This will be long and without many screenshots. Prepare for a wall of text.

This is Part 1.

1. Who is/was MuDeok?

I can suggest possibilities.

a. MuDeok is the blind girl from Sari.

Her seller said the head of the brothel that an old woman took her in after she lost both parents. But she got sick and died. The debt incurred during the illness got passed onto MD so she had to be sold off.

I’d written that the original MD was brave and self-sacrificing/selfless because despite being shoved aside by Naksu in disgust, she still followed Naksu and traded places with her victim-to-be.

This also means that the blind MuDeok knew IN ADVANCE what Naksu was about to do: perform the “alchemy of souls” or the soul-switching.

In this episode, the other relics in the vault recognized her after she had joined palms with Uk on the mirror. Wisps of blue smoke came out from under her hand, then the mirror rattled and cracked.

Relic1: She is here!
Relic2: Who?
Relic3: It is her, the blind girl.
Relic2: It is the ice stone.

Note that the relics did NOT say that she was BuYeong, the Jin eldest daughter. The distinctive feature about Naksu/MuDeok is that she was the blind girl.

b. BuYeon is the missing Jin eldest daughter.

I said this in my post On Naksu’s Soul

It’s possible that the magical things recognize the long-lost daughter of the house, BuYeon. She’s been missing for over a decade. She could have come down with blindness and amnesia, then renamed/reborn as MuDeok from the village of Sari.

Heo Yeom did say that he recognized MuDeok’s ear.

Note: Don’t confuse Naksu and MuDeok. Naksu was the daughter of the Constellation Record Mage and the assassin who trained under Jin Mu in Danhyanggok. MuDeok was the blind orphan raised by an old woman in Sari village. MuDeok’s background is still very much unknown. No one can vouch for her.

But it’s also possible that Jin HoGyeong just senses a powerful soul in the presence of MuDeok, but recognizes neither her daughter’s soul nor likeness in MuDeok.

Although many viewers are quick to assume that MuDeok is the Jins’ missing daughter who happened to end up living in Sari, I think there’s room for doubt.

Sure, she can open the vault with a single touch. Lady Jin said, “Jinyowon’s entrance can only be opened by a member of the Jin family. Right now, Choyeon and I are the only ones who can open this door.”

To me, however, like attracts like. The energy coming from MuDeok’s sleeping body in Episode 5 is the same energy coming out of the relics. Their energies are from a similar source, the ice stone.

And since the energies are alike, they’re “drawn” to each other. Naksu suddenly gained the gift of vision; she could see broken jade ball inside the box. When she stepped inside the Jinyowon, she experienced vertigo. Visually, it seemed like she was being drawn closer to the vault.

I don’t think this special energy emanating from MuDeok is an energy that’s unique to the women in the Jin family. I don’t think she inherited this energy from the Jin women.

Moreover, I think it’s just strange that a mother – and a mage, at that — cannot recognize her own daughter that she’s been missing for years.

Yul can be excused for not recognizing MuDeok as the girl he once had a crush on. Naksu switched bodies.

But if BuYeon had grown up into MuDeok, then Lady Jin should have found some facial features of MuDeok familiar. It’s not as if BuYeon had her face cosmetically altered or something.

c. MuDeok is some sort of “energy of the sky [which] rules the wind, clouds, and rain.”

Lol. I told you this, didn’t I?

Thus far, the drama writers haven’t used the word “deity” – or at least, the subbers have avoided referring to any form of deity. So I’ll just assume that this energy is an intelligent being/life form. When the shaman prayed to it for rain, it heeded the petition and hailed down on the land. When it sensed Master Lee was about to kill the defenseless Naksu/MuDeok and the unskilled Uk, it energized to save them.

Here’s the narration of Master Lee.

