I Died Inventing Cultivation, Now the Heavens Call Me Genius

Chapter 2: The Cultivation Technique That Killed Me

The moment the enormous eye opened above the Great Zhou Empire, every formation protecting the imperial palace began to collapse.

“Seal the eastern courtyard!” Emperor William Cole commanded as golden energy erupted from his palms. “Nobody enters or leaves until I understand what happened!”

His guards rushed toward the doors, but the stone floor split beneath their feet, releasing thin strands of silver light. The unnatural energy crawled up the walls and twisted around the pillars like living veins, moving against the natural flow of spiritual power.

Queen Victoria clutched Ethan tightly against her chest, shielding him from the strange illumination.

“William, look at our son!”

Ethan's tiny fingers had curled around her gown, and his body remained rigid as he stared at something nobody else could see. Inside his mind, the silver letters continued to burn with an ominous warning.

THE ORIGINAL RESEARCHER HAS RETURNED.

INITIATE ERASURE.

He recognized the command structure immediately. In his previous life, he had designed a primitive monitoring sequence to detect dangerous fluctuations in Si, intending to prevent his experiments from destabilizing the surrounding energy. However, the voice inside his head belonged to something far more sophisticated than his original creation.

Someone had taken his research and transformed it into a system capable of identifying reincarnated souls.

How many people have been using my research, and what exactly did I create?

A sharp pain pierced Ethan's forehead, causing his surroundings to dissolve into darkness. Suddenly, he was standing inside his old laboratory again, watching his former self examine the silver strand suspended inside its crystal container.

His younger self looked exhausted, with hollow cheeks and bloodshot eyes from countless sleepless nights. Behind him stood a shadowy figure whose presence felt strangely familiar, although Ethan had never seen its face before.

“You should have stopped after the first warning,” the stranger whispered.

The crystal container shattered, releasing the unbearable pressure that had killed Ethan. As the memory collapsed around him, the stranger delivered one final warning.

“You were never supposed to discover what Si remembers.”

Ethan returned to the imperial chamber with a frightened cry, and Queen Victoria immediately pressed him closer.

“His body is burning with fever!” she exclaimed.

“Fetch the imperial physician!” William ordered.

Before anyone could move, the silver light vanished, the palace formations flickered back to life, and the enormous eye disappeared behind the clouds. The sudden calm did little to ease the emperor's suspicion as he turned toward the shattered basin.

“Investigate everything that happened here,” he commanded. “If anyone attempts to conceal the truth, bring them to me in chains.”

The elderly midwife dropped to her knees and desperately defended herself.

“Your Majesty, I swear I did nothing unusual. I only used an ordinary Si water technique.”

Her explanation struck Ethan harder than the mysterious voice had.

An ordinary Si water technique.

He had spent his entire previous life trying to prove that such techniques were possible, yet this woman could perform one without understanding the principles that made it work.

Fine, he thought angrily. If someone stole my research, I'll find them. If someone altered it, I'll discover why. And if the heavens intend to erase me again, they will have to explain themselves first.

Unfortunately, his newborn body had other plans. Exhaustion overwhelmed him before he could investigate further, and his eyelids gradually closed.

---

Six months later, Ethan had learned three important lessons about his new life. Being a prince did not make infancy any less humiliating, the Great Zhou Empire possessed more cultivation techniques than his previous world could have imagined, and nobody believed a six-month-old child could understand their conversations.

That final discovery proved especially useful.

While palace physicians examined his supposedly extraordinary constitution, Ethan listened carefully to the discussions taking place around his cradle. Servants spoke about cultivation as casually as they discussed the weather, guards complained about expensive spirit stones, and even the cooks used simple Si formations to preserve food.

His old world had changed beyond recognition.

One afternoon, a young attendant entered the nursery carrying a jade lamp. She placed it beside the window and touched its polished surface with two fingers, causing blue light to spread throughout the room.

Ethan studied the energy flowing through the formation and immediately noticed a flaw. The structure forced the lamp to consume nearly twice the energy required to produce its light.

I could correct that in five minutes if I had a notebook and functioning hands.

The attendant glanced toward his cradle and smiled.

“Your Highness, are you awake?”

Ethan immediately closed his eyes, pretending to sleep until she left the room.

Peaceful? I'm trapped in a body that can't hold a spoon, and something ancient in the heavens is trying to erase me.

A familiar pressure stirred behind his forehead, making him freeze. It felt as though someone were standing beyond a locked door, listening to every thought he tried to conceal.

When Ethan concentrated on the sensation, it disappeared, leaving behind a faint silver line etched into the wooden rail of his cradle.

His heart pounded as he examined the marking. It resembled one of his old equations, except the final symbol had been reversed. He had encountered that symbol during the last week of his previous life, when he discovered that Si behaved differently under conscious observation.

At the time, he had blamed his instruments for the strange readings.

Now he wondered whether they had been telling him the truth.

Si can remember.

The realization settled into his mind with terrifying clarity. Perhaps Si did more than imitate the laws of heaven and earth; perhaps every spell left an impression within it, preserving fragments of those who had used it.

And perhaps the thing that had looked back at him during his final experiment had been waiting for his return.

A knock interrupted his thoughts as Professor Nathaniel Hayes entered the nursery with a leather-bound journal tucked beneath his arm. The elderly scholar had unruly white hair and spectacles that constantly threatened to slide off his nose.

Unlike the other palace scholars, Nathaniel ignored the golden symbol above Ethan's cradle and studied the child with open curiosity.

“So this is the prince who caused the heavenly formations to collapse,” he murmured. “Everyone claims he is blessed, but I suspect the truth is considerably more troublesome.”

Ethan maintained his innocent expression as Nathaniel approached and opened his journal.

“I brought something that may interest you, Your Highness.”

The moment Ethan saw the first page, his thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

The diagram displayed his original Si formula, copied from the research notes he had left behind before his death. He recognized the uneven lines, the correction in the upper corner, and even the ink stain left by a cup of cold tea.

However, someone had altered the final equation.

His original formula allowed ordinary people to channel Si without requiring direct recognition from the heavens. The revised version established a connection between the user and an unseen authority, creating a link that could be monitored and controlled.

Ethan felt a chill spread through his body.

“Do you know what troubles me most about this research?” Nathaniel asked. “The man who discovered it died before anyone could verify his findings. Ten years later, someone recovered his journal, completed his work, and transformed the entire cultivation world.”

The scholar looked directly into Ethan's eyes.

“His name was Shen Yu.”

Ethan's heart seemed to stop.

Nathaniel continued, unaware of the terror spreading through the infant's mind.

“I have spent forty years searching for the missing pages of Shen Yu's research. Every surviving record claims he died while attempting to absorb Si, but I recently discovered a reference to a warning that someone deliberately erased from history.”

He lowered his voice.

“Never let the heavens learn that Si can remember.”

Suddenly, the nursery door slammed shut, and every window darkened. Nathaniel's journal began flipping through its pages by itself before stopping at a blank sheet that gradually filled with silver writing.

Ethan recognized the handwriting immediately.

It was his own.

SHEN YU, IF YOU CAN READ THIS, DO NOT TRUST THE MAN HOLDING YOUR RESEARCH.

Ethan slowly turned his attention toward Nathaniel, whose face had become deathly pale.

“That isn't possible,” the scholar whispered.

The silver letters shifted, revealing another message.

HE HAS ALREADY BEEN FOUND.

Something knocked three times from inside Nathaniel's chest, and the elderly scholar suddenly stiffened.

Then a voice identical to Ethan's previous voice emerged from Nathaniel's mouth.

“Thank you for bringing me my journal.”