"Ah, life how pitiful it is."
A young man who had a dreary look was sitting in a tavern with a cup of water and some dry bread.
He was lamenting the fate of such a reincarnation. Yes. A cliché reincarnated person. Or more specifically he awoke his past life's memory which led to an awkward fusion of past and present.
The problem was exactly the moment he awakened his memories and felt his soul turn complete.
Zed, a 16 year old young man who lost his family while moving during the start of a local decease from his hometown, somehow managed to survive the ordeal with the wild beasts and made his way through the lands until he eventually ended up in the territory of a powerful sect. The Mountain Order Sect.
He lucked out and got accepted as a menial disciple taking care of chores and assisting in the maintenance of a garden with some low level herbs and easy to raise fowls.
Finally, after struggling about for two years with having only achieved the first level of cultivation. He was kicked out for, reportedly, dereliction of his duties.
"Ptuu, the bastard framed me." Zed thought while recalling the scene.
He was basically kicked out so the manager could give the position to a new female disciple he was courting while dumping the work on the rest of the menial servants. Zed and his fellow menial disciples were in the outermost region of the sect and were considered barely human to everyone.
However, it was only when the official order came and he was banished from ever returning while being hastily thrown out of the Sect did he awaken his memories.
Zed was so furious after acclimating. He kicked and punched a small tree to vent which left him with scrapes and some microfractures.
The reason why was because with the awakening of his past memories, he also realized he had a freaking cheat! However, he could no longer abuse his cheat in the prestigious treasure house that is the Mountain Order Sect and he was banished forever from the sect.
It made him so mad, especially as the nearest sect is thousands of miles away and he had basically no safety with his measly first level cultivation base if he ever dared set out.
'Though it's lucky I didn't get killed or maimed by the sect and that bastard.' Zed thought while walking. Luckily for him he was so pathetically weak and unknown, the escort didn't even deign to rob him.
Sighing at the mix of fate and thinking of what to do.
He finally ended up in a local cultivation market after trekking more than a day and a half. On his person was his clothes, some mortal gold and silver, and finally three bean size crystals and some fractured shards filled with spiritual energy that he had managed to painstakingly save after two years of being driven like a horse.
Gold and silver were mortal currency while the spirit coins the size of beans were the second highest unit with the fractured shards being the lowest for cultivators but one couldn't underestimate the fractured shards or spirit sand. One spirit sand was 1/10 of a spirit coin and even that was worth a hundred gold coins, enough for most mortals to buy half a lifetime of luxury.
Even then only high end treasure houses and commerce's as well the obvious Sects monopolized this currency.
'Luckily the one thing needed to change this life was with me the whole time.' Zed thought as he ate his food and headed a little deeper into the market.
He had asked around and found an establishment that was renting land for reclamation. What Zed wanted was a place to cultivate. Although it would be much worse than in the Sect mountains, he was still intent on cultivating.
He was originally from a little blue planet with no special powers and his past self was just a cog in the machine living simply and only had a past time of making random programs and reading a lot. Now here, and with a shot at seeing the scenery from above like in some of those novels.
It made his heart pump with enthusiasm that which he hadn't felt in a very long time.
'Especially with this cheat'
Having not known much when joining the Sect previously, Zed before awakening his memories did all he could to learn as much about the world from the free knowledge he had access to in the Sect.
Although, nothing major was available, he still studied a few techniques and learned of how the world worked. Especially considering such big powerhouses had more complete knowledge available.
He could say this was the biggest takeaway from Sect.
After having found the rental office, he negotiated an extremely remote field of four acres.
The contract for the land was given to him but as it is within the Sects region of influence, he had to pay a spirit coin for the land deed, and all crop production had a tax of 60% as of the second year or the equivalent in spirit coins.
This was a good deal as he could make a larger profit if he managed to grow some more convenient plants or breed good livestock and he really wanted to stay far away from all the conflicts. He only had one life and feeling his talent, he may be a low level practitioner for a while.
After painfully handing over the spirit coin and claiming the deed, he asked for some directions from the rental officer and left with a smile.
Zed went around the cultivation market and bought some supplies and tools, as well as food before finally leaving for his land. He felt somehow refreshed at this moment, as although the world is quite dangerous and the rule of the jungle applied. He had his own home after all the struggling and a new life awaited him.
A few passerby's noticed Zed but those who saw him barely paid attention as a first level cultivator is quite honestly only slightly better than a mortal. And anyone who saw some of the tools poking out of his bamboo basket could tell he was a farmer.
Zed didn't care about any of that, and honestly made his way to his land. It was located quite far from both the market and the sect but it was actually blocked off by a large stone mountain making it relatively safer as it was blocked off on one side, had the sect in another, and finally the cultivator's market blocked the last side. If it wasn't for the poor amount of spiritual energy in the area it wouldn't be so cheap considering its relative safety compared to some other regions.
Having finally made it after close to six-seven hours of travel, Zed was exhausted, he may be a cultivator but he sure as hell wasn't a powerful one considering he barely entered the realm before being kicked out.
This was another reason why he was kicked out so easily, considering his speed of cultivation, the sect doesn't necessarily care nor want a bottom feeder who will use resources with such poor talent.
He finally made it to a broken down cabin that had been at the edge of a sprawling jungle of weeds. There was originally people who tried developing the land but after experiencing the horribly low spiritual energy and lower grade land, they abandoned it and it was left in the rental offices listings for a while.
He learned of this while looking for a suitable location. Considering all things, he was quite satisfied as this also repelled people and beasts from wandering into his area since what can they find aside from some potatoes and no spiritual energy? Weeds?
"With nothing to covet, there is nothing to fear." Zed said as he unpacked his things and finally sat down on a slightly moldy chair taking a deep breath before sighing that today would be the start of many good days to come.
[Who knew I was going to live a life, one would only wish. Heaven and Hell merged.]