“Alchemy Of Souls” Season 1 ended tragically for Jang Uk and Mu Deok as Jin Mu transferred energy into Mu Deok’s body, causing her to run wild. Jang Uk had promised Mu Deok that he would be the first one to get stabbed if she ever ran wild, and he kept his promise. Mu Deok only realized that she had killed her lover when he called for her earnestly while breathing his last breath.
Mu Deok couldn’t handle the guilt and petrified herself by jumping into Gyeongchandaeho Lake. However, some people were seen retrieving her body from the lake later. Jang Uk, on the other hand, came back to life while being cremated because he held an ice stone inside him. When Jang Uk broke the ice stone barrier previously, the ice stone disappeared without anyone knowing that it went inside Jang Uk’s body. In “Alchemy Of Souls,” Season 2, Jang Uk has become the most powerful man in Daeho because of the ice stone. This season returns with a new protagonist, Jin Bu Yeon, who was believed to have died years ago. Go Yoon Jung can be seen playing the role.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Does Bu Yeon Want To Marry Jang Uk?
Jin Cho Yeon breaks the liquor pots that were custom-made for Jinyowon’s ancestral rites because the liquor is not made from a good source of water. Cho Yeon lets one of the men enter Jinyowon to fetch the water to make the liquor again. The man runs into Jin Bu Yeon, who has fled from her quarters. She takes the liquor from him and runs away before anyone finds her. The man claims that she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. After some days, the liquor businessmen encounter a fearsome incident while on their way to Jinyowon with a new batch of liquor. A dead body falls next to them, and as they enter a house in fear, they see a heap of dead bodies inside. They are all petrified soul shifters, and Jang Uk has killed all of them. The businessmen get scared, thinking Jang Uk is a soul shifter too, but they trust him after seeing him kill a powerful soul shifter.
The citizens of Daeho have been living in terror of soul shifters as they have been attacking the citizens more often than before. Park Dang Gu became the leader of Songrim after Park Jin stepped down from his position to take responsibility for the wrath that happened three years ago. Dang Gu has been following a soul shifter, but when the shifter enters Jinyowon, Dang Gu has no choice but to face his ex-fiancee Cho Yeon again. Jinyowon has banned entry to outsiders, so Dang Gu is not allowed in either. However, Jang Uk tricks Cho Yeon and goes inside when Dang Gu can’t.
Jang Uk kills the soul shifter near the annex, where Jin Bu Yeon is locked up. Cho Yeon is worried that Uk will find it, and he does. He enters the annex and sees a woman, whom he believes to be out of her mind and hence locked up inside. Bu Yeon doesn’t tell him her real identity but just requests that he take her outside. Uk already has bad blood with Jinyowon and doesn’t want to make things worse, so he denies her request. However, when she tells him that she is locked up because she is someone who shouldn’t have existed, it reminds Jang Uk of his past, and he empathizes with her. He creates a secret path for her to escape on the condition that she will not tell anyone that she has met him. Master Heo is worried that Uk will have trouble sleeping again as he has used the ice stone’s energy to kill the soul shifters, but maidservant Kim is still there for him; she refuses to live with Park Jin until Jang Uk gets better. The evil souls of the soul shifters lurk around Uk to ask him to revive them. Other servants at his house are scared to even enter his room because it is too dark and cold.
The crown prince awards Jang Uk 1000 gold nyangs every time he kills a soul shifter. Master Lee is adamant about the crown prince delivering the award himself because he takes credit for ordering Uk to kill the soul shifters when Jang Uk has been doing it of his own volition. The crown prince and Jang Uk have always had a hot and cold relationship, and it continues as both of them speak bitterly to each other but still share liquor in the same glass. Bu Yeon’s mother has found a groom for her and has started preparing for her marriage. The news of marriage in Jinyowon reaches Dang Gu, and he gets upset thinking Cho Yeon is getting married. Bu Yeon, on the other hand, is more upset because she will never be able to escape her annex once she has someone else living with her. Her mother wants her to give birth to a girl who will become the next heir of Jinyowon. Bu Yeon runs away from Jinyowon to find the groom and tell him about her condition. Her mother has told her that the groom is from the Seo family and will stay at Chwiseonru after coming from the Seoho fortress. She inquires about him at Chwiseonru and finds out that Seo Yul is the most eligible groom from the Seo family. However, she has to run away because the guards at Chwiseonru mistake her for a thief after seeing Jinyowon’s ornament with her.
