Shopping.

Xavier found it oddly amusing that the distant past he was trying to remember was in fact today. But after a while he stopped finding it amusing, the hazy fog obscuring his memories had thinned out a bit and he remembered more, but they were still only bits and pieces. He remembered the beating he took from instructor Atkins, his money being stolen by two fellow recruits, and the few missions he undertook for the cult before its fall. He also remembered what happened after the cut's fall, the Heavenly Aliance issued a kill order with a hefty bounty for all survivors of the massacre. He had spent 40 years on the run, hiding when and where he could, always trying to stay one step ahead of those trying to claim the bounty on his head. 

Memories of vast cities and quaint villages came to mind, along with various women that lived in them. Some women of them weren't worth the price they demanded, and some, he felt he might have been able to fall in love with them if things were different. But his memories were perfectly clear and easy to remember from the moment he started cultivating till the flash of light from the relic. From every success to the many, many failures he had, all of them were crystal clear.

In his first life, he spent sixty years learning the martial arts of the cult, going from a novice to someone who was far stronger than the current Heavenly Demon. If Xavier wanted, he could begin to practice the martial arts again, including several martial arts far stronger than anything the cult has. And by the time the Heavenly Alliance attacks the cult, he could turn the tide of battle by himself. Except he had no plans to be that foolish and waste his second chance at life with pursuing mere martial arts.

Xavier was going to become a cultivator again. This time he would do it 40 years earlier than last time, he would avoid the many mistakes he made and avoid taking the dead ends he thought good decisions but ended up slowing down his cultivation. Xavier had heard thousands of regrets that his fellow sect mates had and wouldn't stop talking about till he had wished he was deaf. Always saying if they had a second chance, they wouldn't learn this skill, or would that skill, they wouldn't buy the expensive treasure and save their money. Every cultivator he met had regret after regret and always wished for a second chance to do it better, but unlike them, Xavier had that very chance.

Tomorrow he would buy some supplies and head to where the cultivation inheritance of the cult was located, the tomb of the founding ancestor of the Heavenly Demon Cult. While he still remembered everything about the inheritance, the tomb was filled with a special type of energy that made it the best place to begin cultivating. The tomb was located in one of the cult's forbidden zones and was protected by an array that killed anyone that didn't know the secret of getting through it. 

While he would like to get started immediately, he couldn't. The only light in the house was from the fireplace in the main room and from the exhaustion he was feeling from the adrenalin wearing off, he guessed it was the middle of the night. None of the shops he needed to buy supplies from would be open, and the only places that were open would draw the notice of too many people he would prefer not to notice him. Crawling back into bed and making sure he was thoroughly covered with the blankets; his already tired body ignored his very active mind and went to sleep.

The first thing Xavier noticed even before his unwilling eyes finally opened was the cold. He could see his breath in the dim morning light, the fire in the main room had died out during the night. Xavier pulled his arm out from under the covers with the intention of using soul fire to warm the room but failed, he had no cultivation base to power the spell. This realization quickly sobered up the sleepy daze he was in, and he remembered everything from last night.

His hand was young and full of strength instead of being thin and boney, he had both eyes, and his hair wasn't snow white. The ever-present feeling that his life force was nearing its end that he had lived with for the past few decades no longer existed. Other than the cold and some soreness and a bit of hunger, he felt great.

Throwing off the covers and standing up, he grabbed his clothes along with his cloak to hopefully warm himself. Lighting the fireplace was out of the question, he would be leaving the house soon and wouldn't be back for a day or two, or maybe longer. The vague generalized plan he came up last night was now being made into an easy-to-follow fully fleshed out step by step plan. Xavier took the money his parents had earned from the hiding place under the floorboards, along with some water and all the jerky he could find in the house and packed them in a bag. Just before he was about to leave, he could help himself from taking a look around the small house. It was as if he was trying to refresh the faded memory of this house that he had dreamed of for almost 600 years. After a few moments he turned around and stepped out.

His first step outside the small house was into ankle deeps snow. Other than the yells and screams of some children playing in the snow, everything was silent. He needed to buy supplies, but as he looked at the snow-covered buildings, he felt lost. It wasn't till he looked in a certain direction that he had the feeling he knew where to go. Ten minutes later he stood in front of a large dark building whose entrance had been swept recently. Giving his cloak a shake to knock the snow on himself, Xavier walked inside.

"Welcome, welcome my friend. Please look at my wares, if there is something you would like to buy, just raise your hand and one my attendants will help you."

Xavier was greeted by the shopkeeper the moment he walked in the door. A heavy-set man with long greying hair and smoking a pipe. A few memories came to mind about this shop. It was a place the cult's martial artists could sell items taken from the battlefield. Weapons, armor, martial arts manuals of the various enemy forces, and may other things. Some still had blood and mud caked on them.

Xavier raised his hand almost as soon as he started browsing the first shelf. The attendant hurried over ready to assist, and picked up an old motor and pestle Xavier was pointing at and taking it to the counter before heading back. The attendant made trip after trip as Xavier kept pointing at items that would be useful for what was coming next and beyond. When he stopped seeing things he wanted, he walked to the counter and asked about herbs. After giving Xavier a quick look over the shopkeeper grabbed a book with a green cover and placed it on the counter.

Looking at the selection of herbs the word trash came to Xavier's mind. Not that it could be helped, almost all the herbs listed only had some minor use for martial artists and those used because of old wives tales that still persisted in the cult. Only a handful of the herbs were of use to him, and he bought all they had. With his shopping complete, the shopkeeper began to tally the prices. As he waited, Xavier looked around at the area behind the shopkeeper where all the high-end merchandise was located. The swords and armors that would make most cult members drool in envy and desire couldn't hold his gaze. But three simple looking cloth bags did. 

"Boss, how much for those three bags?"

The shopkeeper had a look of annoyance on his face when his calculations were interrupted but turned his head to look at the bags.

"Oh, those things. Hmmm, bought 'em years ago, can't open 'em, can't cut 'em open. So there they sit, but if you want 'em, I'll sell the three of 'em for five coins."

"Deal." Xavier could hardly take his eyes off them. The shopkeeper didn't know what they were, but he did. They were storage bags used by cultivators, depending on how big the space was inside the bags, it could hold all the things he had just bought or hold the entire building he was in. He didn't have much hope for the bags to contain anything of value, as every cultivator on this continent was low level and dirt poor. 

A few minutes of calculation and the price of 42 coins was given but after a bit of haggling and the price was dropped to 40 coins. The items Xavier bought weren't things that best sellers, they had stayed on the shelves for long enough to collect plenty of dust behind them. After taking a few minutes to arrange the new items into his pack he left the shop, but not before the shopkeeper thanked him for the business and welcomed him back anytime.