Reforged from Ruin [Eldritch Xianxia Cultivation]

Raika stretches, cigarette haze swirling around her movements as she extends and feels her joints pop and crackle pleasantly. She twists one way, bends the other, feeling the tendons, joints and muscles all curl, elongate and realign, enjoying the luxury of a well-crafted body without needing to transform or alter it for it to fit. It's still itchy, still uncomfortable, but sometimes it's nice to just recognize the ways that things have changed, rather than how they still need to change. She might not have conquered dysphoria entirely, but she's gotten to a point where the body she's in feels hers in a way that it didn't for a long, long time.

With a final crack of her neck, she exhales, letting out the breath she'd been holding.

"Well! Good start, honestly. Who wants to go for another round?"

She's met with the sounds of groaning, muffled pain noises, and the smell of panic and exhaustion.

"Come on! You have a visiting elder, and this is the best you can show? Here I was, hoping that you'd have some proper respect for my time!"

At that, the panic spikes, and some of the cultivators around her actually manage to start crawling to their feet. Before they make it too far off the ground, she laughs, waving them off.

"Relax! I would hardly be as impressive as I am if I didn't know how many broken bones you've already got. You, with the purple hair, I can literally smell your punctured lung, go get that taken care of. As for green-eyes over here: your technique only delays damage, and even then, I think it's obvious that it doesn't delay pain. That makes it half-useful at best, and entirely distracting at worst. As for big blue!"

She points to one of the cultivators who managed to make it halfway to his knees, a young man with clear signs of giant-kin heritage. His skin is a bright, glacial blue, juxtaposed with dark green blood and the small bits of grass and vines growing out of him.

"If you're going to have things growing out of your body, make sure they're something useful. Your cultivation has fuck all to do with plants, and you're growing grasses. Either have a cultivation that makes grass useful, or grow something better.

"Now! As for the rest of you! I appreciate your enthusiasm, but literally nothing else. No teamwork, no coordination, and you all seem pathologically incapable of understanding your own strengths. I understand the sect has specific techniques and all, but if you're not good at something, and you can't change that, then do something else. If you can change it, good for you! Otherwise, stop trying to punch me when you don't know how to punch."

She closes her hand over the cigarette, putting it out and making it easy to flick it away, where it bounces off the head of a young woman collapsed on the ground, rolling in a pool of spit and blood. She, and the sixty-four others all collapsed on the floor of the courtyard, make little noises of acknowledgement, which, frankly, is admirable, considering the state she's left a lot of them in.

From just outside the edge of the courtyard, a slow series of claps echoes through the space. Elder Bin Wei, off to one side, applauds, a small smile on his face.

"An impressive showing, Visiting Elder Raika! Disciples, show your gratitude for your seniors' instruction!"

A chorus of groans and mumbled half-words rises up from the collapsed bodies all across the space, echoing nicely along the manor's main courtyard.

"Don't be too harsh on them, elder," she sighs, letting out the last of the smoke in her lungs. "They're used to fighting in wide open spaces. Their idiocy on that front merits at least a bit of compassion."

He laughs, a polite sound that whispers strangely as it leaves his lips. "Quite so! This one is grateful to the visiting elder, for unveiling such a lack in the training of our inner disciples. Gratitude!"

The mumbles come out a bit more clearly as the word "gratitude" this time, with some of her victims having made it back to their knees.

She leaves the center of the space, stepping over beaten and bruised bodies and over to one side, where both Ko and Aria stand at attention, both of them dead silent and waiting with medicinal pills and bandages. She nods at them, and they make their way into the crowd, ready to start administering basic first aid under the watchful eyes of other servants and healers waiting in the wings. They're a bit slower than hers, though- it's pretty clear that no one expected the combat to end so quickly, or quite so messily.

Bin Wei steps over towards her, a polite enough distance from the inner disciples to be able to speak without being overheard, and gives her a bright grin. "Marvelous work! In the opinion of this Bin Wei, your talent at physical combat might even exceed my own. I wasn't sure when we fought, but it seems clear to me now that it's a self-made style, no?"

