Chapter 5: The Road to the Yellow Springs

　　After flying through the ghost gate,Ling Hao and Leng Yunchuan still stood on the back of the giant tortoise,looking down at their feet without looking away.The scene in front of them was suffocating,as if they had been extracted from a nightmare and pushed hard back into the dream world.It was a road that stretched out like a road from the depths of hell,winding and circling as if it had no end,disappearing into the distant,indistinct horizon.The land on both sides of the road was ridiculously barren,as if it had been completely abandoned by time and death.Cracks littered the earth as if it were a dry riverbed,and every inch of the land looked as if it had been scorched by fire,broken,charred,and lifeless.Occasionally,a few yellowed weeds could be seen swaying in the weak breeze,as if they were making a final struggle,and the boundary between life and death was already blurred here.

　　The air was filled with a rotten smell,that icy cold odor like drilling out from an ancient grave,straight to the nose,calling for a cold war.The scene in front of Ling Hao's eyes gradually became clearer,and as he looked down at the eerie road under his feet,he couldn't help but mutter in his heart,"Is this the Yellow Springs Road?So eerie?"Although he had heard many rumors about the Yellow Springs Road,seeing it for the first time with his own eyes still caused him to feel a chill rise in his heart.Everything in front of him was more real and desperate than he had ever imagined.

　　The earth took on a grayish-brown color,like a dead land that had existed since ancient times.Countless tiny cracks on the surface of the ground were densely covered like the wrinkles of an old man,looking like they had carried countless pains and sufferings.Ling Hao's gaze skimmed over a few broken bones,which were scattered on the roadside,as if they once belonged to some lost soul and eventually turned into dust,forever trapped in this dead land.A cracked skull emitted a faint white light under the cover of the mist,as if those who had passed away were still gazing at them.That kind of gaze,as if with unspeakable resentment and loneliness,made one's scalp tingle.

　　The road was crowded with groups of dead souls.Those dead souls were like walking corpses,their steps were slow and heavy,as if every inch of the ground under their feet was draining away their remaining strength.Each one of them hung their heads low,as if their spines had been bent by invisible pressure,and they didn't even have the strength to straighten up.Their faces were lifeless,and their eyes were empty and lifeless,as if all their emotions,hopes,and desires had long since been wiped out by the merciless time.These dead souls looked thin and frail,like withered branches in the wind,a gust of wind seemed to be able to blow them away.Some of them were even naked,their skin dry and cracked,like dirt long exposed to the hot sun,losing all vitality.

　　Their footsteps were monotonous and dull,echoing on the empty road,as if the footsteps themselves had lost their vitality.That sound was so depressing that one couldn't help but hear it,like an endless dirge that loomed in the air.The dead souls seemed to be driven by some invisible force,walking forward step by step,with the end unknown and the future unknowable.Each one of them was like walking on the edge of fate,isolated,unable to turn back,and not daring to stop.

　　Ling Hao stared at these dead souls closely,an indescribable feeling of depression rising in his heart.He had experienced countless battles and seen countless people fall in front of him,death was not strange to him,but the scene in front of him made him feel a despair he had never felt before.It was as if those dead souls had lost their souls,only an empty shell was left walking mechanically,losing their goal and direction,their existence was only for the completion of this endless long journey,and ultimately they were completely swallowed by this road.

　　"Are they...still themselves?"Leng Yunchuan's voice came from the side,her tone faint with a hint of mockery.She stood beside Ling Hao,her gaze coldly looking at the dead souls under her feet.Her expression was so calm that it was a bit unreal,but Ling Hao knew that Leng Yunchuan was not calm in her heart,and whoever would be deeply shocked by such a scene.Leng Yunchuan's calmness was her only defense in the face of fear.

　　The sky in the distance was chaotic.The gray sky was interspersed with a bizarre dark purple color,as if even time had been frozen in this moment,and the entire world seemed to have fallen into a state of eternal stagnation.The misty sky obscured the end of the road ahead,and the fog tossed and turned,as if it wanted to devour all vitality and hope.That road was like a labyrinth leading to an unknown abyss,unable to find an exit,only to keep walking until completely lost in this barren land.

