Chapter 1：A Path with No Regrets

　　The Yellow Springs,the legendary place of death,is eerie and cold,full of mists and fear.Anyone who steps into the Yellow Springs means that they have said goodbye to the light of the sun,and are about to walk towards a world where they will never return.But in this gloomy place,there was a hidden light swaying in the cold wind,with four words written on it:"Yellow Spring Tavern".At the entrance of the tavern,there stood a mottled wooden signboard,which read:"Returning to the road without regrets".These words permeate a kind of bleak meaning,as if it is an old thing that has not been touched for many years,the handwriting is blurred,but it can let every soul that passes by here to see the real.Next to the wooden sign,a dim oil lamp swaying in the wind,emitting a weak light,seems to be blown out at any time.That light,like a dying fire,desperately resisted the coming darkness.

　　The air was filled with an indescribable chill,not the kind of bone-piercing cold,but a coolness that penetrated into the marrow of the bones,making people feel an irresistible emptiness and loneliness.The ground was covered with gray dust,and with every step,a thin layer of dust rolled up and quickly fell down,as if no one had ever passed by.There was no alternation of day and night here,the eternal twilight shrouded the earth,and a vague waning moon seemed to hang in the sky,but the moonlight never illuminated anything,it only made this world seem even more secretive.

　　In the distance,the Yellow Spring River meandered by.The river was silent,its surface glowing with a ghostly cold luster,as if it was a bottomless river of darkness.The river was so deep that people didn't dare to get close to it,and legend had it that any soul that dipped into the Yellow Spring River would lose itself forever,sinking to the bottom of the river,never to return to the surface.Occasionally,withered trees can be seen along the riverbank,their branches hanging down like dead limbs,swaying,but unable to make a single sound.

　　The air was filled with a faint odor of decay,which was not pungent,but rather had an intoxicating familiarity,as if everyone who came to the Yellow Springs would naturally accept the scent of death.The sky,for a long time,maintained a chaotic state of gray-blue,not knowing whether it was morning or dusk.The place seemed to be silent,but it was not completely still,as if there was an invisible force pushing the whole world to move forward slowly,towards some unknown direction.The Yellow Springs Tavern was located on the side of the road,waiting for every soul that was about to embark on its final journey.

　　The roof of the tavern was covered with withered moss,the walls had long been mottled,and the cracks were filled with strange vines.The vines seemed to be alive,gently wriggling and expanding in all directions.The door of the tavern was made of rough black wood,the wood had already been eroded by the years and was full of holes,but it still stood there tenaciously,as if waiting for every traveler towards the end.

　　The stone steps in front of the tavern were covered with a thick layer of dust,and it seemed that no one had been here for a long time.But look closely,on the stone steps can vaguely recognize some messy footprints,varying in depth,some footprints look to be newly left,just stepped on soon;while some footprints seem to have been eroded by time to the point of disappearing.These footprints,like silent witnesses,told the stories of countless deceased spirits who had once come here.

　　On each side of the doorway hangs an old brass bell,the bells have long lost their luster and are rusty,but whenever the wind blows,they still emit a low bell sound,as if they are sending off the visitors.There was no sign or decoration on the door,only the old wooden sign,hanging alone,conveying the same message to all those walking towards the end:this is the Yellow Spring Tavern,welcome.

　　Ling Hao,clad in worn-out battle armor,with a rusty longsword hanging on his waist,bloodstains on his body not yet completely dried,gently pushed open the heavy black wooden door,the door shaft made a"squeaking"sound,like an old object that hadn't been opened for a long time.The air inside the tavern swirled slightly,carrying a scent of old wine and an ancient odor,which came to his face.Ling Hao stepped into it,and the dim space made him squint slightly,adapting to the not-so-bright light.The interior of the tavern had simple furnishings,but it was filled with an odd silence and solemnity,as if this place carried countless stories of the dead.

　　There were some yellowed paintings hanging on the walls all around,and the scenes in those paintings were vaguely visible,like some kind of familiar scene,or the home of a certain deceased person in his or her lifetime,or perhaps their dusty memories that had been sealed for a long time.Ling Hao casually swept a glance at the paintings,which seemed to be silently telling their respective destinies,but these destinies had now become the past and turned into dust.

　　The floor of the house was covered with a thick layer of black carpet,and one could hardly feel the sound of footsteps when stepping on it,as if the carpet was able to absorb all the sounds,making the whole space seem extraordinarily quiet.In the center of the tavern was a long wooden counter,and behind the counter,a blurry thin and tall silhouette stood silently,as if it had been waiting there for a thousand years.The silhouette was wrapped in a tattered cloak,and his face appeared blurry in the dim light,making it almost impossible to tell if he was actually human or not.Several ancient wine pots were placed on the counter,their bodies covered with dust left by the years,as if they hadn't been touched for a long time.

　　Ling Hao frowned slightly,then stretched out,revealing a hint of a smile tinged with indifference,and whispered softly to himself,"What a gloomy place...but it's quite appropriate."

　　Although his voice was light,it carried a certain indifferent casualness.For the weird atmosphere of the Land of the Dead,Ling Hao behaved extraordinarily calmly,even revealing a trace of unimpressed arrogance.This arrogance was the same as his usual lofty posture,no matter on the battlefield or in the Yellow Spring at this moment,he was still the confident Ling Hao,as if no environment could shake his mind.

　　The silhouette behind the counter moved slowly and walked towards him without a sound,his movements as light as a ghost.He stopped in front of Ling Hao and poured him a glass of wine.The wine held in the cup was colorless,but carried a certain strange luster,as if reflecting the memories of the deceased.

　　Without any hesitation,Ling Hao picked up the cup and gently took a sip.The moment the wine entered his throat,a cold but sweet flavor spread in his mouth.The taste was different from what he expected,without the pungency of wine,but with an indescribable sweetness,like the kind of unfiltered rice wine he had tasted in his hometown tavern during his childhood.However,he was well aware that this was not the world he knew,and the wine could not possibly carry anything he remembered.

　　"Tastes good,"he whispered,a hint of levity in his tone,"Too bad it's not much stronger."With that said,he set down his glass and leaned his body back in his chair,arms folded over his chest with a lazy stance.The silhouette did not respond,but only looked at him quietly,as if all words were superfluous to this place.Here,there was no longer a boundary between life and death,only the passage of time and the repose of the soul.

　　The candle flame swayed slightly in the corner,and the light from the flame reflected on Ling Hao's face,making his features look even deeper and colder.The few weak candles in the corner were dim,but they brought a hint of warmth in this dead world,contrasting with the coldness of the outside world.The air was filled with the scent of wine and tobacco,reminding one of certain warm scenes in life.

　　Ling Hao closed his eyes and leaned back on the chair,sighing softly.The road to Huang Quan was still long,and he didn't seem to be in a hurry to move on.In this world where there was no time,he could finally stop and was no longer in a hurry to run,but his hand still lightly touched the longsword at his waist out of habit,like some kind of obsession that could not be put down;he knew that this was just a short pause in the journey,and that the tranquility of the tavern would not be able to change his final destiny,but just like every undead who had come here,Ling Hao would eventually take a short rest in the tavern,and then set foot on the road of the Yellow Springs,heading towards that eternal end-the place where all lives ultimately end up.