On one fateful morning a young man Olethros rose from his slumber. He had just woken up from a good nights sleep. As he peers open his eyes getting used to the morning sun from his window. He puts on his robe and walks outside.
"This will be my 18 birthday" Olethros sighs and heads back inside. "It's been three years since my parents died and I took over their farm. If only those damned cultivators were more cautious my parents wouldn't have died in the crossfire."
Olethros grits his teeth, grinding them remembering the sight of his parents body. Well what was left of it as the majority of their upper body had been blown out from an attack of a cultivator.
"They think they're above of everyone just because they have the power. If I had that power I would take care of people, why would you not want for people to prosper?"
Olethros puts on his daily clothes and goes out and starts tending his farm with his employees. His parents were well off in the financial aspect as they had the biggest farm in the region. Everybody pays respect by bowing when Olethros walk through the fields of rice.
After an hour of walking he reaches the wheat fields. He stands in the heat of the sun, which makes his body glow with the tint of orange as the sun rises. He stares off to the distance and gets a flashback of the burning surrounding and his parents body. The sun triggered the flashback as that same orange hue was the same as the fires.
He supervises the workers throughout the day taking breaks in between watching over the workers. Although young he was a good land owner and made sure that his workers were well off and paid well. He took 40% of the profit and the remaining amount went to the employees. He mostly used his money to improve the land, buying better fertilizer and giving people raises. This roughly brought his earring down to 10% of what he makes in a day. But he doesn't have to buy anything else so that is free money he gets to use for himself.
When his parents died he saved up and now after three years of saving up he got enough money to buy a martial art technique and a cultivation technique. He grabs his earning which ends up at 3000 taels. This was a lot of money which he used his mothers storage ring to carry it as 3000 taels of silver would be 318 lbs.
He walks to the city and goes to a martial art pavilion. He walks up to the receptionist at a steady paste knowing that this will be the turning point of his life as he will go from a mortal to a cultivator.
"How much is a martial art technique and cultivation technique?" Olethros asks
"Well seeing as you have no clan or sponser, and you are a mortal." She thinks about what the price would be as a mortal accumulating enough money to become an immortal was a rare occurrence. As she knows that she gets to charge extra as he is a mortal she decides with the price of a 50% increase of the original prices.
"A third rate technique would be 1500 taels of silver, a second rate technique would be 7500 taels of silver, and a first rate technique would be 22,500 taels of silver. These are the prices for one martial art technique or a cultivation manual."
Olethros contemplates as he has a good life and he doesn't have to spend this money as he could live quietly instead of becoming a cultivator. "Go big or go home. Ok I'll be back with two third rate techniques." Olethros then walks through the archives of martial art books. He sees that all of them are of third rate as he reads on a sign. He then walk around and sees a staircase which says second rank techniques. He then figures that each floor increases the rank of the technique or manual.
He scans through the books for what seems like an eternity. He has a few martial art techniques in mind but doesn't want to be stuck with a bad one and decides to compare them.
(Optional to read) Heavenly Snakes Strikes: he goes through the technique and sees that the moves mimic what a snack would do. Coil up and pounce with freedom of movement that could be a trump card. From the first moevment is a basic strike bring back the weight onto the back foot raise your front leg bending it with your arm. You straighten you hand and in a single swift moevment bring all you weight onto you front foot and lunge striking with your arm. Transferring all that power into the tip of your fingers. Penetrating whatever is in front of you, that was the first movement of three. He then briefly looks at the third and final stage of the technique. Full transformation snake kings wrath, you attain inhuman movement fully getting the snakes strength of its fluid body. Then from there you use your arms as a whip into a strike like the first moevment but with the velocity of a whip. Generating even more power from the attack.
(Optional to read) Second martial art technique, True Warriors Spirit: This was a technique that allowed you to use your full body as one strengthening oneself to make your body a weapon. The beginning was a training regimen and the second part was the instruction manual to the technique. First move, Steel Fist; after strengthening your fists your hands and knuckles will be hard as steel. In this move you step forward twist your hips away from the back foot, rotate you shoulders to extend outward giving maximum reach and you then you strike. This is the most basic strike but this could be a good foundation for him. Second technique is Fist to Foot all is equal; this move after strengthening yourself after the training regimen makes your legs as power as your fists. Then the third movement, Warriors Roots are in the Feet; this is a moevment technique that allows oneself to use you muscles to the max capacity. Assimilating each muscle to be of the same strength allows you to strike the ground with you toes granting instant acceleration 1 to 100. Allowing you to perform enhanced movement as you you can stop instantly which follows up to being able to turn instantly.
Olethros resloves his mind on what technique he want and puts the other one back and proceeds to go into the cultivation manual section.