The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 156

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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 Decline of a Great Clan — Limited Lifespan, Chapter 156

Dan Mok Cheon Gi stood gazing into the dark forest beyond the night air where raindrops fell, lost in thought.
Was this the reward for my sacrifice?
The eldest son lost, the second fled, the third wandering through the dark nightmare of a Heart Demon—was this the recompense?
The primary heir stripped of his sight, himself losing his strength, the clan’s power scattering like sand through his fingers—was this truly the price of that sacrifice?
Who could accept that the cost of saving the world was ruin?
He had dwelt in such thoughts for a long time. He no longer did.
Because there had been someone to awaken him from it.
“It seems everyone asks me such questions. Does the Hek Cheon Ryeon believe I am the most wronged and aggrieved in all the Martial Arts World?”
“……Surely there is no one like you under Heaven, sir.”
Hwang Chu Hun spoke, his voice catching slightly.
He who had held the glory of Greatest Master Under Heaven in his grasp, who had stepped forward to save the Martial Arts World, had lost everything.
The dazzling brilliance of his clan, his wife, his son—and not long ago, even his primary heir had been stricken with illness.
Because he had wished only to help and protect others, because as a martial artist he had sought to practice Righteousness and Benevolence, because he had stepped forward ahead of all others.
Yet who had looked back upon him after he lost it all?
He himself had not even left Wu Ryeong San to journey to Hang Zhou. He had only waited here.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi regarded this quietly, then drew his scarred and weathered face into a wide smile.
“How could there not be others more wronged than I? You too have lost family members, surely. Yet the fact that we survived to even feel this grievance—isn’t that itself a kind of fortune?”
But Hwang Chu Hun shook his head. He did not agree. Dan Mok Cheon Gi chuckled again.
“I see. Then if one who has sacrificed more than anyone else in this world were to stand and say, ‘Let us not quarrel among ourselves—let us fight the Blood Demons instead’……would people not follow?”
If the person who had given up the most were to rise again and speak once more, again and again, again—
No person with dignity could refuse to follow his words.
Those who refused would not deserve to be called members of the Martial Alliance, and those who were not members would be no different from the Blood Demons infesting Blood Coral Valley.
“……!”
“As you likely know well, there are deeds in this world that cannot be undone. Yet I suspect that even those deeds……all of them, somewhere, hold meaning.”
Ink spilled upon stretched rice paper cannot be reversed, but whether it becomes a stain or part of a painting depends on the brushstrokes that follow.
Such was what the one who held the brush was saying.
“We should have been ‘us’ then. But we were not. Now……I believe we finally can be. For no other reason than to face Blood Coral Valley, and though we may scatter again afterward.”

* * *

Dan Mok Ryeon looked around the shrine with a puzzled expression.
‘Just by being here, my Divine Insight has advanced?’
Until now, most of her abilities had been in stagnation.
Shortly after she had awakened, her abilities had grown even from merely seeing her grandfather or Hwa Ryun.
‘Now that I think about it……’
“What, why do you keep looking at me like that?”
“Hwa Ryun.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, I’m telling you.”
Recalling that she had such talent her Divine Insight would advance from merely looking at her, it was indeed a shame.
‘With someone like him alone, I think I could set aside my worries about Blood Coral Valley.’
“Fine, fine. I was wrong.”
“Wrong about what?”
“Thinking my sister’s height is a bit short……Ow!”
Hwa Ryun clutched his head and shot Dan Mok Ryeon a glare. Dan Mok Ryeon shook her head sternly once, then turned her gaze back into the depths of the shrine.
After one exchange with Hwa Ryun, even her racing heartbeat seemed to settle a little.
“What happened here?”
“There must have been a fight.”
“Who would have fought?”
And if they had fought, why?
“Did Ma Cheon Gyo come all the way here?”
At Dan Mok Ryeon’s question, Hwa Ryun’s expression grew uncertain.
“Ma Cheon Gyo, all the way here……?”
“Yes. You all……well, isn’t it true that Ma Cheon Gyo serves the Nine Heavens Immortal?”
Ryeon gestured with her eyes toward the enormous statue of the Nine Heavens Immortal.
She reflected that Ma Cheon Gyo, despite occasional friction with the Baek Do Meng and the Hek Cheon Ryeon, was never branded a Demonic Sect the way true heterodox religions were treated — and could stand alongside the Martial Alliance. She believed this was possible for two reasons.

First, the genuinely deranged existence of Blood Coral Valley served as a point of comparison. Second, the fact that they revered the Nine Heavens Immortal.
When you considered how most heterodox religions elevated their sect leaders as gods, the distinction mattered.

