The Field of Living Heads
"...Just what in the world is going on here?"
Yoo Eunhyeon could proudly claim he had planted just about every crop imaginable in his life. Yet the sight of human heads rooted in the ground was something he had never witnessed before. Even so, it was hard to dismiss as a simple burial of corpses; something about the scene felt severely out of joint.
"So that's why the natural energy felt so twisted here."
Only then could he vaguely grasp the reason for the peculiar aura lingering in this place. With something so alien planted amid nature, of course it would feel that way.
Yoo Eunhyeon let out a small sigh and stepped a little closer to examine them.
The heads rising from the earth all had their eyes closed, and their appearances varied widely. Some had their hair bound tightly in a single knot; others left it loose and disheveled. Though few in number, women's heads were mixed in among them as well.
Curiosity drew him to take another step deeper into the field—
Clack.
Suddenly the door of the small house standing near the field swung open, and a man emerged from within.
"What? Who are you? How did you get here?!"
The man who opened the door could not hide his flustered expression the moment he laid eyes on Yoo Eunhyeon. He recoiled as if he had seen a ghost, then scrutinized Eunhyeon's face again and again as though he could not believe what he was seeing.
Of course, Yoo Eunhyeon was just as startled. He had never expected for a second that this person would be standing here.
"Uncle Wongong?"
The one who appeared was none other than Ju Yu-ryeon's father, Ju Wongong. At first he narrowed his eyes as if he failed to recognize Eunhyeon at once, but then, as if the memory returned, he dropped the startled look and burst into hearty laughter.
"Aha, so it was you! My daughter's friend! I almost didn't recognize you. Your name was..."
"Yoo Eunhyeon, sir."
"Right, right! That was it. But I never thought I'd see you again in a place like this. What brings you all the way out here?"
"I came looking for Yu-ryeon. I heard she was with you, Uncle."
Yoo Eunhyeon bowed his head lightly in greeting. It was a cover story, yet not entirely a lie. He had been curious about how things were progressing anyway.
"Yu-ryeon is out for a bit with her mother. I asked them to handle something for me."
Ju Wongong smiled gently as he spoke. From the look in his eyes, he did not seem to harbor any other ulterior motives. But then, with a sly expression, he regarded Eunhyeon and asked,
"By the way, the path here should have been guarded by the Tang Clan's experts... You didn't actually break through that tight security, did you?"
At those words Yoo Eunhyeon closed his mouth. It did not seem as though Ju Wongong was purely probing for that fact alone. When Eunhyeon simply offered a faint smile without a word, Ju Wongong laughed heartily and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Haha, you must have missed my daughter so much that you punched through that ironclad perimeter! Truly impressive. To make it all the way here without being detected—your skills are quite something."
Apparently Ju Wongong had interpreted Eunhyeon's smile in a different light. He simply moved on as if it were no great matter. Soon he picked up some of the medicinal herbs and minerals scattered about, tossed them into a mortar, and began grinding them with a rough, scraping rhythm.
After watching for a moment, Yoo Eunhyeon carefully opened his mouth. It was time to get to the heart of the matter.
"Uncle, wouldn't it be better to return to Uiseon Suga now? I've heard it's been quite a while since you left."
"Well... I still have a great deal of work to do."
Just as Ju Yu-ryeon had said, Ju Wongong did not so much as bat an eye. He did not even glance in Eunhyeon's direction. So Eunhyeon pointed to the heads densely planted in the field and said,
"Is this the work you're talking about?"
"..."
"How could you do something so reckless? This isn't merely dangerous. If things go wrong, the people of Uiseon Suga could be branded public enemies of the Murim and lose their lives."
"Eunhyeon."
Only then did Ju Wongong stop his hands and raise his head.
"When a person has something they truly wish to achieve, they end up wanting to do it even if it means risking their life, don't they? You of all people should understand that feeling at least a little."
Those words seemed to pierce deep into his chest. And in that moment an old memory suddenly surfaced in Yoo Eunhyeon's mind.
—Eunhyeon, please take good care of Mount Taesan.
That day when the farmland he had cultivated his whole life stood on the verge of collapse from a landslide. The words his father, Yoo Dong-gi, had spoken. Even as he was swept away by the landslide while trying to protect the fields, Yoo Dong-gi had worried more about Mount Taesan—where he had been born and raised—than his own safety. He had not forgotten to tell his son to carry on his grandfather's will here either.
