A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Prologue

I am a product of Earth, a man from a civilized society.

This was the mantra I muttered to myself whenever I had a spare moment.

"I am from a civilized society... cough, cough!"

If I hadn't constantly reinforced that thought, my sanity would have surely crumbled long ago.

"Oh dear, Mr. Seo. My mother wanted you to have this."

"I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it. Please recover quickly and get back to making more soap!"

The daughter of the neighboring Ju family sets a basket filled with boiled potatoes by my side before hurrying back to her own home.

Fifty years.

Half a century has passed since I was dropped into this wretched world.

Cough! Hack!

I remain lying down, my chest racking with coughs.

It happened on the day of our company retreat.

I was traveling to the workshop alongside Director Kim and my other colleagues.

A sudden landslide swept us away, and by the time we regained consciousness, we were stranded in a bizarre land.

There were foxes the size of houses with three tails.

Massive snakes with red scales and two heads.

And then, there were people who gripped swords and soared through the clouds.

It was a realm straight out of the martial arts novels I used to browse occasionally.

Despite the strangeness of this world, we managed to adapt.

Most of my coworkers likely fared quite well for themselves.

Everyone except me.

Director Kim, Chief Oh, Section Chief Jeon, Deputy Manager Kang, Deputy Manager Oh, and Manager Kim—we were all in the same vehicle.

Within just three days of our arrival in this martial world, Section Chief Jeon, Deputy Manager Kang, and Chief Oh were recruited by seniors of cultivation Sects and became their disciples.

On the fourth day, Deputy Manager Oh was taken by a mysterious man who claimed she was his distant kin.

That same evening, Manager Kim was whisked away by an old man riding a colossal mechanical puppet after he spotted her exceptional innate abilities.

In the end, everyone but Director Kim and I had been selected by some Cultivation Sect or powerful cultivators.

However, for reasons unknown, Director Kim possessed a frightening natural talent for martial arts.

He never learned true Cultivation methods, but after we spent six months working together as manual laborers, he purchased a third-rate martial arts manual from a street hawker. With his sheer genius, he evolved into a top-tier master and ventured out into the martial world.

Ten years later, word reached me that he was ranked among the top ten martial artists on Earth.

By the twenty-year mark, he was recognized as one of the three greatest masters in the martial world.

After thirty years, he became the undisputed number one under the heavens, founded the Wulin Alliance as its first leader, and then vanished after bringing peace to the world for a decade.

The rumors suggest he ascended to a higher realm.

Just like that.

Out of the seven of us who fell into this martial world, three became disciples of prestigious Cultivation Sects.

One became the ward of a mysterious figure.

One was scouted by a mechanical monster for her talent.

And one fully realized his potential in martial arts.

Everyone found their happy ending.

Except for me.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

I possess no talent, no special qualities, and no unique abilities.

Section Chief Jeon... he was gifted with a special constitution known as the 'Heavenly Golden Thunder Body'...

Deputy Manager Kang also triggered a rare root called the 'Ghostly Yin Transforming Immortal Root'...

And Chief Oh possessed a physique referred to as the 'Unique Holy Body'.

On that fourth day, Deputy Manager Oh awakened a strange power to manipulate the rain and clouds.

After she departed with that mysterious man, Manager Kim also unlocked a unique trait that allowed her to perceive everything within a ten-mile radius even with her eyes closed.

Director Kim and I watched these fateful encounters and otherworldly privileges in awe.

The two of us remained behind, clinging to the hope that a similar miracle would find us.

But neither Director Kim nor I developed any special roots or unique abilities.

Ultimately, knowing nothing of the inner workings of this martial world, the two of us spent six months performing menial labor in the marketplace.

Then, in the sixth month.

Unable to endure such a life any longer, Director Kim spent his entire savings on a third-rate martial art focused on physical strength and began to train.

Within three months, he mastered the technique and became a true martial artist.

Following his breakthrough, Director Kim took a job at a courier service, where he acquired more advanced techniques. He rapidly grew into a formidable warrior and set off for the wider martial world.

Leaving me all alone.

I, too, kept hoping for some stroke of fate.

To find a hidden talent.

To awaken a unique ability or manifest a special spiritual root.

I survived in this world fueled by that tiny spark of hope.

But...

Ten years slipped away.

Twenty years passed.

Thirty years went by.

Nothing ever happened to me.

Forty years. Fifty years.

Cough! Hack!

I am nothing more than an old man perishing from a common cold.

"I am... an Earth... Earthling..."

Now, I babble to the empty air just to ensure I don't forget my origins.

I've become a senile, noisy old man.

"Huff... Huff..."

Why were we brought to this world?

Why did they all get to awaken unique bloodlines, roots, abilities, and talents?

Why was I left out...?

"Did I truly gain nothing in the end?"

During my fifty years here, I mastered the language.

I learned to read and write, toiled as a laborer, and barely managed to find a place to belong.

I eked out a living by producing soap from lye.

The soap was a novelty for the people of this world, which resembled medieval China, but...

Once some thugs stole my production method and began their own manufacturing,

My soap sales plummeted.

Consequently, I had to supplement my income by foraging for medicinal herbs, brewing alcohol, and taking on every odd job imaginable just to stay alive.

It was exhausting.

For some reason, I can't stop the tears from falling.

'Why... why me...?'

Was it simply a matter of not being chosen?

No, it wasn't just that.

Even if I wasn't the chosen one,

Even if I wasn't a special human being,

I gave everything I had and lived as hard as I could.

My past life flickers briefly before my eyes.

The grueling effort to learn the local tongue.

The struggle to master literacy.

The backbreaking work to save enough for a tiny plot of land.

The hardship of constructing a house on that soil.

Integrating into the village and befriending the locals.

Using my knowledge from Earth to create and sell soap.

Even opening a modest soap shop.

But after a few third-rate martial artists plundered my technique and opened their own stores,

Only a handful of regulars ever returned to me.

Life grew harsher after that; I was forced to gather herbs and chop wood.

Just as things were beginning to stabilize, bandits pillaged the village and stripped me of all my savings.

I spent my remaining days doing any random task I could find, barely surviving...

'Why... did I... who worked so diligently... have to be robbed...?'

I gave my absolute best to this world.

But the world rejected every ounce of my effort.

'What more do you want from me?!'

I weep at the injustice, sobbing quietly on my sickbed.

Today is a winter day.

I am bedridden with a fever.

My body has reached its breaking point.

My vision is fading.

'If only... I had more chances... even just one more...'

In the biting cold of winter.

Lying in my bed, consumed by a cold, I bring my fifty-year struggle for survival to an end.

That was my first regression.

"Cough! Huff!"

I snap my eyes open and scramble to sit up.

The sensation is vivid.

The exact moment I closed my eyes on that bed and surrendered to the dark.

The moment the warmth left my body and I passed away.

I had definitely died.

Then why...

"Am I... alive?"

I freeze in shock.

Even the sound of my own voice startles me.

'This... this voice...!'

I slowly inspect my body.

These aren't hands covered in wrinkles and age spots.

They are young hands, brimming with health and vigor.

I am wearing clothes that clearly don't belong to this world—

The blue shirt and sweatpants I wore back on [Earth].

I scan my surroundings, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Oh my, Du-ya..."

"What's going on?"

"Wh-where are we..."

Director Kim, Chief Oh, Section Chief Jeon, Deputy Manager Kang, Deputy Manager Oh, Manager Kim...

I realize it now.

'I have regressed!'

And in that same instant, a truth dawns on me.

I shiver.

'I didn't come to this world without any gifts.'

I have awakened the power of regression!