The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 109

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Falling Clan’s Terminal Elixir — Chapter 109

“Your grandmother……prepared them, it seems. I’ll give one to each of them.”
“What? Both of them? You mean……your mother?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi caught the shock written across Ryeon’s face at this sudden mention of his mother, and a faint smile crossed his own.
“Seong probably knows already, but I never got the chance to tell you about your grandmother before. She was…….”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi opened his mouth, then fell silent for a moment, as if his throat had tightened.
“She was originally the eighth Deputy Palace Master of the North Sea Ice Palace.”
“The North Sea Ice Palace is……really quite far from here, isn’t it?”
Even looking at the Ma Cheon Gyo, which lay ten thousand li distant from Hang Zhou, they did not call it the Frontier

— after all, it was still part of the same Martial Arts World that bumped shoulders with the rest.
But when it came to the North Sea Ice Palace far to the north, or the Southern Savage Beast Palace to the south, they spoke of the “Frontier Martial World.” The distance was simply too vast.
‘So that’s why I was so shocked when the North Sea Ice Palace participated in the battle at Blood Coral Valley……wait, could it be?’
Dan Mok Cheon Gi saw Ryeon’s eyes growing wider, starlight shimmering softly across her irises, and his expression turned wistful.
“Everyone used to say she’d become the next Palace Master of the North. So full of spirit and sharp-tongued that you’d never believe she was from that frozen land…….”
— You! Are you Dan Mok Cheon Gi? The strongest among the Central Plains rising talents right now?
A woman with a sharp nose and eyes that glinted with diffuse starlight jabbed her finger at him as she shouted, then whispered to a companion at her side, ‘……Is this Dan Mok Cheon Gi?’ — an image that remained vivid in his memory even now.
“With that temper, how could she have stayed quietly in the North? She wanted to see what the Central Plains was like, so she ran away from the Ice Palace. And that’s how we happened to meet.”
He’d had such trouble dealing with someone rushing at him recklessly, demanding a duel.
On one side, he knew his opponent was one of the North Sea Ice Palace’s Deputy Palace Masters—and a strong candidate for the next Palace Master at that—which made him sweat with anxiety. She had no such hesitation.
— I didn’t come here as some Deputy Palace Master, so what’s the problem? You coward!
The young Mo Yong Chui Ryeo who’d been dragged along with her, shaking his head in the background, his mouth open wide as he laughed…….
“And then……then……I ended up staying here. With this old man.”
It was a memory that remained vivid as yesterday, though it had happened decades ago.
The sound of crickets drifting across West Lake, the thin trembling of a distant flute, the raucous voices of drunk revelers mingling in the streets of Hang Zhou—Bing Xue Yan had walked those streets with him always a step ahead, impatient by nature, never able to stand still.
Then she stopped abruptly and turned to face him.
— Where would we live if we got married?
— Ha, what are you talking about? Who said anything about what?
— If you and I were to marry.
— Why?
— Because I like you, that’s why.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi stood as if he’d been suddenly struck by a stranger on the road, his mind reeling and heat rising to his face, while Bing Xue Yan began calculating on her own.
Folding her fingers one by one, she sized up the situation—the Dan Mok Clan with only Dan Mok Cheon Gi as a reliable successor, and the North Sea Ice Palace with multiple Deputy Palace Master candidates—then boasted with an expression of great magnanimity.
— Ah, never mind. Just a whim. West Lake is so beautiful, I’ll overlook it. Understood?
— No, wait—who said anything to whom, about what and where…….
His face flushed crimson and his words stammered, and at the sight of it, Bing Xue Yan laughed as brightly as the sun.
It could not have been easy to abandon her own home and stay in Hang Zhou, where she knew no one.
She must have known clearly that she would have to give up the North Sea Ice Palace that had been within her grasp.
That she had been able to come this far was only because this journey was the ‘last rebellion before becoming Palace Master’—and yet she had.
“When the Martial Alliance was founded in the Central Plains and rose to face Blood Coral Valley, the North Sea Ice Palace threw its weight behind it because of her. And they did it because……of me.”
The North Sea Ice Palace, having lost its Deputy Palace Master before their eyes, would always regard Dan Mok Cheon Gi with resentment; yet despite it all, they sent their warriors to contend against Blood Coral Valley.
Because that was righteousness.
Martial artists trained their martial strength both for smaller aims—to refine power, gain enlightenment, and protect family—and for greater ones:

to aid those weaker than themselves and stand against the wicked.
But the process had not been smooth. Many gathered for a single purpose, and coordinating and balancing them was labor enough.
And at the end of it all, after Blood Coral Valley was finally repelled, he came to regret everything. He even regretted that very moment when he first met her.
That he should not have borrowed the strength of the North Sea Ice Palace. That he should not have let her fight here. That he should never have left her in Hang Zhou to begin with.
That they should never have married.
That we should never have met at all.
If that were so, she would not have fallen in the heart of the Central Plains Martial Arts World, nor would he have had to send her back to the North with no means of saving her.
No—perhaps his very wish and heart to step forward and save people had been wrong from the start.
What meaning could righteousness have when one could not even protect one’s own family?
What meaning could there be in saving all the people of the Central Plains if his son died and his wife never opened her eyes again…….
“But why did Grandmother go to the North Sea Ice Palace? Why did she leave?”
Ryeon asked, concealing the fear in her heart.
Parents who have lost a child sometimes lose the strength to remain together. Dan Mok Cheon Gi could see the tension in Ryeon, who worried that someone might say it was because they had lost Hyeon Seong, and so he smiled wryly.
“It was a brutal war. Your grandmother was badly wounded in the chaos—there was simply no way forward. We took her to the North Sea hoping they could do something, anything.”
A long time passed after that. The North Sea Ice Palace closed its gates and did not open them even to its own children.
But Dan Mok Hyeon Yo did not mind. The closed gate was itself a form of hope to her.
That her mother had not yet passed away meant that someday, perhaps, she might recover.
“We hear she’s recovered considerably. She’s awake now, and when she learned of your accomplishments, she was delighted. She said we must repay those who helped you, and sent this.”
Ryeon gazed at her grandfather with a slightly dazed expression.
This was not the grandfather who wore stern expressions, or playful ones, or occasionally overwhelmed ones.
And Ryeon spoke aloud the thought that came to her mind.
“Let’s go.”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Let’s go. We should go to the North Sea Ice Palace. To Grandmother.”
“The Gyeong Hang Un Ryeon has only just begun. Where are you asking us to go?”
“Ah, ah… yes… of course.”
Ryeon brushed her forehead absently, murmuring to herself.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi, who had only ever seen Ryeon in her sharp, composed form, opened his eyes wide in surprise, then gradually broke into a smile.
“And there was no invitation. How could you suddenly just show up? That’s not possible.”
There was a faint bitterness in Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s voice.
“But this is an invitation!”
Ryeon pointed emphatically at the box containing the Healing Elixir.
“Grandmother sent something so extraordinary—of course we must go to thank her!”
“Still… is it all right?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi spoke hesitantly, his voice uncertain. Seeing his manner, Ryeon too felt some hesitation.
“Did you two… did you have a terrible fight? Did you separate because of that?”
“No, it wasn’t like that. She was…”
Unconscious. It was the decision of the North Sea Ice Palace people to take her away.
If she had been awake then, would she have objected? Perhaps there truly would have been a quarrel. But all of it was merely supposition.
“Then we must go and tell her. That Grandmother has done so much, that we’re grateful. That we’ve missed her for so long. And how much the grandchildren have grown…”
Ryeon enumerated the things she meant to say, counting on her fingers, but when she saw the light in her grandfather’s eyes, she grew composed.
“Even if we travel all the way to the North Sea Ice Palace only to be turned away at the gate, we must go.”
“Turned away at the gate?”
Seeming to find the phrasing amusing, Dan Mok Cheon Gi laughed softly, then nodded with sudden vigor.
“Yes, let’s go. Let’s go to the North Sea Ice Palace.”
“As soon as the Gyeong Hang Un Ryeon ends. Right away.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Can’t we finish the Gyeong Hang Un Ryeon faster? How can we hurry it along?”
Though Dan Mok Cheon Gi was likely more eager than Ryeon, she pressed him imploringly. Dan Mok Cheon Gi burst into laughter and tousled her hair roughly.
The sound of Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s laughter hummed quietly through the air.

“Have you ever been to the North Sea Ice Palace?”
“I… what?”
Hwa Ryun, who had been reproducing the dazzling finger movements of shadow play that had captivated Dan Mok Bi and Dan Mok Seong, looked up in sudden alarm.
Ryeon, having put her cousin and younger brother to sleep, sat leaning against the window frame, gazing at the profusion of magnolias in bloom.
“No… I don’t… I don’t understand… how would I go to the North Sea Ice Palace? Why the North Sea suddenly?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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