The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 143

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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 Noble House’s Terminal Elixir — Chapter 143

“Let me see the face of this high and mighty elder!”
“Show us your face!”
“Hah!”
Baek Ui Myeong’s jaw went slack, his arms flailing.
“Wait, no—why are you barging into someone else’s quarters like this? Without any warning at all!”
“Huh? Isn’t this just a kid?”
“Don’t tell me this little brat is your master?”
“You listen to this young lordling’s orders but not to ours—”
Heuk Dam, the black-haired one who’d been pointing, flinched without understanding what was happening. Meanwhile, Baek Dam, his white-haired companion, was reaching out to seize Baek Ui Myeong like catching a mouse.
“Surely you’re not clinging to this boy’s pittance? How can you call yourself a martial artist when you do such a thing? A true martial artist pursues faith and the perfection of their craft, not mere coin—”
“B-Baek Dam.”
“So you didn’t even bring our dumplings, and now you’re running errands for this lordling—”
“Baek Dam! Baek Dam!”
“We agreed not to interrupt when one of us is offering guidance!”
Baek Dam had erupted in indignation, but realizing that Heuk Dam wasn’t looking at him, he turned his head toward his companion.
“This little master here, why—”
Yet Baek Dam, too, faltered. Standing motionless before them was a boy who couldn’t have been more than ten years old. He gazed at them quietly, then suddenly let out a long sigh.
“Here we go again.”
As he spoke, a Bojan tumbled from Heuk Dam’s breast pocket.
In the sudden hush of the room, the only sound was the Bojan vibrating of its own accord, humming as it fell again and again.
“Huh? Wh-what?”
And in the midst of it all, Baek Ui Myeong could only stare in bewilderment.

