The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 136

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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 Declining Clan’s Limited Lifespan Medicine — Chapter 136

Her father half-conscious, the clan split between believers and skeptics, and inquiries about Clear Lotus Water exploding everywhere….
“I raised the price of True Blue Lotus Water on my own authority, and it sold out at twice that price.”
“Oh….”
“The Pure Blue Lotus Water did the same.”
“Oh….”
When the sums grew large enough, astonishment gave way to numbness, the shock dissolving into a kind of quiet acceptance.
Ryeon watched Gyeon Wi Un’s hand move as she nodded with composure.
“And surprisingly, the Baek Yak Cheong has been selling quite steadily.”
“The Baek Yak Cheong?”
“Father tested it himself and set the price high, and it’s already sold out. And we keep getting inquiries from physicians all across Hang Zhou.”
“That’s wonderful!”
“It’s good that the name of the Dan Mok Clan Medicine Shop is becoming well-known. Have you given any thought to expanding into a full clinic again?”
“We’ll need to restore it eventually, but….”
Ryeon pressed her lips together, thinking. She hadn’t ignored the possibility while expanding the shop’s scale with Clear Lotus Water.
But a good physician saves lives while a bad one takes them, and she hesitated to bring in someone carelessly.
“If the elders don’t decide, I thought I’d wait until I’m older and decide for myself.”
“Older? Ah….”
Only then did Gyeon Wi Un remember the small frame of the girl standing before her.
“Yes, yes. That’s right, that’s right.”
“Then for now it’s Clear Lotus Water and Baek Yak Cheong, isn’t it?”
“That’s right! And… I hear you’re leaving for the North Sea again soon.”
“Grandmother is recuperating there, and she said she’s improved greatly this time.”
Gyeon Wi Un smiled at Ryeon’s words. She had few close relatives she felt warmth toward, yet watching this young girl’s affection for her grandmother warmed her heart.
“It would be nice if you saw Wi Hak on your way up. He’s been looking forward to meeting you.”
When Gyeon Wi Un saw the letter Gyeon Wi Hak had sent her, which read ‘I’m so curious how that girl knew I’d pass as a top-ranked provincial exam graduate,’ she’d clicked her tongue.
It was as though Gyeon Wi Hak had been confident all along that he would pass.
“In truth, I’ve never met Uncle Wi Hak before. Will I be able to recognize him?”
“He’ll probably come running barefoot and brag that he’s your uncle—don’t worry.”
“He looks much like Aunt Gyeon Wi Un, doesn’t he?”
Gyeon Wi Un’s expression suddenly turned sour, as though she’d bitten into an astringent persimmon.
“I’d rather not admit it, but there’s something to that, I suppose…. He probably looks like me in men’s clothing.”
Gyeon Wi Un said that much before hastily changing the subject.
“But Ryeon, what will you do about your Courier Service? Have you decided what you’d like to do?”
Ryeon swung her legs back and forth, not quite touching the ground, pondering slightly.
Gyeon Wi Un was now suggesting that she could completely hand over the transport of Clear Lotus Water to the Dan Mok Clan’s ancestral Courier Service.
“Since the Courier Service has been just a shell for so long, it seems we need someone who can oversee its overall operations.”
“Finding the right person is always the hardest part.”
“Fortunately, we have someone like that in the household. I think we can find a way to get help from them.”
Ryeon answered that way and smiled softly.

* * *

Dan Mok Han So gazed at the small box before him with wavering eyes, then slowly pushed it toward Dan Mok Cheon Gi.
“I am now the Front Wave. Please give this to the Back Wave instead.”
There was an old saying: the Back Wave of the Yangtze River pushes out the Front Wave. The old generation crumbles, and the new generation rises. In this spirit, he was saying he’d rather pass such a precious Spirit Pill to the next generation.
“If you do that, Seol Eon will spend the rest of her life in the grave muttering about it. You won’t escape harm either.”
“But Grand Patriarch, this is too precious. I never asked for such a thing….”
“I’m not giving it because you asked for it. Seol Eon is scolding us for failing to provide what we should have given in time.”
Dan Mok Han So had burned his own internal energy to perform the Hair Restoration Technique for Ryeon, but he had never hoped that this girl would grow up, rebuild the clan with fearsome talent, and return his internal energy to him.
He had done it because she was the granddaughter of Dan Mok Cheon Gi, whom she respected and served loyally, and at the same time because there was a sickly child in the household and he could help her.
“Someday, will there not come a day when Miss Ryeon can handle internal energy? For that day….”
“That’s for me to provide, not for you to surrender your own share. Once was already too much.”
“You didn’t even want to accept that one time, did you.”
There were not many people in the clan who possessed the deep, formidable internal energy required to perform the Soul Restoration Technique.
Among them, Dan Mok Cheon Gi himself was unable to recover from the injury to his dantian, so he could not perform such a delicate great art as the Soul Restoration Technique, which was why Dan Mok Han So had stepped forward.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi opposed it to the end. His reasoning was that a superior should not be the kind of person who survives by sacrificing subordinates, but rather one who sacrifices himself to protect them.
Dan Mok Han So pressed the matter.

