Subdued Soul Chronicle

“… Don’t care. Seol Young-rang has been having a bit of a brain freeze these days.”

Hearing Zaha’s voice, Seol Young returned to reality.

It seemed like the trainees and the Hwarangs were confused when he just stood expressionless. Then Seol Young quickly changed his expression.

“What? I was just thinking.”

“In this place?”

“Listen to me first.”

Seol Young led him to a corner and said,

“When I saw this righteous weapon, something suddenly came to mind. You said this to me, ‘When the God of Cataclysm struck first eight years ago, the first ones who were slain were the Sun and Moon Troops because they were in charge of most of the tasks among the Hwarangs and it seemed to have a great sense of who had to be eliminated first.’”

“Right.”

“And what were those things?”

“I don’t know.”

Zaha shook his head.

“I guessed that because they were killed first, as if they were chosen first, and it kept trying to damage the boxes holding their research materials. So the access there was sealed, and despite examining it several times, no clues could be found.”

“Of course. It’s because no one knew about this evil spirit eight years ago. But it is different now. We found out more about it than before, so we can revisit the history of our seniors. Maybe something will stand out to us.”

It wasn’t so wrong.

A serious expression crossed Zaha’s face.

Then the two of them made their way out through the crowd.

“I need to go first because of work, so the Black Tortoise Troops should handle this. Reassure the people not to get too worked up on this.”

Mu Won responded to Zaha’s orders with courtesy.

“I understand.”

Meanwhile, in one corner, Mu Chun and the trainees were retesting the Fallen Thunderbolt technique they had just used.

The two of them moved to the castle and headed for the Sun and Moon Troops’ basement office.

A moon symbol was hung on the wall, and the room was full of books. As they stepped inside, their eyes shone. It was because of Oni.

“Senior Oni?”

It sounded like he wanted to be brought out, so Seol Young activated the ring, and the baby dragon jumped out. It first jumped to Seol Young and then sniffed Zaha.

“Sorry. There hadn’t been any time for you to play.”

Leaving Oni to do what it wanted, Zaha opened the secret space inside the shelf. It was engraved with the four Gods—the blue dragon, the white tiger, the vermillion bird, and the black tortoise.

“It’s been a while since I saw this.”

Zaha said as he broke the seal and opened the lid.

It was full of papers.

“They didn’t organize it.”

“No one knew what it was, so they had to place it like this.”

They looked at the research materials that were there. They were the records of their tests in making righteous weapons using ancient documents.

There were also materials about music, Sword Spirits, defense techniques, and more. The two flipped through all of them.

“Yokai, monsters found in Korea, monsters of other nations…”

“I think this is about an unknown plant or animal. And the disaster…”

And then Seol Young’s hand stopped. He was looking at a certain record.

“Wait. This…”

“What?”

Zaha looked at it, and at that moment, he also went stiff.

There, it was written:

‘Ghost Bridge.’

The bridge that connected their world to the next.

They already knew about it, but they recently heard of it again from the mouth of Jung Myung, the shaman.

Seol Young said,

“Didn’t they say the Empress Heo of Ayuta came to Gaya through this? Crossing the Ghost Bridge made sense.”

A passageway connecting this world to the dead world.

Beyond that, another world existed. The world where ‘it,’ Mita, existed.

“…”

Zaha’s face changed.

Among the materials here, there was something related to the God of Cataclysm. And the two moved to a desk and opened the records.

According to the records, the troops conducted an experiment on opening the Ghost Bridge about a hundred years ago.

And the two of them read what the record said.

“History says that Empress Heo was on board a ship that carried a mysterious pagoda. It was the stone pagoda of Pasa that had a mysterious power to calm the storms. And the Empress crossed over Gaya from Ayuta under the guidance of this pagoda.”

“The stone pagoda wasn’t from this land. Even after her death, it still held such strong powers, so the sailors split the pagoda stone secretly and stole it.”

“After that, the Sun and Moon Troops bought a genuine Pasa stone from sailors and studied it. And it was discovered that a mysterious path opens when these stones are arranged in their original form. And that was the Ghost Bridge.”

“According to the records, the Hwarangs at the time experimented by putting the Pasa stone pagoda on the top of Danseok mountain, which was the highest in the city.”

Danseok Mountain was one of the training grounds for the Hwarangs. And there was a rock on the summit that had been cut with a single hit, and even Seol Young frequently visited it.

Until then, he only thought it was a normal stone pagoda on the mountain. But the Pasa stone was inside?

The more he read it, the more shocked he was.

“If we can use the stone pagoda and open the Ghost Bridge….”

Seol Young felt his heart pound.

“If we can do that, is it possible for us to send Mita back to the other side?”

“They said that if the path is open, the ghosts will step into our world. But…”

Zaha looked at the records.

“It doesn’t just happen like that. It takes time to pass through this place. If the path is closed before that, no one can come over. It already happened in the past.”

“We don’t have anything to confirm it with, so we must do it quickly. Open the Ghost Bridge, throw the bone ashes, and immediately close it by blocking it with the Great Mother. It should be all over before we could count to five.”

Seol Young quickly completed his calculation.

“Opening the Ghost Bridge that is connecting this world and the next is forbidden because it disturbs the order of the world. But what we are trying to do is undo things. We are returning an existence that shouldn’t have come over.”

The more they talked about it, the more it made sense.

Still, they looked through the rest of the materials but couldn’t find anything special.

“I guess this is the answer. It seems like she killed them first so that they wouldn’t talk about this to the other troops.”

Seol Young said,

Of course, it could or couldn’t be Mita’s intention. But it made more sense that way.

