After he crossed the boundary between life and death, Mount Fuji behind him vanished completely from his perception.
Lin Jin stood on gray-black earth and looked up. Mountains rose and fell in the distance, and farther beyond, he could make out the outlines of rivers and cities.
A gray-white sky shrouded the entire world. There was no sun or moon in sight, and the whole world remained in a constant, dim light.
He activated his Jōgan.
Lin Jin's gaze swept beyond the distant mountains, and he soon established one thing.
This place had a complete world, space, and rules of its own.
Yellow Springs was not a special space attached to the human world.
It was a truly independent world.
Lin Jin saw quite a few soul bodies nearby slowly following the ancient road ahead.
Some looked bewildered, as though they had yet to recover from their deaths. Others retained clear awareness, walking while glancing back, seemingly still searching for the road to the human world that had long since been cut off.
More departed souls silently followed a broad ancient road into the distance.
Stone pillars stood on either side of the road. They bore no runes, only some extremely ancient scratches.
Lin Jin could sense a faint power enveloping the entire ancient road.
It did not force any departed soul forward, but subtly guided their direction.
Some soul bodies that had only recently entered Yellow Springs still retained all their emotions and memories.
Farther along, some of the departed souls began to change.
Some grew silent, some gradually developed vacant eyes, and some soul bodies stopped directly beside the road and closed their eyes, as though falling asleep.
Lin Jin studied them a little longer.
This sleep did not mean their soul bodies had been damaged.
On the