Alchemy of Souls (환혼) is a 2022 Korean fantasy drama which is set in the imaginary world of Daeho. The story revolves around young magicians who are to carry the burden of the past. Starring Lee Jae-wook, Jung So-min and Hwang Min-hyun, the show premiered on tvN on Jun 18, 2022. The show will have 20 episodes and it takes over tvN’s Saturday-Sunday 9 PM KST.
On August 4, 2022, it was announced that the ongoing fantasy Kdrama will be going on a week-long hiatus after the release of episodes 15 and 16.
The wait for the next episode is long which may even have us forget half of the plot so here we have a special for you to remember the story till the latest episode 16.
Alchemy of Souls: The Journey Till Episode 16
The story starts off with Jang Kang who is asked to perform the alchemy of souls by the king on himself and the king, who later beds Jang Kang’s wife. The distressed Jang Kang is unable to do anything, and troubles further add up for him when he finds out that the child Jang Uk is born in the energy of the King’s star. To keep the child safe, he blocks Jang Uk’s energy gates and disappears from Daeho under the pretence of searching for a friend’s daughter.
Years later, we have Park Jin trying to catch the notorious assassin Naksu who is going around killing mages. He strikes her with an arrow and she tries to escape. Unable to find another way, she performs the alchemy of souls on herself and mistakenly enters the body of a blind girl- Mu-deok.
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Park Jin takes the body of Naksu along with her sword to Songrim while Naksu, who is now Mu-deok, is taken to be sold. There, she comes across Jang Uk and after a stream of events becomes his maid. She later takes his plaque to sneak into Songrim to retrieve her sword but finds herself amidst an infiltration in Songrim.
She is later saved by Jang Uk who reveals her true identity as Naksu while pointing at the blue mark of a soul shifter that is seen in her eyes. He then asks her to be her master only to be rejected. The two are unable to leave Songrim as Park Jin suspects a traitor and requests for Jinyowon’s Sapsali to find the soul shifter among them.
This scares Jang Uk and Mu-deok but another soul shifter is caught by Sapsali which diverts everyone’s attention. The Sapsali later goes behind Mu-deok but she escapes after Jang Uk breaks its pottery. She then tries to leave Jang Uk and attempts to go back to where she came from. However, looking at Jin Mu burning her body in front of everyone makes her hopeless about her situation.
Right then, Jang Uk brings her sword which surprises her but she is once again disappointed when she is unable to unsheath her sword. The dispirited Mu-deok goes to end her life in the lake but when she is able to unsheath her sword in the depths of the lake, she is filled with hope again.
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She realises that she needs a powerful person to help her get back her energy and places her hopes on Jang Uk. She poisons him and gives Park Jin and Heo Yeom six hours to help him clear the poison. Left with no choice, Heo Yeom opens up Jang Uk’s energy gates to save his life.
Elsewhere, under Jin Mu’s orders, a person suspected to be Naksu is killed. Back in Songrim, Mu-deok accepts Jang Uk as her student after putting forth some conditions. But she later finds out that her student has no skills at all. She also gets to know that Heo Yeom has put in 10 years’ worth of energy into Jang Uk and tries to find a way for him to absorb the energy.
Later, Jang Uk is banished from Songrim and gives him a hundred flogs as punishment for having his energy gates opened after poisoning himself. The next day, Mu-deok notices that he has absorbed Heo Yeom’s energy because of the flogging and tells him to channel it inside his body.
Elsewhere, Master Lee has taken away Sapsali with him. The next day, the crown prince gets in a duel with Jang Uk after he eyes Jang Kang’s sword and ends up losing after Mu-deok’s intervention. The crown prince is angered and goes to attack Mu-deok but Jang Uk unsheathes his father’s sword and attacks the crown prince. He is unable to control his hand and continues with the attack until Jin Cho-yeon ties a binding chain on his wrist.
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Park Jin gets to know about this and says some hurtful words to Jang Uk which leave him dishearted. Looking at him behaving this way, Mu-deok takes matters into her own hands and a duel between the crown prince and Jang Uk is settled. Seo Yul and Park Dong-gu have Jang Uk leave Daeho along with Mu-deok.