Hwa Ryun folded her arms and surveyed their surroundings with a faintly skeptical expression.
“Well… I mean, Ma Cheon Gyo isn’t the only one that reveres the Nine Heavens Immortal. Hwa San Sect, Mudang School, any Daoist sect — they all have at least one shrine to her.”
“That’s… true enough.”
“The strangest part is that this shrine exists in Nok Rim Mountain Stronghold. These people — the ones who worship their sworn brothers and their mountain lord instead of heaven and earth…”
Hwa Ryun muttered her complaint: these were the Hek Cheon Ryeon, men abandoned by heaven and earth, clinging to only their seniors — yet here was a shrine to the Nine Heavens Immortal in their stronghold.
“That’s probably because of what happened here…”
Ryeon found Hwa Ryun’s point persuasive and gathered her thoughts.
Why had grandmother come to rescue people at the lower approach of this stronghold?
What reason had brought grandmother, who should have been in Hang Zhou at that time, all the way here?
Why had the stronghold master spoken of revering grandmother as a mother and a teacher?
If everyone Dan Mok Cheon Gi and Bing Xue Yan had saved swore to honor them as parents and teachers, the world would be overflowing with children of the Dan Mok Clan.
Why had only Lord Hwang made such a vow?
Why had this place been called the “Source”? Shouldn’t it have been somewhere important?
If it was important, someone must have guarded it. Someone…
Father?
The moment that thought crossed her mind—
Ryeon’s heart plummeted. A white light bloomed in the darkness, an image flickering into being.

— Would you like to confirm traces of the past through Divine Insight?

The image had surfaced, probably because she had thought of it.
“Sister? Are you all right?”
“Huh? I… I’m fine.”
Ryeon squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, but the image wouldn’t fade.
Hwa Ryun had stepped closer, her face etched with worry. Ryeon gripped her hand tightly. Hwa Ryun looked down at their clasped fingers.
“Your hand is freezing. Why is it so cold?”
“I…”
And in that moment, the scene unfolded before Ryeon’s eyes.
From the dim, rain-soaked derelict shrine to bright daylight flooding through windows.
Figures sprawled at her feet, screams, the sharp metallic shriek of blade meeting blade, a landscape awash in killing intent.
And for the first time in her life, Ryeon saw her father in motion.
“Fath… Father!”
It was Dan Mok Hyeon Seong, standing guard before the shrine. Blood trickled down the taut line of his furrowed brow.
Ryeon’s voice emerged muffled, as if calling from beneath water, and Dan Mok Hyeon Seong seemed not to hear it at all—his gaze fixed only on the space before him.
No one remained to hold the perimeter. Only the Blood Demons of Blood Coral Valley surged toward him.
Yet even he could not withstand the numbers pressing in. At last, Dan Mok Hyeon Seong appeared to reach a decision. He shoved back one of the attacking Blood Demons and bolted into the shrine.
The statue of the Nine Heavens Immortal’s right hand held nothing even now, but her left hand bore something.
‘The Taihuang Jade Pendant?’
And Dan Mok Hyeon Seong, without hesitation, hurled his blade and drove it straight into the pendant.
— Crash!
The pendant shattered with a sound so tremendous that one could scarcely believe it came from such a small wooden token.
Fragments scattered in all directions like shrapnel. Some struck Dan Mok Hyeon Seong’s body; others grazed Ryeon’s cheek but left no mark, embedding themselves in the wall behind.
Ryeon stood motionless, her face blank, watching it all.
Though the pendant was destroyed, the Blood Demons of Blood Coral Valley did not stop. If anything, they became more frenzied than before. Dan Mok Hyeon Seong picked up a blade dropped by a nearby demon and resumed fighting without a shred of despair.
And when at last he had driven them all back, only one thing remained.
Dan Mok Hyeon Seong tried to prop himself upright on his blade, but the sword—shattered by the intensity of battle—snapped. He cast aside the hilt. His knees buckled as he fell, and soon he lay prone on the ground.
Dan Mok Hyeon Seong could only manage to breathe. Even that shallow breath grew thinner with each moment.
“No, Father!”
Ryeon rushed toward him, knowing he couldn’t hear her, yet desperate all the same.
Dan Mok Hyeon Seong simply lay there, watching the sun sink low, watching the stars emerge.
Ryeon pushed her spiritual energy into him, knowing it would not be enough—stanching the bleeding from his shattered lungs, wiping away the blood streaking his eyes until they ran clear.
“How… how can this not work……”
Her hand passed through Dan Mok Hyeon Seong uselessly, and even Ryeon’s tears scattered into nothing before they struck the ground. They simply dissolved into the empty air.
“Father, Father. Please, Father……”
Her heart pounded with a sickening, hollow rhythm. Even the stars and moon were fading. Once more the sun rose. Ryeon grasped at him desperately, trying any way she knew to hold on to Dan Mok Hyeon Seong.

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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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