I Came from the Yellow Springs

At the boundary between yin and yang, at the mouth of the Yellow Springs, the living guard the Thirteen Ghost Gates.

The prison warden, the brocade-clad marquis, the watch-dog at the post station for the reborn.

Door gods, water nymphs, the Confucius Temple, red lanterns and white funeral banners winding through the streets.

Hidden in this ghost ballad, with one line missing, is a shocking secret. I was a child my grandfather stole from the Yellow Springs, so before I was even born, I was drawn into this tangled secret of the martial world. To break the fatal trap wrapped around me, I ventured time and again into places of deadly danger: questioning corpses in desolate tombs, drifting coffins in quicksand, the Nine Waters Mystic Altar, the Gate of No Return... After countless brushes with death, I finally pieced together the ballad's last line in blood. By then, though, there was no turning back.