* * *

“How—cough, cough—how could you make something like this!”
“No, sniff, I mean—sniff, cough!”
Tears streaming down her face, Dan Mok Ryeon pressed a small cloth to her nose at Hwa Ryun’s urging and blew hard. Hwa Ryun, grimacing, flung out her hands and threw open the windows and all the doors of the chamber.
In a small incense burner, something that looked like a lump of incense—kneaded by Dan Mok Ryeon into little rice cake shapes—was smoldering and releasing smoke.
“I told you I understood!”
“Yes, you understood. You said you understood. But then how did it turn out like this?”
Dan Mok Ryeon muttered, her eyes and nose flushed red.
Hwa Ryun had brought back incense samples, and after examining them one by one, Dan Mok Ryeon had gathered materials and tried making her own—which had seemed promising at first.
“Aren’t you supposed to dry these completely before burning them? Even burning logs during a flood wouldn’t produce smoke this thick.”
“They’re dry. They’re completely dry.”
“Did you fan them for thirty minutes? That wouldn’t even dry my sister’s hair—ow!”
Hwa Ryun took a chestnut flick to the crown of her head and cradled her skull in both hands, glaring at Dan Mok Ryeon before finally sighing and wiping the tip of her nose with her own sleeve.
“This would wake the dead. We’re talking Awakening Incense here.”
“Ugh, sniff. The Clear Lotus Water was so easy—”
Dan Mok Ryeon continued to fan while casting Purification over the room without pause. Even with the ventilation, her heart felt suffocated.
‘Did I infuse too much Spiritual Energy?’
There were too many people in the household who couldn’t sleep because of worry—her uncle, aunt, uncle by marriage, mother, and grandfather—and she’d wanted to make Sleep-inducing Incense to help them. But it hadn’t gone as planned.
“But this can’t be used the way Clear Lotus Water is—through someone who passed the provincial exams at the top rank. How are you planning to manage it?”
The dramatic surge in Clear Lotus Water’s sales had been largely due to Gyeon Wi Hak, who’d placed first in three separate provincial examinations.
“For now, I’ll send this to Hwa San.”
“Hmm.”
The Hwa San Sect, being a Daoist school, burned incense quite often.
“When mother travels north to the Arctic this time, she’ll stop in Shaanxi Province. We haven’t seen our maternal uncle in ages, and I need to deliver the Spiritual Pill grandmother gave me—so I thought I’d send along the incense I made myself. Then wouldn’t Uncle use it? And his master—”
Her maternal uncle was the Chief Disciple of the Hwa San Sect. Which meant his master was the Sect Master. If the Sect Master of Hwa San were to use the incense, wouldn’t everyone perk up their ears?
“If you tend to all the family ties like this, doesn’t it become difficult to call yourself a Daoist? Won’t your uncle just get scolded for not cutting his emotions?”
“The Great Immortal didn’t teach that we should abandon all kinship and rely only on ourselves for enlightenment.”
“……”
“I’m earning this money to make things better for our uncle—not for anyone else’s sake. Anyway, I’ll send it to Hwa San first. And then I’ll find a way to forge a connection with Shaolin and send it there too.”
Shaolin is a Buddhist sect, so they burn a great deal of incense.
“Incense that Hwa San and Shaolin use in large quantities! Once word spreads like that, it sells and sells. What do you think?”
“But how would you establish a connection with Shaolin Temple?”
“Well, I’ll go to Shaolin Temple myself. I’ll go there and…… no, wait—I’m the eldest grandchild of the Dan Mok Clan. Should I really be worried about making connections? Once I’m there, won’t things work themselves out?”
“When exactly would you go to Shaolin Temple?”
“……Is it impossible?”
“Hwa San Sect might work out somehow, but Shaolin is a bit…….”
Hwa Ryun lowered her eyes and shook her head slowly.
“And if you send something like this, I think the Sect Master of Hwa San will come running all the way to Hang Zhou.”
“…….”
Not for any good reason, that’s for certain. Ryeon sniffled.
“Should I learn proper incense-making separately?”
“That would be wise. Right now it’s almost poison.”
“……Poison…… poison is the specialty of the Sichuan Poison Sect, but do they even know much about incense? Still, since we have some connection there, why don’t we try asking them to teach us?”
“Dang Mun and what……oh.”
Hwa Ryun poured water into the incense burner, still spewing black smoke, and extinguished it.
“Sichuan Province is so far away—what are you talking about? And just because they’re skilled in Poison Cultivation doesn’t mean they know anything about incense. Besides, what if they bring up marriage arrangements again?”
“Ah, come on. That won’t happen, right? My ex-fiancée was genuinely brilliant, I hear. So Dang Mun kept going back and forth on whether to let her marry us, but our family ended up breaking the engagement.”
“But what if they insist on sending someone?”
“That’s…… when the time comes.”
Just then, Jung Young, who was standing guard at the entrance of the quarters, called inward.
“Miss, Sin Yu has arrived.”
“Oh! Has it gotten that late already? Tell him to come in quickly.”
Ryeon said this while hurriedly fanning the air around her.
‘Purification, purification!’
Once the acrid air had cleared sufficiently, Ryeon pulled a small rounded object—like a dumpling—from the case she had brought. It was one of several Spiritual Pills she’d received from Gyeong Hang Un Ryeon.
Since there were plenty to spare, she was making it part of her daily routine to call in each of the children one at a time toward the end of the day’s training to help them absorb the pills.
Today was Mae Sin Yu’s turn.
A boy with a rather fierce face entered, doing his best to keep his clothes neat.
“You’re here? How was training today?”
“It was difficult and…… well, like that.”
Mae Sin Yu rubbed the back of his neck as he answered.
In truth, he had no idea what to say, which was why his answer came out that way.
He felt too embarrassed to complain to Ryeon about how hard and painful everything was, yet he couldn’t claim it was no trouble at all, so his words came out awkward—and Hwa Ryun, standing beside Ryeon, furrowed her brows and shot him a withering look.
That gaze was unmistakably clear.
‘Giving the young lady such a brief, insincere answer?’
Mae Sin Yu swallowed hard.
He was younger than this boy, yet somehow his back felt cold. It was a sensation he had never experienced even from adults with the most menacing expressions.
“That’s right—learning is never easy, you know. That’s why I called you here to have this.”
Ryeon paid it no mind and offered the Spiritual Pill with a gentle smile, as if inviting him to have a sweet.
Several boys had already eaten one days ago and gone home, so when Ryeon called him, he’d had his suspicions, but seeing it in front of him now made his chest feel tight.
“Miss, I’m aware of what this is…….”
“Right, it’s not a sweet. Go on, eat it. Even so, you have to choke it down if you want to grow strong.”
“No, that’s not what I meant…….”
Mae Sin Yu spoke with hesitation heavy in his voice.
“I’m not sure I deserve to receive something like this.”
“What? Why not?”
“My skill level isn’t high enough, and I’m not direct lineage either…… and I haven’t really contributed anything to the clan, so something this precious…….”
“Contributing starts the moment you agreed to join the collateral branch recruitment. Being from the collateral line doesn’t matter at all. I haven’t even given one to Bi Ah yet.”
“Really? Why not?”
“Consuming such high-nutrition supplements from too young an age isn’t good for the body. You’re not a baby anymore, so you should take it. Come on, eat it.”
“No, it’s just that I…….”
“I have a great dream.”
At that moment, a deflating sound came from somewhere. Ryeon glared at Hwa Ryun standing beside her, then spoke again.
“My dream is…… safety, no disasters, and long life in good health. Long life in good health is something I can manage myself, but safety and freedom from disaster require your strength. The martial artists of the clan must become strong.”
“Safety and no disasters are already essentially…… no, never mind. Yes, I’ll do my best. I’ll give my all to try.”
Mae Sin Yu had started to object without thinking, but when he caught the cold glint in her eyes, he quickly closed his mouth. Ryeon’s servant was glaring at him as if ready to devour him whole.

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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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