Subdued Soul Chronicle

Mok Yun’s soul also felt something.

The only thing that was left of his face that had withered and lost its shape over time, which was his eyes, suddenly moved.

Retracing the intense gaze that was directed at him, he finally found his partner.

[…]

Silence passed, and the two souls noticed each other for the first time in over two hundred years.

But their response felt too quiet.

That would have been the case normally, but right now, there was one soul that was too different from what they had imagined.

Amidst the silence, Mok Yun’s question came through,

‘Why do you have gray hair?’

Jeok Ryun’s gray hair was actually white, and it was now different from her natural white hair. In addition, Mok Yun looked shocked at her bright red eyes, which looked like they were flaring with the intent to kill.

‘Why do you look broken?’

Meanwhile, Jeok Ryun also fell into doubt.

‘Right, who do you look so broken then?’

Since they hadn’t seen each other for more than two hundred years, shouldn’t they have been reincarnated and living a good life?

They couldn’t understand it.

[Why?]

Their eyes looked at each other. In the midst of that, Mok Yun suddenly came to understand the events that happened after he died.

Everything was so different from what he expected.

Jeok Ryun never met his presiding officer when he was alive. Because the enemy attacked them right away, she couldn’t even take out the letter that was on Mok Yun and read it.

The baby he hoped would have a nice life died with her. The false charge of him being a spy was soon revealed, but Jeok Ryun’s soul didn’t care.

Unable to shake off her thoughts of obsessing over him, she was cursed in this tower for two hundred years and tied to it.

‘So that is what happened…’

While Mok Yun’s soul was in deep thought, Jeok Ryun was also in thought.

‘Why did he end up like this?’

Ever since she had stabbed him, her heart had been elated, but right now, those feelings were vanishing. The satisfaction of fully owning her loved one had vanished.

It was as if someone had thrown her into a cold world.

‘I made him like that.’

She realized it. Even now, she could see the darkness swirling around him.

‘I didn’t know of any other way to keep him by my side other than to curse him.’

And that curse was what ruined him. Of course, she thought he would have gone far, but he actually stayed by her side. It was because she received the energy of the curse right next to him.

Jeok Ryun finally realized it.

‘What I thought was love was actually destroying us.’

For the first time, she was able to think about it. The fear had been lurking deep in her heart about being praised as the greatest swordsman in the kingdom.

-Why am I like this?

She had been thinking about that all her life, unable to find the answer. She was swayed by her emotions so quickly that she hurt those around her.

But it was only after she died that she realized it for the first time.

Why did she do that?

[Ah…]

A long sigh escaped from her. Her bright red eyes were now turning black.

[…]

The two souls looked at each other as if they were watching some horrendous painting. Maybe they could even take advantage of this moment and deal with both of them.

But Seol Young stayed still. He just watched what they would do and how they would act with spiritual energy on his fingers, just in case he needed to act swiftly.

Then everyone followed Seol Young and watched them.

[…]

Jeok Ryun seemed to want to say something, but the past two hundred years had made her only curse things each time she opened her mouth.

She soon forgot to say anything other than cursing, and she couldn’t say anything else without taking over a person’s body.

She suddenly started laughing softly, and soon it turned into crying.

Jeok Ryun wanted to atone for what she had done. Her hands were trembling with guilt, and she reached out to turn her body into spiritual form and disappear.

At that time, Mok Yun, who had been watching her silently, suddenly stretched out his hand. Mok Yun’s image flickered, and the red sleeves and the fan that blocked her sword at their first meeting were gone.

All that was left was a faint, fading spiritual body. However, the weak power that came from him prevented the evil energy from reaching.

Mok Yun and Jeok Ryun.

The eyes of the two met again. At that moment, the two went back to a distant past.

It was the last moment that they remembered.

The barracks were fluttering in the wind on the battlefield. The candles were flickering and seemed to go out at any second.

[….]

Mok Yun’s soul was too weak to speak, but everyone who saw it could realize his intentions.

She also realized it.

Her thoughts were wrong.

‘Can’t a wolf become a sheep?’

He only realized it now, two hundred years after his death. He loved her because she was a wolf.

All of his and her actions were motivated by love. He wandered around the tower, not knowing why, but now he knew the reason.

[Ah…]

His soul let out a long sigh too.

‘I’d rather just throw it all away and leave now. There has to be someplace in the vast land where we can head to.’

The two souls were unable to speak a word due to the excruciating time they spent here, but the sound of horses running outside could be heard softly.

The world was about to collapse.

Their world.

Seol Young made a guess in his head. It would take a little more time.

At that time, Zaha gestured to the Hwarangs.

They had to be careful not to upset the vague balance here. All of them stayed still and only increased their spiritual power little by little, and they somehow calmed the unstable aura.

However, the sound of enemy troops got closer to Jeok Ryun and Mok Yun.

[…]

The two exchanged glances.

What happened couldn’t be changed.

But…

In the silence, two hands full of regret slowly approached each other.

‘If I had realized then what I knew now…’

The hand that was stained with blood and the hand without forms—the two touched each other.

‘We could have at least died with a smile.’

The moment their hands touched, an illusion unfolded before the eyes of the two souls.

As if the entire world were theirs, they rode side by side on horseback. If there were an enemy, they would cut them down randomly.

They were stained with blood and died together, so they had nothing to regret!

The two souls burst out laughing at the same time. They could finally drop everything and leave.

[Let’s go!]

A clear voice rang out.

Amidst the clattering hooves and tinkling of bells, their souls began to leave that place.

‘Bye.’

Seol Young drew a talisman in the air with his fingers. But this time, he didn’t pray for them to be reborn in a good place.

