The Uniqueness of the Spirit
He instinctively realized what he had grasped.
It was the uniqueness of the spirit.
Or singularity, if one preferred that term. The most fundamental and essential element that separated the self from others.
In the current situation, it was also the decisive factor distinguishing the living from the dead.
In other words.
If he could fully return the light he now clutched to Wonhee, it would amount to achieving resurrection—turning someone who had been thoroughly killed back into one of the living.
It might be possible later, but right now it was truly impossible.
Just looking at the Karma madly draining away made it obvious that it would hit rock bottom before the process could finish.
Yet abandoning her now would mean leaving Wonhee trapped in this endlessly cold and infinite darkness. Just as he stood frozen, unsure what to do and on the verge of sinking back into fear and confusion—
Suddenly.
The Dao patterns rising from the mirror's frame, which had been exploding with immense light, shifted slightly and began to swirl.
In response, the light that had been precariously clinging to his grasp, on the verge of flickering out, was instantly dyed with a different quality. It slipped straight from his fingers and flew toward Wonhee before he could react.
Wonhee, who had been screaming under the weight of despair and terror, suddenly widened her eyes at the returning light.
Then, upon spotting Han Yujin—the one who had sent the light back to her—she cried out in a voice like a scream.
Right after, the entire scene shattered like glass.
What emerged was the sight of Han Yujin and Ghost Wonhee sitting across from each other at the ritual table, hands pressed together.
Wonhee screamed and yanked her hand back, clutching her head.
At the same time, countless Dao-patterned radiances exploded from Han Yujin's body and wrapped around the two objects on the ritual table.
The Freedom Decision artifact transformed into a cluster of identical light and shot straight into Wonhee, where it was absorbed. Immediately afterward, she stopped screaming and began vomiting an enormous quantity of blood and darkness.
Bloody tears mixed with darkness streamed from both eyes, and the same flowed from her ears. From her entire body, as though countless wounds had opened, blood mixed with darkness poured out. In moments the school entrance was submerged in a sea of blood and shadow.
Throughout it all, Han Yujin's attention remained fixed on the oval mirror that had suddenly appeared in his dantian.
From what he could sense, it had not newly manifested—it had been there from the beginning.
It was clearly the true identity of his absurdly overpowered awakening ability.
'Hunyuan Treasure.'
The knowledge came to him instinctively, without explanation.
A mythical, abstract-grade treasure higher even than the Seonbo suited to True Immortal stage beings—something so lofty it was unclear whether it truly existed. A symbol formed by the gathering of universal laws, born alongside the cosmos itself, and therefore eternal, immutable, and beyond simple materiality.
The moment the thought formed, his head shook on its own.
His original awakening power was the force of aspiration. That very aspiration was the suitable driving force capable of operating this Hunyuan Treasure—and the qualification to do so.
Naturally, he now understood why this entire situation had unfolded.
When Ghost Wonhee attempted to test him by using the aspiration power gained from another Han Yujin's sacrifice, it had stimulated the hidden Hunyuan Treasure within him, triggering this unforeseen chain of events.
In the end, it had saved Wonhee.
By then the terrifying torrent of darkness and blood pouring from Wonhee was gradually subsiding. They were the remnants of every restraint and seal the Eternal Goddess Cult had placed upon her, now shattered.
Although the Freedom Decision artifact had been consumed, Han Yujin felt no regret. He suspected that without this exact method, the prohibition might never have been lifted.
Furthermore, the lingering Dao-patterned light now wrapped around the Ghost Soul Banner and began melting it into another cluster of the same light.
He sensed the formal ghost trapped inside being annihilated, but it was of no importance. The newly formed light split into two streams that sank into him and Wonhee respectively before vanishing.
- Wooong...!
At the same time, the Hunyuan Treasure mirror floating above his dantian emitted a faint resonance.
It was difficult to grasp exactly what had occurred.
Yet it seemed that, using the Hunyuan Treasure as a medium, a contract far superior to the original Ghost Spirit Binding Art had been formed.
It had even produced better results than the original items could have achieved—as though it had read his deepest wishes.
Come to think of it, the way it had stabilized the ever-changing door in the waiting area operated on the same principle.
At that moment, the oval mirror hovering above his dantian melted away along with the light of countless Dao patterns and disappeared.
He frantically searched for where it had gone, but could detect no trace.
Before he could properly ponder the reason, Wonhee suddenly rushed forward, ignoring Mu-yong entirely, and threw herself into his arms.
Jjik...!
Mu-yong, who had only now regained her senses after the chaotic events, hurriedly wriggled free from between them. Wonhee paid her no mind. She hugged him with suffocating strength, as though trying to crush his torso.
“...Uh.”
Surprisingly, what flowed from her tightly shut eyes was not the bloody tears typical of ghosts.
Her sob sent the surrounding darkness surging like a tide. All the blood vanished without a trace, as if it had evaporated.
Carefully returning her embrace as she struggled to speak, he asked gently.
“Wonhee, you... you didn’t actually come back to life, did you?”
