The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 123

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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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The Fallen Clan’s Limited Lifespan Spirit Medicine 123

‘The fire’s bigger than I thought.’
Beyond the collapsed wall and window, flames flickered into view.
And a man whose eyes glittered with madness—blood streaming down his forearm made it clear he’d already fought somewhere before this.
“Is this the place?”
But the man muttered meaningless words as though oblivious to his own pain, glanced around once, then hurled the torch he’d been holding across the room.
Fabric hanging on the wall caught flame and burned away. The man’s pupils rolled wildly before fixing on the children.
“Is this the place?”
He repeated the same words several times, then his eyes flashed bright. Gripping his sword, he charged straight at them.
“Uh, uaaaagh!”
Ak So Hyeong cried out in shock, but before he could even swing his blade, Mo Yong Seol Ho intercepted the attack.
Crash!
“Ugh!”
“Ah! Ah!”
Clang! Clang-clang!
At first they scrambled about, short screams filling the air, but the children quickly remembered facing Peng Mu Hyeok before.
“Ju Ran, Sin Yu!”
“Yes!”
They realized almost at once that compared to Peng Mu Hyeok, this man’s swordsmanship was crude and clumsy.
Seizing the opening, Ju Ran and Sin Yu fell back, and when Dan Mok Ryeon joined in with attacks from the side, the intruder’s expression began to twist and contort.
“Hiss, hiss, die!”
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
‘Is he half-mad?’
“Seol Ho! Block it!”
“Hrraaaah!”
The man inhaled sharply and unleashed a wave of sword energy. Mo Yong Seol Ho responded gracefully, moving his wooden sword to meet it. The wooden sword shattered on impact, but the counterstrike Mo Yong Seol Ho had deflected came crashing down upon the man nonetheless.

* Mo Yong Seol Ho learns
Shin Yu learns
Seo Geuk Rim learns
Dan Mok Bi attains enlightenment *
Current Luck Stat: 72/120 (6▲)

‘Now, now?’
Dan Mok Ryeon wiped her cheek, bewildered as to what had just happened.
Splinters from Mo Yong Seol Ho’s shattered weapon had grazed her face. The man staggered under the counterstrike infused with internal energy, but recovered faster than expected and was about to rush at the now unarmed Mo Yong Seol Ho when—
“Haah!”
“Look over here, you monster!”
Seo Geuk Rim and Geum Jong Ha attacked in unison from both sides, and Dan Mok Ryeon yanked Mo Yong Seol Ho back out of harm’s way.

Injury avoided.
Luck consumed!
Luck Stat: 67/120 (5▼)

Cold sweat trickled down Dan Mok Ryeon’s spine. While the two of them had tumbled past each other, a droplet of blood had sprayed from an attack that barely grazed her shoulder.
‘Luck… so it works like this? Then if I hadn’t been lucky…’
If the man hadn’t stumbled, it wouldn’t have been a mere grazing wound to her shoulder.
As the intruder sank deeper into madness and his attacks grew erratic, the children’s offensive became increasingly precise and coordinated.
Dan Mok Ryeon noticed the man’s eyes rolling back further and further, and she frowned.
“Hrrr… die… you have to die. Traitors must die!”
‘What? Why? Why is the madness spiraling so fast?’
She knew that the bizarre martial arts cultivated in Blood Coral Valley could deepen such madness, but to this degree?
The man sucked blood from his own wound and seemed to regain his senses for a moment, but soon resumed exchanging blows. Before long, he began moving as though the people before him had vanished entirely.
In other words, he was swinging his sword about like a madman.
“Aaahhh!”
“Ryeon!”
“Sister!”
“Dan Mok Ryeon!”
Clang! Clang! Bang!
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”

Luck Stat consumed in counterattack!
Luck Stat consumed in counterattack!
Luck Stat consumed in counterattack!
Luck Stat: 57 / 120 (10▼)

