Subdued Soul Chronicle

Seol Young had no doubt that he would die at that moment.

It seemed as if the dazzling flame from Zaha’s sword would wrap itself around him and bring him to eternal silence.

So he closed his eyes, but then…

Pik!

He heard something burst under his feet, and then dirt flew everywhere.

At the same time, his body was bent at an impossible angle to avoid Zaha’s sword.

Having nine lives!

That was the only way to express it in words.

‘As expected of the best sword of the nation! I can rely on her!’

Seol Young screamed inside. Zaha’s attack just now couldn’t have been avoided.

However, Jeok Ryun turned the impossible into the possible. She spurred, digging into the ground with a powerful force, and ducked to avoid the attack. Then another powerful energy in Seol Young’s body made it possible.

It was the evil spirit’s energy.

‘However…’

For some reason, Seol Young felt that this situation wasn’t so unfamiliar.

‘Come to think of it, I guess I also managed to trap an evil spirit inside my body. Although it’s not that close to….’

This was similar to what Zaha did before his death.

‘This means…’

In the midst of the swordfight, Seol Young was lost in thoughts.

‘…!’

Suddenly, a very important thought came to his mind. He was so engrossed in the thought that he momentarily forgot what the current situation was.

Seol Young spoke to Zaha in front of him,

“Wait. I think I have figured out something important…’

But his voice didn’t come out.

Instead, the sharp blade was moving in front of his eyes.

“Ah!”

Jeok Ryun ducked her head and avoided it.

At that moment, Zaha’s hand appeared at lightning speed and grabbed her by the shoulder.

“I found your weakness.”

An unfamiliar golden light shone. They looked like the eyes of a dead man earlier.

But then it went back to normal as if it had always been like that before. There was also a hint of laughter within them.

“You threatened to stab the body of the person you had taken over.”

Zaha cornered her with a sneering face.

“And when I was about to stab you, why bother to dig into the ground and avoid it? Whether Seol Young-rang gets stabbed by me or not, you should have left the sword to hit him, because that would have killed him. So why did you give up that chance?”

“…”

Jeok Ryun didn’t respond and raised her sword to counterattack.

“As expected, you felt bad. It is a body that you obtained after 200 years, after all.”

As she blocked Zaha’s sword, he continued,

“I guess you don’t have the ability to change into another body, then? Then, if that body gets taken down, it is obvious who will be the one that will regret it the most.”

“Shut up!”

Jeok Ryun shouted like a beast and attacked Zaha back.

‘Even I was tricked.’

Only then did Seol Young realize it. Zaha tried to find out Jeok Ryun’s weakness with the attack earlier.

And she got caught.

When she was in spirit form, she tried to kill Seol Young. But when she was inside his body, her attitude changed since she wanted to keep the body as much as possible.

‘What if he hurts my leg and I can no longer move? What if he hurts my eyes, and I can no longer see? I need to see this through.’

She was caught up in that thought, and that was what made her reveal her gaps.

“Do not think about any nonsense. Come out quickly!”

Zaha’s attacks poured in.

Jeok Ryun defended his attack and managed to escape it. However, when she tried to move, she was caught again.

“Let go of what you stole!”

Zaha threw her to the ground.

He pressed her down firmly with one hand to prevent her from escaping, and then pressed his sword down on her with the other.

“This is your last chance. Get out of there quickly! Or you will come out in flames! Do you know what sword this is?”

“Shut up!”

She struggled to move, but she couldn’t.

“Well, why bother trying to persuade you? It isn’t like you can be talked with.”

Zaha looked down at her as she was struggling.

“Sorry, Seol Young-rang. I will stab you in just one place so it doesn’t hurt.”

Seol Young was shocked.

Was he going to go through with this?

A Hwarang wasn’t afraid of blood.

Where would there be such a Hwarang?

If needed, even after a thousand stabs, they wouldn’t blink, but even if they stabbed themselves, they would have the same reaction.

‘But this isn’t what it is about!’

Seol Young wanted to move and say something, but nothing changed.

At the time, he looked at his three hyungs.

There was hope.

‘Hyungs will know. Even when I took Sa Daham’s form, they recognized me right away.’

He could barely look at them, but…

“…”

The three of them didn’t stop Zaha. Rather, they just watched him.

It was the first time Seol Young had seen them with such cold faces. He was puzzled for a moment, but then realized it.

It wasn’t Seol Young they were staring at, but the evil spirit inside him.

It was natural for them not to want to take control of him.

Being stabbed in one place shouldn’t hurt when they compare it to him being possessed in the long run.

‘The High Governor will handle this fine.’

