The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 29
Whoooosh—
Something was surging toward Han Eol’s soul.
What rushed in, raising churning foam, felt like water or some kind of liquid. It poured from far away, encircling Han Eol’s soul from a distance.
‘Hell? This is bad.’
Han Eol felt a sharp spike of danger.
As his soul convulsed, tremors rippled across his entire body. His skin broke out in a rough, allergic reaction.
‘No. I have to escape.’
Han Eol’s soul desperately wanted to dodge the rushing torrent and flee to somewhere safe.
But there was nowhere to hide. All around him, powerful streams of water had already cut off every escape route.
His soul began to shake uncontrollably.
From within his soul, his Mental Image—the Full-Color Hand—burst forth, trying anything it could.
But that, too, was useless.
The enemy surging toward him was not a living thing. It had no soul, so the Full-Color Hand couldn’t respond properly.
‘If I can’t escape, then I have to block it. Somehow, I have to stop this tide.’
In that desperate moment, Han Eol’s mind conjured images of dams and seawalls holding back water.
‘Ah!’
If he built dams on all sides, wouldn’t that be a fortress? Han Eol finally grasped a way to protect his soul.
‘But where do I build it in this boundless sea?’
The high monk at Wat Phra That had taught him that the Soul Foundation must be established upon the Soul Axis to be safe.
That teaching suddenly came rushing back to him.
‘That’s right. First I have to find the Soul Axis. That’s step one of the teaching.’
Han Eol shook off his panic and, even amid the rushing streams coming from all sides, searched desperately for an axis that remained unmoved.
Whoooosh—
There was indeed an axis at the center of the flow rushing toward Han Eol’s soul.
It was precisely because of that axis that the surging water was spiraling into a vortex.
‘There it is!’
Han Eol immediately tried to establish the Soul Foundation upon the axis.
That was step two of what the high monk had described.
‘But how do I establish the Soul Foundation?’
Han Eol panicked.
Even now, the spiral of water surged fiercely toward his soul. If he were caught in that powerful current, his soul would be torn to shreds and vanish.
‘No.’
Seized by urgency, Han Eol reflexively began to move his hands.
As his hands moved, the Full-Color Hand within his Mental Image moved in perfect mirror, pressing and tamping down hard at the center of the spiral vortex—the Soul Axis.
Pressing, pressing, pressing—like kneading clay.
What Han Eol did in that urgent, unconscious moment turned out to be exactly right. As the Full-Color Hand pressed hard, Han Eol’s Soul Axis began to compress and densify under the pressure.
Normally, establishing a Soul Foundation upon the Soul Axis was not this easy.
For example, in Yang Bing’s case, her great-great-grandfather had performed that work for her during her childhood, taking a full ten years to complete it.
Meanwhile, the Demon Beasts of the Highland had tamped down their foundations slowly, very slowly, over countless ages.
No one had ever recklessly attempted to establish a Soul Foundation in such a short time the way Han Eol was doing.
Because that was truly impossible.
Yet Han Eol’s Mental Image made that impossible thing possible.
This was possible because his Mental Image possessed a Unique characteristic—the ability to grasp and tear at the soul itself.
Han Eol flattened the Soul Foundation by pressing and tamping it down like clay, then, in the blink of an eye, raised the Soul Fortress around its perimeter.
He accomplished this work as well.
Truthfully, Han Eol had simply imagined lifting the edges of the flattened clay upward into walls, as if shaping a ceramic vessel.
And the Full-Color Hand had made his imagination real.
As Han Eol hastily built the walls, the shape resembled an elliptical ceramic bowl.
From afar, the spiral vortex surged forward and struck the bowl’s walls.
Crack-crash-crash—
Splash! Splash! Splash!
The violent vortex battered Han Eol’s Soul Fortress walls again and again before shattering into foam and dispersing.
Han Eol’s soul finally found stability.
Chapter 9
As his soul stopped trembling, the agony that had consumed Han Eol vanished as if washed away. The rough allergic reaction that had covered his skin faded.
‘Phew. That was terrifying.’
Only then did Han Eol release a breath of relief.
Having barely caught his breath, Han Eol was seized by a single question.
‘What was that vortex? Where did it suddenly come from?’
The answer was obvious.
The moment Han Eol swallowed the Demon Stone mixed into his blood, that violent current appeared. Then it transformed into a powerful vortex, attempting to devour his soul.
