Chen Yan was surprised by how quickly the tiger cub changed it's tone. From a 'death before dishonor' kind of fury to a calm curiousness.
She didn't know if it was just naive, arrogant, or looking down on them due to a difference in ability.
"Bizarre creature, answer my questions, and I can spare your life as well as that of the vile creature that used that vile sorcery." The tiger then spoke arrogantly. She couldn't tell how strong it was, and couldn't feel any hint of cultivation such as spiritual energy or soul force. She didn't understand how something with such a powerful soul could have no cultivation whatsoever.
"Why are you so sure you are capable of harming us?" She inquires with the intention of learning the source of it's confidence. As well as determining how volatile it was.
"Hmph! How could I not be able to kill something so weak! A species such as yours should have died out a long time ago! Just look at you! Don't think your strange tricks are enough to kill me!" The tiger spoke scornfully and even more arrogantly. Chen Yan noticed it hadn't mentioned cultivation level, but rather refered to her species. She didn't know why it say this when humanity dominated the world at the moment.
"Why do you think we are weak?" She hoped to learn more about how the tiger's thought process worked. It seemed like an extraordinary beast, and her sister looked at her with pleading eyes, and obviously wanted to make a contract with it. Therefore she hoped to eventually negotiate terms with this little tiger.
"Hah! Look at your fragile structures! Thin like twigs! You have no scales or fur, and your leather is so thin you could bleed the moment you trip! You have no claws nor fangs to speak of, in what manner could you possibly kill anything? What method could a species like yours hunt anything? Has the world truly degraded so far?" At first the tiger was condescending, looking down upon the physique of humans, but eventually the tone turned pondering, as if something was not right to him. Chen Yan found this very odd.
"Weren't you helpless just now?" She probed him, starting to suspect that this tiger was stupid, and didn't know what cultivation was.
"Your strange techniques only caught me by surprise, I could've escaped on my own in due time." It was hard to tell, but she thought she saw the tiger cub sneer. But sure enough, it had no idea what cultivation was, nor blood contracts. Did this tiger live under a rock?
"If you could kill us as easily as you say, then why are we not dead?" She thought the tiger was bluffing.
But it seemed she had provoked him. Suddenly she saw the tiger cub growl and pounce at her. She immediately summoned her soul bound weapon, a crystal blue harp, in front of her.
With no time to pull the strings she blocked the claws, only to hear a cold thunk. A blade had pierced the wall next to her head. Cold sweat ran down her back as she watched the tiger suspended in the air by it's wings with it's paws on her harp and it's tail extended past her head and through the wall
"Pitiful creature. See how defenseless you are. No matter your worthless tricks, I could've killed you in an instant. The only reason you aren't dead is because I know little of my current situation and wish to learn how a species like yours is not extinct yet." The tiger spoke with scorn heavy in it's voice and it's eyes.
"Now I have answered some of your questions while you, none of mine. Speak weakling, what are you and what are the mysteries that I've witnessed upon my arrival in this land? Answer lest you lose your life." But as he said this she plucked her harp, causing a resonance in the air. The tiger trembled before it roared and pain and retreated to the far wall. It then glared at her.
Although she had no idea what he was talking about, she intended to let the tiger know that she was not helpless and had the qualifications to speak as equals.
"Don't speak so arrogantly, you don't know what we're capable of." She glared back, asserting her dominance, but her threatening aura was weak compared to the ruthless air of the tiger.
"Who's the arrogant one here. I answer your questions and you none of mine?" The tiger's tail swayed restlessly. "But I admit I underestimated your species. Is this strange technique unique to your kind?"
Chen Yan wondered whether she should answer this intelligent and horribly collected beast. She also knew that she was shameless for calling him arrogant when he answered her questions while she ignored his own. But this was a weird tiger that her sister let into the house, she can't just have a conversation with him like he's a visiting neighbor could she?
Eventually she decided to satisfy this tiger cub's curiosity. She also started to doubt that it was really a tiger cub.
"No, all beings can learn the mystic arts, though not all of them are talented enough to cultivate them."
"What is this 'cultivation' you speak of?" Chen Yan never expected to hear such a stupid question in her life. Although she knew before that he was ignorant, she couldn't help but have the feeling of watching a child point at a tree and ask "what's that?"
"Do you really not know? This is common sense, what rock did you crawl out from under." She exasperatedly sighed.
"I would not know about anything of this land. I have only awakened recently. I only know that I have slept for a long time after watching the world I once knew turn to ashes." The tiger said wistfully, as he reminisced the past. "As for the rock I climbed out of, I do not know where it is. But how did you know that I climbed out of a rock? Is this another one of your kind's mystic techniques?"
She was speechless, and hadn't expected for the tiger to have really climbed out of a rock. But her head soon cleared. She analyzed his situation, and although she didn't really believe everything he said, she could tell he was truly ignorant of the world. She then started to think.
'Maybe he needs someone to depend on, maybe I should take this as an opportunity...'
"If you truly wish to learn of this world, then how about I tell you everything about it, in exchange, could you become my sister's contract beast?" She tried to smile as warmly as she could without looking like a con artist. She couldn't help but feel like she was trying to tempt a country girl in the city to do something shady.