Subdued Soul Chronicle

The Empress Dowager looked down at Seol Young.

“You want to solve this?”

They seemed like provocative words, but they were truly more of an interest.

It might be because he was the white-robed Hwarang who had taken care of Princess Ajin and had never let them down.

So she said,

“The High Governor and Governor brought this, but wasn’t it the white-robed Hwarang who stretched out his hands in front of the flames to help? Do you know a lot about this? Do you know why the Buddha had decided to send me the blank sutras through the hands of the High Governor and the Governor?”

As a royal, she spoke her mind thinking the Buddha sent these for her.

“There is something I need to point out.”

Seol Young said so and added.

“Perhaps this isn’t for the Empress Dowager?”

“No?”

“Please let me take a look at them. We will need a brush and inkstone.”

“I understand.”

She looked at her lady-in-waiting, and the woman delivered a book to Seol Young and prepared the brush and inkstone.

Seol Young opened the sutra first. At that moment, a strand of silver energy moved through the floor without anyone noticing, and letters began to appear.

The owner of this strange aura was Zaha. He showed Seol Young the contents that were inside. Because the qi was cast using his spiritual meridian, not everyone could see it.

Then Seol Young traced the brush.

Everyone looked shocked as he wrote down what was on the blank item.

“Isn’t that a sutra to take down the karma of the dead?”

Seol Young nodded at the Empress Dowager’s question.

“Yes. All of these are like that. That is why no one here could see them.”

“….?”

“The high priests who had built the tower thought that they had trapped Jeok Ryun-rang’s soul in there forever, so the only person who can read this is Jeok Ryun-rang. In other words, the only ones who can read them are the dead, because these are for the dead.”

The reason they looked blank to everyone but were visible to Zaha.

It was because of this.

Because they were for the dead.

“….”

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines, and looking at what was written, it was clear to them now.

The writing looked like it was written by an experienced old man who had written for decades and not by a young Hwarang.

The people were creeped out.

“Besides, copying it like this is useless.”

As Seol Young said that, the letters he wrote vanished, and the paper turned blank.

“This sutra holds the intentions of someone who wishes the dead to move to heaven. Even if we borrow the eyes of a ghost and copy them, they will still turn blank. Jeok Ryun-rang has already left, and only the scriptures remained, so it would be better to follow the dead and burn these.”

At that moment, Zaun looked at him. Even though her body was heavy with a child, she had been summoned by the Empress Dowager since morning, and she was facing her brother, whom she didn’t like.

She had been watching everything with a sullen expression, and the topic of the dead seemed to have interested her.

‘Is she thinking about her first husband? There is no better treasure than this for the dead.’

Zaun looked at the papers with eyes that looked daunting, but the papers were already in Zaha’s hands.

“It is not good for the living, especially for someone like the Empress Dowager, to hold something for the dead. I will head to the hermitage of my family and burn them.”

“Yes.”

The Empress Dowager handed them to him, and Zaha held the papers as he beckoned for Seol Young to leave.

So they greeted her goodbye right away and turned around, but then she called them again.

“Wait.”

“Uh?”

“I forgot about one important thing. I heard that when you and the Governor passed by the flute with this around, it emitted thick smoke. Why was that? I heard it only responds to supernatural calamities.”

“….”

They didn’t expect her to suddenly ask them that, so they went stiff because they weren’t able to prepare for that beforehand.

At that, the Heavenly Pavilion Head, who hadn’t spoken since earlier, said,

“It is not a wonder that the flute reacted.”

She glanced at Seol Young and Zaha as she said,

“The Treasury is a place to keep the things of heaven that have been given to the living. Just as Seol Young-rang said, it was made and given to the dead, so when it was brought near such a holy place, the flute was warning them.”

“Ahh. I see.”

The Empress Dowager nodded her head.

‘What?’

Instead of catching them, did she take their side? Anyway, before the Empress Dowager would realize something was off, they quickly brought out the papers.

And the Heavenly Pavilion Head came right after, and Zaha asked her,

“You know that Seol Young-rang deliberately touched the tower and brought this out. If you think we will hand this out to you now, then you are terribly mistaken.”

“As I thought.”

She said,

“There was a revelation that a Hwarang was working on it. But it wasn’t me who singled out Seol Young-rang as the Hwarang, though.”

“Are you really saying that after coming here?”

She turned to Seol Young.

“Seol Young-rang did things he wouldn’t have done if he were an evil spirit. If he has to clear the sutra, then I will give you the chance, so tell me in a way I can be convinced.”

“…”

“But convincing me will be more difficult than having me as an enemy.”

After saying that, she turned around and walked away with her dress fluttering.

Zaha mumbled in shock.

“Did that scary lion start to change her thoughts?”

“As if. It wouldn’t be that.”

Seol Young answered.

“This has to be a trap. Do not worry. We can start with the papers first.”