　　On both sides of the road,you can occasionally see some strange flowers,they are completely different from the grass and trees in the sunny world,these flowers grow in patches on the edge of the road,blood-red petals swaying in the cloudy wind,as if sighing in a low voice.Leng Yunchuan again recalled the legend in the Yang world that the flowers on the other side of the river only bloomed on the Yellow Springs Road,symbolizing the departed souls,and when the flowers bloomed,the memories of the dead dissipated with them.Their flower stems were slender,yet tough as if they were fighting against this land of death.Ling Hao's eyes were also attracted to these other side flowers,and he vaguely felt that they seemed to be filled with some kind of mysterious power,as if they were guiding the dead souls forward.However,every dead soul that walked by remained with their heads hanging down,ignoring this beautiful scene,as if these flowers were nothing more than illusory existences to them.

　　In addition to the blood-colored flowers,there was also a kind of weird tree growing beside the road,the trunk of which showed a deep purple color,and the branches were twisted as if some kind of imprisoned souls were struggling.These trees had no leaves,only bare branches,and the branches were covered with black fruits,which emitted a faint rotting smell,as if they were condensed from the grievances of the dead souls,and as a ghastly wind blew by,the trunks of the trees emitted a low moaning sound,like the dead souls who had once traveled along this road were crying.

　　Leng Yunchuan also saw these eerie trees and frowned slightly.This low sound also made her feel uneasy."These things..."she whispered to herself with a hint of a searching look in her eyes,"Could it be that these plants have some kind of connection with the dead souls?"

　　And just at this time Ling Hao saw that right under the trees there were black shadows short as if they were composed of black smoke things writhing,they sometimes solidified,sometimes dispersed,quietly shuttling around the dead souls,like the shadows of the dead souls,and like some kind of monsters that existed in the netherworld.

　　"What is that thing?"Ling Hao said in a low voice,his brows locked,his hand already subconsciously gripping the long sword at his waist.Leng Yunchuan similarly noticed the black shadows,her eyes narrowed,her expression calm but full of vigilance.

　　"I don't know either,but they must not be good."Leng Yunchuan said indifferently,her gaze still cold,and although she was far away she had subconsciously taken half a step backward.

　　Those black shadows didn't seem to pay any attention to the two people on the giant turtle,they just slowly traveled through the ranks of the dead souls,as if they were searching for something,or as if they were just a part of the destiny of these dead souls.Occasionally,Ling Hao could still see that when the black shadows passed by the body of a certain dead soul,the dead soul's figure suddenly trembled violently,and then,as if it had lost all its strength,the whole person"snapped"to the ground,completely turning into a streak of black ash.

　　"They are devouring the dead souls."Leng Yunchuan's voice was cold,his eyes were still indifferent,but they revealed a hint of vague nervousness."These black shadows should be the predators on this Yellow Springs Road."

　　Ling Hao's heart sank,the laws of this world were even more cruel than he had imagined.The dead souls didn't just walk on the Yellow Spring Road waiting for the end,they also had to face the threat of these black shadows.That feeling of irresistible despair surged up again.

　　Just when Ling Hao felt more and more depressed,he suddenly glimpsed an extremely weird scene.On that yellow spring road,which was slowly traveled by countless dead souls,Ling Hao's eyes rested on two exceptionally familiar figures.His heartbeat suddenly accelerated,because he clearly saw himself-the one who had lost his eyes,had a wooden expression,and was wearing the exact same clothes as himself!And right next to"him",there was Leng Yunchuan,with the same dull eyes and withered description.

　　In an instant,Ling Hao felt an ice-cold chill running from his spine to his brain,his breath seemed to be strangled by some force,his mind seemed to be stagnant,and every breeze in the air was like an ice-cold blade,cutting through his consciousness.That familiar feeling of fear came over him,and he couldn't believe whether what he was seeing was real or an illusion.