Fox (Please Bookmark and Vote!)

Fox (Please Bookmark and Vote!)

The facts proved that Xia Fan had made the right choice.

When he brought it up with the innkeeper, he discovered that only a handful of vacant rooms remained. Most had long since been booked by the scions of great clans; the rest were either expensive premium rooms or tiny ground-floor rooms with terrible ventilation and lighting.

Even the smallest single-bed room cost as much as one tael of silver per day, nearly the same price as a large inn in the Capital Region. The place was practically announcing that it intended to fleece its guests.

Xia Fan finally understood why the Proctor had written "do not interfere with the villagers' daily lives" into the examination rules. If an establishment like this black inn were moved outside, it would likely be smashed to pieces within days.

Following that line of reasoning, the three daily meals provided by the inn were probably all priced like food at a tourist attraction. If he did not carefully budget the ten taels of silver he had brought, they likely would not last until the examination ended.

Disciples of major sects did not lack money, but under the restrictions of the rules, silver had quietly become an important resource as well.

Whether to use it to keep himself in peak condition or exchange it for intelligence was a decision each examinee had to make for themselves.

Xia Fan felt as though he had begun to grasp the mindset of the examination organizers.

Compared with the Imperial Examination's question-and-answer format or the Martial Examination's grab-a-weapon-and-charge approach, the Scholar Examination clearly placed greater emphasis on an examinee's overall capability.

It was freer, but there were also far more things to consider. There was no single correct answer either; so long as one did not violate the rules, any method was acceptable.

To people of this era, such a testing method might have seemed highly unusual, but Xia Fan had long ceased to find it strange—compared with merely testing one's mastery of techniques, he preferred this sort of approach that depended entirely on personal performance.

He took out three and a half taels of silver and directly booked a room for three days, along with tonight's dinner.

The journey from Fenghua County to Qingshan Town had been a wearying rush, leaving him covered in dust from the road. Since he had plenty of time, he might as well rest properly for a night and restore himself to peak condition.

Upon returning to his room, Xia Fan could not help but curl his lip.

As expected of a room everyone else had passed over, he did not even know whether it measured five square meters. A narrow bed and a wooden table were its only furnishings. The ceiling was rather high, nearly three meters above the floor, which meant the window had been set high as well. He could not reach it without standing on the table, so cultivating while enjoying the scenery outside was out of the question.

Still, the room itself was quite clean. There were no spider webs in the corners of the beams and no dust beneath the bed. Compared with those unattended thatched huts, it was incomparably better. It seemed the Bureau of Military Affairs had not wasted its money. Its other advantage was that it stood at the end of the first-floor corridor, in the corner of the entire inn. It was one of the quietest places in the building, highly suitable for cultivation.

With that thought, Xia Fan simply set down his bundle, climbed onto the bed, and sat in meditation.

Ever since he had been taken in by his bargain-bin master, this kind of practice had never ceased, regardless of winter cold, summer heat, rain, or snow. Fifteen years had passed since then.

This was also the entryway to all the myriad arts of the world—Yinqi Ruti.

It sounded clichéd, but the ancients believed that when the universe first opened, Chaos divided into two. What was heavy became "Ji," sinking and gathering into lifeless matter. What was light became "qi," floating upward to fill the cosmos and condensing into living things. Though living beings were born from qi, they also lost qi's vitality. Thus, if they wished to strengthen themselves, they had to once again master the method of drawing qi into their bodies, allowing it to continuously cleanse them before they could reestablish their connection to qi.

This theory bore some resemblance to the saying that the Dao gave birth to One, One gave birth to Two, Two gave birth to Three, and Three gave birth to all things. It looked exceedingly idealistic, but the problem was that qi truly existed.

In fact, being able to sense qi was the prerequisite for stepping across the threshold into the world of Fangshi.

Xia Fan still remembered the night when, under his master's guidance, he had "seen" qi—beneath a sky full of stars, things even more striking than the stars had suddenly appeared. They did not resemble clouds or mist. Instead, they were more like another kind of star: points of light flickering at one another, drifting with the wind, densely packed and countless beyond measure. Only in the distance did they connect into one continuous expanse, taking on the form of qi.

That was the day his original common sense had been shattered to pieces.

A torrent of questions surged into his mind like an erupting volcano. He had nearly exhausted all his strength just to keep those questions, so obviously beyond his age, from spilling out of his mouth.

And he knew in his heart that even his master might not have been able to give him satisfying answers.

From then on, Xia Fan poured enormous effort into cultivation.

Day after day, he meditated without ever neglecting his practice, even when hungry. He learned how to draw Talismans and studied everything related to Fangshi. Even his bargain-bin master, who normally cared little about anything, had been greatly shocked by his performance. His master had said that there were countless capable people and geniuses in this world, but among millions upon millions, not one could be found who possessed such perseverance and comprehension from childhood.