Wonhee could not answer right away. She simply wept in silence.
The emotions flowing through the Six Paths of Reincarnation were so vivid it was hard to believe she was a ghost. He could even feel her body heat.
Yet something felt different.
“Wonhee, can you open your eyes for me?”
He asked carefully. A moment later, she lifted her tear-streaked face.
The moment her eyes opened, pitch-black pupils were revealed. The entire atmosphere changed in an instant.
A bone-chilling cold and thick scent of blood erupted—strong enough to burden even him, a Nascent Soul investigator. The transparent tears instantly turned crimson, becoming bloody tears once more.
At the same time, the colorful emotions he had sensed through the Six Paths of Reincarnation were dyed with dark corruption, sending a shiver through his heart.
Before he could ask or offer comfort, her entire body dissolved into darkness and vanished into his shadow.
“Wonhee?”
He called out in alarm, but the shadow remained silent, as if nothing were there. He could clearly feel her presence, yet she showed no sign of emerging.
Jjik...!
Mu-yong, who had practically been shoved aside, immediately leaped into his arms and reclaimed her usual spot. He accepted her reflexively and stroked her fur, but his gaze never left his own shadow.
The last emotion he had sensed from her before she vanished was an unbearable sadness and sense of loss.
He had prevented her from being abandoned alone in that endlessly terrifying and cold darkness.
Yet she remained crouched within a corner of that darkness, clutching the single precious light left to her.
In the end, she had become an existence clearly different from the original Lee Won-hee, having suffered a considerable loss.
She had protected the original Lee Won-hee’s memories and the emotions woven into them, but the fundamental essence of her being had changed irreversibly.
Since she herself understood this, she had hidden away in confusion.
He quietly stroked the shadow beneath him with his hand. Dust from the floor was swept along, but such trivial details didn’t matter.
“I promised I would save you,” he murmured softly.
“That promise hasn’t changed. One day, without fail, I will help you regain everything you’ve lost.”
Suddenly the young Lee Won-hee who existed in reality came to mind, but another thought followed right after.
Among the five great laws of the universe, the law of life and death also included the concept of transcendence.
Perhaps the current Ghost Wonhee existed in roughly such a state. In that case, growing toward an even higher level of transcendence while filling in what had been lost might not be so bad.
He remained seated for a long time, quietly organizing his thoughts and emotions. Mu-yong, connected through the Tongmyeong Eosu-gyeol, seemed to sense much of what he felt; she stayed perfectly still and silent.
The natural question that followed concerned the mirror located deep within the Beijing pit of this world.
Or could multiple instances of the same Hunyuan Treasure exist simultaneously? Or was it fundamentally one, yet capable of manifesting in many places at once?
'I should go see it.'
Now that he had formed a contract with Wonhee, there was no further important business here. He rose to his feet.
The Blue Spirit Peaceful Rest Incense was still burning; he decided to leave it behind to comfort the other student ghosts.
Hwaak—!
Activating the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art, he transformed into a streak of light.
Soaring upward while passing through every obstacle, he took one final look at Yeongwon High School below before heading toward Beijing—then suddenly halted.
Come to think of it, when he had died there before, he had returned to the exact spot where he first entered this world.
It felt as though two Hunyuan Treasures had met and interfered with each other, twisting the flow. Instead of returning to the waiting area, he had been sent back to the starting point.
Last time it had ended with a mere spatial-temporal twist, but he could not predict what phenomenon might occur this time.
He might gain unexpected benefits, but the opposite was also possible—it could adversely affect the partially saved Wonhee and erase everything that had just happened.
That was a risk he could not afford to take.
For now, it would be better to return quietly, at least to establish a save point.
Having decided, he shot off in one direction, intending to return the same way he had from the Black Soil Continent of the Ghost Gate Map.
A short while later, he found a suitable wild mountain, dug out a cave, set up a formation using Red Lotus Evolution Fire to incinerate the body, and immediately activated the escape spell.
As the thought crossed his mind, his breath was successfully cut off without pain. Everything sank into a warm, cozy darkness.
The cycle returns.
After the silver characters appeared—
Please select your harvest.
When he regained consciousness in the waiting area, he immediately looked for Wonhee, who should have completed the contract. He had expected something similar to what happened with Mu-yong.
He was quietly worried after expending such an enormous amount of Karma in the previous incident. Yet what he realized next was far more shocking. He froze in place.
“No... why...?”
Wonhee, who should have been essential to the harvest selection, was nowhere to be found.
It felt as if his heart had stopped and plummeted.
He had been certain it would work. Theoretically, it should have been impossible for it to fail. He could not believe she was missing.
The heart that had seemed to stop now raced madly.
“Why isn’t she here...? Wonhee, why...?”
He muttered in despair, but he could not make the absent appear.
Just as he dejectedly let both arms fall, someone touched him from behind.
Startled, he whirled around. Wonhee stood there with her eyes closed, wearing a faint smile as she stepped into his embrace.
Reflexively hugging her back, Han Yujin was struck speechless by the shock.