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

Chen Guan didn't help him up; he stared at the door at the bottom of the well.

The aura of the original body seemed to have become a key to unlocking secrets.

Inside the door, a figure stood up.

A very small figure.

He was wearing a cloak that had been washed until it was almost white.

Seven concealed buttons on the front.

He saw it, and the child saw it too.

He sat on the ground, completely oblivious to everything else.

The small figure at the bottom of the well raised its head, its face exactly the same as his.

But in those eyes, there was no hunger, no fear, and no expectation of home.

The old man knelt down.

His forehead was pressed against the ground, and his voice was dry and hoarse.

"The first generation of living bones..."

Chen Guan looked down into the well.

It turned out to be the case.

This door has been hit seven times since a long time ago.

So generation after generation, this city waits for the next seven-year-old to grow into a suitable bone.

This is the truth about immortals. The myriad forms of sentient beings create countless Seven-Handed Beings. When one Seven-Handed Being dies, a new Seven-Handed Being is born.

He is a child who will never grow up.

The small figure at the bottom of the well raised its hand and pointed to the coffin behind Chen Guan.

Then, he opened his mouth.

No sound came out.

But Chen Guan could read his lips.

Home.

The next moment, the door in the bone well opened completely.

What appeared behind the door was a boundless snowfield.

At the edge of the snowfield stood a man in a long robe carrying a coffin.

He had his back to the crowd, holding a child's hand.

The child turned around and looked at the seven knots by the well.

Two seven-year-old children looked at each other across a door.

The child by the well murmured, "Teacher, who is that?"

Before Chen Guan could answer, the man in the long robe behind the door turned around.

The face was hidden in the wind and snow, and the features were not visible.

But his voice traveled through the bone well and landed clearly in Chen Guan's ears.

"The latecomers."

"Don't let him turn back."

The wind and snow blew out of the bone well, and a layer of white frost appeared on the sandy ground around the well, which was originally free of snow.

The door opened at the bottom of the well, beyond which stretched an endless snowfield. The long-robed man carrying the coffin stood in the wind, holding the hand of another man with seven fingers.

Chen Guan did not loosen his grip on the back of the child's collar.

The child sat on the ground, his face covered in sand, his eyes fixed on the small figure at the bottom of the well.

Qi Kou inside the door was also watching him.

Two identical children gaze at each other across the bone well, one standing in the old city, the other in the wind and snow.

The people in the old town all fell silent; even the tall, thin man forgot to shout.

The old man knelt before the stone platform, his forehead pressed against the ground, his shoulders slumped down, his whole being so aged that only a breath of life remained in his bones.

"The first generation of living bone marrow".

He repeated it again.

The child looked down at the seven hidden buttons on his chest, then looked at the person at the bottom of the well.

"Teacher, is he me too?"

Chen Guan did not answer, this time because he did not know what to say.

The red light at the bottom of the well had not yet dissipated, and a skeletal hand was wedged against the door frame. The wind and snow in the crack of the door passed through the joints, making a soft sound.

The skeletal hand stopped crawling out; it was afraid of the coffin.

The coffin lid behind Chen's coffin was still slightly ajar, and the aura emanating from the body pressed down on the entire old city. The patterns on the city walls gradually darkened, losing their ferocity.

Guan Jinyue stood beside the coffin, the tip of her sword hanging at her side. She was so close to the coffin that she could hear very soft breathing coming from inside.

Guan Jinyue looked up at the coffin, his expression complex.

Chen Guan ignored her gaze. He finally gathered his thoughts and looked at the child, saying, "He is the first one of you to be devoured by this door."

The child understood only half of what was being said, and his face turned pale.

At that moment, the crowd around the well stirred.

A man, his face covered in sand, crawled up from the ground. Pointing to the seven knots at the bottom of the well, he asked in a dry voice, "Since there's already one inside, why do we need our child too?"

This statement enlightened many people, and someone immediately chimed in.

"That's right, the first generation of the door frame is still there, so the door should still be able to open."

"Lord of the city, you've lied to us?"

"Where have all the people who have been sending people off all these years gone?"

Faces peeked out from behind doors, windows, and under eaves. Just moments ago they were pleading with the city lord to open the door, but now they were asking why.

The old man slowly raised his head, bone dust falling from the wrinkles on his face and covering his clothes.

"Once a child has eaten the first one, it will remember that first child."

As he spoke, the small figure at the bottom of the well lowered its head.

"But every time a typhoon comes, the door needs new bones."

"Without a next one, the door can't be opened. He's like a wick; without a flame, how can it burn?"

The child looked down into the well. Xiao Qi Kou inside the door didn't speak. The wind and snow fell on his shoulders and passed straight through, showing that he had long since lost his weight.

Thanks to the influence of Situ Ming's ancient style class, Chen Guan quickly understood that this city had not only eaten one child, but it had first left the first child inside the gate to make an oil lamp, and each subsequent seven-fold door was an oil lamp added to it.

No wonder this city has to wait for a new seven-deck bout time and time again.

This is entirely a system of captivity; it devours a child, then forces the person into the city, only to give birth to the next child with the same fate.

The seven knots in this old city are like a life that has been repeatedly rubbed. After the pages are rubbed many times, the writing becomes lighter and the blood becomes more abundant.

The old man gripped the edge of the stone platform, his fingernails filled with bone meal.

"Sir, you came here back then specifically to find this character."

Chen Guan looked at him, and the old man coughed heavily twice, his chest heaving.

"You said the name of the house is missing a word. Without that word, returning home would become returning to one's bones."

"You want to fix it, but you can't remember."

"You sat under the city gate for three days."

"Later, when the typhoon struck, the first generation of living skeletons walked into the well on their own."

The child gripped the sand on the ground tightly with his fingers, and looked at himself inside the door, asking a question.

"You... went in by yourself?"

The old man didn't look at him, but simply replied, "At that time, everyone in the city will die."

Guan Jinyue raised his sword half an inch: "So you've memorized this method? To repeatedly take away other people's lives?"

The old man's lips trembled, but he did not answer.

Chen Guan looked down at the child on the ground.

The child was also looking at him, his eyes filled with a mixture of fear, confusion, and a hint of expectation.

He wanted to ask himself if he should also learn the first seven-fold technique, but he didn't ask it out loud.

Chen Guan saw through his thoughts, raised his hand, and straightened the child's cloak, which had been ruffled by the wind. All seven hidden buttons were now fastened.

"Don't follow his example."

The child looked at him.

"If people can only prove their usefulness by dying, then this world should die first."

Among the crowd by the well, some people lowered their heads.

The thin man then got up from the ground. His chest was caved in and his mouth was full of blood, but he still reached out to the child.

"We can't let him leave!"

He screamed.

"He's gone, and the door is truly gone!"

"Lord of the city, say something!"

"What are you all standing there for? If Qi Kou leaves, who will survive when the typhoon hits?"

Chaos erupted as fear spread rapidly through the old city, overshadowing the earlier shame.

Some people gripped the door frame, while others raised their machetes.