The corridor answered.
Not with silence.
With intention.
The moment Jin Yue said, "This isn't imperial design," the script along the walls pulsed once...low and deliberate, like a heartbeat acknowledging it had been seen.
Lei Fan's body jerked again.
Not from his own pulse this time.
From the formation tightening around him.
It was no longer reacting.
It was selecting.
The lantern flames dimmed by a fraction, as if something in the Pavilion had leaned closer.
Jin Yue felt it then...not suppression, not distortion.
Recognition.
The air shifted.
And from the stone panels ahead, more compartments slid open.
Iron puppets stepped forward.
Not wandering.
Not scanning.
Their masked faces turned...
Directly toward Lei Fan.
Ba Ryou's eyes hardened.
"So that's it."
The corridor was not punishing excess.
It was hunting lightning.
Lei Fan's body finally stopped convulsing.
Not because the corridor relented.
