The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 155

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

The Decline of a Great Family: Limited Lifespan — Episode 155

“You knew…… all along, then.”
“Even hidden in shadow, one does not fail to see the light.”
Hwang Chu Hun swallowed heavily at those words.
“Yes. My cousin So-gang informed me that you would take the young mistresses north to Beijing. ……Is that why you made the effort to climb this mountain path, to San Chai, together with me?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi continued gravely.
“The surge of great evil cannot be evaded. Whether we pretend not to know or refuse to believe, it will not pass us by…….”
“…….”
“You must know something of Gyeong Hang Un Ryeon as well.”
“I have heard mention of it.”
“All the great families and martial clans gathered at the Namgung Family Estate have now acknowledged it. They have returned, and even now they circle in the darkness, seeking our throats.”
“…….”
“Then we too must prepare. We cannot repeat the same mistakes. ……You knew I would come. You came out to meet me knowing that, didn’t you?”
Hwang Chu Hun fell silent for a moment, then spoke in a tight voice.
“It has been some thirty years now since the Hek Cheon Ryeon, Ma Cheon Gyo, and Baek Do Meng have been bound together under the name of the Martial Alliance.”
“Indeed.”
“It would have been impossible without Blood Coral Valley.”
The history of Kangho divided into three paths was long and deep.
At first, there were those who refined their martial arts to walk the Way in the depths of mountains. And those who learned martial arts for their own peace and their family’s prosperity formed their own powers.
At the same time, those without lofty ideals or noble blood also emerged. Inn servants beaten by their masters, those who had fled or been abandoned into deep mountains, boatmen who rowed ceaselessly against the current—they sought the strength to crush their enemies and protect themselves.
And before long, those who found no foothold in this western edge of Kangho, in this vast Central Plains, and those unbowed by harsh terrain established themselves there.
But power intoxicates those who hold it.
Even those who swore to understand the Way, once they grasped mighty martial arts, wished to wield their strength. And those who learned martial arts for private advancement and spite toward the world—what of them?
Well Water Does Not Invade River Water—
the well does not invade the river, in other words: “Officials and Martial World Cannot Intrude”

took long ages and seas of blood to establish implicitly.
The imperial authorities, unable to reach every corner of the vast Central Plains, and the martial powers holding force in their own territories maintained this strange balance, which reached true accord only through the innocent common folk caught between them.
Martial artists might strike and brawl among themselves, but the innocent commoners must not be touched. Should anyone violate this, the martial artists themselves would administer punishment.

Thus the Martial Arts World would not reach into the affairs of state and throne, and the state would not meddle in the affairs of Kangho!
And so, deciding who among them would punish and govern whom, they naturally formed factions.
Those with history and tradition gathered, raised disciples, revered masters, formed martial families and sects, and established the Baek Do Meng.
Those cast out by the world, possessing nothing, gathered not disciples but those of like mind, bound by shared purpose, and established the Hek Cheon Ryeon.
And those who followed not a master-disciple bond or sworn brothers, but the absolute power of a patriarch and sub-patriarch and faith in a celestial presence, settled at the western edge of the Central Plains as the Ma Cheon Gyo!
And so, over long years, those who were like oil and water, never acknowledging or accepting one another, grasped hands solely to face great evil.