With that kind of face, they watched Zaha, as if they had entrusted their child to a physician.

It was as if his last hope was gone.

‘Is this how it is going to happen?’

If Jeok Ryun would get engulfed in flames and driven out, everything would be in vain.

Seol Young was flustered. Zaha raised his sword, and it looked like he would do it at any moment.

‘I need to inform them somehow!’

At that moment, a thought flashed in his mind.

When he lost his spiritual power due to the curse of the Devil Lair Lord, he helped him use a way to use the spiritual qi of the Sun Moon Troops, and Zaha told him,

-Do you know what this means? In this world, only the two of us can recognize this form of energy.

That was it.

Seol Young raised the spirit energy in both of his eyes as if he were sure that it would work. But there was one thing that was unusual.

Recalling the time when Zaha engraved the spiritual energy onto his wrist, he tried to use the spiritual qi.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

He signaled through his eyes, and Zaha looked at him,

“…?”

He had a questionable look as if he had noticed something.

Blink! Blink! Blink!

Seol Young didn’t miss the chance and acted desperately.

‘I am fine!’

That was what he meant, and Zaha’s expression changed.

Seol Young blinked his eyes eagerly.

‘Please let Jeok Ryun-rang go! I can control her.’

He didn’t know if he had conveyed the message, but at least he seemed to notice that something was strange.

“What?”

The strength holding down the shoulder was gone, and the sword that was pushing to stab him also tilted a little.

And Jeok Ryun didn’t miss the chance.

She jumped up, pulled herself free, and ran away.

“High Governor! Seol Young…!”

Baek Eon screamed in surprise.

“Stay still! There is something strange here.”

Zaha said.

Jeok Ryun borrowed Seol Young’s body, and now she was running away. Her emotions were too complicated.

Anger, pain, betrayal, revenge…

However, all those emotions were completely separated from Seol Young’s mind, and he finally felt that he could control her.

‘Jeok Ryun-rang!’

He shouted with all his heart.

‘What you want to know is not the truth!’

She stopped.

At that point, he managed to make her turn her head. And there was an altar right in front of them.

‘Look at this!’

Seol Young sent that thought into her soul. It was an altar that had been prepared to summon Mok Yun.

It was a place where ancestral tablets were enshrined, and incense was burned to respect the ancestors.

At that altar, the truth was waiting. It was the truth that this woman had ignored for two hundred years.

“….”

Jeok Ryun stood there, looking at it. It was like someone had hit her on the head with a hammer.

“It cannot be…”

She mumbled blankly.

“Why do they honor you by calling you Leader? You are a traitor who sold the nation…”

“Because he is not a traitor.”

Hwa Un said.

“Leader Mok Yun is not a spy. Our Vermillion Troops have been informing you of that fact each time we hold a service at the Wonhwa Tower for the past two hundred years, but Jeok Ryun-rang never listened.”

“Lies.”

Jeok Ryun mumbled.

“Then why didn’t he say anything when I questioned him? Why did he turn away as if he didn’t notice me?”

“We want to know that too.”

“Lies!”

Jeok Ryun turned around.

“Mok Yun! Come out!”

The trees moved as she waved her hand, and a whirlwind blew away the bushes.

“If you have pride, you should appear and explain yourself! Come here!”

She screamed in a fit of rage and destroyed everything, but then she suddenly stopped. Only the tower stood tall in this chaos.

And she looked away as if she were possessed by something, and she raised one hand.

“COME OUT!”

A strong wind blew towards the tower.

At that moment, words came out of Seol Young’s mouth,

“Stop!”

It wasn’t Jeok Ryun’s voice, but his own.

He could finally speak.

‘I did it!’

Seol Young immediately sent her soul out of his body.

[Ackk!]

Along with those emotions, there was this vivid sense of something leaving his body.

His hair, which had turned gray, was back to normal, and he couldn’t see it, but his eyes too.

“….”

Everyone looked at Seol Young with surprised faces.

“Seol Young!”

Baek Eon hurriedly approached him to support him.

“How did all of this happen?”

“I was not possessed.”

Seol Young said that.

“Everyone misunderstood. It wasn’t a possession. I am not a fool that can be possessed by a spirit.”

“Then?”

Zaha asked,

“Then what did you even do?”

“I went ahead and called her. ‘Except for threatening my life, do whatever you want to do.’ I think I managed to figure it out, thanks to that.”

Seol Young walked slowly and stood in front of the tower.

“Leader Mok Yun.”

He looked back at everyone and said,

“Doesn’t it feel like he is trapped inside the Wonhwa Tower?”