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Jinseong, who had obtained valuable information, finished a ritualistic conversation with the production team and returned home.

Not to the mansion waiting for the Lee Clan, but towards the empty building where he alone resided.

Back at the building, Jinseong took the elevator to the top floor and walked up the stairs leading to the rooftop, which he had cleverly concealed using optical illusions. He carried a single flower, which he had prepared beforehand, as he headed to a secluded corner of the rooftop.

In that corner, there was a small container painted in dark blue.

Nearby, there were odds and ends scattered about, leading anyone to conclude, “Ah, it’s just junk stored on the roof.”

Jinseong opened the door of the container, which appeared to be such a storage space. He entered the password on the door lock to open the first door, then placed his fingerprint on the second sliding door, opening it.

Finally, the last remaining third security device, an intangible energy barrier, was neutralized by attracting yin and yang energies to create a specific energy pattern.

What lay inside the container was… grotesque.

It felt less like a simple storage space and more like a room decorated by a madman. To brighten the inside, tiny light bulbs illuminated the area, but their appearance was quite strange.

The wires of these bulbs tangled in odd ways, akin to tangled vines, and the bulbs stuck out here and there, hanging limply on the floor as if they were fruit emitting light.

If one only saw this, they might consider it a unique decor item.

However, that was only until they noticed the corpse at the root of the bulb tree.

Underneath the small bulbs piled a heap of animal corpses.

Despite the warm heat inside the container, the remains of moles, which had not yet decayed, formed a small mound, with the wires seemingly sucking the life out of them. Moreover, from time to time, the mole’s body twitched and vibrated as if stimulated by the malfunctioning electricity.

Drawing an eerie geometric pattern, the mound of moles served as a reference point. It looked painted in blood and spread out in a peculiar regularity in all directions, occupying not just the floor but also the walls and ceiling.

The shapes twisted and branched off in various directions, merging back together in a way that appeared strangely bizarre.

While the bulb tree seemed to stretch its roots to dominate the inside of the container, it also resembled blood vessels extending from the corpses.

Anyone witnessing this might consider it an evil ritual and have no words to defend against calling the police.

Jinseong stepped towards the writhing mole corpses.

He looked at the moles that, although dead, continued to squirm, and spoke:

“To say the soul is a noble thing, solely possessed by humans. Animals and plants lack souls, as it is a privilege granted to humanity by the Creator.”

Jinseong spoke slowly, moving his hand holding the flower, as if trying to move through very thick water.

“Yet there was one who explored this, for his learning seemed to reach the heavens, and even in the heavenly realm, his name must surely spread. So the seeker approached the scholar to ask about the soul, and the scholar replied that the soul can be divided into three. What dwells in plants is called Anima Vegetativa, in animals Anima Sensitiva, and in humans Anima Rationalis.”

Drawing close to the dead mole, Jinseong waved the flower as if to let the corpse smell its fragrance.

“The scholar said the noblest of these is Anima Rationalis. It possesses understanding, the power of free will, and is the forever-living essence of the soul. Thus the seeker asked, if the Anima is merely a life force that activates, and Anima Sensitiva is likewise just a life force for activity encompassing Anima, how then can we distinguish between the life of plants and animals?”

As he waved the flower, creating a curious pattern, the mole’s head began to move. Its nostrils flared and twitched, as if attempting to smell something.

This movement grew more vigorous as Jinseong swung the flower more, until it resembled that of a live mole.

Aligning itself with the trajectory of the moving flower, the mole’s head began to turn slightly, and as the flower moved away, its nostrils shrank, while they expanded when it came closer, continuing the cycle of change.

“Humans return to the embrace of the soul after death, rendering them immortal. But this is not the case for animals and plants, for when a plant withers and dries, its life has ended; and when an animal can no longer move and its heart ceases to beat, its life has ended.”

Jinseong, already deceased himself, continued to weave an argument that made the twitching mole appear ‘alive’ with electrical stimulation, using the insight of the ritual to act through the responding mole.

“In all gatherings, there is a chief, whom we call a king, and above the king exists one, and that is the deity. O mole, O mole, you are the chief of moles and the god who watches over them. Here stands the destined mate bestowed from the heavens.”

Jinseong waved the flower he held gracefully.

“Here is Princess Knomen, clad in the yellow of the sun, possessing the strength blooming among the ice, her nature truly as it was in the old days. Therefore, grant me the rights to command moles in exchange for this mate.”

He continued moving the flower teasingly, repeatedly bringing it to the mole’s nose. The flower then seemed to melt and absorbed into the mole’s body.

Shudder.

And from that point onward, the mole’s body began to shake.

The tremor began with the mole that had absorbed the flower and gradually spread throughout the mound of corpses, and due to the vibrations, the skin, flesh, and bones of the moles began to separate and tumble to the ground.

Plop.

Plop.

The skin slid off smoothly as if placed upon slanted ice, while the flesh rolled away with the skin like scattered carpet pieces. The insides of the moles crumbled to dust, scattering on the ground, leaving the bones as the very foundation of the mound.

And at the center of the multitude of bones, a flower bloomed.

A yellow flower.

A single buttercup exuding a brighter yellow than what Jinseong had absorbed.

Jinseong tucked that buttercup into his possession.

Then, invoking Samādhi True Fire, he incinerated the mole’s skin and meat completely and emerged from the container.

He gazed at the sky to determine his direction, then turned his body towards a specific destination.

Waving the flower, he chanted the invocation.

“O mole, O mole. A decree has come down, and you must regard me as king and obey my commands….”

Successful.

A very successful preparation for the broadcast.

 

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