Early in the morning, Lord Yong and his disciples performed a special ritual in order to seek blessings from almighty.
Then they proceeded towards the Sea of the Dead. The entire folks of the town came to see them off and gave their best wishes for the attainment of their work.
In order to show respect, people of town bowed their heads on their departure.
With bundles of hopes, expectations and fear, the gentlemen headed towards their destination.
Route to the desert was so abstruse and rocky. Despite walking through an impalpable path, Lord Yong and the others somehow reached the desert.
They all stopped there for a while, observing the never-ending desert ahead of them. They all were in deep thought and were also desirous to conquer the desert.
Lord Yong was worried about his disciples therefore, before entering the desert he offered them a suggestion.
"As you all can see this is a terrible desert, the chances of getting the book is very low. Once you step forward, it will be difficult to come back alive. Therefore, if you don't want to come with me its fine, you don't have to risk your life for me."
All four of them kneeled down to Lord Yong and said,
"Master, we all were orphans. It was you, who made us your disciple, you made us literate, you gave us knowledge and it was only you who nurtured us like your own kids. Now it's our chance to do something for you and if we die here we would feel fortunate that we've given our lives for a good deed."
Lord Yong felt immense pleasure and pride surge through him hearing their words but was worried at the same time for their lives. They have made up their minds. Even he couldn't stop them now.
Determined, they all entered the desert together. They were wandering aimlessly in any direction and in that large desert; the black clouds as told by the Dark Lord were nowhere to be seen. The scorching heat of sun and the burning sand underneath their feet was trying hard to slow their pace.
After walking for about three hours, Lord Yong felt something under his feet. They all stopped there to check.
After digging some sand, what they saw was enough to scare the daylights out of them.
It was a corpse.
It is said that sandstorms were very frequent in this desert. Each storm was so powerful that it could toss the buried corpse from anywhere. That is why this desert was given the title of the Sea of the Dead. Due to the tempest, it would not be surprising to encounter corpses every single mile.
"Master why has this corpse not decayed even after being buried here for several years?" asked one of the disciples.
The dead body found was of a lady. One could see her red hair even the features of her face were visible. It was impossible to see a dead body of several years in this form. All they expected was to see lots of skeletons, bones on their way but what they encountered here was shocking.
Lord Yong examined the corpse for some time and told his disciples.
"The phenomena of this desert is quite different. The dry air of desert played a crucial role in preserving the dead bodies otherwise the condition of these corpses are too good to be several years old."
The moment when they were about to step forward they saw something more terrifying than the corpse.
The tornado of the sand was approaching them at a rapid pace.
Without wasting time, Lord Yong asked his disciples to immediately head towards the highest sand dunes.
They all ran for the highest sand dunes, but it's quite difficult to walk or run in the desert. They somehow reached the top of the sand dune but Lord Yong was still trying harder to reach there.
All of his disciples were helping him to reach the dune. Lord Yong asked them to leave him to ensure their safety.
"You all should go, that storm is looking violent. Don't waste your time here. Just go," shouted Lord Yong.
"We won't move a single step without you, master. We'll help you," said all of them by lending their hands to Lord Yong to come.
Unfortunately, it was too late for them. The moment Lord Yong raised his hands towards them in order to reach the sand dunes; the powerful tornado of sand dragged and swallowed them all in a blink of an eye.
Hours later
Lord Yong tried to open his eyes slowly. Everything was blurry nothing can be seen clearly. He gently rubbed his eyes to look around more clearly.
After his vision became clearer, he realised that he was under the layer of sand. He then recalled what actually happened to them a few hours ago.
"It must have been the tempest that swallowed all of us. Luckily I survived the storm."
He looked everywhere for his students but in the sea of endless desert they were nowhere to be found. Lord Yong prayed for their lives. He did not have ample time left, so he continued his journey to search for the book.
His body was burning from the heat of the sun and walking for hours on the scalding sand, blisters came out of his feet. Tiredness clung to his body and it was becoming more and more difficult to walk through the merciless desert.
Somehow, Lord Yong managed to keep walking despite all the hurdles but he was feeling thirsty. Walking on the sand was no less than walking on the flames, the frequent heat waves kept trying to stop him and his increasing thirst wasn't making it easy for him to continue. Lord Yong was really in dire straits.
Lord Yong continued to move, carrying all the pain but suddenly he was shocked to see water from a distance. He sighed in relief to see that but in another moment, he recognised it as it was nothing but a desert mirage and sadly continued to move.
He was wandering directionless in the desert. He looked at the sky and saw the Sun was about to submerge in the horizon and on the other hand, Lord Yong was still clueless about the book.
