Chapter 3

0003 ———————————————-

Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng (千年雪蔘)

"Cough."

When I came to my senses, I found myself shivering in the cold wind. Despite the straw that shielded me from the wind, a few coughs still escaped due to the early morning chill.

“…?!”

What’s going on?!

I was bewildered as I found myself in a situation I couldn’t understand after losing consciousness. In a panic, I looked down at my chest, but all the wounds were gone. More importantly, the clothes I was wearing were completely different, and my body size was entirely different.

I had shrunk.

I raised my upper body and looked around. Through the gaps in the straw, I could see a cold draft, the smell of cow dung, and the eerie shadows of trees in the darkness. I sat there dazed for a while, but I knew this scene all too well.

‘Am I dreaming?’

I know.

I know exactly what this situation is.

It’s clearly when I was around 13, right after I lost my parents to a plague and was taken in by the village chief’s family. Living as a servant, I slept in an empty shed near the stable. With trembling hands, I carefully cleared away the straw that shielded me from the wind.

I could see it.

The stable.

“Aaaaaah…!!”

I almost screamed.

There was only one word to describe this situation.

I had regressed to the past!

And not just any past, but to my childhood, over 40 years ago!

‘Is this even possible?’

I was in a state of panic but decided to remain calm.

I decided to move my body to see if it worked. My arms and legs moved well, and the stiffness and cold of the early morning gave me a sense of reality. This was too realistic to be an illusion.

I sat cross-legged and tried to circulate my energy through the Small Circulation (小周天).

To my surprise, I discovered something.

“Hmm…!! My internal energy is still intact.”

Amazingly, even though I had returned to a child’s body, the internal energy I had cultivated over 50 years through the Three Disasters Heart Method was still there. While the basic effects of the cultivation method were still shallow, I was confident that this would be a great help in my future life. I knew better than anyone that the difference between having and not having internal energy was like the difference between heaven and earth.

“Cough. Cough! Damn brats.”

I coughed and cursed.

The targets of my curses were, of course, the village chief and his family.

They had taken me in, a homeless orphan, and raised me, but I was treated like a servant from the moment I was entrusted to the village chief’s family until I left three years later. The bullying by the village children never stopped, and I was often beaten up. The village chief’s son would only laugh at my suffering, never offering any help.

This was one of those times. My main job was to take care of three cows and clean up their dung, and I had to feed them as well. The place where I ate and slept was not a human dwelling but a shed converted from a stable, filled with the smell of cow dung. Living in such a place, it was strange that I hadn’t gone mad.

‘Damn it. It’s good to be alive, and it’s good to be back in the past, but why now…’

I found myself back in the hell of my life.

I felt a bitter taste in my mouth.

My life only started to get on track when I became a low-level guard for a security company at 15 and a proper martial artist at 18. From now on, I would have to endure at least five more years of a hellish life. The thought of it made me so angry and afraid that my hands trembled.

For a while, I sat and reflected on my life.

Looking back, it was a life with no real good moments. After becoming a low-level guard at around 18, I managed to make a living, but being a guard was far from easy. I had nearly died fighting bandits and been slapped by a nobleman. It was a life where I often drank to ease my tired body and fell asleep.

Why was I angry at my current state? Of course, it was because my life as a child was even worse than my hard life as a low-level guard! I didn’t want to live through that hell again. Even if my body was tired, at least as a guard, I had the freedom to spend my own money.

‘What should I do now?’

I thought for a long time.

And I came to a conclusion.

“Even if it’s just for a day, I need to confirm if this is really the past.”

The next day, after about three hours, I woke up and checked the stable. The cows hadn’t been exposed to much cold, and none of them were sick. It had been decades since I last worked in a stable, so I was a bit clumsy at first, but soon the tasks came back to me naturally.

I stroked the nose of a large bull.

“Your name is Gold, right? I remember.”

Thinking about it, I seemed to have lived with the cows as my companions while working in the stable. I had given this large bull the name Gold and taken especially good care of him. Cows were gentle and kind by nature.

Gold seemed to understand me, blinking and rubbing his head against my hand.

I felt a slight warmth from this simple action.

‘Better than humans.’

In my 50 years of life, I had come to know humans all too well. Living a life without family or friends, I had seen countless ruthless and merciless people. When there was profit to be made, they would easily betray their friends. It was only natural to think that mute animals were better than humans.

Just then.

‘It’s coming!’

I quickly dodged by stepping aside.

Swish!

“…”

“Eh…?”

A bewildered voice came from behind. The person who had intended to drench me with water was surprised that I had easily avoided it. But even with the Three Disasters Heart Method being weak, after 50 years of cultivation, I had developed much better senses and reflexes than an average person. Even in a child’s body, avoiding a bucket of water was no problem.