She exhales, making sure not to show a "real" response. It's annoying, always being needled for her background, but Bin Wei is at least honest about it. Well. Honest compared to some of the others that have come to speak with her, at least.

"With my physiology, I'm afraid that a rather unique movement and striking style were necessary. It's been a while since anyone asked about it."

"How could I not be curious, seeing as you managed to fight against myself and so many of the sect's Inner Disciples without unveiling even a single technique? Truly, there are many paths to the Dao, and yours is rather distinctive."

Raika leans against a wall, pausing at the edge of the courtyard to stay in-sight of the ongoing recovery process (and visible to Ko and Aria). "I'll take that as a compliment, elder. And, with all due respect, I didn't exactly require much to deal with your inner disciples. Some of them have promise, but…"

Elder Bin Wei shrugs, taking no visible offense at the comment. "We are not as martial as some of our fellow sects, this I admit. To be a part of the Jianghu is to be a part of a world of violence, but many of our techniques, as you stated, are born with wide-open spaces in mind, that we might control and protect vast swathes of our terrain. The Watchful Fields sect makes up a sizable portion of the agricultural strength of the sects, and it is through this fact that we have acquired and held most of our power."

"And considering both you and Elder Qin Yana, I'd say the sect has more than proven the efficacy of that sort of training."

"Your flattery is a joy to receive, fellow Daoist. Tell me, besides the meager entertainment of bludgeoning perspective into our disciples, how have you found your stay here?"

"It's been… dull, elder. Is there any news about the audience you mentioned?"

He throws his head back, laughing. "Ah, yes! I know the type. I've always been the more studious type myself, but where better to study than amidst proper engagement? I can understand how this place might seem dull after your travels through the untamed wilds, though I do hope we might better alleviate that for you soon. Experts are conferring over the natural resource you discovered, and I'm afraid my fellow elders are rather engaged by the whole process. As soon as we have its properties properly ascertained, we'll arrange for a meeting! Eternity beckons, but that's no reason to delay important actions, hmm?"

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"So, it would seem there is no news about an audience. I find that rather frustrating, elder."

Bin Wei pauses, his jovial attitude cooling marginally as his gaze centers back on her. He's easy to read, in his own way- while he's a bit less strict than others she's spoken to here, he's very into the "official" protocol of how to do things. Deviations from it tend to goad him almost as much as they seem to interest him, as opposed to others who practically shut down or find themselves lost without the strict call-and-response style of propriety she's met in the Republic so far. He's predictable, to a point, and her "disguise" as some traveling elder, closer to his age and experience but backed with her own sect or ancestor, gives her some leeway- in the end, he's playing her game, even if it's to his own benefit and made to accommodate him.

"I would never seek to frustrate such a wild spirit!" he says, bowing very slightly. "But I also am quite certain that my junior sister Rai Ka understands that it is better to measure twice and cut once, hmm? While this Bin Wei has no doubts to the pedigree and potency of your honored self, nor of your undeniable treasures, it takes time to ascertain the exact values on display, and to call forth the patriarch from his slumber. The… "blood" you granted us is a powerful resource, this much is true, but the attention of a Sect Patriarch is no small thing, not to be summoned from seclusion by the whims of us simple Daoists."

Damn. He is frustratingly good at being reasonable. Even his jabs are barely that, skilled love-taps; calling her "junior sister", both reminding her of her place relative to him and reaffirming that he's on her side; "granted", as if there wasn't a fight over the resource, hard-won by him and somewhat cheated by the arrival of his fellow elder, Qin Yana; the simple fact that he's right. The demand to speak to the patriarch was a spur-of-the-moment decision, a way to turn a frustrating loss to her benefit.

To her surprise, though, the sense she's gotten isn't that the patriarch is considered above such matters, per se. There's been multiple references to his seclusion, a familiar concept spoken of with far more reverence than she's used to hearing. Less of a way of avoiding disturbances while meditating, more like a state of being, something whispered of with weight.

In that sense, the delay has been to her advantage. Her inability to connect "directly" with the rest of her Mind relates is just that; she's still sending and receiving information, it's just not as conscious or controlled as she's used to. There are still dozens of brains processing sensory input and sending the refined information back to her, and she's started to shift the things she notices, the way she stands, even her manner of speaking.