Terrified, Lord Yong cried aloud. He could not control his tears from streaming down his face, while looking at the sky. Again, he saw Si-ri's smiling face when he closed his eyes and started to pray for the book as it was a last resort to save his beloved daughter. In this entire context, Lord Yong faints eventually.A few minutes laterLord Yong gained consciousness and quickly tried to stand. The sun was half submerged but wait, what was the black hues emitting at the direction of the sunset? Lord Yong recalls the words of the Dark Lord "The aura of the book is so dark that wherever it will be placed under the ground it will emit black clouds above it".Without wasting a single second, he immediately ran towards the black clouds. When he reached there, he saw four other men who were
The preparation of the Lantern festival was in full swing. The market was full of hustle-bustle, brimming with the colourful and beautiful lanterns to allure the visitors. Vendors had decorated their shops to attract customers. Kids could be seen indulging themselves in gruelling arguments with their parents and crying stubbornly to buy them their favourite toys and lanterns. Other throngs of people were busy buying new clothes for their family. There was one ordinary shop among the crowd of wacky shops, but surprisingly it was full of customers because there the lanterns were inconceivably designed with different textures. That ordinary shop attracted Min-ho. He decided to buy a lantern for Si-ri from that shop which was surrounded by a huge crowd. Min-ho didn't know that unknowingly he was also grabbing the attention of girls. Min-ho was tall and he
Far away from the hustle and bustle of the world, Si-ri was gladly weaving clothes for winter. Out of the blue she noticed some light from the corner of her eyes and rushed towards her window for clarity. She became a little frightened and suspicious, worried there could be thepresence of a human being but it was something else. “Oh! It’s a lantern, it seems people have started to celebrate the festival,” said Si-ri and closed the window to stop herself from admiring the sky full of lanterns. In this way, she would clog herself from the strong desire to go and see the world, happy faces of people, celebration, colours, crowd and everything. “If only, father would have been here, I would not feel this lonely. It's been a long time since I haven't seen you father, please come back soon. I am missing you
Min-ho was thinking about Si-ri’s advice. He screeched to halt in a nearby tea shop for a while. After some time he noticed the damnatory gazes of people around him. Some of them were so startled with his presence that they started to leave the shop. Min-ho couldn’t help but scoff at himself. “Some people are scared of me because of my arrogant demeanour and others look down on me scornfully because of my work and idleness. What kind of life am I living?” “I never got affected by these people but on the contrary I never wanted to see disgust and fear in their eyes for me but this is what I have earned in all these years, I only realised it now when someone poked me. It’s like I have been lost and stuck in a wasteland where there was direction where I could run but not sure in which direction, lots of faces
Lord Yong and his disciples finally reached Noam. Lord Yong was happy that finally, he had the book to save Si-ri but at the same time he was agitated with the remedy that leads to break the curse. Lord Yong and the others placed the book in the shrine located at Lord Yong's house. Lord Yong opened the book and started looking for the antidote to break the curse. He continued to turn page after page with a menacing taste of what's to come. The front page of the book was dark and coarse, the pages had turned yellowish. Spells and amendments were written on each page of the book. The pages of the book are said to be made of vellum of animals. Sentenced to death for breaking his monastic vows, the monk offered a proposal to the King that he would create a book with the world's knowledge in return for his life. The King accepted the propo
As the sky turned dark and an inky black sky appeared, the furrows between his brows grew deeper, as he sat with anxiety written all over Lord Yong's face.Lord Yong had decided to disclose the complete truth to Si-ri before it was too late. He bought some gifts for Si-ri and stepped towards the dense forest with a torch.Standing in front of the mansion Lord Yong knocks on the door. Si-ri rushed towards the door, sensing it must be her father and hastily opened the door. Si-ri was grinning from ear to ear and hugged her father."I missed you a lot, didn't you miss me?" asked Si-ri, making a puppy face."Do you really think your father could forget you? I missed you so much and prayed for your well-being," Lord Yong cupped her face an
"A few months later, as predicted by the girl, the Queen gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. In fear for her children and of the throne becoming heirless again, the Queen asked the shaman for a solution. The wicked shaman convinced the Queen to sacrifice the princess for the well-being of the prince and for the future of the Kingdom of Noam. The King hearing this furiously declined, refusing to sacrifice his daughter. But going against the King's decision the Queen handed the Princess over to Mi-sook for her to be sacrificed. Mi-sook transferred the Prince's curse also over to the Princess and told the Queen that the girl had to be burnt for the ritual to be complete. The Queen summoned me for this heinous act as it could only be done through pious spells. I assured them that I killed the Princess and the Queen ordered me to leave the Palace forever."Lord Yong slowly turned
Sleep eluded Si-ri's eyes last night. She spent night by spinning here and there on the bed sometimes and staring at the darkness other times. Maybe, she was looking for the answers that no one could answer. However, she had complete faith in her father and she was certain that everything will be alright soon. Even after knowing Lord Yong was not her biological father, Si-ri's love for him didn't flutter even a bit. Her immense love for Lord Yong was intact. On the other hand, she was feeling pity for her own father who had to hand over his new born to someone. Still she decided to not go to the palace after breaking of her curse. She would rather live with the man who adored her like her own daughter than to be with someone who she barely knows. Early in the morning, Si-ri stood on her balcony filling her eyes with the soothing sight of the rising sun. She still had many unanswered questions and th