The two reach Danhyanggok, where they meet master Lee who has realised that Mu-deok is a soul shifter and is intrigued by her situation. He surprises them with his energy that goes beyond Chisu and by asking Jang Uk to follow celibacy and become his pupil.
Elsewhere, Park Jin agrees to the condition that Jang Uk forfeits the duel then he will lose the rights to be the Gwangju. He later goes to investigate Cheonbugwan for a corpse but just misses it as it is being moved in a carriage. Later Seo Yul and Park Dong-gu find the empty carriage with a spirit plaque which belongs to Jang Uk.
The two are then sent to meet Jang Uk to find how he lost the spirit plaque while the rumour of Jang Uk and Jin Cho-yeon is being spread around town. Mu-deok has gone to Chwiseonru but is caught by Kil-joo, however, she escapes his clutches with the help of the crown prince.
She babbles about her weakness to Jang Uk which makes him realise that what he is doing is wrong and is motivated to work hard for her. In Songrim, master Lee appears with a corpse which had arrived in a nearby village through the river.
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After questioning Jang Uk, Park Dong-gu and Seo Yul take their leave and Jang Uk starts practising for his duel. Back in Songrim, Seo Yul reveals having met Naksu to Park Jin and Heo Yeom who later realise that she is none other than the daughter of a constellation mage. The same mage that they killed because he was a soul shifter who went wild.
Jang Uk is practising Tansu, a skill specific to Naksu. He later goes back to town with Mu-deok and gets to know about the rumours. Mu-deok on the other hand goes along with Jin Cho-yeon to avoid Kil-joo and ends up in a predicament. After a stream of events, she enters Jinyowon and is caught inside the Mirror of Longing.
The mirror then creates an image of Mu-deok and visits the crown prince and Seo Yul who head to the Jin household. Jang Uk also arrives when called by the family because Mu-deok is suspected to have run away with a jade. The three men enter Jinyowon and start searching for Mu-deok who is soon found but is stuck inside the mirror.
Jang Uk covers the mirror so that it cannot trick him after which Mu-deok touches the mirror which causes it to crack and the two are soon seeing leaving Jinyowon. The next day, Jin Mu gives Jin Ho-kyung an offer to find her daughter that she can’t resist and she teams up with him.
Elsewhere, Kil-joo blackmails Mu-deok into bringing Jang Uk to him so that he can soul shift into his body. Mu-deok is unable to do so and reveals this to Jang Uk who tells her to go meet Kil-joo. Upon meeting, Jang Uk fights Kil-joo and is able to fight him but suddenly, the latter starts the alchemy and they enter the world of soul shifting.
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However, it does not succeed as Jang Uk meets the real Mu-deok who saves him. Kil-joo later reveals the truth behind Naksu’s father’s death which leaves her stunned. He also reveals that Jin Mu is not the real Danju as the real one has the ice stone which can help soul shifters from going wild.
He then escapes and Jang Uk follows him to the palace which makes him suspicious about the Danju being there. He then kills Kil-joo and the rumours about Naksu’s return spreads everywhere. Later, Jin Mu welcomes the real Danju, the queen who then reveals her plan for Daeho.
Elsewhere, Jang Uk tells Mu-deok about the ice stone and promises to get it for her. The day of the duel arrives and Jang Uk succeeds in defeating the crown prince by using Tansu which leads to everyone offering to be his master.
Jang Uk decides to be a part of Songrim and it is the time to celebrate. The crown prince arrives the celebrations and the two wish each other with good luck. Later, when everyone is going back to Songrim, Mu-deok is stopped outside as personal servants are not allowed inside. Left with no choice, she tries to look for other ways to enter and finds out about a hiring competition taking place in Songrim.
She passes on the leaflet to Jang Uk who had come to meet her, letting him know that she will soon be where he is. Jang Uk too gets busy with the task that he has been given by Park Jin. He is unable to read the book given to him but with the help of master Lee he does the impossible.
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Elsewhere, Mu-deok gets help from the crown prince, Seo Yul and Park Dong-gu and is soon able to pass all the tests in the hiring process. After the competition, Jang Uk and Mu-deok meet and he reveals her feelings that have started to bud for him. He tells her he missed her too.
