threads rising from it. Dark-gold. Thin. Almost invisible.
They stretched upward.
Then vanished into the air.
No.
Into space.
Wei Liang reached out slowly.
The moment his fingers touched the pedestal—
Pain.
Not like injury.
Not like cultivation backlash.
This pain was colder.
Older.
It entered through his fingers and struck his sea of consciousness directly.
The pagoda shook.
The third floor released a sound.
Not a bell.
Not a voice.
A low, ancient hum.
Then information flooded in.
Not words.
Images.
A tower under a shattered sky.
A hand pressing against a gate.
Blood on stone.
Dark robes moving through firelight.
Someone laughing.
Someone dying.
Then—
A fragment.
Small.
Black jade edged in gold.
Placed on this pedestal.
Sealed.
Hidden.
Waiting.
Then taken.
Wei Liang's eyes snapped open.
His hand pulled back.
He breathed once.
Slowly.
Twice.
The chamber returned to normal.
But the pagoda did not.
The third floor trembled continuously now.
Something had been here.
Something connected to it.
And someone had already removed it.
Wei Liang lowered his gaze.
This ruin was not treasure.
It was a wound.
A place where something had once been cut away.
He looked at the pedestal again.
There was dust everywhere except one spot.
A faint shape.
Small.
Like a shard.
Recently disturbed?
No.
Not recent.
But preserved.
The formation had kept the trace from fading.
Wei Liang memorized it.
Shape.
Size.
Qi residue.
Direction of the broken threads.
Useful.
He did not know why yet.
But he would.
A sound echoed faintly.
Not from the room.
From the main ruin.
A shout.
Then another.
Metal striking stone.
So it begins.
Wei Liang turned.
Then stopped.
At the doorway stood Shen Linyue.
She leaned one shoulder against the broken stone, eyes bright in the darkness.
Not smiling this time.
"…I wondered where you went."
Wei Liang looked at her calmly.
"You followed me."
"Of course."
Simple.
Honest.
Dangerous.
Her gaze moved past him, landing on the pedestal.
"…Empty?"
Wei Liang answered after a pause.
"Yes."
Shen Linyue studied him.
Then the room.
Then him again.
"…That was almost true."
Wei Liang said nothing.
She stepped inside.
Careful.
More careful than she usually pretended to be.
That mattered.
Shen Linyue was not careless.
She only enjoyed making people think she was.
Her fingers hovered near the pedestal, but she did not touch it.
Good.
She had instincts.
"…Something was sealed here," she said quietly.
Wei Liang's eyes flickered slightly.
Not surprise.
Recalculation.
"You can tell?"
She smiled faintly.
"My mother was from the formation branch before she married into the main line."
A pause.
"Most people forget that."
Wei Liang filed it immediately.
Formation branch.
Hidden knowledge.
Reason for confidence.
Potential value.
Potential threat.
Outside, the shouting grew louder.
Someone screamed.
Not pain.
Fear.
Shen Linyue's smile faded completely.
"…That didn't sound good."
Wei Liang moved toward the exit.
She followed.
The side corridor seemed longer on the way back.
The qi had changed.
Before, it had been heavy.
Now it was stirring.
Disturbed.
Awakened.
When they reached the narrow crack and slipped back into the main passage, the ruin trembled.
Dust fell from above.
A wave of cold qi rolled through the tunnel.
Wei Liang felt it pass over his skin.
Then through him.
Searching.
The pagoda responded.
Not by hiding.
By becoming still.
Completely still.
Wei Liang stopped breathing for half a moment.
So it knows when to conceal itself.
Interesting.
Ahead, figures ran back through the darkness.
Two participants.
Faces pale.
One was clutching his arm.
Blood dripped between his fingers.
Behind them—
A sound.
Stone scraping.
Slow.
Heavy.
Repeated.
Something was moving.
Not alive.
Not dead.
A guardian.
Shen Jinhai appeared next, retreating but not panicked. His robe was torn across one shoulder. His expression was dark.
When he saw Wei Liang, his eyes sharpened.
"…Where were you?"
Wei Liang looked past him.
Into the darkness behind.
"Finding the wrong room."
Shen Jinhai's jaw tightened.
Before he could speak, the tunnel shook again.
This time—
Closer.
A shape emerged from the darkness.
Humanoid.
Tall.
Carved from black stone.
Its face had no features.
Only a single vertical line where eyes should have been.
That line opened.
Dark-gold light burned within.
The pagoda inside Wei Liang's mind pulsed once.
Not hunger this time.
Warning.
The stone guardian raised one arm.
The air compressed.
Everyone froze.
Wei Liang's thoughts moved faster.
Narrow tunnel.
Panicked group.
Unknown guardian.
Old formation.
No room to evade.
Fighting directly—
Death.
Running blindly—
Also death.
Then he saw it.
The guardian's arm was damaged.
Not visibly.
Structurally.
A fracture inside the elbow joint.
Old.
Unstable.
Wei Liang stepped forward.
Shen Linyue's eyes widened slightly.
Shen Jinhai snapped, "Are you insane?"
Wei Liang didn't answer.
He looked at the guardian.
At the vertical gold line.
At the arm beginning to descend.
Then—
He moved.
Not away.
Forward.
Again.
Because some things only stopped deciding when someone entered the decision.
End of Chapter 41
Author Note: The ruin is not simply a treasure site. It is tied to the Immortal Pagoda's past, and Wei Liang has now found proof that the pagoda is not the only fragment in existence. The next chapter will push him into direct contact with the ruin's guardian and reveal whether his control is enough when strength is not.