The East Palace

A mysterious curse has haunted the royal family for decades, and the deaths of several princes have left the East Palace filled with fear. When another royal heir dies under strange circumstances, the King secretly summons Gu-cheon, a powerful spirit slayer who can enter the Realm of Gwi. He is joined by Saeng-gang, a court lady who can hear the voices of the dead. Together, they investigate the palace’s supernatural secrets and discover that the curse is connected to a much darker history within the royal family.

Their investigation leads them to a pond spirit, believed to be the ghost of a court lady who was falsely accused and executed thirty years earlier. She had cursed the royal bloodline before her death, making her the suspected cause of the princes’ deaths. Gu-cheon eventually enters the Realm of Gwi and destroys the spirit, but the killings continue. Saeng-gang realizes that someone may have been using the supernatural curse to hide deliberate murders.

The truth becomes even more disturbing when Saeng-gang discovers that her grandmother was behind the original killings. She had used the court lady’s curse as a cover to poison princes who stood in the way of her son’s succession. Years later, the current Crown Prince learns the truth about his family’s past and begins killing his own brothers to secure the throne. His hatred eventually turns him into an ak-gwi, a vengeful spirit who unleashes the suffering souls of the past against the royal family.

To stop the Crown Prince, Gu-cheon and Saeng-gang enter the Realm of Gwi for a final confrontation. Gu-cheon gains enough power to destroy the Crown Prince but becomes an ak-gwi himself in the process. He ultimately saves Saeng-gang and returns her to the human world. Although Gu-cheon survives and leaves the palace with her, a mysterious chain remains attached to his hand, suggesting that his connection to the spirit world—and the darkness surrounding the East Palace—may not be completely over.