“Daeho once suffered from a long and unusual drought. It was so bad that it even caused Lake G to completely dry up. The mages of Daeho performed a grand rite to fill the lake back up with energy. Then enormous hailstones started falling from the sky. But among the hailstones, there was one that did not melt. This unmelting hailstone first turned into fire, then stone, and then water. Then, it turned back into its original form, ice. In that process, it produced black powder.

Sigh. There’s always that one troublemaker in the group! If that hailstone had followed strict instructions to melt, then there wouldn’t have been chaos in the world. Kinda like Jang Gang who just had to experiment with soul-shifting….

“This powder was called the Soul Ejector, which was used in the alchemy of souls. The power of the SE was truly astonishing. One could bring the dead back to life by summoning back their souls. One could shift souls from one body to another. One could even expel the soul of the living and steal their energy. Eventually, that boundless power ended up causing chaos.”

He’s not saying anything profound. We all know that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“In order to possess the unmelting ice that produced the Soul Ejector, the battle of mages turned into bloodshed, and Daeho became a living hell. The man who ended the long-lasting battle was Master Seo Gyeong, the founder of Songrim.”

Master Lee further described the ice stone as extremely frightening. He warned against sorcery which used the stone’s power to create wicked things that could hurt people. These relics could become dangerous, and Jinyowon kept many of these relics in their vault for safeguarding.

Let’s also remember what Master Lee said about the soul in MuDeok’s body. He found no malice in it.

If we were to assume that he was referring to this *energy* in MuDeok’s body, then he was right. But if he was referring to *Naksu’s soul* inhabiting MuDeok’s body, then he was wrong. Naksu had murdered people with malice. It would take a lot of atonement to purify her soul and remove the malice from it.

d. MuDeok can be a combination of these three entities: 

It can be blind girl + eldest daughter,
blind girl + energy,
eldest daughter + energy
blind girl + eldest daughter + energy

But I’m going with blind girl + energy for now.

2. The ice stone

What do we know about it so far?

a. Master Seo Gyeong, the founder of Songrim, only ended the civil war in Daeho. But he didn’t destroy the ice stone; he only sealed it somewhere.

Park Jin: Do you really not know where the Seo Gyeong sealed the ice stone?
Heo Yeom: I do not know. Do you think the alchemy of souls started to occur again because someone managed to unseal the ice stone?
Park Jin: The only way for someone to shift souls without mastering Hwansu is by using the ice stone. I am certain that someone unsealed the ice stone and brought it out into the world again.

b. Master Seo made use of the energy from the ice stone to create Gwiju in order to find traces of sorcery.

Hmmm…what else did he make from that ice stone?

c. In Episode 8, Gilju, the henchman of Jinmu, revealed that the ice stone was in the possession of the real Danju and that the ice stone could prevent the soul-shifter from running wild.

Gilju: The four families were not the ones who killed your entire family. It was your father. He had run wild and murdered them all.
Naksu: (remembers the maid’s order for her to hide from her dad)
Gilju: Both you and your father were exploited and will eventually be petrified and die.
Naksu: Was the man who shifted my father’s soul the Danju, Jin Mu of Cheonbugwan?
Gilju: Jin Mu is not our true Danju. (inching slowly closer to her) The real Danju is someone else.
Naksu: And who is that?
Gilju: The true Danju can prevent you from running wild since the real Danju possessed the ice stone.
Naksu: So who is the real Danju?

Shortly before Uk finished off Gilju with his Tansu move, Uk confirmed again the usefulness of the ice stone.

UK: So, the real Danju is inside the palace. The ice stone, wasn’t it? You mentioned it. I will find that and prevent her from meeting the same fate as you.

My comment here:

As I often said, Naksu should have petrified by now. But it’s become apparent to me that she hasn’t gone wild or become stone (yet) after all this time because she has the energy of the ice stone within her all along.

I’m not sure whether MuDeok/Naksu still requires the ice stone to avoid becoming like GilJu when she already has its energy her.

To continue…

d. It’s interesting that the ice stone produces the black powder aka Soul Ejector used in the alchemy of souls/soul-shifting, and at the same, prevents the soul-shifter from running wild – like a “maintenance drug.”

