Another crack split across the stone chains.
The suspended platform tilted further.
Fragments of stone rained down.
"We can't let it collapse uncontrolled!" one supervisor shouted.
The lead supervisor's eyes locked onto Lin Xuan.
"You feel it responding to you."
Not a question.
A conclusion.
Lin Xuan did not deny it.
"Yes."
The chamber trembled again.
If the platform fell, the shard would either shatter—
Or release its stored energy violently.
Neither outcome was predictable.
The supervisor made his decision.
"Approach slowly. No direct contact. Try to stabilize its fluctuation."
It was not trust.
It was necessity.
Lin Xuan stepped forward.
Each step closer intensified the vibration in his chest.
The dragon's presence inside him stirred—not aggressively, but in alignment.
The shard's crimson glow brightened.
The carved lines along the chamber floor flickered erratically.
"Keep your breathing steady," the dragon's voice murmured inside him.
Lin Xuan slowed his pulse deliberately.
He stopped three meters from the platform.
The shard pulsed once—
Hard.
A ripple of red light expanded outward.
The supervisors braced, wind barriers forming instinctively.
But the energy did not attack them.
It curved.
Toward Lin Xuan.
His vision blurred for a split second.
Not from force—
From resonance.
Images flashed through his mind.
Sky.
Storm.
Wings spanning horizon.
Then gone.
He staggered half a step but did not fall.
The shard rotated slightly in the air.
The fractured stone chains stopped cracking.
The chamber's tremor weakened.
"He's stabilizing it…" Chen Wei whispered.
Not entirely.
Lin Xuan felt it clearly—
The shard was not calming.
It was synchronizing.
The dragon's voice came low.
Do not open fully.
"I'm not."
A thin thread of crimson energy surfaced beneath Lin Xuan's skin.
Not flaring outward.
Contained.
The shard's glow responded immediately.
Brighter.
More focused.
The carved lines on the chamber floor began reconnecting faintly, cracks sealing partially under the renewed flow.
The supervisors exchanged stunned glances.
"He's… channeling it?"
"No. It's aligning to him."
The lead supervisor's eyes hardened.
This was no longer an environmental anomaly.
This was personal.
The shard pulsed again—
Stronger.
This time, the force pressed directly against Lin Xuan's chest.
Pain shot through his meridians.
Not tearing—
But expanding.
His injured shoulder flared in agony as residual energy flooded his system.
Too much.
Too fast.
He gritted his teeth.
The dragon's presence expanded slightly to buffer the influx.
Limit intake. Redirect downward.
Lin Xuan adjusted instantly, guiding the foreign energy along controlled paths instead of allowing it to spread randomly.
The shard's glow flickered violently.
For a terrifying second—
It seemed like it would shoot toward him.
The supervisors tensed, blades half-drawn.
If the shard merged with him in front of them—
There would be no explanation sufficient.
Lin Xuan forced his breathing slower.
He did not reach for it.
He did not pull.
He only held steady.
Gradually—
The shard's rotation slowed.
The chamber's vibration diminished further.
The cracked stone chains stopped fracturing.
Silence returned.
Heavy.
Dense.
The red glow dimmed to a steady, restrained pulse.
Lin Xuan exhaled slowly.
Sweat dripped down his back.
His meridians burned faintly from strain.
But he remained standing.
The lead supervisor stepped closer carefully.
The shard no longer reacted violently to his presence.
It remained suspended.
Stable.
"You didn't absorb it," the supervisor said quietly.
Lin Xuan shook his head.
"I couldn't."
Another half-truth.
He could have forced more.
But that would have exposed everything.
The supervisor studied him for a long moment.
"You have a compatible cultivation method."
"Yes."
"Family inheritance?"
"Yes."
The supervisor did not look convinced.
But he also had no evidence to refute it.
Behind them—
The injured disciple stirred weakly.
The immediate danger had passed.
For now.
Then—
A deep vibration echoed from beneath the chamber.
Not from the shard.
From below it.
The platform trembled slightly.
The carved lines on the floor flared once more—
But this time in a different pattern.
The dragon's voice turned cold.
That was not the fragment.
Lin Xuan's eyes sharpened.
"What was it?"
A response.
The shard pulsed faintly again—
But not toward Lin Xuan.
Downward.
Something deeper had felt the resonance.
And it had awakened further.
The lead supervisor sensed it too.
"There's another layer."
His voice was tight now.
"This wasn't the core."
A crack formed along the center of the suspended platform.
Not collapsing—
Opening.
Dust fell into darkness below.
A faint red glow shimmered from the gap.
Lower.
Deeper.
Older.
The supervisor's jaw tightened.
"We're not equipped for this."
No one argued.
But retreat was still impossible.
The upper passage remained collapsed.
The only stable structure left—
Was forward.
Down.
The lead supervisor looked at Lin Xuan again.
This time not with suspicion.
But calculation.
"You're walking point."
It wasn't a request.
Lin Xuan nodded once.
Because he understood something clearly now.
The fragment above was only residue.
What lay beneath—
Was the source.
And it had just recognized him.