The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 146

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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 — Episode 146

“Miss Dan, are you really going to examine them yourself……?”
“Yes. Inspector Seol, hurry along.”
At the girl’s urging, the man standing beside her cast a worried glance over the merchants and craftsmen before calling them forward one by one.
“Kang So Un!”
“Yes, yes!”
The merchant whose name had been called hurried forward and unwrapped his bundle before the girl.
The girl examined the items for about two breaths, then picked up exactly one piece and paid for it. The price was generous.
‘That’s strange…….’
Kang So Un was a craftsman whom Nam Yu Pyeong also knew. His fundamentals were solid, but he lacked innovation—the ornate jewelry he crafted all seemed to be forms she’d glimpsed somewhere before.
Yet among his works, there was one thing that Nam Yu Pyeong had privately thought extraordinary.
It was jade carved into the shape of a plum blossom branch. Without a single flower, it appeared austere, but examined closely, the branches seemed to breathe with life—a subtle charm.
The girl had chosen that very piece of jade.
Kang So Un himself, as if he’d thought it would never sell, left with the remaining items in bewilderment.
As the girl continued selecting, she sometimes chose objects that anyone could see were beautiful, and sometimes turned away from truly sumptuous pieces. She even purchased every item from a craftsman she was seeing for the first time.
‘How on earth……?’
While others murmured in confusion, a few people with exceptional discernment—Nam Yu Pyeong among them—sat in quiet astonishment.
‘How does she recognize it……?’
Nothing with even slightly inferior gemstone quality or flawed craftsmanship ever earned the girl’s selection.
An ornament that Nam Yu Pyeong had privately suspected was a dyed turquoise rather than genuine turquoise was also rejected by the girl.

‘Is Gyeon Wi Un instructing her from behind?’
Yet Gyeon Wi Un too merely wore an expression of surprise from the back.
And then, at last, his turn came.
Nam Yu Pyeong silently told himself that even if this inspector called Seol of some pavilion threw him out immediately, he would leave with composure. He drew out the Ivory Sphere from his pocket and placed it before her.
At that very moment, wonder flooded the girl’s face.

A five-layered ivory sphere carved from superior ivory by a first-rate master craftsman. With superior ivory and the craftsmanship of a first-rate master, it can hold more Spiritual Energy. Spiritual capacity: 24. It can now store Spiritual Energy.