‘I did it! I actually did it!’
I’d defended against the intruder’s rushing attack using the method Mo Yong Chwi Ryeo had taught me just days ago. It worked because it allowed for a counterattack as well.
‘Thank you, Baek Ryong Sin Geom!’
It was only possible because I had to control my entire body with exquisite precision, and I’d been uncertain whether I could actually pull it off in real combat—but when I saw my Luck Stat consumed just now, I found the courage.
If my Luck Stat was going to be spent to save me, then even if there was some deficiency and distortion in blocking this attack, I could somehow compensate with my Luck Stat!
As a result, this intruder with internal energy approaching the peak level was now slumped halfway down, coughing up blood after taking the full brunt of my attack infused with internal energy.
The children stared back and forth between me and the intruder, their faces locked in shock and disbelief, swords still gripped in their hands.
At that moment, Jeong Young burst in from outside. The Moo Ae Dan warriors were still engaged with the other intruders.
“My lady! Young master!”
“Jeong Young!”
But Jeong Young had no opportunity to deal with the intruder in the room.
The man who’d been slumped there gasping, half-unconscious, caught sight of the intruders outside the door—and his eyes rolled back. He lunged toward them instead.
Startled by the sudden movement, Jeong Young tried to exploit an opening and attacked, but even as the man took a deep sword wound across his back, he paid it no mind and began striking at the other intruders.
“What—what is this?”
“Just finish them!”
“Kill them!”
“Keep one alive!”
With the intruders in a frenzy, attacking each other, the work became straightforward.
While the Moo Ae Dan warriors disposed of the remaining intruders, Jeong Young knelt before me with an expression of utter despair and withdrew a small jar from his chest.
“My lady, the Wound Healing Medicine…….”
“I’m fine. Apply it to yourself first. You’ve worked hard. And we need to leave here quickly. The fire’s spreading faster than it should.”
She was right. The flames that had burst into the room from the intruder and those spreading from outside had merged, creating intense heat.
“You all worked really hard, but I’m afraid we need to push through once more.”
The children, their tension broken and their bodies exhausted as they sat catching their breath, turned to look at me with expressions of utter despair.
Geum Jong Ha and Mo Yong Seol Ho were the first to rise, their faces set with determination.
As Mo Yong Seol Ho approached with a hardened expression, Ak So Hyeong looked as though he might cry out as he struggled to his feet.
“I’m up! I’m getting up…….”
“So Hyeong, help me……. Cough, cough…….”
While the children who’d participated in the brief fight helped each other to their feet unsteadily, I checked on Dan Mok Seong and Nam Gung Seo Geon, who were protecting the younger children.
My siblings’ faces had gone pale with fright, their eyes brimming with tears, but they were holding back their sobs.
I loosened my grip on the wooden sword’s handle and unclenched the pale, trembling hands of Dan Mok Seong and Nam Gung Seo Geon. Nam Gung Hye Min, who’d been organizing the surroundings in the meantime, approached.
“Young master, my lady……. The fire is spreading at an alarming rate. We must move quickly.”
“How can the manor……. How can the manor be consumed by fire…….”
“Only this building is burning, so we just need to escape from here. Please guide us by the shortest route from here to the inner manor.”
“To do that, we’d have to cross the Nam Gung Clan’s garden, and right now the mechanism traps laid throughout it are responding to the fire and the intruders…….”
He meant we couldn’t know which ones might have activated, which might be broken, or whether the previously safe escape routes remained safe.
“We should be able to avoid the traps, and as for the formation arrays…… it might actually be better to fall into a formation array than to burn to death. The Nam Gung Clan will get us out one way or another.”
“That may be true, but as for avoiding the traps…….”
“Those intruders got in while avoiding them, so there’s no reason we can’t do the same.”
It was Mo Yong Seol Ho who spoke with such certainty. Everyone had thought the same thing, but none had dared say it aloud.

* * *

Nam Gung Hye Min cleared his throat briefly, then nodded.
“A wise point. I shall take the lead.”
And right behind him stood I, behind me Hwa Ryun, the children in the middle, and the Moo Ae Dan warriors at the rear—an expedition took shape, pressing through the flames toward the outside.
Yet her hurried pace had to stop several times over.
“Wait!”
Nam Gung Hye Min, about to take another step, halted sharply at the young girl’s voice.
In the same breath, flames erupted before him, then slowly subsided.
“Th… thank you.”
Beside her, Nam Gung Hye Min offered his gratitude, his face flushed from the heat of the fire.

Luck Stat consumed!
Luck Stat: 43 / 120 (5▼)

At the same moment, cold sweat trickled down the back of Dan Mok Ryeon’s neck.
The flames consuming the building threatened them like a serpent’s tongue, and advancing through them one step at a time was far from easy.
It had happened several times already—moments when danger slipped past while Dan Mok Ryeon pulled someone to safety, and those who remained froze in shock and dismay.
Thus Nam Gung Hye Min followed her instructions with ready alertness, without a shred of doubt or hesitation.
Had Dan Mok Ryeon not burned through her Luck Stat with each step forward alongside Nam Gung Hye Min, three or four of them would have been carried away by someone else by now.
‘O Gol Gye… I’m truly grateful. So grateful.’
Each time she felt the flames receding from her, Dan Mok Ryeon found herself thinking of O Gol Gye, who was no longer here.
How much she had grieved when he left so utterly, after she’d raised him with such care?
‘He really did become a spirit being. He truly became the Vermillion Bird…….’
When he departed leaving only feather traces, she hadn’t understood what it meant. Even when she roasted sweet potatoes, she hadn’t understood—but now, at last, she knew.

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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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