It’s like whoever creates the disease, also has the cure; whoever creates the chaos, also can bring peace.

e. Also in Episode 8, we learned that the Queen is the real Danju.

Queen: Gilju wanted the ice stone and headed to the palace to see me.
JinMu: I was not aware that Gilju knew who the real Danju was.
Queen: The day the Choi family regains power, Songrim, the cause of our family’s downfall, gets destroyed, and I control Daeho, is approaching.
JinMu: And I’ve been waiting for that day with bated breath.
Queen: We must find and kill the one who killed Gilju in front of the palace.
JinMu: That individual may have waited for Gilju to go there, knowing Gilju was after the ice stone.
Queen: If that individual knows that the ice stone is in there, you must find and kill him.

My four comments about this dialogue:

One, is Gilju one of the Queen’s family members? She seems to be taking his death personally.

Two, the Queen’s two primary motives are power and revenge. She wants power over the kingdom and power back to her clan. And she wants to avenge her family’s loss of power by destroying Songrim.

Three, if she wants to destroy Songrim, then she’s after Park Jin. Fortunately for Park Jin, if Danggu becomes ChoYeong’s betrothed, then Lady Jin will have to side with Songrim.

Four, it should be obvious that the mage who killed Gilju is no other than Uk because he’s the only one known to do Tansu, other than Naksu. He also fits the description of the killer. Plus, the new character, Heo Yun-Ok, witnessed him fighting Gilju in her bedroom. She could spill the beans.

f. Park Jin doesn’t know as much as Uk and Naksu about the ice stone. In Episode 8, he was still asking info from Master Lee.

Park Jin: Are you certain that the ice stone was indeed destroyed by Master Seo Gyeong and the leader of Jinyowon 200 years ago?
Master Lee: (silent)
Park Jin: Are you sure it is not somewhere in Songrim?
Master Lee: (looks at him)

This is interesting for two reasons:

One, the leader of Jinyowon (another female) had the shared responsibility of destroying the ice stone. Clearly, somebody lied to somebody 200 years ago because the stone wasn’t destroyed.

Two, I don’t think Master Lee can lie but his words/looks can be interpreted in different ways. For example, Master Lee seems to be saying that the ice stone is in Songrim at that very moment. Technically, he isn’t lying. Why? Because MuDeok is in Songrim with Uk and MuDeok has the energy of the ice stone inside her.

g. I’ve previously said that Uk is water, and Naksu is rock because Uk always wants to take baths, and Naksu is always filmed with stones and boulders in the background.

But what is hailstone? It’s a combination of water and rock. It’s water that’s been frozen so it’s solid as a rock. The hailstone can be a metaphor for Uk and Naksu.

This is the theme of the show: Uk and Naksu are complementary elements that become strong when joined together.

3. Naksu’s father is a soul-shifter.

In Episode 8, Gilju revealed to Naksu that her father was a soul-shifter.

Gilju: The four families were not the ones who killed your entire family. It was your father. He had run wild and murdered them all.
Naksu: (remembers the maid’s order for her to hide from her dad)
Gilju: Both you and your father were exploited and will eventually be petrified and die.
Naksu: Was the man who shifted my father’s soul the Danju, Jin Mu of Cheonbugwan?
Gilju: Jin Mu is not our true Danju. (inching slowly closer to her) The real Danju is someone else.
Naksu: And who is that?
Gilju: The true Danju can prevent you from running wild since the real Danju possessed the ice stone.

I think there’s more to this story.

For one, if Naksu’s father was a soul-shifter, then he should have petrified the second he died. The child Naksu would have seen that her father looked different – like a stone — as she sat beside his dead body. There’s no mistaking a normal corpse from a petrified body.

This is a plot hole.

