Thecla

This drama lost me around Ep 7. Like others, no idea where it's going and the ML/FL relationship makes no coherent sense.

She is Heo Yeom's granddaughter Heo Yoon-ok and works in the hospital at Sejukwon. She's been seen there briefly in previous episodes, but seems like she and Jang Uk have never met.

Well, however often they get angry and threaten to break apart, it seems like Jang Uk is willing to lay down his life for Mudeok, and Mudeok isn't willing to settle for "just anyone".

I really hope that Gil-Ju hasn't succeeded in soul-shifting into Jang Uk's body: there does appear to be a tunnel above Jang Uk that could exit the soul-shift realm, he is protected on the outside by Mudeok, and we only see the blue exit mark on Gil-Ju's body in the after-credits (Jang Uk's shoulder is covered).

I don't think I can survive a double soul-shifted relationship, even temporarily...

Plus I suspect that, before we get to Mudeok's real story, we have a long upcoming plot sequence about Jin Mu and the Queen scheming to get rid of the King and install the (unsuspecting) crown prince as a stooge (maybe even a soul-shifted stooge) while all our heros get blamed unfairly...

If I recall correctly, there's also the discussion by Jin Mu about how when a strong soul enters a weak body "they may not be able to access their energy" (as when Jang Kang entered the King's body).

It could be that the energy is part of the physical body, which would explain why someone dies when their energy is absorbed (or leaks out). I guess what happens to the soul after that is irrelevant since it's no longer connected to a body. (I don't think we've seen any indication that disembodied souls -- if they exist at all -- can shift into bodies).

As an additional edit: there is a gate of energy. It makes sense that it would be a gate between the physical body and the soul. When closed, the soul cannot make use of the bodies' energy to do anything, whether uncultivated (like Jang Uk, initially) or highly cultivated (like hypothetically Naksu in Mudeok's body).

Probably anyone who does dare to have a romance with Mu-Deok is going to wind up on her to-kill-list :)

No idea what's really going on, but I also feel Jang Kang may have blocked baby Jang Uk's energy gates as a means to protect him ("It's the only way to change his fate" -- perhaps an evil fate?). And that doesn't mean Jang Kang never wanted Jang Uk's gates to be reopened at some later time when it was right (though maybe not in the way it happened!).

It also seems like more may be going on than just jealousy with Jang Kang's horror at what the King does ("No that cannot happen!!"). Jang Kang seemed to have had no problems with the King wanting an heir in the abstract (not that it seems to be an effective plan for producing an heir to the throne), and it was only when he discovered his wife was the King's target that Jang Kang went ballistic. So if it's not jealousy, there would have to be something more than the issue of a soul shifter conceiving a child. Maybe something to do with his wife who could've been powerful in her own right?

They also seem extraordinarily careless in guarding stuff. Leave Naksu's body and sword in an empty (not-so-secret) room, leave a priceless heirloom alone in a room to get dropped, leave prisoner who tried to poison a leading mage-family member tied up on her own in the torture chamber...