The guards of Jinyowon have been searching for Bu Yeon using her tracking bracelet, and they follow her to the port where she has come to search for her groom. She misses the opportunity again and takes the boat to the city to avoid the guards. On her way, she sees people running away from a man and finds out that he is Jang Uk, the strongest mage in Daeho. She follows Uk and asks him to marry her. She thinks that he is the only man who can stand up against her mother. She reveals to him that she is the most powerful priestess and goes by the name Jin Bu Yeon. Jang Uk refuses to help her but saves her from her guards out of curiosity. If she is really a powerful priestess, Jin Bu Yeon, she can help Uk remove the ice stone from his body because she can also see it inside him. Bu Yeon tells him that she is going to get married on the next full moon, but she will wait for him. Uk only tells her that he will find her when he needs her help and leaves.
The three friends—Jang Uk, Seo Yul, and Dang Gu—reunite after three years at Park Jin’s residence. Jang Uk and Dang Gu are still friends, but their relationship has become awkward since Dang Gu had to kill Cho Yeon’s father to save Jang Uk, which broke off his marriage. Yul feels guilty because he left Daeho when his friends needed him the most, but it was also true that Yul needed to go because he was too attached to Naksu. After their dinner, Yul takes a drunk Dang Gu home, and Park Jin brings up the topic of Cho Yeon’s marriage. It makes Jang Uk rethink Bu Yeon’s offer. Bu Yeon has gotten ready for marriage, and her groom, Yul’s uncle, has been waiting for her. Bu Yeon is in a boat alone, and her hopes of Jang Uk coming to take her are fading. Surprisingly, when she drops the rose petal into the water, her boat disappears and lands next to Jang Uk, waiting for her.
How Does Bu Yeon’s Identity Get Exposed?
Park Dang Gu gets drunk and starts crying over Cho Yeon’s marriage, but Yul tells him that it is Bu Yeon who is getting married. Everyone believes that Bu Yeon has long been dead, and that’s why it comes as a surprise to Dang Gu as well. However, Bu Yeon has abandoned her own marriage and is now with Jang Uk. She wants to get to know Uk, but he states that he is not marrying for love but for her divine powers and that she can still go back if she wants. Cho Yeon thinks that Dang Gu must have abducted Bu Yeon, mistaking her for Cho Yeon. Yul’s uncle meets Yul and tells him about this accusation, which Dang Gu hears as well. Lady Jin reaches Songrim with Cho Yeon and demands to see Dang Gu with what he has stolen from Jinyowon. Park Jin and Master Heo don’t understand what she is talking about, but Dang Gu arrives and clears up the misunderstanding. Yul supports his statement by telling Lady Jin that Dang Gu was with him all night.
Jang Uk brings Bu Yeon to his home and introduces her to maidservant Kim as his fiancée. Kim is confused, but Jang Uk promises to explain everything later. He requests that she take care of Bu Yeon and also tells Bu Yeon to treat Kim respectfully because she raised him. Kim gets more confused when Bu Yeon tells her that it hasn’t been long since she met Jang Uk and that she was the one who asked Jang Uk to get married to her. Bu Yeon is desperate to officiate her marriage to Uk and asks him to share a glass of liquor as a wedding drink with her so that they can confirm their marriage. Uk does not show interest in this, but when Bu Yeon pesters him, he asks her to demonstrate her divine power. He brings a lamp that he received from Jinyowon in the past, and that can only be turned off by a priestess. Bu Yeon has lost her powers and fails to turn off the lamp. Bu Yeon is of no use to Jang Uk if she doesn’t have her powers, and hence, he tells her to go home in the morning. Nevertheless, he still helps her to break her tracking bracelet so that no one will know that she is with Uk.