For another, it didn’t make sense for the father to go on a wild killing spree when all he needed was to kill JUST ONE person to steal his human energy. After killing one, he would return to his normal self (remember the Eunuch?) and act like a normal body until his energy dwindled again. The killing spree didn’t make sense.

The story is murky.

Here’s the dialogue between Jin Mu and Park Jin.

JM: Are you implying that I took in Cho Chung’s daughter and trained her to become an assassin?
PJ: You burned her body as soon as it was found. Was that not because you did not want her identity to get revealed?
JM: I will tell you what happened 20 years ago instead of saying what you wish to hear.

It’s said that best defense is a good offense. Here, Jin Mu is attacking Park Jin to prevent him from cornering him and getting him to admit the truth about training Naksu.

JM: Here at Cheongbugwan, we record stars from 1am to 3am when the energy is the highest. The Gwanju checks it a noon, and the recorded plate gets stored here. But one day, a constellation plate recorded that morning disappeared. Fortunately, we were able to find it again.
PJ: What about that?
JM: It was the day Jang Gang’s wife, Dohwa died, and Jang Uk was born. Cho Chung recorded the stars that day, and I was the one who found the missing plate. (showing the plate)
PJ: (recalling Jang Gang saying that he managed to sneak out the plate, and to replace with a fake one)

To me, this means that Jin Mu *anticipated* Jang Gang’s actions. He took out the fake one then either returned the real one in its place or had a back-up copy ready. He anticipated that Jang Gang would sneak with the real plate.

PJ: Are you telling me that you know what happened on the day that Jang Gang’s son, Jang Uk, was born?

Park Jin wasn’t going to reveal that Jang Gang told him that Uk wasn’t his son. Although he doesn’t really believe Jang Gang’s story because the story was too preposterous for him, he wasn’t going to betray his colleague’s confidence. However, I find him rather “inflexible and slow-witted” — to borrow Maidservant Kim’s words. It should have entered his head that Jang Gang, and the King engaged in forbidden sorcery.

JM: A star that could change the world appeared in the sky.
PJ: (surprised) You knew about the King’s Star?
JM: Do you think things stayed quiet thanks to Cho Chung’s death? Who do you think turned him into a soul shifter in the first place? Do not ask questions you do not wish to hear the answers to. That is the only way to protect Songrim and its people.

JM’s very good at insinuations. I expected him to confess turning Cho Chung into a soul shifter. Instead, he implied that it was Jang Gang who performed AoS on Cho Chung. Jang Gang’s motive was to protect the secret of Uk’s birth.

Because his faith in his friend was shaken, Park Jin went to Maidservant Kim to confirm Jin Mu’s rumor.

PJ: Before Uk was born, about twenty years ago, did Jang Gang perform the alchemy of souls?
(Lightning outside)
Kim: The Gwanju of Cheonbugwan performing sorcery? That is absurd.
PJ: Jin Mu told me about it. I could not dare to hear from him, so I came to you instead.

I’m not sure if the subber had an error in the translation, but Jin Mu did NOT, in fact, tell him that Jang Gang performed AoS. He only insinuated that Jang Gang did.

Certainly, Jang Gang performed AoS on people. But there’s no evidence that he performed the AoS on Cho Chung himself, causing him to massacre his family. This can’t be substantiated.

Kim: Madam Dohwa was indeed once concerned that the Gwanju was interested in learning a strange spell. However, it did not last long. He did not come home for a year. He practiced spells with Jin Mu in the Cheongbugwan Secret Room. However, he stopped doing so after his wife became pregnant.
PJ: (recalling JG’s words that his wife gave birth to the king’s son. This is when he realized that his friend did the AoS)

Sigh. I would consider this is a plot hole. How could it not enter his head that his friend did AoS or some sorcery? There was no in vitro pregnancy during that time?

Kim: As a mage, he was just briefly curious about it.
PJ: No. He committed something irreparable to DoHwa and Uk.

I said that king was a rapist. But Jang Gang assisted him. He’s such a bad guy.

