Second Soul Corridor
"Decided what?" She asked again.
His gaze was in one direction. "She just entered my sensing range."
Hye Won instinctively looked around as if, caught drinking. "Who? Where?"
Han Chen placed a hand on her head, stopping her from looking suspicious.
"Not here. Yue Lan, ~ she's far. My sensing range covers miles."
Hye Won exhaled sharply. "...Another secret. Anyway what's the plan.."
He smiled. "You'll know"
Hye Won, slightly drunk from the diluted liquor, swayed on her feet. "I am coming."
"Yeah," Han Chen said, catching her elbow to steady her. "You're coming with me."
**** The Walk ****
The night air was cool as they moved through the city. Han Chen already helped her refine the alcohol, but she wanted a tiny bit buzz to remain. Hye Won, emboldened by alcohol and newfound strength, swung their clasped hands.
"Hey, I never got to walk alone like this before," she mused. "Always afraid of dogs, or snatchers, or just... men and ladies staring." She flexed her free arm. "Perks of having a superhuman boyfriend. Though I'm strong enough now—I'll just pow-pow anyone who tries anything!"
Han Chen chuckled but kept walking, used to her drunken antics.
"Hey," she poked his side, "how does your perception even work? Eagle vision?"
"More like full spectrum penetrating vision," he admitted casually.
Hye Won stopped dead. "Wait—hold on. Don't tell me you've been looking at me naked this whole time! "
"Relax," he laughed. "I can control it. And for the record, I haven't looked since we started dating."
"Aah, you absolute pervert!" She pouted, then suspicion darkened her features. "Wait... back then, was it just me, or you—"
"Hye Won," he sighed, " calm down. You've seen people taking cats and dogs out for a walk. Similarly there are guide dogs, right? They help people navigate. Does that make their owners exhibitionists?"
She frowned. "What does that—"
"It's about perspective," he continued. "As you grow stronger, your worldview shifts. Humans are just one step on the evolutionary ladder. Cultivation accelerates that process. I can feel others down to their bone, even if they are covered in thick steel armor"
She groaned. "Its not scientific.....Ugh, I kissed you when I confessed, but you saw me naked before? Why is everything out of order?"
Han Chen simply pulled her along, quickening their pace.
*****
Half an hour later, they stopped near a rundown neighborhood.
"Why here?" Hye Won wrinkled her nose at the trash-strewn alleys. The neighborhood they stopped in smelled of rotting garbage and stale beer.
"She stopped at home now, not here but some miles away" Han Chen said. "There's a cleaner spot up ahead. Let's call some taxi."
" Hey you are loaded rich, why not buy a car? ....."
"...Because, I usually fly."
Hye Won's jaw dropped. She yanked his sleeve back and forth. "You can fly now? What else are you hiding? Take me! Right now! I want—"
"Okay then...but first, ... " he promised, steering her toward the taxi stand.
" Alright, but first, options."
At the taxi shelter, he explained his plans— "First path, flood her mind with memories of previous life" A shimmering thread pulsed from his fingertip. "The soul mark I left will amplify it into vivid dreams. But she'll panic, look for me for answers..." The thread snapped violently. "Complications we don't need for our peace."
Hye Won watched as he drew a second symbol—intertwined circles. "Second option—forge a soul corridor like ours. Anonymously guide her whenever & wherever and it would also let me check how to help myself, I will tell you in a while."
The third symbol flickered weakly—a fading shield. "Last resort ~ a one-time spell to protect her with my current ability. Useless against sustained threats. Like putting bandages on a gut wound."
Seeing connecting with her is the best choice, her voice dropped to a wounded whisper. "That's our private symbol...our sacred space. And you want to...share it?"
Han Chen caught her hand. "Remember what I told you about my past? The full story - but not hers." His thumb traced circles on her wrist.
"You told me, I don't understand its perplexities" She looked back at him and said.
"Think about it. Someone of her status, yet no one came when she needed help. Why? There are missing pieces here, Hye Won. If I leave her to fate now, it will eventually just end up affecting me. I don't care if she ends up dead due to old age" He paused.
" But I knew one fact, there is something in my mind that chains me, I call it the heart demon, its the expression of my regrets and doings. My past life bounds my progress."
Her breath hitched. "Heart demon?"
"An incarnation of regret." He tapped his heart. "Every path not taken, every life un-lived, there may be infinite versions of her across timelines—the one I failed died eons ago. This?" His fingers swept the neon-lit street. "Is my singular chance to sever those chains through an alternate version of her, but I don't know how."
The neon lights reflected in her glassy eyes as she swallowed hard. " I don't get it...but if you're absolutely certain," she pressed, "...that this won't become..."
Cradling her face, Han Chen brought their foreheads together. His whisper carried the weight of an oath: "The only heartbeat that matters now is the one I feel racing against my palm."
Then Hye Won pulled back just enough to glare - though the effect was ruined by the tear tracking down her cheek. "Fine," she bit out. "But the moment she falls for her invisible guardian?" Her fingers mimicked scissors snipping. " I'm severing that connection myself."
After little discussion, they settled on the soul corridor—even if it meant sharing what Hye Won had considered her special symbol.
*****
The night didn't pass without incidents waiting for them. As they stood to leave, a masked figure charged them. Another waited on a bike nearby.
Hye Won grabbed Han Chen's sleeve as the mugger yanked her purse—then blinked when it didn't budge.
The mugger growled, flashing a gun. "Hand it over! Cute couple act won't save you!" He lifted his shirt to reveal the gun wedged in his waistband.
Hye Won smirked, cracking her knuckles. The moment he reached for his weapon, which got mysteriously stuck—she lunged. She miscalculated her strength, and her fist tore through the air like a cannonball.
