What Is Outside the City

The child turned to look at her, thinking it over carefully.

"I don't know. I don't have a home."

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

The room fell silent. Outside, the wind rustled the eaves, and a few grains of sand rolled in through the crack under the door. The atmosphere suddenly felt immensely bleak.

Chen Guan looked at the child. "Then what do you think counts as home?"

The child set the charcoal stick on the table and instinctively reached for the half-eaten flatbread tucked inside his clothes, his face full of yearning. "Having food to eat, a place to sleep at night, and not being chased away."

He paused, then added, "And the teacher being there."

Guan Jinyue looked at Chen Guan. She didn't say anything, but he could tell she had many questions she wanted to ask.

A twelfth-rank immortal, now sitting at a wobbly wooden table with a missing leg, defining home through half a hard flatbread.

The contrast made it hard to connect him with that Beidou figure from the outside world.

Chen Guan picked up the charcoal stick on the table and wrote a single character on the wooden plank.

Door.

He had learned this character from the Tongxuan Turtle. If the child said it was wrong, he could just claim it was a foreign script—an easy way to retreat if needed, or push forward if not.

The child leaned in to look, blinking. "Teacher, why do we have to learn this?"

Chen Guan stared at the character for "door." "Because if you want to go home, you first have to find the door."

The child nodded and carefully memorized the character.

Guan Jinyue stepped inside the room, leaning against the wall, trying not to draw attention.

She knew Chen Guan was probing.

After writing three characters, the child carefully put the plank away.

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

Chen Guan looked toward the door. The sky was choked with yellow sand; it was hardly suitable for going out.

"Going out?"

The child looked a little confused. "You said yesterday we’d go to the city gate today."

Chen Guan took the cue without missing a beat.

"Let's go now."

The child immediately stuffed the half flatbread into his clothes, grabbed a short wooden stick, and rushed to the door.

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

"Is big sister coming too?"

Guan Jinyue glanced at Chen Guan.

"I'm coming."

The child gave an "mm" and then quickly asked, "Does big sister know how to fight?"

Guan Jinyue had no idea why he was asking, but answered honestly, "A little."

The child's eyes lit up even more.

"Then can big sister beat the bone collectors?"

Bone collectors?

The two exchanged a glance. That term didn't exactly sound like it referred to good people.

"Are they coming today?"

The child shook his head.

"I don't know."

He gripped his short stick nervously. "Big sister must be a refugee from another city, right? Every time they come, they say they're going to take my bones."

Guan Jinyue frowned. She had already taken a dislike to these so-called bone collectors without even meeting them.

Chen Guan recalled the first ring of murals outside—the city in darkness, the kneeling beings, the faceless robed figure on the platform.

If that memory corresponded to an era before the Lord of Nothingness ascended to godhood, then the so-called bone collectors might not just be common thugs.

What kind of era was that old age, really?

The three of them walked out of the low house with their own thoughts. The street beyond the alley was even more desolate than inside.

Most of the shops on both sides were closed, their doors carved with all sorts of messy symbols—some like numbers, others like marks.

Occasionally, figures could be seen peeking out from behind windows, but the moment they caught sight of Chen Guan's robe, they quickly pulled back.

Guan Jinyue said quietly, "They're afraid of you."

Chen Guan hummed in response.

This identity of a robed figure was clearly not ordinary here.

The child in front of him called him "teacher," but for now, Chen Guan felt he was probably just a literacy tutor, not some martial arts instructor. Otherwise, the kid wouldn't have asked about Guan Jinyue's fighting ability.

Maybe literacy teachers held a special status here, or perhaps it was something else entirely.

The child walked ahead, clutching his short wooden stick with the excitement of a young boy, pausing every now and then to wait for Chen Guan. His steps weren't fast, but he knew the way well.

After crossing two alleys, the city wall came into view.

The city gate was old. Beneath the archway, sand had piled up. Beyond it stretched an endless wilderness.

Grains of sand rolled across the ground, clashing against the worn threshold, then whipped up by the wind, flying off toward the distant wasteland.

The child stood beside the gate, holding his short wooden stick with both hands, standing on tiptoe to look outside.

There was no road outside.

Only a barren plain worn smooth by wind and sand. The cracked yellow earth formed vast, dry fissures. In the distance stood a few leaning stone steles; beyond them, the ground sank into a depression like a massive mouth that had long remained agape.

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

The city seemed small, its walls low.

But all the houses inside crowded toward the center, as if the farther you stayed from the gate, the greater your chances of survival.

Guan Jinyue raised a hand and pressed it against the stone wall beside the gate.

The wall was rough, and a layer of dust stuck to her palm.

She wiped her fingers across the wall's surface, revealing fine carvings beneath.

The carvings had been worn shallow by wind and sand, but their original arrangement was still discernible.

Guan Jinyue said softly, "There's a formation here."

Chen Guan turned to look.

The patterns on the wall bore some resemblance to the silver-blue ancient script from the circular pool, but here, their color was as dark as dried blood.

The child heard this and twisted his head around. "Big sister can read gate scripts too?"

Guan Jinyue looked at him. "You understand them?"

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

Then he looked up at Chen Guan, as if leaving all the answers to him.

Don't look at me. I don't get it either, Chen Guan thought to himself.

He didn't live up to that expectation.

Because he knew very well that he was not the real teacher from the child's memory.

In this fragmented memory, any word that shouldn't exist might send it veering off course.

What's more troublesome was that he sensed his connection to Ba'er had been completely severed, and the forum was inaccessible. Here, he had to rely solely on himself.

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

They were cold.

The moment his fingertips made contact, a faint tremor came from deep within the wall. His hand was instantly repelled, the force pushing him back several steps.

The child immediately moved closer and asked in a low voice, "Teacher, can we leave today?"

Chen Guan gazed at the distant wasteland and shook his head.

Barring surprises, flying out probably wasn't possible either. This was an area to be explored later.

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

"What about tomorrow?"

"We'll see."

The child scuffed the sand under his feet with his toe, comforting himself. "Tomorrow will do too."

After saying this, he looked up at the gate again.

"Teacher, are there really many cities out there?"

Chen Guan went along with what he said. "Yes."

"Places that won't chase people away?"

"Yes."

"Are there places where you can eat every day?"

"Yes."

The child seemed to be piecing together a map in his mind, placing every "yes" Chen Guan gave along that unknown road he'd never traveled.

Guan Jinyue watched the child and suddenly asked, "Why are you so determined to leave here?"

The child looked at her, a hint of confusion on his face.

"Because this place eats people."

The moment those words fell, several wooden windows on the inside of the city gate slammed shut at once.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A succession of window-closing sounds rang out in a row.