The Painter of Truth

The story

One day, a beautiful but cursed Yeoksin — the god of plague — asks the monk-painter Dohwaseung to paint his likeness. Dohwaseung refuses and instead depicts him as a hideous demon. Enraged, Yeoksin lays a curse upon Dohwaseung on the spot. To lift the curse etched into his body, Dohwaseung wanders from place to place and eventually arrives at a remote temple. There a monk tells him the only way to break the curse is to confront Yeoksin himself. At the temple Dohwaseung meets Ran, a girl whose parents were taken by Yeoksin. Bound by their separate vows of revenge and redemption, the two set out together to find the god. Time passes. In a gambling hall in a passing town, Ran sweeps every pot — until a merchant slams down gold he claims came from Basila, the land of riches. Dohwaseung and Ran sense the aura of Yeoksin clinging to the coins. The room hums with rumor of Basila's holy maiden, said to be impossibly beautiful. Could the holy maiden of Basila be tied to Yeoksin?