‘Could that be Demon Energy?’
Han Eol harbored this suspicion.
Demon Energy.
‘The mysterious force contained within a Demon Stone and the energy source of Demon Beasts’—that was the definition of Demon Energy.
Unfortunately, humans could not withstand it.
The moment they were contaminated by Demon Energy, that violent force would surge into the Upper Dantian and devour the soul.
‘But what if, on a well-fortified Soul Foundation, one erected a Soul Fortress?’
Then that Soul Fortress would repel the Demon Energy’s invasion.
It would protect the soul from Demon Energy.
This was a secret Han Eol had discovered through direct experience just moments before.
‘But is that all there is to it?’
If merely protecting the soul were the entire point, then why had Han Eol taken such a risk to consume Demon Energy in the first place?
And why had Yang Bing done such a thing?
These questions seized Han Eol. He was certain there was some crucial secret hidden here.
‘Demon Beasts in the Highland suddenly grow stronger once they begin wielding Demon Energy. So what if humans can wield Demon Energy the same way Demon Beasts do?’
Han Eol arrived at a rational conclusion.
Because an Ability User’s soul would be torn to shreds the instant they absorbed Demon Energy, humanity had never dared to work with it directly. But with the soul protected by a Soul Fortress, perhaps humans could wield Demon Energy too.
Han Eol took the reasoning one step further.
‘So how exactly would one use Demon Energy? How do Demon Beasts manipulate that swirling Demon Energy?’
Han Eol first sought answers by observing Demon Beasts.
The souls of Demon Beasts were sheltered within a fortress, and that fortress appeared to be outfitted with various offensive weapons.
‘Could those weapons be the method of wielding Demon Energy? And how would one even craft such weapons?’
Then suddenly, Han Eol’s intuition caught on the word “axis.”
What was an axis?
An axis was the center of rotation. An axis was not a static component designed for stability, but a dynamic part meant for motion.
‘Could the act of fortifying the Soul Foundation upon that axis be merely for safety? Or could there be actual benefit to spinning the axis itself?’
Han Eol imagined slowly rotating his own Soul Axis.
Although the center of the axis remained fixed and unmoving, the axis itself could rotate.
‘Like this? Like this?’
Han Eol even made the hand gesture, spinning both palms in circles.
And remarkably, the Soul Axis within Han Eol’s spirit began to turn smoothly.
The Soul Foundation fortified upon the axis rotated along with it.
The Soul Fortress stacked atop the Soul Foundation naturally spun as well.
And as it did, the vortex surrounding the Soul Fortress began to rotate in sync with the axis’s motion, turning slowly.
Like pouring thick liquid into a blender and spinning the blade—whiiiirrrr!
The result was explosive.
The Demon Energy that had penetrated Han Eol’s Upper Dantian received centrifugal force from the rotation.
Pushed far from the Soul Fortress by that centrifugal force, the Demon Energy was ejected from Han Eol’s body, forming a Yellow Energy Barrier.
But this was no mere barrier.
Across the surface of the yellow barrier, dozens of palm-shaped fish swam back and forth as if gliding.
‘Huh?’
Han Eol tried to examine the fish swimming across the barrier’s surface more closely, but he had no time for such observation.
Crash!
The suddenly formed energy barrier unleashed a tempest through Han Eol’s quarters.
The full-length mirror shattered with a crash. The legs of Han Eol’s bed snapped with a crack. Windows burst open, and furnishings flew in every direction.
“What?”
“What’s happening?”
The monks from the adjacent rooms rushed out in alarm.
‘Oh no, this is bad.’
Han Eol quickly halted the rotation of his Soul Axis and emerged from the quarters.
“I apologize. I made a mistake while training my ability. I’m truly sorry. I’ll clean everything up myself.”
Han Eol apologized in halting Thai, bowing repeatedly to the monks.
Even as he did so, a faint smile never left his lips. The joy of discovering a new possibility filled him with exhilaration.
Chapter 10
After tidying his quarters, Han Eol moved to the training chamber provided by Wat Phra That.
The training chamber, situated at the foot of Doi Suthep—the mountain of Suthep—had been constructed underground with poured concrete, making it sturdy enough for Ability Users to train within.
Han Eol requested a private training chamber, waited his turn, and once a slot opened, he stepped inside.
In the silent training chamber,
‘Hah, this is making me a little nervous.’
