Now These two knew that I knew that they were here, and they knew that I knew that they knew that I was coming despite this when I enter yelling of my arrival they act surprised to see a fellow cultivator(at least thats what I think they assume me to be). Of course I play along acting surprised to see them in turn its annoying but bearable especially if it means theres a chance of getting out of this without entering conflict.
The male cultivator stands up approaching me with a smile and an outstretched hand and a slight bow, "I'm core disciple Pyeong and the lovely lady next to me is core disciple Hak. What a surprise to see a cultivator from outside of the soaring clouds sect here, especially one with such a....unique constitution, tell me what purpose do you have here?"
The energy he's giving off starts flaring up if before he was comparable to a pre ai era military plane now he's at the level of four of them. This seems more like posturing then hostile intent but any chances of a quick and costless victory are dashed with the revel that their likely far stronger then previously assumed.
I shake his hand "I am shine, I was injured in the area near here and needed to recover, this village was simply the closest settlement I could find."
His energy spikes even higher this time forcing miss cracking the wooden seat behind him and sending miss muun to fall from her seat and blood to start leaking from her pores as she stuggles to stay conscious.He starts squeezing my hand obviously trying to crush it or illicit a reaction but failing to even dent the metal it seems physical power isn't this mans strong suit.
I sigh making sure it sounds tired and annoyed and look down at him "If you have questions you want to ask me ask them I will answer them as truthfully as I am able to, however if you continue these childish intimidation tactics I will be forced to kill you in an attempt to prevent miss muun dying due to your qi based chest puffing"
The female cultivators draws her sword and charges me in the span of a blink, but finally the man stops trying to crush my fingers and grabs the tip of her rapier mid assault. He glares at her causing her qi to suddenly stop flowing all together for a moment and she wimpers " jenia why don't you take the village chief outside and leave us alone for a moment? I'll finish up here?" he phrases it as a question but no one is under any illusion that its not an order jenia re sheaths her sword and slings miss muun over her shoulder leaving the two of us alone.
he smirks "I'll give you one more chance, If you lie or threaten me again you and everyone in this backwater village dies am I understood?"
I nod "yes." I haven't actually lied so far but it looks like from this point on the truth wont cut it.
"now lets try this again, why did you come here."
I slow my perception to the nano seconds downloading the best to races have to offer on cold reading and responding to integration. This is gonna be a long long long conversation but better that them me getting everyone killed.
"I was being pursued by assassins my only chance of survival was escape through the Forest of monsters as you can see I although at great cost." I show of my bone arm and patched up chassis.
He seems to accept this well enough "so i take it your from a barbarian tribe the cold lands?"
I have no idea what the cold lands are but theirs no way anything on this world thats still in ancient chinas level of tech looks like me, This line of questioning is a trap his face the slight smarminess and glee at himself for asking such a question all but confirms it. "No, further beyond the forest then that I don't think your people have a name for it yet but its a place of metal and fire thats easy to leave but impossible to return to."
"how convenient" he mumbles under his breathe a slight look of annoyance showing on his face. "regardless if your truly from outside the empire being pursued by assassins so terrifying that you'd rather cross a forest as vast as a continent full of spirit beast just to escape them why don't you come to our sect? The elders can surely protect you better then a few mortal villagers can and we could even patch up your remaining wounds."
If he means it this could actually be good for me, a sect means cultivators to study spirit beast to dissect and information. If they have a bestiary or two on spirit beast or access to qi infused metals forget repairs I might even be able to make upgrades....but just joining a sect wont guarantee any of those things. Rain is proof of that, and he didn't say join he said come to. Plus given his earlier attempts at finding excuses to threaten or kill me its entirely possible he has no intent on allowing me to make it to his sect at all and will attempt to take me out at the nearest opportunity, well not like he'll be able to.
I pretend to ponder his offer, "If your offering I accept but I have a request, id like to bring a villager named rain with me he used to be a member of your sect but was sent here as a guard." If i'm going to be moving into unfamiliar territory I want someone I can trust that knows the landscape with me, besides if worst comes to worst and I have to use the fact that I can teach dao's as leverage then I can use him as proof.
The cultivator agrees and they shake on it, glad to see some things are beyond universal.