Ryeon gasped in admiration.
The small sphere, barely the size of Baek Ryeon’s little front paw, was inscribed with elaborate patterns, and upon close inspection, another sphere nested within, and another sphere within that—all five spheres were intricately interlocked and moving together.
Though Ryeon had seen many ornaments up to now, this was the first time she’d heard the term “first-rate master craftsman.”
‘So if a first-rate master does the craftsmanship, you can store more Spiritual Energy?’
More Spiritual Energy could be held in the same gemstone?
Ryeon understood this truth: fortune comes from the size of the storehouse. Why else would the saying “More is Better” exist?
“Master Nam? Did you carve this yourself?”
At Ryeon’s question, Nam Yu Pyeong stared back at her with a somewhat dazed expression before hurriedly nodding.
“Are you affiliated with a workshop, or do you run one?”
If so, she had to acquire him, even at a premium!
She would place him within the clan, have him spend his life crafting ornaments from jade and diamond, coral and pearl!
Ryeon’s eyes sparkled brilliantly.
“Pardon? Ah, no. I’m…… I…… do Dish Repair work. At the end of the Western Alley…….”
“What? With this skill? Impossible. Say, would you have any interest in exclusive service with the Dan Mok Clan?”
“Exclusive service…… ?”
“Yes, meaning you’d be affiliated with our clan, and I’d…… you’d only accept commissions from the clan. I can provide steady work.”
‘Since my life depends on it…….’
Ryeon swallowed the last of her words and locked eyes with Nam Yu Pyeong. He stared back at her with an expression of bewildered incomprehension.
“Me…… with the Dan Mok Clan……?”
“I’m mad for gold and silver and jewels.”
“That, that, that…….”
But Nam Yu Pyeong hesitated, his words trailing off. As she watched, Ryeon found herself thinking of Yak Yeo Cheong for some reason.
When the clan first proposed working together, Yak Yeo Cheong had also acted as if he didn’t believe it, repeatedly trying to mention his own weaknesses.
“You, is there something……?”
“Goodness, Miss! That scoundrel broke someone else’s precious hairpin and feigned ignorance, then swapped genuine coral for counterfeits and got caught—received fifty lashes for it!”
Someone lurched to their feet and shouted. Nam Yu Pyeong’s pupils contracted sharply.
After his own fall from grace, Gi Yeon Ung had risen to become Hang Zhou’s premier master craftsman. He hadn’t come himself to such an occasion; he’d sent his apprentice instead.
The apprentice’s face was brimming with the pride of having stepped forward for justice.
In that moment, Nam Yu Pyeong felt his strength drain away.
For years he’d spoken so many denials, so many claims that all of it was their lies, that the words had worn smooth as pebbles and no sound came from his lips.
Wrong again. Just as Nam Yu Pyeong moved to cover the Ivory Sphere with cloth—
The boy standing beside Dan Mok Ryeon seized his hand. The boy sighed softly, a sound that didn’t match his years.
Dan Mok Ryeon picked up her fan and waved it in lazy circles, then flicked it toward the man who’d shouted. Come closer, it signaled.
The man looked bewildered but cautiously approached.
“Ah, Miss. It’s not that I have any ulterior motive…….”
“Show me that pendant again—the one you showed before.”
“Pardon?”
For a moment the man’s expression turned blank. Jeong Young, standing beside Dan Mok Ryeon, spoke sharply.
“Didn’t you hear the young lady? Spread out what you’ve brought this instant!”
The man startled at those words, then quickly moved and laid out the jewelry he’d brought.
These were the pieces Dan Mok Ryeon had rejected and sent back. From among them, she pointed to a butterfly-shaped pendant made of turquoise.
“What did you say this was made from?”
“Tu-turquoise, Miss. Premium-grade turquoise from Hubei Province—the color runs so deep, the blue gleams with an almost mystical…….”
Then Gyeon Wi Un spoke, tossing the words out casually.
“Turquoise is difficult to distinguish from counterfeits unless you cut it in half, or so I’ve heard.”
“Pardon?”
The man’s expression turned blank again. The young lady looked down at the turquoise pendant, then folded her fan and pointed it forward.
“If this is genuine, I’ll pay you double. But if it’s counterfeit—what then?”
“No, of course it’s genuine. I don’t understand what you’re…….”
Just as the man was stammering out his reply, Dan Mok Han So—one of the two men standing behind Dan Mok Ryeon—suddenly bellowed.
“To bring a counterfeit before the Dan Mok Clan is no light transgression. Surely you understand the gravity of such audacity!”
At the thunderous voice, the man flinched violently, his whole frame trembling.
“Th-this was crafted with great care by Master Gi himself. How could you say such a thing…….”
Though the work wasn’t his own, the man felt deeply wronged and stammered his defense, cowed by Dan Mok Han So’s forceful presence.
“Our workshop has a rule that counterfeits are compensated at ten times the genuine price, precisely because…….”
“Excellent!”
“Pardon?”
The instant the man’s eyes went wide, just as Dan Mok Han So declared it excellent, Dan Mok Ryeon moved her hand with elegant precision and struck the pendant with her fan.
Crack!
“Ahhhhh!”
The gesture was barely more than a flick, yet the delicate butterfly ornament split cleanly in two with a crisp sound.
“Wh-what, what on earth are you—wait?”
But the fractured surface of the butterfly was peculiar. Only the very outer layer showed blue; the interior was pure white.
When Dan Mok Ryeon held up one half, the remaining merchants and craftsmen in the hall murmured in confusion.
“What?”
“What’s this, what’s this?”
“……Isn’t that dyed stone, not turquoise?”
“Did Master Gi use counterfeit turquoise?”
To mimic genuine turquoise with its deep blue and black veining, they’d taken white stone—nothing more than a rough white pebble—and dyed it blue.
Until you split it and saw the white of the cross-section, the fake was indistinguishable from the real, making it all the more insidious.
“Ah, no, this, this is…….”
Everyone began to murmur in shock. The man who’d brought the pendant bore the most stunned expression of all.
Though he knew it was presumptuous, the man’s hands trembled as he stared at the broken ornament the girl had split.
“Th-this, how could—how could it be counterfeit……? How……how……no, no, it can’t be. There’s no way!”
“Then what does your eye tell you it is?”
“Th-this…….”
“You said ten times the genuine price in compensation, didn’t you? To settle that debt, you’ll have to fetch this Master Gi from your workshop.”
After that, several craftsmen and merchants exchanged knowing glances, then hurriedly gathered their goods and slipped away from the household like fugitives.
No doubt they were the ones who’d brought counterfeit gemstones.
Among those who remained, a few clicked their tongues with a strangely confident air, while Nam Yu Pyeong looked up at Dan Mok Ryeon with an expression of disbelief.

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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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