Three years ago, Master Lee helped Lady Jin revive Bu Yeon. Master Lee told her the only way to bring Bu Yeon back to life was to use Naksu’s soul’s power. This means that even if the body belongs to Bu Yeon, the soul inside will still belong to Naksu. However, Lady Jin doesn’t know that the body doesn’t belong to Bu Yeon either. Bu Yeon and Naksu’s souls were trapped together in Mu Deok’s body, and the mystery remains on how Naksu’s body came back along with her soul. Bu Yeon has not only lost powers but memories as well, and according to master Lee, if she regains one of them, the other will follow too. Bu Yeon leaves Jang Uk’s house late at night, but she comes back inside when she sees a person with very dark and ominous energy entering the house. She follows the traces that lead her into Jang-Uk’s bathroom. There is a water monster inside the bathtub, and Bu Yeon offers him her broken bracelet to feed him the energy from it, but the monster drags her inside. She runs out of breath, but Jang Uk brings her out of the water at the right time and kills the monster. He tends to her all night because coming in contact with the evil energy has made her sick. Back in Songrim, Dang Gu has put up Bu Yeon’s posters everywhere with a reward for finding her. This exposes the secret, and everyone finds out that Jin Bu Yeon is alive. Jin Mu also sees the poster, and it doesn’t take him long to recognize Naksu’s face. He becomes curious to meet her.
Bu Yeon finds out from physician Heo that her posters are all over Songrim and that Dang Gu and Seo Yul are searching for her. When Bu Yeon hears Seo Yul’s name, she thinks that he is the groom and that it is bold of him to defy his mother and expose her identity to the world. If Jang Uk cannot become her escape, she hopes Seo Yul can be the one. Bu Yeon leaves Jang Uk’s house and goes to Chwiseonru to find Seo Yul. However, after seeing a glass of alcohol, she remembers how Uk stayed by her side the whole night and also drank from the same glass as her, which means that they are married. She still meets Yul and requests that he stop the search because she has already gotten married to someone else. Moreover, she gets both surprised and relieved when Yul tells her that he is not her groom but that it is his uncle.
‘Alchemy Of Souls’ Season 2 Episode 2: Ending
As Bu Yeon prepares to go to Jang Uk’s home again, the Jinyowon guards find her and take her back. Jin Mu visits his sister, Lady Jin, right after he finds out that Bu Yeon is back in Jinyowon. He advises his sister to declare Bu Yeon as the heir of Jinyowon as rumors have already spread that lady Jin has become weak, and this can cause Jinyowon to lose its relics and political power as well. Lady Jin understands the situation and decides to declare Bu Yeon as the heir even when she doesn’t have divine powers. Bu Yeon is scared to stand in front of the unanimous assembly of mages, but she still introduces herself as the heir of Jinyowon. Her mother has told her that she cannot leave her room anymore because no one should find out that she doesn’t have powers. Bu Yeon stands in front of the mages with an upset face, but Jang Uk shows up all of a sudden, which cheers her up.
In “Alchemy Of Souls,” Season 2, Jang Uk is not going easy on anyone, and he asks Bu Yeon again to turn off the Jinyowon lamp in front of the mages. Back at his home, he noticed that the lamp was turned off and that the only Jinyowon priestess to go near the lamp was Bu Yeon. When Bu Yeon tells Jang Uk that she doesn’t have powers, he prepares to leave, but she stops him by holding his hand, which turns off the lamp in his hand. Jang Uk understands that Bu Yeon still has some power in her and can still be of use to him. He announces to the unanimous assembly that she cannot be the heir of Jinyowon because she is married to the Jang family’s Jang Uk.
See more: ‘Alchemy Of Souls’ Season 1: Characters, Explained
