Trying to take a small step forward and faceplanting hard.

After leaving the old man's shop, Collin went to the other shops and checked what cultivation books they had. The old man, whose name is Alistar was mostly correct about what who had what. One-hundred and thirty-seven spirit stones were gone from the bag of holding, while there several thousand still inside, it still pained Collin to see them go. Spirit stones are the currency of cultivators, in comparison gold coins are the currency of children because they are easy come and easy go.

Collin had to resist the urge to run back to the villa and begin reading right away. He needed to sort out his food problem and look for a restaurant that would deliver him meals daily. He also had to think of a name to place the order under. This was something he hadn't thought of before now, most things can be bought or done without using names, but services are different.

When he was a young master of his clan, he thought of using the name Rolo Char. It was a name he had found funny, and he quickly shared it with his friends. Well, the people who his clan thought worthy of him being friends with. They were young masters of cultivation clans and children from noble families, they were the people he was most afraid of running into other than his clan.

The thought of being mocked and ridiculed by his former friends was terrifying to him, the thought of his clan dragging him back and destroying his hopes was even more terrifying. A name could hide him, even if no one was looking for him now, that did not mean that someone wouldn't look for him later.

His new name had to be one that could not be associated with him. So, Collin was out, Rolo Char was out, and anything with his clan's name was out. Right about now Colin really wished he wasn't so horrible with coming up with names. It took him ten minutes to walk to a restaurant that would deliver to his villa, and his mind was still blank.

So, Collin decided to do what all great men in history have done in this situation, steal from those who came before. When began to think of it like that many names popped into his mind before he chose.

Bjorn Crow. Bjorn came from a powerful cultivator who after many battles, created the first empire and proclaimed himself emperor. He is considered a hero that led the world to the modern empire system that is still used today. Crow came from Shadow Crow a cultivator who specialized in assassination. He watched his family being killed and after years of grueling training, he set out to avenge them. He trained crows to caw in front of his victims and then appear out of the shadows behind them and then kill them. Since most of kills were stronger than him, he quickly became a hero.

Collin was quite proud of this name, not only did it hide his identity it also sounded like a name a fake name a young master would use.

The hostess immediately pointed to a sign on the wall with the delivery options. One large sized meal at noon or after 6pm, or two normal sized meals delivered after 8am and after 6pm. Collin chose the two-meal plan, it came with a meat dish, a bowl of soup, a bowl of gains, and six small side dishes. Using his newly created name didn't even get a rise of the hostess's eyebrows, but paying for a full year of delivery did.

After everything was set for delivery, he quickly left the restaurant and headed to a food stall. The handful of pickled vegetables he ate this morning were no longer filling his stomach and standing in a restaurant with its 1000 smells of deliciousness was a new torture for him.

Within minutes of entering the gates to his villa his costume was off and he was devouring the six meat sticks like someone who hadn't eaten in weeks. By time he made it to the main house all the meat sticks were gone and simple charred meat on a stick had been elevated from a snack food for commoners to a food of the gods.

Walking into the main bedroom he went to the wall next to the bed and placed his hand on an array panel and set an alarm for half after 8am and 6pm to remind him to get his food. He set the alarm the same way he had in his old room. When the alarm sounded, he would hear the chirping of birds for several minutes then stop. Looking around his bedroom he could help to look at all the little arrays fulling just this room and that made him think of the many, many arrays all over the villa.

There were heating arrays, cooling arrays, defensive arrays, cleaning arrays, energy gathering arrays, even the clock array he just used. All of these arrays were made by cultivators for money so they could buy things just like every other person.

It dawned on Collin that his goal was to cultivate, but he didn't have a plan for after that. When someone decides to be a chef, they learn to cook then they practice cooking before getting a job at a restaurant or with a wealthy family. This is just cultivating you first learn to cultivate then you cultivate but after you become a cultivator you need to do something to make money.

"Shit, every time I think I have made a plan, I find I haven't made anything. I guess I'll have to figure something out after I become a cultivator."

Collin had overlooked one little thing about his plan, he based it on what would happen if he was still a member of his clan. He would become a cultivator and poof he would have money and authority, the end. That is because his father is the territorial lord appointed by the emperor, just like the last six clan chiefs.

He was an outcast from his clan, the moment he was deemed talentless his younger brother became the hope of his parents and the clan to retain the title of territorial lord. Going by the history of the clan, within a year he would have a new sibling. If it was male, he would be a fallback for his brother's talent test, if it was female, she would be groomed for a marriage that strengthened the clan. His parents would keep having children till a male heir was born.

Even if he became a cultivator, it's not like everything would go back to how it was the moment he showed up. Most alternative path cultivators are looked down on by the clans because of the expense and difficultly in improving their cultivation. Another reason is that some alternative path cultivators are crazy, not regular crazy, but batshit psycho nut-job crazy. There was almost no chance he would regain the title of young master, the best he could hope for was to become a normal clan member and at worst he would be rejected a second time. There was also a good chance he would be allowed to return but be exiled to a small town in the middle of nowhere little to no resources and no hope of advancing within the clan hierarchy.

This was yet another thing Collin had to think about and make a decision on what to do.

The past 24 hours had proven how foolish he was when he had everything, and how foolish he still is. He was really not liking this feeling.

There were several hours before his food would be delivered so Collin decided to have a seat on the bed and read about the alternative paths of cultivation.