Even now Yoo Eunhyeon could not say for certain whether his father's choice had been right. But he could never claim he had lived without thinking of that request. The reason he had been unable to leave Mount Taesan even after his father's death was precisely because of that.
When Yoo Eunhyeon said nothing, Ju Wongong chuckled and continued.
"It's not as if my own life isn't precious to me. My family's lives even less so. But the world does not allow you to have both. No matter how greedy a person may be, you cannot seize everything. So I simply set my priorities."
Only then could Yoo Eunhyeon understand Ju Wongong a little better. He was no mere eccentric. He was a man who harbored enormous desires, yet twisted and clung to them in the face of reality's walls—a man who had lived a life in which, without setting priorities, he would have had no choice but to abandon those desires in the end.
Just then, as if he had finished grinding the medicine, his moving hands stopped. Ju Wongong raised his head and looked at Yoo Eunhyeon. After narrowing his eyes as if lost in thought for a moment, he seemed to grasp Eunhyeon's intentions and let out a soft laugh.
"Still, I'm glad you seem to understand my intentions. My wife and daughter know the circumstances, yet the nagging never stops."
"Isn't that what family is? Even if it drives you crazy, you can't turn your back on them. That's family, isn't it?"
"Haha. Is that so? Thanks to that, I've only been causing them trouble. If I hadn't abandoned my status back then, I might be living a bit more comfortably by now."
"Status?"
"Ah, didn't Yu-ryeon tell you?"
Ju Wongong spoke the words casually, yet Yoo Eunhyeon's eyes widened at that single remark. Ju Wongong continued calmly, as if it were nothing.
"When I was young, I lived in the Forbidden City in Beijing."
"...The Forbidden City? You mean the place where the emperor resides?"
"Yes. I lived there as someone who inherited the imperial bloodline. Of course, my parents were exiled when I was very young, and now I don't even know if they're alive or dead. I had no connection whatsoever to the succession of the throne, but I still received a certain level of treatment."
It was far too unexpected a story. Yoo Eunhyeon could not find words for a moment and could only listen blankly to Ju Wongong's tale. But Ju Wongong paid no mind to that reaction and quietly continued, as if recounting something from long ago.
"Of course, life in the imperial family wasn't bad. Most of the medical arts I mastered, I learned there. But I didn't want to stop there. I wanted to practice the medicine I had learned with my own hands in many places throughout the world. So in the end, I fled the imperial palace."
"Is it a place you can leave so easily?"
"Haha. Of course not. The imperial family isn't a place you can just walk out of because you want to. Moreover, bearing the surname Ju made it even harder."
Ju Wongong's gaze turned briefly to the empty air.
"In the end, I was only able to escape the imperial family by giving up everything I had. Power, wealth—I was driven out empty-handed, with nothing in my grasp."
"It must not have been an easy decision. That's impressive. Then you must have met Auntie after that?"
"Yes. I heard that Uiseon Suga possessed the finest medical arts in the Murim, so I sought refuge there. I formed a bond with my wife there."
Hearing that much, Yoo Eunhyeon let out a short exclamation of admiration. Even if he had no connection to the throne, simply being of imperial blood meant he had essentially held the world's power in his hands. The fact that he had set it all down and chosen his own path was something hard to imagine.
Yet on the other hand, he found himself nodding. Given this man's temperament, it was entirely possible. When Yoo Eunhyeon nodded, Ju Wongong smiled contentedly and patted Eunhyeon's back.
"It's already been more than forty years. The imperial family would have erased someone like me long ago, and I have no intention of returning there now. These days, just living with my family is enough."
With that, Ju Wongong rose with a refreshed expression. Then he began heading somewhere.
"But Uncle, what are you doing now?"
He carefully placed the ground medicine from the mortar into a medicine bowl and set it down on a nearby flat stone. After looking around for a moment, he picked up a ceramic watering can.
"Watch closely. This is the fruit of my research."
Ju Wongong filled the watering can with water and poured in the medicine he had just ground. After shaking it lightly a few times to mix, he slowly turned his body.
The place he headed was none other than the field where human heads were planted. And as if it were nothing at all, he began quietly watering those heads.
Swaaaaah.
The cascading stream of water soaked the heads thoroughly.
Looking at the heads with their eyes quietly closed, it looked just like a graveyard of people buried alive. As Yoo Eunhyeon followed Ju Wongong and stepped among the heads, his steps suddenly halted.
A faint current brushed past the tip of his nose. That was not the wind.
...They're alive?!
The heads buried in the ground were weakly exhaling breaths.