The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 16

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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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A Fading Household’s Limited Lifespan — Episode 16

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Hwalyun’s eyes drifted open in a daze. From beside him came the sound of someone weeping—a low, broken wailing—but it cut off abruptly, as though the person had startled at their own voice and fallen silent.
“Little one! Little one, are you awake?”
“Mother…….”
His body swayed once, and Hwalyun realized he had been drawn into his mother’s embrace.
Wi Jichung’s face was streaked with tears.
The physician hurried over and assured Wi Jichung that Hwalyun’s condition was quite stable, yet she would not release his hand.
After Danmok Cheongi and Danmok Hyeonwu had paid their visits, and little Danmok Bi, who had fallen asleep clinging to his feet, had been handed over to Nanny Jang’s care, Hwalyun finally learned what had happened.
Making the Cheongryeonsu from dawn had been fine enough, but that morning during breakfast he had suddenly collapsed, and then fever had ravaged him for four days—burning hot, then freezing cold.
‘Ah…….’
Hwalyun understood why he had lost consciousness.

[Help Message: Maintain Spiritual Energy at 10 or higher.]

‘This is maddening. When they were demanding I let it fall below 50, where was this? And now they want me to keep it above 10?’
He had been so pleased at the thought of pouring all his Spiritual Energy into making the Cheongryeonsu, and now look what had come of it!
Yet the suffering was nothing like what he had endured last year when he had first regained consciousness.
As Hwalyun rubbed his chest, puzzled by the discrepancy, the physician smiled kindly at Wi Jichung.
“What a remarkable child—managing to obtain Heuksseok Grass in this season. Truly, kindness sown returns manifold.”
Taking in an orphan boy with nowhere to go and raising him alongside his own children as brother and companion certainly deserved to be called kindness.
“Heuksseok…… Grass?”
Wi Jichung nodded through her tear-stained eyes, stroking Hwalyun’s cheeks tenderly without pause.
“When one loses much blood suddenly or their vital force becomes depleted, one must replenish their reserves—but in a weakened state, the body must neither lack nor overflow.”
The physician continued, his eyes studying Hwalyun’s condition.
“Heuksseok Grass has the nature of bolstering vital force while letting any excess flow away unused—it is precisely suited for such cases. Yet it grows only between late winter and early spring, making it terribly difficult to procure.”
“Hwalyun was the one who found it. I can scarcely express my gratitude…….”
‘Hwalyun?’
Hwalyun’s eyes widened, then he realized Hwalyun was nowhere to be seen nearby.
The physician, reading whom Hwalyun sought, smiled gently.
“He exhausted himself wandering the mountains all day in this cool autumn weather and has taken ill. Now that the young master is awake, I should go check on him as well.”
Hwalyun bolted upright to follow the physician but staggered from a rush of dizziness. Nanny Jang and Wi Jichung cried out in alarm and rushed to his side.