Han Eol placed a mirror before him and began practicing the rotation of his Soul Axis.
As the Soul Axis within Han Eol’s Upper Dantian rotated smoothly, the sea of energy surrounding it—his Soul Sea—began to move in tandem.
At first, slowly.
But as Han Eol increased the rotation speed of his Soul Axis, his Soul Sea spun faster and faster.
Then—bang!
With a burst—not an actual sound wave audible to the ear, but something felt within—a Yellow Energy Barrier manifested, encasing the space two meters around Han Eol.
On the barrier’s surface, dozens of palm-shaped fish drifted languidly.
‘Oh!’
Han Eol gazed intently at this wondrous phenomenon and realized two things.
First, the liquid filling his Soul Sea—the energy itself—was yellow.
‘Come to think of it, the Demon Stone I swallowed was yellow too. It must be connected to the stone’s color.’
Han Eol reasoned as much.
‘Then could those mysterious fish swimming on the surface of the energy barrier also be related to that Demon Stone?’
But something told him that wasn’t the case.
When Han Eol had faced a crisis in the Highland, his Grade A Combat Vest had saved his life several times over. Each time, the small Demon Stone embedded in the vest seemed to have gleamed with yellow light.
No, it definitely had.
‘But I’ve never seen fish like this appear before. I’m certain of that.’
Then where had these fish come from?
Han Eol stared at the palm-shaped fish for a long while before the second realization struck him.
‘Ah.’
At the bottom of his Soul Fortress, there were imprints that bore a striking resemblance to those very fish.
The strange marks left on the foundation of his Soul Fortress—on his Soul Foundation—were nothing other than the traces of a palm.
They were impressions left when he repeatedly pressed his Full-Color Hand against his Soul Axis.
‘They’re connected like that? Wow.’
Han Eol was astonished and at a loss for words, his mouth opening and closing silently.
In any case, one thing was clear.
He had discovered a new avenue to reinforce his weakness—his defensive capability.
‘Of course, the difference won’t be dramatic right now. In fact, I’m probably weaker than before.’
Han Eol’s assessment was correct.
The defensive power of the Yellow Energy Barrier he had just manifested was weaker than that of his Grade A Combat Vest.
Since the barrier itself was created by absorbing the Demon Energy from the Demon Stone embedded in the vest, expecting anything more was unrealistic.
‘But this means I have a way to acquire more Demon Stones.’
The Highland teemed with Demon Beasts.
If Han Eol continued to hunt those beasts?
And kept absorbing their Demon Stones?
Then his Soul Sea would harbor increasingly potent Demon Energy, and in proportion, his energy barrier would grow steadily stronger.
Although Han Eol had not yet erected a Soul Tower within his Soul Fortress, nor equipped himself with offensive weapons outside it, this also meant that he still had room to develop and grow in the future.
“Hahahaha. Ahahaha.”
Han Eol laughed with rare satisfaction.
Chiang Mai in the Midland was far more open-minded than other cities.
‘You can tell from the fact that they offer valuable teachings to an outsider like me and permit me to enter the Highland.’
Standing before an observation platform overlooking Chiang Mai’s cityscape, Han Eol felt a surge of gratitude toward the generosity of the Chiang Mai monks.
Before Han Eol’s eyes stood a wooden pavilion, towering proudly.
Supported by four fluted wooden pillars, the pavilion was truly majestic, exquisite, and beautiful.
The ceiling was carved with the Twelve Zodiac signs—rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, and so on—while the four pillars bore sculptured reliefs depicting Buddhist legends.
Yet more important than all this was an object in the center of the pavilion that resembled a full-length mirror.
Two meters tall and 1.5 meters wide, the mirror’s surface rippled with blue mist—this was the passage from Midland Chiang Mai into the Highland.
Before Han Eol stretched a line of dozens of meters: Ability Users from Chiang Mai, young monks with packs on their backs, standing in queue.
One by one, as Han Eol watched, each monk leaped into the blue mirror.
They were all entering the Highland through that gateway.
The Puppet Master Who Harvests Souls
Author |
Jyuunou
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Corp.
Editor-in-Charge |
Editorial Team
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Samyang C&C Corp. – Dream Books
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7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsaro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260703071
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blog.naver.com/dreambookss
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@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
(주) Samyang C&C — Without written permission from Dream Books, this book’s contents may not be used in any form or by any means.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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