Episode 002 — Black Shadow Heavenly Maiden (2)
Anyone from the capital, Hongyang, would have recognized Jin Seongha, the young master of the prestigious Jin family, just from his pure-white priestly robes.
But to the woman he had met in the sky, Seongha seemed to be nothing more than a strange visitor.
“I came from the ground below.”
Instead of telling her who he was, Seongha told her where he had come from.
He still had no idea who she was either, and he thought that much of an answer should be enough.
“From the ground? You mean you came from the world beneath the clouds?”
The woman's eyes widened.
She clearly found Seongha's words difficult to believe.
“I don't know what trick the heavens played... but when I opened my eyes, I was here.”
Seongha briefly explained how, while carrying out his official duties, he had experienced a mysterious phenomenon and somehow ended up in the sky.
“I know it sounds impossible. I can hardly believe it myself.”
Seongha let out a breath.
Why did it have to be me?
He hated getting caught up in troublesome matters.
The legends of Cheonhui Kingdom and its countless superstitions had never interested him either.
None of this had happened because he wanted it to.
“Since things have already turned out this way, I suppose I'll have to stay here and find a way back to the ground.”
Seongha was not used to asking others for help.
But right now, there seemed to be no other choice.
“I've wandered through the sky city, but I couldn't find any homes. Where are the villagers? Can you take me to them?”
“The villagers...”
A shadow fell over the woman's face.
She hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.
“They're dead.”
“Dead? What do you mean?”
Seongha sharply questioned her.
“To be exact... they're neither alive nor dead.”
The moment the woman finished speaking, an ominous wind blew from somewhere.
Her ebony-black hair swayed, and the hem of her clothes fluttered in the wind.
With a slow, uneasy gaze, the woman looked up at the sky behind Seongha.
Her face turned pale.
Something was about to begin.
“The barrier has lost its power. They're coming.”
The barrier covering the area began to shake violently.
The blue veil was gradually stained black.
Darkness spread across the entire valley in the sky.
The surface of the pond trembled, and the lotus flowers began to wither one after another.
Their blackened stems bent down and sank into the water.
It was an overwhelmingly powerful yin energy.
“Follow me. We should leave this place first.”
The woman grabbed Seongha by the sleeve and pulled him along.
The two raced across the surface of the water using lightness techniques.
Water sprayed in every direction, as though birds were kicking off the surface before taking flight.
After leaving the pond behind, Seongha quietly pulled his sleeve from the woman's hand.
Catching his breath, he asked,
“Where are we going?”
“There's a pavilion on the cliff inside the valley. If we take shelter there, they won't be able to follow us anymore.”
“Why are they chasing us?”
“I'll explain later. We don't have time right now.”
The woman hurried forward, but Seongha stayed where he was.
His expression hardened as he spoke coldly.
“You expect me to run without even knowing what's happening? I can't accept that.”
“I want to know too. I want to know what they are.”
The woman looked frustrated.
“Whether they're ghosts, illusions, or things that crawled out of a nightmare... I don't know why they've been appearing here for decades without ever ascending.”
She tried to explain further, but soon gave up.
“A long time ago, while running away from them... I lost someone who was like family to me.”
The woman struggled to suppress her emotions.
Remembering the past seemed painful for her.
“I don't want to watch another person die right in front of me. So please... come with me for now.”
Their eyes met.
Her words did not sound like lies.
Seongha shook his head as though he had no other choice.
There were still many unanswered questions in his mind, but he decided to stay with her a little longer.
As time passed, the sinister energy surrounding the sky city grew stronger and stronger.
Like ink spreading across paper, the entire world sank into black fog.
The darkness continued chasing them.
The shadows of the forest changed into blade-like shapes and rushed after the two.
They would come so close that it seemed they would catch them at any moment, only to suddenly pull back before closing the distance once again.
Seongha and the woman nearly tumbled down the mountainside several times.
Branches struck their bodies as they desperately ran.
Before long, the two arrived in front of a sheer cliff.
When the woman touched a rock with letters engraved on its surface, a path suddenly opened in the empty air.
Dozens of pieces of earth rose into the sky, forming a bridge toward the valley on the opposite side.
The woman said,
“Once we cross here, we'll reach the pavilion I mentioned. Don't look back. Hurry.”
Seongha looked around.
The bridge looked extremely dangerous.
The pieces of floating ground were narrow, barely wide enough for one or two people to stand on, and large gaps separated each platform.
But there seemed to be no other escape route.
At that moment, the forest behind them began to rustle ominously.
Seongha breathed out and muttered in a low voice,
“They caught up to us. Are we already too late...?”
The dead began emerging from between the shadows of the trees.
Thump. Thump.
With the sound of a beating heart, they appeared as though they had suddenly been summoned into this world from another dimension.
At first glance, they looked like an ordinary group of villagers wandering around a rural settlement.
Most had sickly complexions.
Their long hair hung wildly around their faces, and they wore old, tattered clothes.
Some of them were even barefoot.
But the moment Seongha faced them properly, his blood turned cold.
The woman had been telling the truth.
They were bizarre and horrifying creatures unlike anything he had ever seen before.
The appearances of the dead gradually began to change.
The transformation seemed to unfold in slow motion.
Their joints twisted and bent strangely, as if something inside their bodies was forcing its way out.
It looked as though their flesh could no longer endure the power within them.
Then...
Long black hairs began growing from beneath their fingernails, their nostrils, their ears, and even from the hollow sockets around their eyes.
Their faces were no longer human.
They had become monsters pouring black threads from every opening in their bodies.
The hair covering them rapidly grew longer.
It stretched wildly in every direction, wrapping around trees and piercing straight through rocks.
The strands twisted like whirlpools and covered the forest in an instant.
The hair crawled rapidly across the ground toward Seongha and the woman, trying to coil around their ankles like snakes.
“If we keep running like this, it'll never end. Go ahead. I'll buy us some time.”
Seongha stepped in front of the woman.
“Purifying unclean things was my duty back on the ground.”
As a priest of the Beopsindang, Seongha had performed religious ceremonies within the royal palace and offered prayers every morning and evening.
Now, he intended to confront these wicked creatures with the sacred spiritual power passed down through generations.
Seongha drew his sword and prepared himself for battle.
Beneath his tall frame and broad shoulders, the hem of his pure-white robe fluttered.
His blade cut through the darkness.
With a sharp crescent-shaped arc, it sliced apart the approaching black strands.
It was a beautiful sword technique worthy of the finest nobleman in Heeguk.
Whenever his blade cut through the hair, a dazzling light burst out.
The strands twisted in agony before burning away.
The woman, who had been watching Seongha, stepped forward.
“You won't be able to hold them off alone. Let's fight together.”