Hwalyun lay on his sickbed plagued by uncomfortable heat and dull muscle aches, yet he did not miss the faint voices drifting from outside.
— They say they gave the young master a decoction with that herb, but he managed only half of it. I wonder if he’ll be all right.
That talk soon shifted to another topic.
— Word is he’s opened his eyes now, and he’s going to be fine!
Just as Hwalyun was thinking this might be the end of it—
— The physician is going to see that boy now, and the young master too…….
‘What?’
Hwalyun tried to rub his eyes, feverish and warm, but another hand arrived first.
Cool and small, without fever’s heat. The hand’s owner murmured softly.
“What a fool…….”
Who was calling whom a fool? Hwalyun thought, but his throat was too raw for words to emerge.
Soon a lukewarm liquid seeped between his lips. The bitter taste jolted him awake, and he tried to spit it out, but the hand’s owner coaxed and cajoled him.
“It’s medicine. You have to drink it all if you want to be a good boy, yes?”
As if he would fall for talk of being “good.”
Hwalyun grumbled inwardly, yet he could not refuse the medicine being given to him.
He swallowed it down, then opened his eyes to narrow slits, and through the hazy light he made out the figure of a small girl.
Above her dark eyes, stars glittered like the night sky. He noticed the half of her face he knew, slowly coming into focus.
“Lyun! You’re awake?”
He nodded slowly, and the girl straightened his blankets over him, then carefully wiped the sweat from his brow before applying salve to the small cuts on her own hands.
“Who else goes out scrambling through the mountains hunting for herbs that grow only in late winter?”
Hwalyun gazed quietly at the grumbling girl’s face, then burrowed deeper beneath the blanket.
“That’s what I get for carelessly bringing some to the Fabric Shop to get ice. If I’d known it would come to this, I should’ve saved some. Do you know how much trouble I went through hunting for Heuksseok Grass that’s no longer in stock?”
As he grumbled in that cracked voice about events from months past, the girl’s star-bright eyes rippled with moisture, and Hwalyun suddenly regretted his words.
After closing his eyes for a moment, when he came to his senses again, Hwalyun realized night had fallen. What he’d thought was just a blink had apparently turned into sleep.
Hwalyun lay on the bed, stroking his forehead, then let out a bitter laugh.
A cloth warmed slightly by his own body heat was in his grasp—she had left it for him. The moment he thought of that hand being there and then gone, an unexpected hollowness settled in his chest.
Hwalyun found it hard to believe he’d had such a thought, so he clicked his tongue and pushed himself up. That was when it happened.
Click.
“Hm? Are you awake?”
As Hwalyun was halfway to sitting up, his eyes widened in surprise. A small girl approached his bed with quick strides, a cloth draped over one arm and a small basin held in both hands.
“…Sister?”
“Thirsty? Let’s have some water.”
The girl wiped his forehead with the damp cloth and tilted a water pitcher, offering him lukewarm water.
“Even if you have a fever and feel hot, you can’t just drink cold water straight.”
“…Why are you still here?”
“What do you mean, why? Because you’re ill.”
The girl chattered away as she held the cup to his lips, asked someone outside to bring rice porridge, examined the scrapes on his knees, and tucked the blanket around him again.
“Why are you still here…”
“I just told you. You’re sick, so I have to look after you.”
“…Me?”
“Then who else would I look after?”
The way her lips puckered like a duck’s was a habit she showed when concentrating. So what was she concentrating on now?
‘Wiping my forehead…?’
The damp cloth in her small, winter-branch-thin hands brushed near his eyes.
“I suppose there’s nothing to be done about it…”
“Nothing to be done?”
Hwalyun trailed off and burrowed back into the blanket.
“Even if you’re sleepy, eat your rice porridge first, then sleep. That’s how you’ll get better.”
“Mmm.”
“Be good, will you?”
“Mmm.”
“There’s a good boy.”
Hwalyun hesitated for a moment but ultimately couldn’t resist her coaxing tone and pushed himself up.
“I…I’ll eat it myself, so please stop.”
“No, your arms are still shaking and your hands have too many scrapes.”
“But you’re all better too, aren’t you?”
“I’m completely fine. I slept plenty. Come on, open up.”
“I’m really embarrassed…”
“What’s embarrassing about being ill?”
“Really…”
“Come on, eat!”

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‘How can this be…’
Hwalyun stood before the chicken coop attached to the Woleong Jae kitchen and sighed.
One corner of the coop was entirely occupied by an imposingly large black chicken, while the other birds huddled nervously in the corner.
Now it was certain—this black chicken looked like something far more than just poultry. It was as large as a turkey.

“What’s wrong? Were you worried?”
Perhaps concerned about how thin it had become from lying ill, the black chicken’s dark eyes glistened wetly.
“But why do you keep doing this?”
Hwalyun slipped a hand between the cages and stroked the black chicken, murmuring softly. The tips of its feathers shimmered with a mysterious reddish glow.
“Doesn’t it look like a phoenix? Or maybe a vermillion bird?

They’re quite similar, aren’t they?”
Hwalyun turned at the voice that suddenly came from beside her.
There stood a boy who now looked every bit a proper young gentleman—Hwalyun, frowning as he studied the chicken.
They had both recovered from their illnesses at the same time, yet remarkably, Hwalyun appeared even healthier and more vigorous than before.
“That can’t be….”
The words caught in her throat before she could finish. The black eyes of the silkie chicken, gleaming with a deep crimson sheen, blinked softly as it looked up at her.
Looking at those gentle eyes, it was impossible to imagine the bird brutally tormenting the other chickens and hoarding all their feed.
“Mm. You see it too, then?”
“So you’re saying it actually looks like an ordinary chicken to your eyes?”
“No, I….”
‘Could it be transforming into a Spiritual Creature by consuming Spiritual Energy?’
But would something as absurd as a chicken becoming a phoenix actually come to pass?
Though this silkie chicken did seem to emanate that peculiar mystical aura characteristic of a Spiritual Creature….
‘But a phoenix has flame-colored feathers, doesn’t it? This one’s black. There’s a reddish tint to it, but still.’
As Hwalyun was trying hard to rationalize the matter, he suddenly spoke.
“If you raise that silkie chicken as a phoenix, the County Magistrate will seize you.”
“What are you talking about?”
Hwalyun nearly made her choke as she laughed. The future Second Leader of the Macheon Cult treated a mere county official the way one might regard a speck of dust beneath his fingernail.
Yet when he was young, hearing him speak of tigers and the County Magistrate in the same breath was rather charming. But Hwalyun was serious now.
“They’ll take you away and lock you in a chicken coop, making you raise only the phoenix.”

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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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