“That Blood Coral Valley……has not appeared for a time long enough for mountains to change twice. Now, voices speaking of casting off these pretenses and fetters are growing louder. Among those who know nothing.”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi smiled bitterly.
Time had passed, and the memory of great evil had grown dim, and with it the reason to join hands had blurred.
The Hek Cheon Ryeon raked through the darkness of Kangho as if to swallow the light for themselves, while the Baek Do Meng wished to place Kangho’s light beneath their feet—light enough to grind even darkness to powder. And the Ma Cheon Gyo carried itself as though both that light and darkness would soon be theirs.
“But that is not what this is…….”
Blood Coral Valley had raised its head once more, and perhaps a calamity from decades past would be renewed.
For neither the Baek Do Meng alone, nor the Hek Cheon Ryeon alone, nor the Ma Cheon Gyo alone possessed power enough to face it completely—was that not why they sought to gather their three forces as one?
Yet even then, unable to fully trust one another, unable to grasp hands, they had fought Blood Coral Valley. Perhaps the seeds of Blood Coral Valley remaining was because of that.
“So that is why you came to me.”
At least to show that the Hek Cheon Ryeon and the Baek Do Meng still held hands together.
“There must be many who view your course with displeasure. Even within your own San Chai.”
It had been some twenty years since Bing Xue Yan had saved this San Chai. There were surely those among the residents who had never experienced that time at all.
At that, Hwang Chu Hun burst into low laughter.
“Master, Nok Rim Chai does not speak of such things, which is precisely why we are of the Hek Cheon Ryeon. We are not as malleable as the Baek Do Meng.”
When words won’t suffice, fists will do. Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s eyebrows rose at Hwang Chu Hun’s subtle jab at the Baek Do Meng.
“Even a tiger falls when hunted by a pack of wolves.”
“But no one calls a wolf the mountain king, no matter how many gather together.”
“Ha, you speak true.”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi laughed low. As he tilted his cup to drink, Hwang Chu Hun asked him something.
“Are you… thinking of stepping forward again?”
Clear liquor moistened Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s throat. He nodded with a calm certainty.
“Yes. As long as I have strength and evil exists across the divide.”
“Do you harbor no resentment? Blame no one?”
It was too petty a question to ask of a man who had once saved the Martial Arts World itself.
Yet Dan Mok Cheon Gi didn’t fault him, only gazed at him steadily.
“And you—have you never thought, ‘Better to have let me die’?”
In that instant, Hwang Chu Hun’s face contorted wretchedly. Dan Mok Cheon Gi spoke softly, pressing further.
“Not once did resentment toward her—toward Bing Xue Yan—touch your heart at all?”
“Please don’t say such things. I… we…”
Hwang Chu Hun couldn’t bring himself to answer properly, his words trailing off.
“I…”
His head sank slowly toward the earth.
When he learned that Bing Xue Yan had sacrificed her firstborn son—and the once-in-a-generation prodigy whom all the Martial Arts World revered—to save him and the people of San Chai, how could he not wish she had let him die instead?
How could he not think that a dragon

should have been saved, not a worthless cur like himself?
Even if that worthless cur was himself.
“I thought… perhaps Master Bing Xue Yan had made an error in her calculation.”
When Hwang Chu Hun understood what choice she had made, he felt shame that they had even been placed on the same scale as that dragon.
They could never measure up to him, never do what he could do.
He could never become the son she took pride in, never become the talent the world followed—so what was the point, what use was he…
Dan Mok Cheon Gi watched him thus and spoke.
“She has no such ‘human scale’ at all.”
“Ah…”
Had Bing Xue Yan possessed a scale that weighed one person against another—deeming one more precious and another less—this could never have happened.
“Has anyone blamed you? Said that you, who lived instead of Dan Mok Hyeon Seong, fell short of him?”
“No one has ever said such a thing. Who would dare speak it to my face? Most don’t even know how that matter came to pass…”
Bing Xue Yan had never told anyone that she had failed to reach her son in time because she was saving San Chai from the grasp of Blood Coral Valley.
She knew full well that someone would surely defame the Hek Cheon Ryeon, this San Chai of ours. Only Dan Mok Cheon Gi and Bing Xue Yan knew the full details now—and the people of San Chai themselves.
“No one has spoken such words to you, so why do you alone burden yourself with them?”
“Even if no one speaks it aloud, everyone must harbor it in their heart…”
“Others’ hearts belong to others. Moreover, even among your own San Chai family, there may be some measure of hatred for you—so why do you concern yourself with the unfounded hearts of complete strangers?”
“…Ahem, would there really be even that much?”
“My own daughter and son likely harbor some measure of secret hatred for me as well.”

“Why do you torture yourself with phantom pain when your own living self stands before me?”
Hwang Chu Hun’s eyes grew wet as he looked at Dan Mok Cheon Gi.
“Do you… not despise me, sir?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi smiled faintly.
“Ha ha… Were you trying to harm my son when you stood in that passage taking blows from Blood Coral Valley’s demons?”

“It was not you who harmed my son—it was Blood Coral Valley.”
“…Then do you not resent the world itself?”
Hwang Chu Hun asked him once more.

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