Chapter 2: Meeting Again in the Yellow Springs

　　Ling Hao leaned on the back of his chair,his eyes slowly sweeping over the surroundings of the Yellow Spring Tavern,feeling an unprecedented tranquility.Even though everything here appeared to be dilapidated and ancient,it exuded an atmosphere that was very different from the outside world.This atmosphere gradually made him feel vaguely uneasy,as if it was far from everything he knew in the Yang world.As a long-experienced general,Ling Hao was used to seeing life and death,but the Yellow Springs Tavern in front of him brought him an unfamiliar sense of oppression.

　　Ling Hao once again scrutinized the interior of the tavern.The walls were covered with yellowed paintings,which were painted in an ancient style with simple and rough lines,obviously not from the hands of famous artists in the Yang world.The scenes in the paintings looked familiar,but they always carried a veil of blurriness,making it difficult to recognize them clearly.Ling Hao intentionally wanted to decipher these paintings,as if they could reveal some secrets about this mysterious place.However,whenever he gazed at one of them,bits and pieces of memories would always inexplicably surface in his mind,seeming to be recollections of a certain moment in his lifetime,but the images were always so confusing and blurred that he could not really grasp the truth of them.

　　The floor of the tavern was covered with a heavy black carpet,and the sound of his footsteps had long since disappeared into the silence of the tavern,a soundless environment that made him feel completely isolated from the outside world.Even in the quiet nights of the Yang world,he had never felt such utter silence.It was a near-absolute stillness,and gradually this silence made him feel a little uncomfortable.

　　The wooden tables and seats around him looked sturdy,but they were full of age.The table tops were covered with tiny cracks,as if they would split with the slightest pressure.Each chair was covered with a thick layer of dust,which made Ling Hao wonder how long this place had not been patronized.Nonetheless,he felt that an invisible force was watching him,as if these furniture themselves carried some kind of memory,and they had witnessed the parting of countless souls.

　　Ling Hao's gaze finally landed on the wine jugs behind the counter.Those ancient wine jugs seemed to be the only decoration here,and each of them was covered with thick dust,looking like no one had touched them for a long time.However,Ling Hao had a strange feeling in his heart that these wine jugs were by no means unusual.It was as if they were silently recording the stories of every undead that came here.

　　He stood up and walked slowly towards the counter.His fingers gently brushed against one of the wine jugs,and he immediately felt a coolness spreading along his fingertips to his entire body.The sensation made him shiver,but the curiosity within him drove him to continue exploring.He picked up the wine jug,shook off the dust on it,and carefully surveyed it.

　　"This jug of wine...never seemed to have seen this style in its lifetime."Ling Hao whispered to himself,his brows slightly furrowed.The shape of the wine pot was odd,not like a product of any dynasty in the Yang world.The mouth of the jug was tiny,and the body of the jug was rounded,with some strange symbols engraved on it.These symbols were not words he was familiar with,but they vaguely revealed a mysterious power.

　　He was just about to open the wine pot when he suddenly heard a slight sound of fabric coming from behind him.Ling Hao turned around alertly,only to see the blurry silhouette behind the counter still standing there,gazing at him wordlessly.Ling Hao didn't say anything,just gently put the wine pot back to its original place.Although his heart was full of questions,he knew that acting rashly here might cause unnecessary trouble.

　　Ling Hao slowly walked back to his seat,his mind constantly recalling everything that had just happened.He couldn't deny that every detail of the Yellow Springs Tavern was far from what he recognized in the Yang world.The air here was filled with a faint scent of decay,but the scent was not offensive,instead,it carried an irresistible sense of familiarity,as if every deceased person who stepped into this place had experienced the same scent of death.This feeling confused him,and everything here seemed both strange and familiar at the same time.

　　"Is the Yellow Spring...like this?"Ling Hao pondered silently in his heart.As a general who had experienced the battlefield for a long time,he had a unique understanding of life and death.In the yang world,he had heard many legends about the Yellow Spring.The Yellow Spring,as the home of the dead,should be an underworld full of wailing and suffering.However,the Yellow Spring Tavern in front of him was very different from these legends.

　　There were no cries of pain or ghosts chasing here,only endless tranquility and solitude.This kind of tranquility,on the contrary,made Ling Hao feel uneasy,as if everything in front of him was just a layer of false appearances,and what was hidden behind was the real terror.He tried to calm himself down and clear his thoughts.

　　Ling Hao got up and walked towards the window,through the dusty window,the shadow of the Yellow Spring River was faintly visible.The river flowed slowly,its surface rippling,and a ghostly cold light flickered on the surface.Ling Hao couldn't help but recall the rivers in the Yang world,those rushing rivers were always full of vigor,while the Yellow Spring River in front of him seemed to be the embodiment of death itself,so quiet that it was suffocating.

　　Legend had it that the Yellow Spring River was the final way back for the dead,and any soul that came into contact with this river would disappear forever,merging into the endless darkness.Ling Hao looked at this weird river and silently pondered in his heart,"Is this Yellow Spring River...also like the legend,which can completely devour the souls of the dead?"