Only Xia Fan knew that he had nothing to do with genius. His comprehension came from systematic education, while his perseverance was merely a byproduct accumulated through age.

That was right. He had once lived in another completely different world, and everything from that place remained vividly clear in his memories.

Yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember exactly how he had come to this era.

There seemed to be no clear boundary between the two. It was as though it had happened in the blink of an eye, yet also as though a very long time had passed. When he opened his eyes again, he had already become an orphan rolling in the mud.

Even the name Xia Fan was something he had given himself, carrying it over from his old memories.

Fortunately, his bargain-bin master had not pursued the matter.

Perhaps he had felt that it was not too unusual for a three-year-old child to remember the name given to him by his parents.

With his head start in learning ability, Xia Fan quickly formed an overall understanding of this world.

Because living beings were born from qi, consciousness was born before the body. Likewise, after the body perished, consciousness did not necessarily return to qi. Under certain circumstances, consciousness could exist independently or transform into something else, such as Wangliang, ghosts, Chi, and Guai. If left untreated, they would continue growing within qi until they ultimately brought disaster upon the human world.

Though Xia Fan had yet to encounter any true demons or monsters capable of ravaging an entire region, he had accompanied his master in dealing with some minor Evil Spirits, confirming that they were not merely folk tales.

Besides that, after all these years of Qi Guidance practice, he could tangibly feel the changes in his body—whether strength, reflexes, eyesight, or hearing, all were far superior to those of ordinary people. Or rather, without those changes, he might not have survived to this age while wandering with his master through an era where medical standards were abysmal and even getting caught in the rain could mean dying of illness.

Such visible improvement further ignited his motivation to cultivate.

If losing weight, where every drop of sweat brought a return, was the investment least likely to betray a person in the world, then training that could raise the limits of the body was clearly even more deserving of wholehearted dedication.

Once he entered his cultivation state, Xia Fan felt those tiny stars merging with him. Through them, his consciousness seemed to gain infinitely expanding space. Every breath seemed to come both from himself and from the world.

He remained seated for several hours.

After eating the dinner delivered by the inn, he returned to his Qi Guidance state and continued until late into the night.

Unfortunately, sensing qi required intense concentration. It could not replace rest, nor could he train while sleeping, so when it was time to sleep, he still had to obediently close his eyes.

Somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, Xia Fan suddenly sensed something strange.

He snapped his eyes open, only to discover that the high window above his head had somehow been opened, allowing a smear of blood-red light to spill in from outside.

What... had happened?

He gripped his wooden sword, carefully stepped onto the table, stood on tiptoe, and peered out the window—

A crimson moon hung high in the vault of heaven, staining the earth a vivid scarlet!

At the same time, strange changes were taking place in the town—numerous mounds of earth had appeared on the ground. They were gradually pushed open as skeleton after skeleton crawled out from beneath the soil, letting out horrifying, monstrous cries.

Xia Fan could not help but freeze.

The scene felt strangely familiar.

And those skeletal monsters somehow looked a little cute.

Wait, cute?

One of the skeletons seemed to spot him. It turned, leaped upward, and pounced straight at the window!

The next moment, Xia Fan jolted awake, only to find himself still lying on the bed.

Was that... a dream?

If it had been a dream, it had been far too real. Both its clarity and its sounds and sensations far surpassed any dream he had ever had. Even after waking, he could remember every detail.

He unconsciously looked up at the window, and his heart immediately tightened slightly.

The window really was open, and there was something more at it—after spending several seconds adjusting to the darkness, he finally made out the outline of the black shadow.

It was a figure sitting beside the window, and its gaze was fixed upon him. He knew because, amid the pitch-black darkness, the most conspicuous thing was the pair of golden eyes reflecting faint light.

In an instant, Xia Fan realized that the bizarre dream was connected to the person before him.

"Could it be... that you're an outdoor cooking enthusiast too?"

"Outdoor cooking? What is that—no, why aren't you afraid?" To his surprise, she responded quickly. Her voice revealed that she was a woman, though her tone was icy cold.

Why would I be afraid of a bunch of chibi skeletons?

For a moment, Xia Fan did not know how to answer.

Still, her willingness to speak made him relax slightly. If the visitor had been brimming with malice, she probably would not have waited for him to open his eyes again.

He groped around and pulled a fire striker from the clothes at the foot of the bed. After blowing sparks from it, he lit the candle on the table. The dim flame immediately drove away the room's gloom and allowed him to see what she looked like.

The visitor was not human—this was Xia Fan's first realization.

Though she did indeed look like a woman, the pair of upright ears atop her head was far too conspicuous.

Unless she was a cosplay enthusiast, a species mixed with nonhuman features like that was generally called Chi, or Yao.

"Dog?" Xia Fan asked tentatively.

There was no response.

"Cat?"

Eyes that reflected light in the night really did resemble a cat's.

She remained silent.

"Wolf?" he guessed again.

"Enough. I'm a fox!" Her voice finally showed a trace of emotion.

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