The service route climbed toward the old celestial approach through a narrow channel. Wei heard the team’s signal and sent two guards down to help carry the records. He kept the rest of the team at the entrance, where a second support crack had opened.
Yan passed the metal frame to one guard only after checking that the load was balanced. Gu carried the routing pages, and Qinghe kept the cylinder close to her body.
“The case goes first,” Wei said. “If the passage shifts, we need the fragile record clear.”
The guard carried it toward the upper landing with both hands. Qinghe followed and checked the padding at each turn. It had not slipped.
Gu spotted a faded marker on the wall. It matched recurring symbols from the island archive. The route was older than the Registry furnace and connected to a sealed maintenance landing.
“I’ll sketch it,” Gu said. “We leave the stone intact.”
He drew the mark on a slate and noted the direction of the channel. The lab’s history was now documented where it had been found.
A pressure wave folded the outer supports and sent dust down the shaft. The guards braced the landing while Yan held the gate mechanism apart. His strength and the temporary formation kept an opening, but the external force nearly closed the route.
