First Encounter

"Is that so… Sorry. Canines all look similar to me. I can't tell the difference…" Xia Fan was shocked, but he forced an apologetic smile and shrugged.

My goodness! It's an actual, living fox demon!

His master once said that demons were the least dangerous among supernatural beings. That was because they were sensible enough to know that interacting with humans would do more harm than good to them. Therefore, most demons would try to avoid humans as much as possible. As a result, there were few records of their appearances, and they seemed to mostly exist in folklore. The only reliable information about them was that they truly existed and that they were transformed from other animals.

Certainly, though, his master didn't phrase it in such a nice way. He referred to them as "animals" and called them the dirty part of Qi and the manifestation of decadence.

"Canines? What does that mean?"

"A family of carnivores. Wolves, dogs, bears, and foxes are all canines…"

"Enough! How dare you compare foxes with dogs?" The fox demon interrupted him, visibly upset. But she soon realized that she was being too loud and immediately returned to her original cold tone. "Don't try to divert, human. I'm asking you— why are you not scared?"

"Are you referring to that dream?" Xia Fan asked, feeling awkward.

"The 'nightmare'," she emphasized.

"You did it?"

"Correct." The fox demon admitted. "Supernatural phenomena, blood moon, resurrection of the dead, demonic possession. Aren't those things what you humans are afraid of the most? All I need to do is some simple guidance, and you will fill in the gaps with the most terrifying scene you've ever seen. I wouldn't be surprised if you wet your pants. But why are you not scared?"

Hey, don't be so straightforward, okay?

At that moment, Xia Fan had understood how that dream had come about. As it turned out, the fox demon had created a nightmare, full of scary things, but the details had to be imagined by the dreamers themselves. In that era, even a meteor shower could be interpreted as an evil omen and cause panic throughout the country, let alone the eerie sight of a blood-washed sky.

However, the problem was with the dreamer's own imagination.

The blood moon was a common sight that had appeared in a bunch of Xia Fan's memories. Besides, to Xia Fan, the scene closest to the resurrection of the dead under the blood moon was actually a game he had played called "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" where monsters were refreshed.

Therefore, truth be told, he was actually feeling excited and nostalgic because the appearance of the blood moon meant that he would be able to farm weapons and upgrade materials from the monsters again.

"Well… It's probably because I've experienced it before. That's why I could remain calm." Xia Fan cleared his throat.

"You've experienced it before?" The woman stared at him in disbelief. "How's that possible? I'm sure I thought of it first…"

It seemed that she was pretty proud of this nightmare she had created.

"The world is huge. How can you be so certain that similar incidents have not occurred somewhere else before?"

The woman fell into silence as if judging whether he was lying. After a while, she turned and wanted to leave.

"Wait!" Xia Fan called.

The woman turned back with impatience in her eyes.

"Why are you doing this? Surely, I'm not the only one having nightmares tonight."

Xia Fan knew that he wasn't special. It was very unlikely that the fox demon had come for him alone.

"You already know the answer, yet you still asked," the woman said with a sneer. "You want to be a mystic, am I right? Eliminating demons is your job. In other words, you mystics are our enemies. So, do you still think I'm doing the wrong thing?"

That made perfect sense… They wanted to gain a head-start in this battle.

"If that's the case, why don't you just kill me?"

Sneaking into Qing Shan Town in the middle of the night, they could easily wipe out a few lives with a dagger and a sweet dream. Few people would even realize that their life was in danger before it was too late.

"That's because you aren't a mystic. Not yet."

"… Huh?" Xia Fan was confused.

"Is it so hard to understand? You haven't killed a demon yet, so I won't kill you for some unknown future possibility. Instead, killing you will give evidence to your accusations against us. That's simply not a wise thing to do," the woman explained in a disapproving tone. "On the contrary, taking lives without a legitimate reason is what humans are fond of, isn't it?"

Xia Fan was dumbfounded.

Even a demon had such a high moral standard!

"Do as you would be done by." It was simple logic, but few could live up to it. Even in Xia Fan's former life where most people had been properly educated, the majority of the population were strict toward others yet lenient toward themselves.

"The Privy Council Exam is held once every three years. If I can scare some of you away with nightmares, we are reducing the number of mystics." The woman's fox ears twitched as she spoke. "But the trick didn't work on you. What a shame."

Xia Fan paused for a long moment before speaking, "… But are you not worried that I may tell others about this and spoil your plan?"

"That's the most interesting part about you humans," the fox demon said as she grinned. "There are limited vacancies for selected mystics each year. If I scare away some of your competitors, isn't it more likely that you'll pass the exam? Besides, even if you spill the beans, few will believe you. As for those who've been scared away? They would never admit that they were fooled by a simple demon's trick as this. Instead, they might hate you for exposing them. Considering the aforementioned points, do you still want to tell others about our encounter?"