　　Ling Hao sat back down in front of the table again,his fingers unconsciously tapping the desktop gently.The scenes of the Yangworld,those familiar people,battlefields,cities,and everything he once owned,kept surfacing in his mind.In the Yang world,he was a fearful general,leading countless soldiers to fight in all directions,but now,he was sitting alone in this dead Yellow Springs Tavern,as if he was cut off from the entire world.

　　He had never imagined that the world would look like this after death.In the Yang world,he always thought that the Yellow Springs was a place full of fear and pain,and he had already prepared himself for such a homecoming.But the Yellow Springs in front of him brought him an even more disturbing calm.This calmness made him feel as if he had detached himself from everything,and even the glory,wars,and life and death that he had once known,all gradually became void in this tranquility.

　　Ling Hao sat alone in the tavern,expressionlessly staring at the cup of wine remaining in front of him.It was colorless and tasteless,but carried a bit of sweetness if nothing else when he tasted it back,as if it was stirring up those vague memories in the depths of his mind.As a war god accustomed to controlling his emotions,this uncontrollable unknown instead made him wary.

　　Ling Hao re-surveyed his surroundings,his eyes once again falling on the walls,and those yellowish paintings hanging on the walls always made him feel odd.Their painting style was very different from that of the yang world,both simple and rough,but also with a certain ancient mystery.Ling Hao stood up and walked towards one of the paintings,reaching out to gently brush away the dust on it.The painting depicted a wasteland with a deadly atmosphere,a blood-colored waning moon hanging in the sky,while on the ground,countless dead souls walked silently with their heads bowed,as if they were driven by some invisible force towards an unknown end.

　　"Is this the scene of the Yellow Springs?"Ling Hao muttered to himself,a hint of confusion in his eyes.As the strongest God of War in the Yang world,he had experienced countless battles and seen the most gruesome massacres and deaths,but he had never seen such a desperate scene.

　　He slowly walked past each of the paintings,each of which seemed to tell the journey of a different dead soul.These dead souls came from different eras,dressed differently,and looked differently,but their destinies all seemed to point to the same end-the endless yellow spring road.A strange feeling flooded Ling Hao's heart,a feeling that made him vaguely feel that the Yellow Springs Tavern wasn't as simple as it seemed on the surface.

　　Ling Hao returned to the counter and once again surveyed the silhouette that stood quietly behind the counter.The silhouette still maintained its previous posture,as if it had become one with the tavern,unable to be disturbed by anything in the outside world.Ling Hao squinted his eyes and tried to see the silhouette's face,but no matter how hard he tried,the outline in front of him remained blurry.

　　"Who are you?"Ling Hao finally spoke,his voice low and firm.He was used to facing questions directly,rather than guessing in his mind.

　　The silhouette behind the counter moved slightly,seemingly noticing Ling Hao's inquiry.However,the silhouette didn't respond,just nodded gently,then pushed the cup in his hand towards Ling Hao,signaling him to have another drink.

　　Ling Hao didn't take the glass immediately,but continued to watch the figure,trying to find out any clues from the other party's movements.However,that figure was always as calm as water,as if it was just a shadow,lifeless and soulless.

　　"That's all."Ling Hao finally decided to put down his doubts and reached out to take the cup of wine.He knew that there were too many mysteries to be solved here,and the only way to do so was to keep moving forward.

　　He took a sip of the wine again,but in his mind,he couldn't help but start recalling everything in the Yang world.In life,he led thousands of troops and horses and rode the sands.He was the invincible God of War in the army,his enemies were terrified of him,and he himself had never been afraid of anything.But now,sitting in this dark Yellow Springs Tavern,he felt a trace of unprecedented uneasiness.

　　The difference between the Yellow Springs and the Yang world was not only reflected in the physical form of space,but also a difference in sensation.Every inch of the Yang world was filled with the breath of life,whether it was the blowing of the wind or the shouts of the battlefield,it was all so real and vibrant.The Yellow Springs,on the other hand,was like an abandoned world,with only endless silence and coldness,as if the flow of time had been lost here.

　　"Is this the world after death?"Ling Hao whispered softly to himself,his eyes filled with complicated emotions.He had never thought that he would one day come to such a place.As an unrivaled God of War in his life,he had long seen death as an inevitable destination,but he had never imagined that it was so hopeless and empty after death.

　　Time seemed to have lost its meaning in the Yellow Spring Tavern.Ling Hao didn't know how long he had already stayed here,and he no longer cared about the passage of time.His eyes swept around once again,the ancient paintings,the old tables and chairs,and the wine jugs behind the counter,every single thing was like a part of the Yellow Spring Tavern,quietly waiting for something.

　　Just as Ling Hao was pondering,the door of the tavern was gently pushed open.The door shaft made a faint'creaking'sound,breaking the silence inside the tavern.

　　Ling Hao instantly raised his head with vigilance,only to see a woman with a straight posture walk in outside the door.She wore a white robe,her steps light and firm,with a hint of indifference and detachment on her face.Her gaze swept across the tavern and finally landed on Ling Hao.The moment he saw the person coming,Ling Hao's eyes suddenly became stern,and his heart beat strongly as if it was going to break through his heart;this person in front of him,Ling Hao would never forget her in his life-the enemy's strategist,the expert in female disguise,Leng Yunchuan.