I Died Inventing Cultivation, Now the Heavens Call Me Genius

Chapter 8: The Fifth Attempt

The paper caught fire before Ethan could understand why his father had reached for it.

Emperor William Cole snatched the message from beneath the shattered crystal, and golden spiritual energy curled around his fingers. The parchment blackened instantly, its mysterious writing disappearing beneath the flames. However, as the final letter vanished, the black mark on Ethan’s arm erupted with unbearable heat.

William staggered, and Alexander rushed forward to catch him before he struck the stone floor.

“Father!”

The golden energy surrounding William’s hand turned silver, then crawled toward his wrist like a nest of living insects. Although pain tightened the emperor’s expression, he refused to cry out. Instead, he stared at Ethan with an expression the infant had never seen on him before.

Fear.

William was not afraid of an enemy standing before him or the Heavenly Registrar watching from above. He was afraid of his own son.

Ethan’s tiny body trembled in his father’s arms as the black mark pulsed beneath his skin. Somewhere inside the collapsing archive, the mysterious voice repeated its final announcement.

“FOUR ATTEMPTS FAILED. BEGIN THE FIFTH.”

The words seemed to penetrate Ethan’s bones, as though something had engraved the command directly into his existence.

What does that mean? Four attempts? Four versions of me?

His memories offered no answers. He remembered his first life as Shen Yu, his laboratory, his equations, and the moment Si entered his body. He also remembered dying beneath a sky that seemed to have opened its eyes, but he could not recall three previous attempts at anything.

That missing history frightened him more than any monster could have.

“Your Majesty, put the prince down,” Professor Nathaniel Hayes demanded.

William tightened his hold on Ethan. “Why?”

Nathaniel hesitated for a fraction of a second before answering. “The mark is responding to your spiritual energy. If you continue holding him, the corruption may spread.”

“That is not what I asked you.”

The emperor’s voice reverberated through the chamber, causing the surviving silver strands to tremble.

Nathaniel lowered his head. “Then I cannot answer you here.”

Alexander stared at them, his hand moving toward the sword at his waist. “Both of you are hiding something, and I am finished pretending otherwise. Thomas disappeared from our family records, Father has known about this place for years, and now a stranger claims our cultivation system was built on stolen memories. He even called my little brother an ancient researcher.”

Alexander stepped closer to the emperor, his expression hardening.

“Someone has also written your name beside the First Architect. How much longer do you intend to keep lying to us?”

William’s face grew stern. “Alexander, take your mother and your brother back to the palace.”

“No.”

The refusal came so quickly that even Nathaniel looked surprised.

“If something beneath this palace is connected to our family, I deserve to know the truth,” Alexander insisted.

“You deserve to remain alive.”

“Then stop treating the truth as though it will kill me!”

William’s grip on Ethan loosened. For a brief moment, the emperor looked less like the ruler of the Great Zhou Empire and more like a man who had spent years waiting for an unavoidable disaster.

Ethan watched him closely.

You know something. You have known it since before I was born.

Suddenly, the black mark flashed, and a silver thread emerged from Ethan’s palm before attaching itself to William’s burned fingers.

The emperor gasped as every surviving formation in the chamber ignited simultaneously.

“FIFTH ATTEMPT INITIATED.”

Symbols erupted across the archive, forming an enormous circular diagram around the four of them. Ethan recognized its foundation immediately: it was the structure of his original Si experiment, except someone had inserted an unfamiliar equation into its center.

The equation was not designed to absorb Si.

It was designed to replace the person who absorbed it.

Ethan’s thoughts raced as he studied the shifting symbols. If the equation completed itself, it would not simply restore his memories; it would overwrite his consciousness with whatever the archive recognized as the original.

Something is trying to enter my body.

His limbs grew cold as a second consciousness pressed against his mind. William dropped to one knee, struggling to tear the silver thread from his hand, while Nathaniel shouted instructions that Ethan could barely hear above the accelerating hum of the formation.

Then a familiar voice emerged from the scattered crystal fragments.

“Little brother.”

Thomas.

“Don’t let them finish it,” the child pleaded. “They did this before. Every time you remember, they begin again. Every time you approach the truth, they choose another version.”

Another version of what? Me?

The silver thread tightened around Ethan’s arm, and an image exploded inside his mind.

He saw a laboratory unlike the one he remembered from his previous life. Its walls were covered in the same equations that surrounded the archive, and a younger William stood beside a silver examination table with bloodstains covering his imperial robes.

A child lay motionless on the table.

The child had Ethan’s face.

Beside William stood a man wearing a white mask.

“Attempt Four has failed,” the masked man announced. “The subject retains too much of the original consciousness.”

William stared at the lifeless child. “Then bring him back.”

“The fifth reconstruction may not preserve the memories you wish to protect.”

“I did not ask what it might preserve!” William’s voice cracked with desperation. “I asked you to bring my son back.”

The vision shattered.

My son?

Before Ethan could process what he had witnessed, an ancient, emotionless voice entered his mind.

“ORIGINAL RESEARCHER DETECTED.”

“MEMORY RECOVERY: 3.8%.”

“FIFTH ATTEMPT COMPROMISED.”

The diagram began collapsing around them. Nathaniel seized a silver strand and tore it away from Ethan’s body, ignoring the blood running down his fingers.

“Your Majesty, we must sever the connection now!”

William looked down at Ethan. For one terrible moment, the emperor seemed ready to obey the mysterious voice rather than the professor. His gaze shifted from the mark on Ethan’s arm to the shattered crystal fragments, and recognition slowly settled across his face.

Ethan wanted to scream at him. You knew what they were doing to me!

William finally tore the silver thread away.

The resulting explosion hurled everyone across the chamber. Alexander struck a pillar and collapsed, while Nathaniel rolled against the broken crystal. William shielded Ethan with his body as dust swallowed the archive and dying silver sparks rained from the ceiling.

When the dust settled, Ethan was still alive, but the mark on his arm had changed. Five distinct lines now extended beneath his skin. Four glowed faintly, while the fifth remained dark, its shape resembling an unfinished eye.

A message appeared in his mind.

“ATTEMPT FIVE INTERRUPTED.”

“RESPONSIBLE PARTY: WILLIAM COLE.”

Ethan stared at his father.

William slowly lowered his head. “I can explain.”

Before the emperor could continue, Nathaniel rose unsteadily and withdrew a small silver device from inside his robe.

Ethan recognized it from the vision. The device had rested beside the child on the examination table.

Nathaniel pressed its center, and the archive fell unnaturally quiet.

The device spoke in a voice that made Ethan’s blood run cold.

“PROFESSOR NATHANIEL HAYES, AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.”

“PROCEED WITH THE FIFTH RECONSTRUCTION.”

Alexander pushed himself upright, staring at the professor in disbelief.

“You were helping us!”

Nathaniel’s expression twisted with anguish. “I was trying to save him.”

“By doing what?” Alexander demanded.

The professor looked directly at Ethan.

“By bringing back the person who existed before the first death.”

Ethan felt as though his heart had stopped.

Nathaniel raised the device, and the unfinished eye on Ethan’s arm slowly opened.

“WELCOME BACK, SHEN YU.”

The voice that emerged from Ethan’s own mind no longer belonged to the Heavenly Registrar.

It belonged to the man who had died in the laboratory.

His former self had returned.

And it was laughing.