And where the heck did he run away to?

4. The spell of the yin-yang jade ball worked on Uk and Naksu.

It’s said that the couple who wear the rings made from the jade will deepen their love for each other.

Uk is following her to the temple. On the way, he gives her a matching set of norigae, or pendant to hang on their belt.

Naksu: They are bird’s eggs.

She stares at them. She must be remembering the heartwarming story she told him. The mother bird always came by and sat on the egg, and she was like that egg, alone and powerless. Uk was the only one who could take care of her. Her life was in his hand, she told him.

Uk: Yes. Pick one we can have one each. We have quite a peculiar relationship. A young master and a maid. A master and a pupil. So I figured they could act as a token to remind us to stay loyal and dutiful.
Naksu: (silent)
Uk: I will choose first. I pick red. You can have the blue one. (giving her the blue egg) Master, let us stay loyal and dutiful to each other.

This is like a wedding vow, and they’re exchanging rings (although they’re better than rings because the eggs have a personal meaning to them.) Figuratively speaking, they’re both fragile eggs at the top of the tree and their lives are in each other’s hand.

Naksu: Uk.
Uk: Yes?
Naksu: This is where we say goodbye.
Uk: (now it’s his turn to be silent)
Naksu: I will return to where I came from.

Uk immediately picks up on her meaning. She isn’t referring to Danhyanggok. She means her life as an assassin.

Uk: But they abandoned you.
Naksu: I met them again today. They know who I am. They asked me to come back.
Uk: I thought they were dangerous.
Naksu: As you can see, I am alive. If they wanted to kill me, they would have already. If I go back, I will be able to regain my energy.
Uk: I promised to do that for you….

I like how Uk is NOT whining for her to stay but is calmly citing the reasons for her not to go.

Naksu: I told you that I would stand on a cliff and push you. I admit that I overtrained you each time and you did your best.
Uk: (persistent) We can keep doing that.
Naksu: No. If we stay together, you will die, and I will get caught.

They stare at each other.

Naksu: (hands back the blue egg) Our journey ends here.
Uk: What about the empty temple by the forest? Why were you going to take me there?
Naksu: (honestly) I was going to hand you over so I could live.
Uk: (frowning)
Naksu: Now you know, so don’t follow me.
Uk: Then you should not have told me about the temple. How could I not follow you after hearing what you just said?
Naksu: (turning back) I am more upset than you are. I gave up my chance to live just because of a bird’s egg.

This means that his unexpected gift and gesture touched her. The small token made her change her mind about betraying him. She’ll give up her life for his. But she’s snarky about it.

Uk: I am glad I reminded you to be loyal and dutiful. I could have actually died.
Naksu: Now that I have helped you escape death, fight like your life depends on it, my pupil.
Uk: You make it sound like you saved my life.
Naksu: If the cloudy sky blesses us with rain, then we both might be able to live.

I don’t know whether Naksu was expecting Uk to show up or not, but I was. His decision to follow Naksu is previewed by the conversation between the Maidservant Kim and Park Jin about doors.

Maidservant Kim thought it was heartless of Lady Jin to seal the door with Uk trapped inside. But then when she asked Park Jin a hypothetical question, she was outraged his response. He said that sometimes there was no choice but to be heartless.

She thought he was inflexible and slow-witted.

In her mind, the correct answer should have been, “How could I seal the door if you are inside?”

Well, Uk was definitely not inflexible and slow-witted.

Did you notice that his response mirrored Maidservant Kim’s correct answer. He said, “How could I not follow you after hearing what you just said?”

Meaning, he couldn’t let face death alone without fighting for her life. Her life is in his hand because he intends to save her. But then again, he has no choice but to save her because his very life depends on her survival and continued existence.

So twice, in this episode, he’s shown that he is a loyal and dutiful pupil and master despite his conspicuous weaknesses.

*****

Have to end here.  Part 2 should go up tomorrow.