A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation회귀수선전

What are governing immortals and heavenly venerables, I forgot

A Xianxia novel written by a Korean author and what I'd consider a pretty interesting take on the genre. Here you see a cultivation world viewed through the eyes of a normal dude and how insanely crazy all its inhabitants really are from an outsiders perspective. Of course, as time goes on, the MC gets used to it as he must, but he still holds on to his core beliefs, or at the very least tries to.

Personally, I think this is a very good novel. One thing that people who only read CN webnovels might not be used to is that the MC here is an emotional person; in other words, he's written like an actual human. There will be several points where the MC takes a path based on his feelings rather than because it's the most statistically optimal path for his development. Personally, I prefer it over the usual carboard cutout copy-and-paste MC's we get, who casually grind away hundreds of years with no problem, but I can also understand people who just want to read a simple power fantasy where MC gets OP from chapter 1 and never loses a battle while being cold and stoic, but this isn't that. A lot of plot points will appear where the MC gets his ass handed to him or has no choice but to accept his fate and hope he can solve it in a future regression due to his unfortunate lack of talent, but he never gives up, although sometimes the relentless traumatic events get him pretty close to doing so. Nonetheless, I think it's a fun read, so if the above points sound fine to you, go ahead.

This is also a pretty character-driven novel. A lot of other Xianxia novels will solely focus on the MC's power progression or the action, and while this novel definitely focuses on a lot of that, it also makes sure there's time for the various characters and people the MC meets and forms relationships with to have their moment in the spotlight, which is something I feel a lot of Xianxia webnovels don't do, where they often have the character get thrown to the wayside and completely forgotten the second the plot no longer requires them for its progression. Hell, I've read too many webnovels where they don't even bother to give the MC's family proper names other than "dad," "mom," and "sister." There's also an overarching mystery about why and how the MC and his co-workers got transported into the cultivation world with some interesting kind of eldritch horror undertones, so that's pretty cool too. That's all I got; hopefully that's enough for anybody interested in checking this out to make a decision.

Good world building.

Good translation.

Frustrating MC.

This story basically “You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks”
MC repeat same shit over and over again

This novel made me cry.

This is one of the best novels i've ever read. I absolutely recommend this. Don't let the title or the cover fool you into thinking it's like all the other novels with a similar concept; It's not. It's better.

Not bad.
Sometimes you feel: why the f#ck is he doing this? Why doesn't he use that power? Why the he'll are you sticking to this poisonous mother f#cker of a snake, and then complaining.

The side character: noice, some are really well developed. One of them will give you chill in the spine.

Every death is the culmination of all that has happened in that life.