Han Chen dampened the blow in time with his spirit will. The man dropped like a sack of rice.
"Oops," Hye Won said, shaking out her hand. " I think he is a martial artist, his energy slowed me down, but why is he knocked down?"
"That 'resistance' was me saving his life," Han Chen deadpanned. He sighed. "You have no control...You nearly turned his head to paste."
She stuck out her tongue. "Bleh." The biker realizing he wanted nothing to do with this, he immediately sped off, leaving his partner behind.
****
As they walked away, Hye Won marveled at their stolen cash. "Six months' part time salary!. Okay so why can't we took off directly?"
"Cameras," Han Chen reminded her. Once his spirit sense confirmed privacy in a nearby alley, he asked, "Superhero flight or fly like a witch?"
" mmm, superhero?"
"Okay then." Han Chen used spiritual technique to hide themselves bending the rules of light around making it invisible. Took both of their phones into storage ring. His telekinesis slowly unfurled swaying them in air and stabilizing and then they both zoomed past the buildings.
He put a small ocular shield above her eyes and let her enjoy the air flowing past, as they were going at a comparatively low speed. Within 10 minutes they reached their destination.
The rooftop landing sent Hye Won's hair whipping wildly as she trembled with exhilaration. "Waaah! That was—we should—" Her shout vanished mid-sentence as Han Chen's spirit barrier absorbed the sound. He smirked at her breathless expression.
"You could be the world's greatest burglar now," she murmured, eyeing the balcony door thirty stories below. "Invisible, silent, no traces—you could empty bank vaults without tripping alarms."
Hye Won's giddy smile faltered as they floated downward. "Wait—you never told me why her family abandoned her in your past life. If she's this important..."
Han Chen's spirit will slid the balcony lock open from within. "Think of it like solving a puzzle, it will be best if you found out along with her" he whispered as the mechanism clicked. "Spoiler alert—both our family trees have rotten branches." The door swung open soundlessly.
Inside, Yue Lan sat upright in bed, her silk nightgown slipping off one shoulder as she scrolled through her phone, dark circles under her eyes. Hye Won immediately pinched Han Chen's side hard when his gaze lingered.
"Mission focus, you creep," she hissed through clenched teeth.
Yue Lan suddenly turned toward them, eyes scanning the empty air. A violent shiver ran down her spine—the feeling of being watched. But the balcony doors remained closed, the room silent except for the hum of the air conditioner. Shaking her head, she reached for her sleeping pills—high-stakes corporate life had long since ruined her natural sleep cycle.
Before her fingers touched the bottle, an unnatural drowsiness overwhelmed her. Her eyelids fluttered shut as Han Chen's spiritual influence guided her gently back onto the pillows.
****
"Mark recovered. Beginning." Han Chen's hands traced intricate patterns in the air as glowing Sanskrit-like characters materialized around Yue Lan's sleeping form. The yin-yang symbols on their chests shimmered, the black and white swirls now branching with thin silver threads that arced toward Yue Lan.
Hye Won gasped as their symbols transformed—no longer halves but complete circles, each now containing a luminous silver spiral intertwined with the original design. "Our symbols changed" Hye Won muttered.
"Think of it like adding dimensions," Han Chen explained softly. "A two-link connection creates polarity—mutual support. But three links require harmony at every node." The silver threads sank into Yue Lan's sternum. "We could now even host other's flesh, but if done carelessly, weaker souls might perish. And this isn't private for her, but only for us—more like a group chat now"
"Han Chen," Hye Won's voice turned deadly sweet, "if you're entertaining harem fantasies, I'll sever this connection and ensure you die alone."
"....That wasn't even—"
Hye Won wandered to the vanity, picking up a lipstick tube and going over the make up items. As she tried to apply it, she frowned at the mirror's empty reflection— it was weird for her. Sighing, she went to replace it when Han Chen caught her.
"Don't. She'll notice if things are out of place." He plucked the lipstick from her fingers. "I'll buy you better ones. Never pegged you for a makeup girl."
"I was conservative because I couldn't afford nice things!" she huffed. Then hesitated. "Does it...really make women prettier?"
"With my vision? All I'd see is powder clumping in your pores and foundation settling into fine lines. It's horrifyingly magnified. If you want me to find you attractive, stay natural." He tapped her nose. "Besides, higher cultivation realms will enhance your beauty anyway."
As they moved to leave, Hye Won glanced back at the sleeping woman. "Will this...change what we have?"
Han Chen pulled her close, their shared symbol glowing warmly beneath their clothes. "Our private channel remains just ours—she can't access it."
Yue Lan stirred with a yawn, her hand drifting to where the new pattern had formed beneath her nightgown. Hye Won panicked, yanking Han Chen toward the balcony so hard they tumbled into open air, even though he could stop her, he allowed it for fun.
"Damn — Hey, woman why are you always so panicking!" As they tumbled through the night air, his arms locking around her waist. Below them, the city lights blurred into streaks of gold as he righted their fall. "She couldn't sense us if we set off fireworks down her—oh forget it." His sigh ruffled her hair. "Hold tight." The return trip stretched longer as Han Chen took them on a detour over the city's glittering skyline before finally dropping Hye Won at her apartment. The moment her feet touched the balcony, she whirled with sparkling eyes.
The night's events cascaded through her: The weightless thrill of flight. The secretly breaking into others house, doing stupid things on air. The way his arms had felt around her when they'd almost fallen. Her fingers rose unconsciously to trace the now-complete symbol beneath her shirt.
"Third semester starts tomorrow, have a nice beauty sleep" he blurted out. The corner of her mouth quirked up. "Don't be late just because you can fly now, hotshot."
Han Chen's answering grin flashed white in the darkness as he stepped backward off the railing. His voice already sounded distant as the night swallowed him. "Sweet dreams"