So wooden tracks are generally more common in the mountains, after all, if there’s no quarry nearby, it’s not very realistic to build a smooth and durable bluestone road on a mountain slope.

Is Qingshan Town just a remote little town built halfway up a mountain?

No, these two things alone are enough to prove that Qingshan is not a desolate place—many people have come and gone here before.

The examiner had clearly concealed some key information.

What exactly caused Qingshan to become what it is today?

“Creak.”

A soft sound came from the window above.

Brian Carter put away the bronze fragment and looked toward the shadow at the window. “I thought you wouldn’t come today.”

It was the fox demon who appeared there. Faint moonlight spilled in from behind her, illuminating her pointed ears.

“I ate the beef.”

“I know.”

“Then you should understand that I’ve accepted your plea.” She shifted from squatting to sitting, crossing her legs. “Maybe you’re used to being untrustworthy, but I’m not.”

Uh... Was it really a plea? Also, if only the moonlight were a bit brighter.

“But it’s almost midnight now. Are you planning to stay up until I fall asleep, just to freeload a midnight snack?”

“Freeload?” The fox demon frowned in confusion. Although she didn’t seem to understand, she apparently knew it wasn’t a compliment. “When I come is my own business. You didn’t set a time in advance. Besides, I’m very busy too. If it weren’t for the bee—” She suddenly stopped. “Anyway, if you fall asleep, you can’t blame me. I’ve fulfilled my promise.”

“Fair enough.” Brian Carter didn’t want to argue over these trivial details either—time was precious, after all. As for her claim of being busy, it might not be a lie—she clearly hadn’t forgotten her original purpose for coming to Qingshan Town. “You made quite a few people have nightmares again tonight, didn’t you? Of course, if you think that counts as helping me with the exam, just pretend I didn’t ask.”

“Fewer than yesterday,” the fox demon replied bluntly. “If people have other emotions, the power of dreams to influence them decreases. And tonight, their emotions are all increasing.”

“What kind of emotions?”

“Anxiety and hatred.”

Brian Carter’s heart skipped a beat. Was this the effect of the exam environment? The money that had to be carefully calculated, the spirit fire that was never enough for all the candidates, and the order set by the noble families... It seemed only natural that discontent would spread.

“By the way,” he thought for a moment and took out the bronze fragment he’d found on the back mountain, “do you know what this is?”

She glanced at it disinterestedly. “No idea. Why would you think a fox demon would know more about human stuff than you do?”

“Maybe because you all tend to live for hundreds or even thousands of years?” Brian Carter tried to phrase it carefully. “The saying ‘well-traveled and knowledgeable’ can’t be wrong...”

“Heh...” She first grinned, then burst out laughing. “Hahahaha...” The laughter was clearly not friendly, but full of mockery. “If demons could live that long, do you think your kind would still rule the world?”

“Uh, isn’t that true?”

“Qi can extend life, but it only puts demons on the same level as ordinary people—can’t even compare to a fangshi. Only ignorant country folk believe demons are long-lived.”

This answer greatly surprised Brian Carter. It meant that the average demon only lived fifty or sixty years. The tales of cultivating for a hundred years to gain intelligence, or a thousand years to become human, were probably just rumors?

“Then how... exactly are you born?” He asked the question he most wanted to know.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, when did you realize you’d become a demon?”

“Of course, from the very beginning.” She shook her ears in annoyance. “You don’t think I was just an ordinary fox when I was born, do you? First comes qi, then comes spirit. It’s the same for humans. Didn’t your master teach you that?”

“He did... but what’s the connection between the two?”

“Dullard!” The fox demon gave him a look of utter disappointment. “First comes qi, then comes spirit—meaning whatever kind of qi gathers, that’s the kind of spirit that’s born. Got it? The reason you can sense qi was decided before you were even born, while you were still in the womb. It’s the same for all things. At the moment of conception, qi attaches itself—some ordinary, some extraordinary. The ordinary become the masses, the extraordinary become people like you and me. This process can’t be predicted or changed. That’s what’s called ‘innate nature’!”

Brian Carter’s mouth fell open.

He suddenly realized that the braised beef for half a tael of silver was really worth it.

His cheap master had mentioned the “qi-spirit theory” before, but never in such detail.

Now he knew: demons don’t need to cultivate, nor do they need a stroke of luck. She was a demon simply because she was born that way.

“Then... can demons and humans have offspring?” Brian Carter asked the second question he most wanted to know.

Her expression clearly changed.

“Ahem, I just want to study it in depth, nothing else,” he quickly added.

The fox demon stared at him for a while before replying irritably, “On that point, your folk legends aren’t wrong. It’s rare, but there are occasional exceptions...”

So... it’s possible? Brian Carter pressed, “Why is it so rare?”