“Hmm…”

Zaha was thinking.

“It is something the two of us can’t do alone. It is much better to make a decision after asking everyone for their opinion.”

He picked up the records and said,

“Right. Now that we have figured out the identity of the God of Cataclysm, we can look at these materials again later.”

Was it nice? A faint smile crossed Seol Young’s face.

At that moment, he saw something else.

Zaha’s face was looking at Mita in the darkness.

Hatred? Anger? Grudge? Resentment? Sadness?

Those eyes, which couldn’t be expressed using words in this world, wouldn’t leave his eyes.

Seol Young tried to push the memory away.

“When were we wrong? We were right all the time.”

He got up after saying that, and Oni, who was there alone, clung to his leg.

‘Hmm? Right.’

Seol Young hugged Oni to comfort him, and Zaha looked at it.

“Does he know what we are trying to do? He must be thinking about doing his part as a member of the troops, right?”

“It isn’t that, but it must have been that he was disappointed that we didn’t come here that often, even when we said we would. I should take him home and play.”

Seol Young wore the ring on his finger and put Oni on it. And then he sealed the materials he wanted and hid them.

“We have a way now, but now it just depends on what the Governor will say.”

“A decision will be made tomorrow.”

There was nothing more to say, so the two left after closing the door.

On the next day.

All the leaders gathered. The Governor already knew the results of the Memory Projection, but the leaders didn’t know about them yet.

After receiving orders from the High Governor and the Governor, Seol Young told them about it, and everyone knew about the uproar caused by the statue of one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

They guessed that the situation was going in an unfavorable direction, but it was far beyond what they had expected. All the leaders were shocked.

Eventually, Hwa Un asked,

“Then what do we do? What are we to do with a being we cannot understand?”

“We have a way.”

Zaha replied.

“It is opening the Ghost Bridge and sending it back to where it came from.”

At the sound of people’s breaths stopping at the word Ghost Bridge, Jin Rim asked, breaking the silence,

“Open the Ghost Bridge? Is that even possible?”

“It isn’t impossible.”

Seol Young explained what they found in the records last night, and then Zaha took over.

“If this plan succeeds, we can completely end the chaos the land has been experiencing.”

He looked around.

“But I cannot say that it isn’t dangerous. If something unexpected happens, everyone will have to risk their lives and stop the misfortune that will fall on us.”

After announcing the dangers of this plan, they needed to make a decision. After taking some time to think, they began to vote.

“Then let us all express our opinions.”

When Zaha’s words came, everyone put their wooden plank with their decisions in front of them.

All of them said ‘Agree.’

At this unexpected result, Seol Youn checked the wooden planks again. He didn’t expect such unanimity, though.

Zaha asked again,

“Everyone agrees?”

“Yes.”

Everyone nodded their heads.

“We all know what happened last night. Maybe that is just the start. At this rate, the disaster will continue.”

Jin Rim said,

“Someone has to step in to stop that, and that will be our Hwarangs. When the nation faces a crisis, aren’t the Hwarangs the ones who sacrifice their lives first? If we drag out the time, we may not even be able to use this method as well. Everyone is prepared for everything.”

Indeed, no one seemed to disagree with it. Zaha looked around at each of them and opened his mouth,

“Fine. Then let us proceed.”

In the end, a decision was made. A determined expression appeared on everyone’s faces.

“We don’t have time, so let’s move on quickly. First, we need to decide on how to prepare this Ghost Bridge.”

Zaha turned to Seol Young.

“Seol Young-rang hasn’t returned to the White Tiger Troops yet, so there is nothing more for you to do, so head home.”

“Yes.”

Seol Young bowed his head and turned around.

It was strange.

The moment the decision was made, his mind felt complicated. All he could think of was Baek Eon, who sat there dejected.

‘Is he fine?’

He couldn’t help thinking about it.

‘What if this doesn’t work either…?’

Then the secret sorcery came to his mind. Was this how Zaha felt eight years ago?

‘I cannot do that.’

But then another voice asked him.

‘What if that is the only way?’

His feet stopped, and he just stood there for a long time.

Then, the trainees appeared from the side, and he came back to his senses.

“Seol Young-rang, are you fine?”

“Yes.”

Seol Young hurriedly left the palace.

‘What are you thinking?’

Sending him early meant rest. He didn’t mean to think about anything else.

He didn’t go anywhere else and just went back to his room. He began to sweep and clean the room to get rid of the thoughts in his mind.

But then the ring on his hand began to tremble.

Ah, Senior Oni?

“What? Feeling bored?”

It was nice to feel the presence of Oni after thinking all day, so Seol Young activated the righteous qi.

But Oni was acting strange.

He looked like he would puke, and then something fell.

Seol Young’s eyes widened.

The bone ashes of the God of Cataclysm.

“Why is this… When did you steal this?”

After asking, he remembered. When they entered the headquarters, Oni sniffed Zaha.

It had to be because of that. Sensing this evil energy, he secretly stole it and swallowed it.

Thanks to this, the demonic qi didn’t leak out, either. And the bone seemed to be in deep slumber again.

What? Was it acting nice?

Oni looked at Seol Young with innocent eyes. The baby dragon didn’t know what this was.

It just seemed dangerous, so it gave it back after purifying it.

Thanks to that, Seol Young can hold it now.

‘The only thing that can summon the God of Cataclysm came to the only person who knows how to do it.’

Thinking like that made him feel odd.

‘Of course I can’t. But if that is the case… What do I do?’

Seol Young looked at it.

‘I don’t know.’

He put it into a sleeping pouch, and into his pocket.