Episode 18

credit: dramaok at soompi.com

episode 18
soseono sits across from baemang and tells him her group is on their way to gosan nation far away and poverty stricken, then asks baemang if he wonders why on earth a merchant group would go there.
baemang is speechless and soseono then asks baemang if he will do business with her.

meanwhile back in the prison, mari asks jumong why soseono is here and jumong replies she is here to make a deal with baemang, hyepbo and ohyi wonder how she is going to make a deal with someone who intends to kill them all, and mari angrily wonders why they've put their lives in ssn's hands, but hyepbo says for ssn to come here on her own foot she must have something planned.

back in buyeo, the thuglord dochi heads to the palace and tells prince youngpo that jumong has been caught by his business associate in haengin nation and jumong is about to be killed. youngpo asks who else knows and when dochi says no one else yp orders dc not to tell that to anyone else. yp goes to see his mother and prince daeso, and tells them jumong is dead. yp tells them his inferior told him the good news just now. daeso asks what about the rest of the ppl who went with jumong and yp says he doesn't know yet.
ds tells yp not to say something that they haven't confirmed with their own eyes. yp pleads to be believed but ds says he should think about how many foolish things he's done in the past. ds leaves and the queen tells yp his brother merely wants him to be more serious in the future and orders yp not to tell the king about the news of jumong.

meanwhile buyoung goes to see lady yoohwa, who apologizes to buyoung for not looking after her before. BY cries and calls out to YH. YH says BY must be suffering because of JM, and BY says JM has been caught and his life is at risk. daeso tells his servant naro he's headed to yeontabal's camp and tells naro to prepare for it. yoohwa is pacing nervously back and forth in her room, and her maid mudeok suggests she goes to see yeontabal at once. daeso arrives at yeontabal's and asks him if he knows if seosono et al. are in danger and yeontabal smilingly answers a merchant must go through danger in order to be successful and soseono is a strong woman born at the brink of danger and thus she will turn out fine. daeso is still worried but decides to listen to yeontabal and leaves, saying he will come back in the future to discuss the matter of okjeo more. just as yeontabal escorts daeso out, lady yoohwa arrives and daeso asks why she's here. yoohwa thanks yeontabal for looking after jumong. daeso and yoohwa exchange looks and yoohwa goes inside with yeontabal after daeso leaves. yoohwa asks yeontabal for jumong's news and yeontabal says daeso told him soseono and the rest are in danger but the group is doing fine so she shouldn't worry. yoohwa replies he appears to not know that the group is indeed in grave danger. yeontabal sends wootae to find more info at once and wootae and a group of men rush to haengin nation.

at baemang's camp in haein nation, jumong and the trio are told to leave the prison. they are escorted out and jumong glances at soseono who is smilingly slightly. when they get out baemang orders his men to undo their ropes and baemang begs for forgiveness for his bad treatment of the prince, after saluting jumong.

next, gyepil expresses his elation at soseono's doing, and sayong compliments soseono as well saying she's even greater than her father. soseono remarks it's a rare compliment from sayong and even if he's just joking she is still happy to hear it. jumong and the trio are drinking in celebration at the eatery and mari wonders if ssn is interested in jumong. hyepbo agrees what she did was more than a boss should do but more like something one would do for the one they like. jumong tells them to drink up instead but wonders about his relationship with soseono queitly...

meanwhile ssn is in her room and smiles as she remembers the words she exchanged with jumong about putting each other in the other's hands. next day, as ssn's group heads out to continue their journey, baemang and his men arrive and ssn tells her men not to worry since baemang and his men are here to escort them all the way to gosan nation.

back in buyeo, salt is heavily rationed by the order of the king since han nation has stopped their export of salt to them. yeontabal watches as two men fight over a bag of salt leaving a child crying in the middle of it.
king geumwa's advisors and generals report to the king about the severity of salt shortage in buyeo.
the queen's brother tells the king at this rate the citizens of buyeo will be fleeing from buyeo and budeukbul angrily tells him to stop the nonsense but the queen's brother says budeukbul didn't see how bad the situation outside the palace has become.

wootae returns to tell yeontabal that both soseono and jumong are doing fine and on their way to gosan as planned. yentabal visits the king and offers to give 2000 units of salt which he has in his warehouse. the king asks what will happen then and yeontabal says what happens next is a business transaction between them. ytb says he wishes to build his own weapon factory, thus he hopes the king will lend him mopalmo to help him build his private factory. the king agrees and yeontabal leaves his court, and yeontabal runs into yoohwa outside and he reports to the lady not to worry about jumong since they're on their way to gosan nation. yoohwa thanks yeontabal for the good news.