The Republic of Morae isn't just another version of the Empire. Things are different here. The accents, the languages, the smells, and especially the people; all of them are distinct, and the similarities act more to catch her off guard than to guide her here. Certain words have new weight to them, certain concepts have different contexts, and so on and so forth, and the longer she stays, the faster she's been able to pick up on those nuances.

Ko and Aria have been a major help in that as well. They've been guiding her through a basic and biased perspective on the politics of the sects, notes that she's taking with a grain of salt but which still feed into the wider perspective. The longer this goes on, the longer she has to study the culture and society of Morae from the level she's resting at.

But it feels… wrong. To be resting, to be still. Even now, barely a week since she's arrived, the itch is worse than ever, a near-compulsion demanding that she keep moving, keep progressing. Some of it she can blame on the recently accelerated timetable she discovered, courtesy of the Apex, Many-Mouths, but a lot more of it is just… inherent. She's not comfortable here, away from her friends and family, trapped in a limited form, and kept from moving in the direction she needs to. There's only so long that she's willing to stay here, but overplaying that fact will work against her, not for her.

So she waits. And she plays the game. And, on this occasion, she beats the shit out of inner disciples that should really know better by now. Most of them are in their sixties, for fuck's sake, and still look younger than she does! She's no crone, but it's enough to give a gal a complex, it is.

"I suppose that's true," she replies, keeping things noncommittal. "I have yet to receive an insult from the honorable Bin Wei, but I will find the terms of our "deal" strained if I am to remain here, kept so still and quiet."

He raises an eyebrow, looking over his shoulder at the crowd of devastated "young masters" who are, even still, struggling to their feet and cycling their cultivations. "So still and quiet indeed, fellow Daoist. I'm certain we could find a better way to entertain such an important guest. Have the servants been to your liking? Perhaps a feast at my manor might be an enjoyable evening. My chefs possess a most sumptuous recipe for a traditional farmer's duck that I'm quite partial to, and I'm sure we could find a way to entertain one such as yourself."

Huh. She's… actually not sure if that's meant as an innuendo or not. His brain is… weird.

Another of the differences here, reflected in the people. The cultivators are old. She never actually checked with Taurus or the sects they visited how old their elders were, but she got the impression of, like, a few centuries at most. Up until the Nascent Soul realm, she rarely met anyone over forty, fifty, max, and here, many of the Core Formation realm cultivator's she's whupped are decades older, with little sign of the wear and tear that brings. Bin Wei himself actually reminds her of herself, in a weird way- his body doesn't seem quite… human? He is dripping Qi, his whole form imbued with it, saturated, and it's changed him in similar and yet more extreme ways than the others.

His skin is like old oak, his wrinkles forming like whorls or spirals across his body. Beneath the surface, his muscles are… vague, is the best way she can phrase it, like they're not entirely there. The idea of them is there, but the Qi sort of blurs the exact details, rather than highlighting them like it does in her own body. An issue of perspective? Differing Truths? She's not sure, but it adds an additional complexity to reading him.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid my impatience comes not from boredom, but tasks I am obliged to undertake."

He opens his arms, his hands spread obligingly. "Perhaps this Bin Wei might be of further assistance, then! It would honor me to speak with you about what pursuits might drive a fellow Daoist alone through the wilderness, and to pursue such a strict schedule with such strict requirements."

A politely phrased and ultimately deeply annoying jab. All this fucking politicking. All this fucking secret-keeping. She didn't come here to be a political liaison, damnit, she came here to punch shit!

Deep breath. In… and out.

Fuck. It's all itchy.

"Honored Bin Wei," she says, her voice oh-so-quiet.

"...Yes, honored Rai Ka?"

"I need to speak to your patriarch. For your sake, as much as mine. Because if I can't learn what I need to learn, and do what I need to do, then the rest of me will have to come and do it. And I'll be less polite about it then. You've been… helpful. I'd rather avoid that."

He does not respond. A moment passes between them, long enough that Ko and Aria both begin to make their way back to their mistress.

"Very well, Rai Ka. I'll see what I can do."

She nods.

"That's all I ask. The rest is just… what it is."