Regressor's Tale of Cultivation - Prologue: 0th Cycle
I was a person from the civilized society, an Earthling.
Whenever I had a spare moment, I would repeat it to myself.
“I am, from the civilized society, cluck cluck!”
Without that, I would have gone insane.
“Oh dear, Grandpa Seo, Mother sent this over.”
“Yeah… Thank you.”
“Not at all. Please get up quickly and make soap again!”
The daughter from the next house set a small basket of boiled potatoes beside me and scurried back to her own home.
Fifty years.
Since I had fallen into this cursed world, fifty years had passed.
Cluck! Cluck!
I coughed and lay back in my place.
Yes, it had clearly been the day I was going on a company workshop trip.
Manager Kim and the other employees had gone together on the workshop.
We were swept away by a landslide, and when we came to our senses, we had arrived in an incredibly strange world.
A fox as big as a house with three tails.
A large red-scaled snake with two heads.
And monsters riding swords through the sky.
This was the world I had occasionally read about in xianxia novels.
It was a strange world, but we had adapted well.
Most of the company employees had probably all left with good results.
Except for me.
Manager Kim, who took the same car, Vice Manager Oh, Section Chief Jeon, Associate Kang, Associate Oh, and Head Kim.
Among them, Section Chief Jeon, Associate Kang, and Vice Manager Oh had been in this xianxia world for three days when they were spotted by the elders of a cultivation sect and became disciples.
Associate Oh had been taken away on the fourth day by a man passing through the Seonpung Valley who claimed him as family.
Head Kim had been taken on the evening of the fourth day by an old man riding a large mechanical puppet after the old man recognized his special ability as outstanding talent.
In the end, Manager Kim and I were not selected by any cultivation sect or immortal.
But Manager Kim unexpectedly possessed a natural talent for martial arts.
He did not learn the immortals’ techniques, but after six months of working with me, he bought and mastered a third-rate martial art from the street, then rose to become a top master through sheer talent and left for the martial world.
Ten years later, word spread that he had taken one seat in the top ten immortals of the world.
Twenty years later, he was said to be one of the three great martial artists in the world and among the top three in the martial world.
And thirty years later, he rose to the top of the world and founded the Murim Alliance as its first leader, then vanished after stabilizing the martial world for ten years.
According to rumors, he had ascended to the heavens as a winged immortal.
Thus.
Three out of the seven who had fallen into the xianxia world became disciples of famous cultivation sects.
One became family to a spirit being.
One was recognized for talent by a monster.
And one awakened the talent for martial arts.
All of them had seen happy endings.
Except for me.
Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!
I had no talent, no special ability, no unique power.
‘Section Chief Jeon… he was said to have Heavenly Golden Thunder Body…
He was born with such an unusual Spiritual Root…
Associate Kang had awakened the Ghost Guidance Yin Transformation Root…
And Vice Manager Oh had the body of the One Turbulent Saintly Body…’
And Associate Oh had awakened the mysterious ability to call rain and clouds when he concentrated on the fourth day.
Head Kim had awakened a strange ability to see within a ten-li radius even with his eyes closed after Associate Oh left with the man from Seonpung Valley.
Manager Kim and I had been amazed by it, calling it a stroke of fate or a perk of this world, and we had waited for a long time expecting something similar to happen to us.
But Manager Kim and I could not obtain any Spiritual Root or unique ability.
In the end, the two of us who knew nothing about the xianxia world had worked manual labor on the streets for six months to earn some money.
And on the sixth month.
Manager Kim said he could not live like this, and after selling everything he had saved, he bought third-rate physical training martial arts from the streets and mastered them.
After only three months, he mastered the martial arts, became a martial artist, worked at a dispatch office, and gradually learned higher-level martial arts, becoming a powerful warrior in an instant and leaving for the martial world.
Leaving me behind.
I too had wondered if some stroke of fate would come to me in this world.
Would I discover my hidden talent?
Awaken a unique ability?
Awaken the Spiritual Root?
I had lived with small hopes in this world.
But.
Ten years passed.
Twenty years passed.
Thirty years had passed.
Nothing happened to me.
Forty years passed, and fifty years had passed.
Cluck! Cluck!
I was nothing but an old man dying of a cold.
“I am, from Earth, Earth…”
Now it was simply that.
I was muttering to the empty air to never forget that I was an Earthling.
A noisy old man.
“Hah… uh…”
Why had we come to this world?
Why had all of us awakened special bloodlines, Spiritual Roots, abilities, or talents?
Why…
had I obtained nothing?
I had simply learned the words of this world, learned to write, worked manual labor, and barely settled in.
I had to survive by making soap with lye.
Soap was usable in this world like medieval China, but after some thieves stole the soap-making method and copied it, my soap almost stopped selling.
So I had to do all kinds of odd jobs like gathering herbs and brewing alcohol to survive in this world.
It welled up in my chest.
I could not stop the tears.
‘Why… me…’
Was it simply because I was an ordinary human who had not been chosen?
No.
I had not been chosen, and I was not a special human.
I had mobilized everything I could and lived with all my heart.
The past life had flashed by in front of my eyes.
Learning the words of this world with effort.
Learning to write with effort.
Earning money with effort and buying a small plot of land.
Building a house on that land with effort.
Settling in the village and getting to know the villagers.
And applying my knowledge from Earth to make and sell soap.
Opening a small soap shop with great difficulty.
But a few third-rate martial artists had stolen my soap-making method, opened several shops identical to mine, and after excluding some regular customers, no one came to my shop anymore.
After that, life had become hard, and I had gathered herbs and gone for wood.
And then, when life was somewhat stable, bandits had come to the village and taken all my money.
Truly having worked all kinds of odd jobs and barely living…
‘Why… even though I worked hard… why had I been taken away…’
In this world, I had done my absolute best.
But this world had completely denied my best efforts.
‘What am I supposed to do…’
I wept tears of injustice and made small gasping sounds on the bed.
Today was winter.
I had a cold, and my body was weak to the point of dying.
My eyes were closing.
‘If only… if there had been even a little more chance… a little more…’
With the cold winter wind.
I lay on the bed with a cold, dying of a cold, and concluded the grueling life I had continued for fifty years.
That had been my first regression.
* * *
“Cough! Uh…”
I opened my eyes and hurriedly sat up from my place.
It was clearly felt.
The moment I closed my eyes and lay on the bed sinking into darkness, when my life force in my whole body had turned ice-cold, that moment when I had died alone.
I had died.
But why…
“I’m alive?”
I flinched!
As I spoke, I was startled for a moment.
‘This… voice…’
I slowly looked down at my body.
It was not a hand wrinkled with old age.
It was a firm, young hand full of life force.
And it was clearly different from the clothing of this world—blue shirt and sweatpants from Earth.
I looked around and figured out the situation.
“Ah, Twoya…”
“What is this?”
“W-Where am I…?”
Manager Kim, Vice Manager Oh, Section Chief Jeon, Associate Kang, Associate Oh, Head Kim…
I understood.
‘I have regressed!’
And at the same time, I realized.
A chill ran down my spine!
‘I had not come to this world without any ability.’
I had awakened the regression ability!