meanwhile the sachuldo fairies ask yeomieul to find a way to stop the unrest among buyeo's citizens. yeomieul offers no solution and the fairies are worried. next the queen summons 2 of the sachuldo fairies and asks if they can stop the unrest but they answer even yeomieul who's always had a solution in dire situations cannot ease the situation. the queen suggests to mawoori fairy to be the king's fairy since what buyeo needs is not someone like yeomieul but someone like mawoori. the queen's words sparks a greed in mawoori but she says that's too much but the queen insists daeso also wants the same and if he can be the crown prince and future king mawoori will surely be the next lead fairy.

yeomieul visits yoohwa and tells her about how she loved king geumwa before she became a fairy and how she continues to put him above all else and the love she wished he would reciprocate is what he gives to yoohwa instead, and yme says even though she knows after what happened to haemosu, yoohwa is probably scarred deeply but she must believe that yme has the king and buyeo's best interest in heart, and what she did to haemosu was following what the heaven's wanted. yme continues and tells yoohwa the king is on the wrong path and yoohwa is the only one who can help him, but yoohwa says perhaps the wrong path is noneother than yeomieul and if yeomieul is here to ask yoohwa to persuade the king to accept han nation's requests then she is wrong. yoohwa says haemosu wanted to fight against the han and she will help the king and jumong carry that out. yeomieul is in tears hearing that yoohwa is determined not to help her.

yoohwa visits the king and tells the king she understands how lonely he must be these days and she's sorry she couldn't help him. king says she knows buyeo is in dire state but he will not succomb to yangjeong's conditions. yoohwa tells the king she will stand behind his decision. the king thanks yoohwa addressing her as his wife.

jumong and the trio go around gosan nation asking the scattered poor citizens if they know where the salt mountain is. but just as they mention the word salt the citizens run away and the trio comment something must be up, and how gosan doesn't even seem like a nation with no real village even. but an old gosan man watches from distance what the newcomers are doing. at night soseon's group is gathered and wonder if such thing as a salt mountain really exist in gosan nation. jumong assures them it must exist, and soseono comments they must look for it themselves. next morning ssn's group and baemang's men search all over gosan nation for the legendary salt mountain. they find nothing after a day of search and mari thinks jumong may have been lied to.

baemang demands to see soseono, asking if she's lied to him. baemang says he tried to believe them but he can't stand it anymore since the salt mountain just isn't there. jumong tries to calm him saying they just need to find it. baemang continues saying they can't find something that doesn't exist. just then the old man appears and tells them the salt mountain does exist. the old man reveals that the gosan nation's fairy closed it down a few decades ago saying it is cursed. ssn asks the old man if he can take them there and he replies yes. sayong asks him what he wants from them and the old man says nothing. the man says he's lived long enough and before he dies he wants to show the gosan ppl that they have hope too. next ssn and baemang's ppl are led to the salt mountain by the old gosan man.

when they get closer the trio inspect the mountain and sees that the mountain is watched by gosan's army.
sayong advises them not to harm the army men and ssn agrees saying they should wait til night time to make their move. when night falls jumong, ssn, and the rest are led to the cave by the gosan man. before they enter, the man says he will go in first. as they wait the man returns holding a block of salt. mari licks and says it's salty, then jumong tries it too and tells ssn it is indeed salt. just then the gosan man is shot by arrow and a group of army men appear pointing swords and arrows at ssn's group.

next jumong, ssn, and the trio are in the prison. when asked by the prisonward who is the one in charge, ssn stands up saying it is she, and jumong stands up saying it was his idea to go to gosan.
but ssn stops jumong saying she is the merchant in charge and goes out with the gosan general. ssn is led to gosan's fairywoman who asks where ssn came from. ssn answers she is a merchant from yentabals's camp. the fairy chu-yu-seong asks why she's here and ssn says to look for salt for buyeo.
ssn says the ppl are suffering and asks the fairy if she will do business with her. the fairy says the rightful owner of salt mountain is acutally habaek group who has helped gosan. ssn says habaek is already destroyed by the han and the fairy says she knows and she is waiting to hand the mountain to habaek's survivor. next ssn brings jumong before the fairy and introduces him as prince jumong, decedant of habaek (through yoohwa). the fairy bows and kneels before jumong.

back at the palace king geumwa tells his subjects buyeo will not heed to yangjeong's request and buyeo will send army to fight okjeo for salt. geumwa tells his lead general to get an army ready, and states he will lead the army himself. daeso tells the king he will lead the army inplace of the king and asks for permission.
the news gets to yangjeong who is angry at geumwa, and yangjeong reveals he never needed geumwa's soldiers for he was merely trying to test geumwa, but now that geumwa has gone against him, yangjeong will lead an army to okjeo too. before they leave, king geumwa tells his subjects to prepare themselves for death in the war against okjeo. just then jumong arrives and stops them from going. the king asks who ssn is and jumong introduces her as yeontabal's daughter. daeso asks youngpo what's going on and youngpo is at loss for words. jumong then tells the king buyeo will no longer have to be at han's mercy for salt, since they have found a salt mountain in gosan for buyeo's dispense.