From her words… it seemed that it wasn't the first time she'd done it. Xia Fan realized that he might not be the first person who was suspicious of the nightmare.

"Alright… I'll keep my mouth shut."

"You're quick to understand," said the woman. It seemed that Xia Fan's reaction was within her expectations. She continued, "To you humans, it's not important whether you're doing the right thing, so long as you gain something from it. You're afraid of evil spirits, but you're willing to make use of them if you can, let alone us demons."

After that, she turned toward the window and was about to jump…

"Wait!" Xia Fan called again.

The woman suddenly paused, and her foot almost slipped on the window sill.

She looked slightly annoyed as she turned.

"If you want to buy time for others…"

"Why can't we work with demons?" Xia Fan asked, looking confident. "To be honest, I've never met an actual demon before you. But if all demons are sensible, polite, and righteous beings like you, why can't demons work together with humans?"

"Polite… and righteous?" The fox demon was confused.

"You don't want to blame someone without a legitimate reason. This is righteousness. I asked you to stay, so you did. This is proper conversation etiquette, meaning you are polite. We can't talk sense into ghosts and monsters, who won't stop harming people even though they have no reason to do so. Therefore, it's not fair that you compare yourselves with them, so I must correct what you've just said."

This time, it was the fox demon who was at a loss for words.

Naturally, Xia Fan wouldn't want to let this opportunity slip by. He continued, "Also, you mentioned humans have made false accusations on demons, which means that humans have stereotypical views on you. But can you deny that you also have stereotypes against humans? Even though many people are sinners, there are bound to be exceptions. You're a fluent speaker of the human language, so I guess you had a human teacher. So, what about your teacher? Was he or she an ugly human too?"

At that instant, he saw a trace of softness and emotions in her eyes.

But it soon disappeared, as if it was just a delusion. "Witty talker."

"Thanks. I practice speaking every day."

The woman sneered. "You've said so much, only because you have a favor to ask. You want me to help you pass your exam, don't you? Unfortunately, I have no interest in your results or your future, and I'm not keen on working with a potential mystic. You may spare the effort and…"

"If you're free, you can come to chat with me every night," Xia Fan said slowly.

"Ahem." The fox demon almost choked in surprise. "What… did you say?"

"The favor I wanted to ask you, of course," he said with complete honesty in his eyes. "If you don't have anything else to attend to. You can come anytime you want. Just treat it as a break time after scaring other people."

The woman was still in disbelief. "To… chat?"

"Since it's a favor, there's a reward too." Xia Fan picked up an item on the table and unwrapped the cloth in front of her. "This is the reward for chatting with me today. Do you like it?"

Sitting on his palm was the stewed beef he had gotten from Wei Wushuang earlier.

Despite its inconvenient location, the inn did produce delicious food. Besides the beef's alluring taste, it was sliced into perfect thickness. Xia Fan wanted to keep it till the next day.

When he lit the candles, he had already noticed that the woman was dressed in a set of crumpled, worn-up linen clothes. Perhaps demons had a much higher tolerance to the harsh natural conditions and were used to living in the rain, wind, and sunshine, but that didn't necessarily mean that they didn't know to enjoy life, especially this fox demon who had obviously been taught by a human before.

"Gulp."

Xia Fan heard a soft noise of her swallowing saliva.

"Ridiculous!" The fox demon forced herself to look away. "Enough, human! I have no time for your nonsense. You may eat it yourself!"

She jumped out of the window at once, as if worried that Xia Fan would ask her to stay again.

Xia Fan climbed onto the table and shouted at the sky outside the window, "I'll leave the beef on the windowsill. Remember to come and take it after you're done with your work!"

He waited for a long moment, but there was no response.

It seemed that she had left.

Disappointed, Xia Fan sat on his bed, but he couldn't calm down.

His master once told him to stay as far away from demons as possible if he ran into one. The little amount of information about demons could be due to their nature to shun humans, but it was also possible that all those who had encountered demons had died before they could document anything.

It would be a lie if he were to claim that he wasn't nervous or wary. In fact, Xia Fan had already fished out a medicine bag from his pocket, ready to cast spells in case of emergency, though, actually, he wasn't so confident about his chances of survival in that scenario.

Nevertheless, he was more excited and curious than nervous.

How to explore the unknown? You had to be there to experience it first. This was the main reason why Xia Fan had decided to attend the mystic exam.

Therefore, he would never let go of the rare opportunity to talk to a fox demon up close.

But it was uncertain whether she would ever come back…