I looked directly at the person who had tried to drench me with water. As soon as I saw him, a surge of anger rose in me, and I clenched my fists tightly, barely managing to control my rage by gritting my teeth.

“What’s the matter, young master?”

Despite my anger, my voice remained calm.

The ‘young master’ stood awkwardly, cleared his throat, and replied.

“Hmph! Hmph! I accidentally spilled water while trying to spread moisture in the stable this morning.”

“Yes.”

I nodded, even though I knew it was a ridiculous excuse.

I wanted to get up and beat the ‘young master’ right then and there, but I held back. Having experienced numerous group settings, I had learned over the years how to control the anger that surged in my heart. To calmly assess and organize the situation of being sent back to the past, I couldn’t let my anger get the best of me.

The young master, a chubby, pockmarked boy.

He was the [son of the village chief].

His name was Jin Manjae (金萬材). Despite his grand name, he was a talentless person, just like me. He was around my age. Despite that, he had a strong desire to show off and bully me, and I had heard that as an adult, he squandered the village chief’s wealth on women and drinking.

“Hmm~”

Jin Manjae started walking around the stable, looking for something to criticize. Finding nothing to nitpick, he said to me as if starting an argument.

“You, clean up all the dung in the stable by the time I return from school.”

“Pardon?”

“Do it! Do you think you won’t?”

It was an unexpected act of bullying.

I was so angry that I forgot what to say.

‘This bastard?’

I wanted to beat Jin Manjae to a pulp right then and there, go to the kitchen, grab a kitchen knife, and slaughter the village chief’s family. It was a realistic possibility, and my hands trembled. But remembering that this level of bullying was a daily occurrence, I calmed myself and said calmly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it.”

“…?”

Jin Manjae seemed taken aback by my unusually calm tone. But being a child, he didn’t think much of it, snorted, and disappeared somewhere. As soon as Jin Manjae was out of sight, I spat on the ground.

“Spit!”

“Damn brat… We’ll see about this.”

If I gained power later, I would take revenge for the humiliation of the past three years. The thought of slaughtering the entire village chief’s family or making Jin Manjae a cripple was thrilling.

But now is not the time.

I had thought a lot about it yesterday.

And I concluded that I should maintain my life in the village chief’s house for the time being. While it might be easier to run away, I had no means of survival. It was better to continue a life where I at least had food and a place to sleep.

Instead, I decided to avoid the impulsive choice of joining a security company like I did in the past.

‘I can’t be a guard again.’

Even if I joined a security company and became a guard, they would only teach me the Six Directions Sword Technique and the Three Disasters Heart Method.

It would be better to find a way to learn higher-level martial arts and succeed.

I had thought about this in my previous life, but the urgency of escaping the village chief’s house and my lack of ability led me to give up. In fact, being hired as a low-level guard was a stroke of luck.

But now is different.

I have 50 years of internal energy from the Three Disasters Heart Method and can wield a sword at a second-rate level. I could easily slaughter an average adult male with a kitchen knife right now.

I would die instantly if I met a first-rate martial artist, but I am stronger than a third-rate martial artist.

‘If I show this achievement to martial artists, they will take me as a disciple.’

Becoming a disciple of a renowned martial artist!

It would solve my survival problem and allow me to live the life of a martial artist I had always dreamed of. I realized this was the best option in my current situation and smiled with satisfaction.

At the same time, I felt the need to gather information to escape this life of living in a stable.

I couldn’t start planning without knowing where martial artists lived and how they moved.

“Damn… I should clean up the cow dung first.”

I grumbled, picked up a rake and a shovel, and entered the stable. The floor was covered with cow dung, emitting a foul smell. Since the cows defecated randomly, it was impossible to clean up every day, so I cleaned it every three days. Jin Manjae had ordered me to clean it again, even though it wasn’t time.

While cleaning the cow dung would protect the cows’ health, it was clearly an act of bullying. Moreover, Jin Manjae would surely take credit with the village chief.

“Ugh…”

While cleaning the cow dung, the smell was so strong that I felt dizzy and vomited in the bushes. My stomach was empty, but the smell of stomach acid tickled my nose. I sat on a tree stump, resting and looking up at the blue sky.

“…!!”

At that moment, a lightning bolt of realization struck me.

My mouth trembled.

“T, That’s it! I remember!”

I’m a fool.

Why did I try to take the hard way when there was an easier path?

Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng (千年雪蔘)!

The legendary elixir that could grant the power to dominate the world came to mind.

============================ Author's Note ============================

I have corrected the errors.