They went out of the residence.

This nation believed in Buddhism, and these were papers that had been sealed 200 years ago, so many people would be interested in them. Everyone passing by looked like a thief to them.

At that time, Zaha grabbed a Golden Ring Hwarang who was passing by and asked,

“What is the Governor doing?”

“Hwan Soo fetched him earlier. I think His Highness wanted to talk to him.”

“Then go and wait there. When the Governor comes back, tell him that I retrieved the papers from yesterday.”

“Yes.”

The two of them parted ways and headed to the basement of the Hwarangs’ base. It was where the dark room where they saw the image of the God of Cataclysm the last time.

They sat there and opened the papers.

A book for the dead.

A book the living couldn’t read.

“I didn’t know being dead would help me like this.”

Zaha mumbled in a tone that wasn’t happy or shocked.

“Looking at this book makes me feel like I am being forced into working.”

“Stop talking nonsense and read it.”

“But did you really understand the secret to this sutra in that short time?”

“It happens at times.”

Seol Young responded.

“When the deceased is dead, the burial items may include items that only the deceased can see. Usually, they become useless, no matter how costly they are. Because they cannot be sold.”

“Aha, and you gained that knowledge from robbing?”

Zaha smiled.

“Robbing? It is called trading for information.”

Seol Young corrected him.

“Right. Right. You wrote two copies this time, so even if we read this, it shouldn’t hurt.” ¹

Zaha skipped the first page.

“As I said yesterday, the first one is just a prayer for repose. About taking down karma. And well, the basic one. I hadn’t seen…”

As Zaha touched the paper, the letters appeared, and Seol Young read it.

“A secret.”

The high priest, who supervised the tower ceremony in the past, must have done this. There was a written sutra next, and it said to shake off the attachments to life and leave for the embrace of Buddha.

And the contents ended there.

But there was something more behind it, and when Zaha touched it, letters appeared.

They were the records of the lives of several Wonhwas.

“It’s 7.”

“Let’s see. The first should be with Namo and Jun Jeong. It was the first time the Hwarang troops were used, and the case where one killed the other happened.”

Then the two of them read it. From what they knew, both of these women had been drawn in portraits throughout history, although very briefly. But as the Heavenly Pavilion Head said, it was probably because of their high position in the Hwarangs and the Pavilion, and their ending wasn’t nice.

Getting involved in political fights, getting killed, getting entangled in love, committing murder, and getting killed…

And their eyes stopped at one place.

‘The six generation’s Wonhwa.’

The part that described the strange incident about the six Wonhwa. No one knew where she came from, but she was beautiful, and many liked her.

Even the Crown Prince stepped forward and made her the head of the Hwarangs.

They dressed her up heavily and put a crown on her head, and they gathered to hold an ancestral ritual in the palace.

On that day, the strange scent of a flower permeated the whole place.

Everyone was drinking and dancing as if they were possessed, and then suddenly, people began to get killed. Hundreds of people died, and there were also close to thirty who belonged to the royal family and officials.

Then the Wonhwa went missing. So the Crown Prince, who pushed her to be the head, had to take the blame.

“Wait.”

Seol Young raised his head. He felt a sense of déjà vu at this part.

“The one with MU written. The Prince. This is…”

“There was something like that in the eight ghost stories in the Moon Palace.”

Zaha understood it then. The fifth story.

5. Medicine

If you find a black bag with the Chinese character ‘MU’ on it, among the medicinal pouches, hang it between the licorice, and if you hear a voice from the pouch, make sure to answer as ‘The way plants thrive.’

The two of them had subdued the ghost of the Prince in the story.

“Then that Prince was this Prince?”

“But I felt nothing then.”

Seol Young looked back. At that time, the ghost of the Crown Prince was nothing more than an empty shell with an evil heart. He couldn’t read anything from it.

But…

Could it be that this was the original painting of the God of Cataclysm?

Her eyes looked like she was in conflict.

‘Wonhwa Mita.’

That was her name.

Zaha began to organize all they had seen so far.

“When she appeared, strange things happened, and she was also related to the eight ghost stories in the Old Palace, she was treated like a member of the heavenly’s army and had a huge crown on her head, just like the God of…”

“She does have a lot of similarities with her.”

Seol Young nodded.

“And above all, the flute reacted to this. But there is this another thing that troubles me.”

“And that is?”

“Even if this wasn’t the original painting, isn’t it someone from a hundred years ago? But the God of Cataclysm was wearing clothes from the Tang dynasty, which was a popular trend at that time. So what is this?”

“It looks as if the time doesn’t match….”

Zaha was lost in thought for a while. And suddenly, he frowned.

“Wait, then maybe…”

“You have an idea?”

“But I need to check it first.”

He jumped up.

“Follow me quickly.”

He took the lead and hurried somewhere.

1. TL/N: In the sense that they shouldn’t settle on one book. ️