The comments said I was deeply affectionate, I just added points by using an alternate account.

The child turned to look at her and thought about it seriously.

"I don't know, I have no home."

He lowered his head, looking somewhat forlorn: "But the teacher said that everyone should have a place to go back to."

The room fell silent. The wind blew through the eaves, and a few grains of sand rolled in through the crack in the door, making the atmosphere suddenly feel exceptionally desolate.

Chen Guan looked at the child: "Then where do you consider home?"

The child placed the charcoal stick on the table, subconsciously reaching out to touch the half-eaten cake in his arms, his face full of longing: "I'll have food to eat, I can sleep at night, and I won't be kicked out."

He paused for a moment, then added another sentence.

"The teacher is here too."

Guan Jinyue looked at Chen Guan. She didn't speak, but Chen Guan could sense that she had a lot to ask.

A level 12 immortal now sits at a wooden table with a missing leg, defining what home looks like with half a hard biscuit.

This contrast makes it hard to associate him with the BeiDou system as it is known to the outside world.

Chen Guan raised his hand, picked up the charcoal stick on the table, and wrote a word on the wooden board.

door.

He learned this character from the Tongxuan Turtle. If the child says the character is wrong, he will say it is a foreign script, which can be used for both offense and defense.

The child leaned closer to look, blinked, and asked, "Teacher, why do we have to learn this?"

Chen Guan looked at the word "door": "Because if you want to go home, you have to find the door first."

The child nodded and carefully wrote the word down.

Guan Jinyue went inside and leaned against the wall, trying to minimize his presence.

She knew Chen Guan was testing her.

After the child finished writing the three characters, he carefully put the wooden board away.

"Teacher, aren't we going out today?"

Chen Guan looked out the door; the yellow sand filled the sky, making it seem like an unsuitable place to go out.

"go out?"

The child looked a little puzzled: "You said yesterday that you would take me to the city gate today."

Chen Guan calmly took over the conversation.

"Go now."

The child immediately stuffed the half-eaten biscuit from the corner of the table into his pocket, picked up a short stick, and ran quickly to the door.

After running a couple of steps, he turned back to look at Guan Jinyue.

"Is your sister going too?"

Guan Jinyue glanced at Chen Guan.

"go."

The child hummed in agreement, then quickly asked, "Does my sister fight?"

Guan Jinyue was puzzled, but still answered truthfully, "I know a little."

The child's eyes are brighter.

"Could my sister beat the bone collector?"

A bone collector?

The two exchanged a glance; the phrase didn't sound like something a good person would say.

"Are they coming today?"

The child shook his head.

"I have no idea."

He gripped the wooden stick tightly and said nervously, "Sister must be a refugee from another city-state. Every time they come, they say they want to take my bones."

Guan Jinyue lowered his brow, subconsciously losing his goodwill towards those who collected bones.

Chen Guan recalled the first circle of murals outside: a city in darkness, kneeling creatures, and a faceless, robed figure on a high platform.

If this memory corresponds to the old era before the Lord of Nothingness became a god, then the so-called bone collectors might not just be ordinary thugs.

What kind of era was the old era?

The three men, each with their own thoughts, left the low house. The street outside the alley was even more desolate than inside.

Most of the shops on both sides were closed, with all sorts of random symbols carved on the doors, some looking like numbers and others like marks.

Occasionally, a few figures could be seen peeking out from behind the window, but they quickly retreated after seeing the long robe on Chen Guan's body.

Guan Jinyue said in a low voice, "They're afraid of you."

Chen Guan hummed in agreement.

The identity of this person in the long robe is clearly not ordinary.

The child in front of him called him teacher, but for now, Chen Guan felt that he was probably a literate teacher rather than a martial arts teacher, otherwise he wouldn't have asked Guan Jinyue about his fighting ability.

Perhaps it was because literate teachers held a relatively privileged position here, or perhaps it was for some other reason.

The child walked ahead, holding a short wooden stick, his excitement as a teenager carrying him. He would occasionally turn back to wait for Chen Guan. His steps were slow, but he knew the way very well.

After passing through two alleys, the city wall ahead came into view.

The city gate was old, with sand piled up below the gate opening, and outside the gate was a desolate wasteland that seemed to stretch endlessly.

The grains of sand rolled along the ground, crashed against the dilapidated threshold, and were then swept up by the wind and carried away to the distant wilderness.

The child stood beside the doorway, holding the short wooden stick in both hands, and stood on tiptoe to look outside.

There is no road outside the door.

There was only a barren land smoothed by wind and sand, with large cracks in the loess soil. In the distance, there were several tilted stone tablets, and the ground behind the tablets had collapsed downwards, resembling a giant mouth that had never closed.

Chen Guan stood behind him, looking at the old city.

The city looked small, and the walls were low.

But all the houses inside the walls were squeezed towards the center, as if the farther away from the city gate, the greater the chance of survival.

Guan Jinyue raised his hand and pressed on the stone wall next to the city gate.

The stone wall was rough, and her palms were covered in a layer of dust.

She ran her fingertips across the wall, revealing the fine engravings beneath.

The engravings have been worn shallow by the wind and sand, but the original arrangement can still be seen.

Guan Jinyue whispered, "There's a formation here."

Chen Guan turned his head to look.

The patterns on the wall are somewhat similar to the silver-blue ancient characters in the round pool, except that the color here is dark, like dried blood.

Upon hearing this, the child turned her head and asked, "Sister, you can read door patterns too?"

Guan Jinyue glanced at him: "You understand too?"

The child shook his head and said very seriously, "I don't understand, but the teacher does."

After saying that, he looked up at Chen Guan again, as if he had given him all the answers.

Don't look at me, I don't understand. Chen Guan thought to himself.

He did not respond to this expectation.

He knew he wasn't the real teacher the child remembered.

In this old film, any word that shouldn't exist could cause memories to go astray.

What's more troublesome is that he sensed that his connection with Baal had been completely severed, and he couldn't log into the forum either. He was left to rely on himself.

Chen Guan reached out and pressed his hand on the engravings on the city wall.

It's cold.

The moment his fingertips touched the engravings, a slight vibration came from deep within the wall, instantly repelling his hand and causing him to stumble back several steps.

The child immediately moved closer and asked softly, "Teacher, can we leave today?"

Chen Guan looked at the desolate wilderness in the distance and shook his head.

As expected, flying out is probably impossible; we'll have to explore the area ahead another time.

The light in the child's eyes dimmed, but he quickly nodded vigorously again.

"What about tomorrow?"

"Let's see."

The child lowered his head, kicked at the sand at his feet, and comforted himself, "Tomorrow is fine too."

After he finished speaking, he looked up at the door again.

"Teacher, are there really many cities outside?"

Chen Guan followed his words and said, "Yes."

Are there places where people aren't asked to leave?

"have."

"Is there a place where we can eat every day?"

"have."

The child seemed to be carefully piecing together a map in his mind, placing every "there" that Chen Guan mentioned on that road he had never seen before.

Guan Jinyue looked at the child and suddenly asked, "Why do you insist on leaving here?"

The child looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Because people eat people here."

As these words were spoken, several wooden windows on the inside of the city gate closed simultaneously.

Hey, hey, hey.

A series of window slamming sounds rang out.