Mu-deok is not ready for these feelings and continuously refutes him. Jang Uk is disheartened which leaves him unmotivated, but a visit to Kim Do-ju once again fills him up with energy to work hard. However, Mu-deok has already planned a lesson for him which results in him fighting against 10 mages one on one.
He is again hurt when he gets to know that the object of the bet is the jade egg he had given Mu-deok, and like this his days of duels begin. Elsewhere, Jin Mu and the queen have something big planned as they work on making So Yi the fake Jin Bu-yeon with the help of Jin Woo-tak.
On the other hand, master Lee and Park Jin discuss Jang Uk’s matters and the former reveals that master Seo Gyeong himself was born under the King’s star. But Jang Uk’s situation is different which intrigues him of what his fate will be.
Jang Uk has lost another duel but later finds out the power of the yin-and-yang jade with the help of the crown prince. He later overhears master Lee and Park Jin talking about Naksu’s past.
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Park Jin later goes to a funeral where a soul shifter is found who is stabbed by Seo Yul. He later tries to catch him but Yeom Soo kills the soul shifter. But this event leaves a mark on Seo Yul who has found out the truth about Mu-deok.
Jang Uk, after forfeiting from his ninth duel, follows Mu-deok into Cheonbugwan for a task when he comes across a eunuch who is a soul shifter. Jin Mu finds the two and tells the eunuch to take Mu-deok’s energy and then shift into Jang Uk’s body. However, when he attacks Mu-deok, his energy gets absorbed by Mu-deok which shocks and scares her.
She is calmed down by Jang Uk and the two start working on their escape. He uses the jade and calls the crown prince to Cheonbugwan, followed by Park Jin and the queen. He explains what happened but when the eunuch is brought forward, he has to take a step back. They soon leave Cheonbugwan.
Mu-deok is scared of being near Jang Uk but he convinces her that it will be alright. He is later taken by master Lee to go fishing for a Golden Fish which can help him master Chisu. He succeeds in reaching Chisu but is shocked when his final duel is with Seo Yul.
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What shocks him further is that the object of this final duel is Mu-deok. While he shocks everyone with his skills, he loses to Seo Yul. Later, Mu-deok searches for the jade that was thrown away by the crown prince and goes to meet Jang Uk. But seeing him with Heo Yoon-ok makes her jealous which instigates Jang Uk to kiss her.
Later he accompanies master Lee to the palace with Seo Yul and Park Dong-su. There master Lee reveals being a soul shifter due to a mistake made by Heo Yeom. He then asks Jang Uk to bring the dog with Sapsali in it inside the palace to find the soul shifters which scares the queen into secretly calling for Jin Mu.
Jin Mu succeeds in convincing the king to not let the sapsali inside which master Lee leaves after giving some advice. Elsewhere, Park Jin is searching for Mu-deok who is a suspect of committing murders. While she is able to prove her innocence with the help of Jin Cho-yeon, Park Jin takes this opportunity to test her and Jang Uk.
The two tell him that they are deeply in love with each other and show their jade eggs to him. The next day, Jin Ho-kyung makes a ruckus in Songrim which ends up killing the Sapsali. After this, Jin Cho-yeon and Park Dong-gu’s relationship is revealed to all and the two rebel against their elders causing them to leave their homes. The two find shelter at the Jang household.
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Mu-deok is serving Jin Cho-yeon who ends up speaking about her sister that was lost. Elsewhere, Jang Uk realises that Seo Yul knows about Mu-deok. The queen has realised that everyone is suspicious of her and plans her escape, while Jang Uk is off to find out about shaman Choi.
Jin Mu brings Soo Yi to Jin household and when she is taken to Jinyowon to open the door, due to the presence of Mu-deok the door opens. Jin Ho-kyung rejoices that she has found her daughter while Mu-deok gets a weird feeling.
Elsewhere, Jang Kang appears in front of Jang Uk, ending episode 16 of Alchemy of Souls.
Alchemy of Souls Episode 17 of the series will be released on August 20 at 9 PM KST (7.30 PM IST).
Alchemy Of Souls is streaming on Netflix.
Check out all of the other Alchemy of Souls reviews here.
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