—The child is ill, and here I stand, an adult.

“I know you expected no reward for this. Not even hope of it. Yet without my acceptance, Ryeon and I become shameless, do we not?”
……
“And you are far too green to be the Front Wave.”
“Grand Patriarch… how much of an age difference do you think there is between us?”
“Be quiet and eat this now.”
“You mean now, sir?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi nodded and then gestured toward the outside.
Not long after, Ryeon entered, dressed with neat propriety.
“Miss, you’ve arrived… no, Miss!”
Ryeon bowed deeply to Dan Mok Han So. He was so startled he nearly fainted, frantically crying “Forgive me, forgive me!” as he pulled her upright, leaving her frozen in a half-bow.
“No, what is this… why are you doing this!”
“I realized I had never properly offered my thanks…”
“I have heard quite enough thanks already. Not only to you, miss, but the Grand Patriarch himself told me not to hear any more of it from the clan head. Please don’t. I’ll choke on my food at this rate.”
So flustered was Dan Mok Han So that his words tumbled out like rapid gunfire. In the end, Ryeon lowered her awkwardly raised arms and laughed self-consciously.
“Then eat quickly, please.”
Ah…
Watching the two of them, Dan Mok Han So drew a deep breath and took the Spirit Pill in trembling hands. A pure, crystalline fragrance emanated from the small, solid pellet.
He sat in lotus position, hesitated once with his hand, then popped the Spirit Pill into his mouth in one motion.
Dan Mok Han So’s face contorted as he swallowed.
“This has quite a vicious bitterness to it…”
“Good medicine tastes bitter.”
“But Spirit Pills are usually said to melt on the tongue or slip down smoothly, are they not?”
“There’s rumor that the Great Restoration Pill is like that. Or so I’ve heard—though others say it isn’t. And apparently it’s so bitter it makes you want to vomit.”
“Is that so?”
Dan Mok Han So grumbled for a few more moments, then slowly closed his eyes. The Energy Circulation Breathing had begun to process the Spirit Pill’s power.
Sweat began to bead on his forehead. Ryeon observed him with Divine Insight, beginning to employ Purification and Harmony. She had come specifically for this purpose.
The sweat that had collected on Dan Mok Han So’s forehead now poured down like rain. Ryeon fanned him gently from his side.
Waft by waft, her power gathered at the edge of the fan and circled around him.
Filtering out even the finest impurities that lingered in his Inner Elixir Field, ensuring everything was absorbed by him without a single drop wasted.
And Dan Mok Cheon Gi stood guard over both Ryeon and Dan Mok Han So. Just as Wol Yeong Jae had fallen silent in reverence when Dan Mok Cheon Gi had once attained enlightenment, so too did it now sink into quiet stillness.
When half a day had passed completely, Ryeon and Dan Mok Cheon Gi saw the light dawn in Dan Mok Han So’s eyes and smiled brightly.

* * *

“… I suppose I’ll have to bring this little creature along when I go to the North Sea…”
Baek Ryeon, the cute and plump white cat who, even when they left for the Namgoong Clan, had seemed like he might actually turn into a tiger—had become unrecognizable in how small he’d grown in the meantime.
According to Wi Ji Cheong, since Ryeon’s group had left, he hadn’t eaten properly and had only lain about looking dejected.
When Ryeon returned and coaxed him with concern, forcing him to eat, he only continued to grow thinner and smaller in an unsettling way.
—Meow!
Baek Ryeon clung only to the returned Ryeon, ruining several of her robes, and refused to accept anyone else’s touch except Ryeon and Hwa Ryun.
Hwa Ryun lifted Baek Ryeon up. The white-furred cat struggled to lick his cheek, but couldn’t quite reach.
“The little one… he hasn’t gotten thin, has he? Hasn’t he gotten smaller?”
“No, he’s thin. It worries me.”
Ryeon hurried to bring Baek Ryeon back and cradled him in her arms again.
—Mrrrow…
Baek Ryeon cast a glance at Hwa Ryun and cried out mournfully, as if in protest—how could she doubt him?

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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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