Instead, he prayed this,

‘I hope you meet again in the next life…’

And a pair of talismans flew with the brightest shine, and the two souls vanished in them.

At that moment, the ground thudded. Since the evil spirits had been suppressed and the restraint was gone, the tower’s seal broke open, and the stone tower began to crack.

The seals of a hundred high priests lost their place and were released. At the same time, bright red flames soared around the Wonhwa Tower.

As the power of the monks left, they tried to burn down the tower to cleanse it. Just like a monk, when his body entered nirvana, everything was purified.

That was a good thing…

Then Seol Young came to his senses.

“The stuff that had been sealed with Jeok Ryun-rang must be inside there!”

He quickly summoned a water-purifying talisman and pushed the flames down. Then he reached out through the cracks in the tower.

Behind Seol Young’s face, flames spread.

“Seol Young! Do not worry! We can just look for it! You will catch on fire!”

Song Ok shouted.

The spiritual power of several people rose violently from behind. But the flames were only being pushed out and not taken down.

“This isn’t just any simple flame. Where is the well here, Hwa Un-rang?”

Baek Eon asked, but Hwa Un didn’t answer. In the midst of all this, he just stood there alone. He was looking at the tower as if he were possessed.

Unexpectedly, tears welled up in his eyes at the sight of the two souls of Jeok Ryun and Mok Yun leaving and burning everything down. Everyone was shocked and pretended not to see it.

However, Zaha didn’t care.

“Hwa Un-rang? Is it okay if all the residences are burned?”

At those words, Hwa Un came out of his trance. The flames that were being pushed out by spiritual power would spread.

“Ah… I will bring water!”

He hurriedly ran with the Hwarangs and troops. At that time, Seol Young was able to look inside the tower through the flames.

Something shimmered through the flames.

It was a silk cloth. It seemed like one that held books inside of it, and this caught Seol Young’s eyes.

‘It has to be the things that are related to the original painting.’

It looked like it would catch fire at any moment, so he hurriedly stretched out his hand and shouted,

“There is something inside!”

“Where?”

Zaha entered with his Dead Slayer sword.

“Here!”

Just before Seol Young’s fingers touched the wrapped cloth, a spark shone from the other side of the tower.

The moment the cloth was about to be engulfed in flames, a piece of stone fell with a cracking sound.

It suppressed and extinguished the flames that were trying to burn down the cloth.

Hmm?

This feels like too much of a coincidence now. Seol Young raised spiritual energy in his eyes and looked inside the tower. Then something like a gray haze appeared.

Zaha didn’t miss it, either.

“What? Is that a ghost too?”

“I don’t know.”

At that moment, bright red flames rushed in, covering the tower. Seol Young had to step back.

He handed the cloth that had been barely pulled out to Zaha and raised one hand. Then a strong aura came out with a flaming sound.

The next moment, a silver-blue dragon figure struck the tower. In front of this, the momentum of the flames weakened.

In the gap, Seol Young once again put his hand into the tower.

Soon later, a small, dark shadow began to come out.

Zaha asked.

“Ghost?”

“I was thinking so too, but no. It looks like an old lump of things.”

At that time, the shadow suddenly shook Seol Young’s hand and moved to the other side.

“I guess I need to follow it.”

The fire on this side was mostly being held back by Baek-Song-Wol, so Seol Young left them and moved with the black shadow.

“Is it the child?”

Zaha followed him and asked.

“The body of thoughts left behind by the child of Jeok Ryun and Mok Yun-rang who died without being born.”

“I think so too. If it were someone else, they wouldn’t have been able to sneak in without her noticing.”

But they couldn’t figure out where it was heading, so they followed it past the garden in the back and towards the inside of the Vermillion Birds’ residence.

The moment they went behind a building, water suddenly poured from above.

Seol Young couldn’t evade it and was drenched in cold water.

What?

They looked up, and the black shadow moved through the window. Then the shadow jumped off the building and ran away.

“…”

Seol Young was shocked.

Water dripped down his hair, and his clothes were soaking wet.

Zaha was having fun.

“He’s going to be a big boy! To feed the Ghost Demon King water before even being born!”

“No. He thought my body was caught in flames, so he used water.”

Seol Young insisted.

But looking at the child’s back, he was clearly having fun.

Why?

They sped up and caught up with the child. And he stretched out his hand.

“Stop, please!”

But the child vanished and then suddenly appeared right in front of him.

Someone was walking from the other side toward him.

“….!”

As if they had found the place, the child slipped into a person’s body, and Seol Young looked at that person.

And he was shocked.

It was Hwa Un.

He was dragging out water to put out the flames. Seeing that Seol Young was standing there, Hwa Un stopped for a while.

‘What is he doing here? Looking like a drowning mouse?’

After looking around with that kind of gaze, he found Zaha, and his face changed.

“High Governor, we were a bit late in filling out the water.”

“Ah, right…”

He replied with a strange look on his face. And with Hwa Un between the two of them, they looked at each other.

‘I see.’

Only then did they realize it.

Jeok Ryun and Mok Yun’s child was finally born after such a long time.

Also, they found the place they had to go to. Now, the mystery is solved.

Why did Hwa Un and Mok Yun look so alike despite not having any blood relations?

Why did his eyes fill up with tears when Jeok Ryun and Mok Yun were leaving?

And…

Why did he think about sprinkling water on Seol Young?

‘What I got sprayed with wasn’t water.’

Seol Young thought, recalling the past incident when Hwa Un was thrown into the dark pit.

‘Still, he resembles his father and is so merciful!’