The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 167

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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 167

“What?”
“You did something, didn’t you?”
‘Is it really so obvious that I did something?’
It was true that it might seem strange to see blood flowing in front of her—whether nosebleed or otherwise—but how could she be so certain, and so quickly, that it was Ryeon herself who had done something to improve things?
“I heard that you were the one who nudged your grandfather out of the swamp where he’d been stuck motionless for so long.”
“Grandmother gave me two Cold Lotus Carp Dumplings, so I just mentioned that I wanted to visit her before it was too late…”
“Before it was too late?”
Bing Xue Yan caught the end of her words, repeating them as if turning them over in her mind.
Ryeon’s eyes widened in alarm, and she clamped her mouth shut. Bing Xue Yan’s gaze grew even deeper.
“As I said to Jin Yi Won earlier… where in this world is there a sickness cured simply by seeing the face of someone you miss? If it were that simple, it would never have developed in the first place.”
“……”
“Your grandfather is no different. A man trapped in that darkness for so long—would he simply spring up and rejoin the world just from catching a glimpse of his granddaughter’s face? If that were all it took, he would have risen long ago.”
Ryeon waited calmly for Bing Xue Yan to continue.
“The world doesn’t flow the way we wish it to. Someone—something—was done.”
Bing Xue Yan’s gaze fixed directly on Ryeon.
“And there is no one else in this room who could have done it.”
The way she’d watched herself cough up blood with a readiness, as if prepared for it, and yet without showing signs of true alarm. The way Dan Mok Cheon Gi looked at his granddaughter with joy at her recovery, yet with concern as though she had overextended herself.
All of it had led Bing Xue Yan to spin out her theory.
Then suddenly, as if coming to her senses, she noticed the girl’s face twisted with acute embarrassment.
“…I’m not interrogating you. I’m saying I know it was thanks to you.”
Bing Xue Yan felt oddly self-conscious and apologetic. She quickly made space on the bed and gestured. Come up, she meant.
The small granddaughter, who barely reached to her waist, wriggled like a white rabbit in snow as she climbed onto the bed.
The girl seemed to steel herself, and then began to explain.
“Grandmother wasn’t sick.”
“Not sick?”
“There was something like a small poison in her body, and Grandmother’s body was weakening from fighting it. Do you know what Blood Poison is?”
“Blood Poison? That is…”
In that moment, a chill passed through Bing Xue Yan’s eyes.
“…We have long pursued how the Blood Demons of Blood Coral Valley came to be.”
Ryeon’s eyes widened like saucers.
“There were countless theories, and one of them was ‘Blood Poison’…the hypothesis was that the Lord of Blood Coral Valley fed people some sort of poison—if you will, Blood Poison—to make them what they are.”
Bing Xue Yan knitted her brow as if recalling a distant past, then continued.
“Given how many Blood Demons I’ve cut down, it’s hardly surprising that the Blood Poison they must have consumed so greedily seeped into me as well. …Was the black blood I coughed up that very thing?”
At her grandmother’s question, Ryeon nodded. Hwang Gyou On had been a child rescued by Hwang Chaejoo from among the Blood Demons. She must have been tainted in that time.
“But how…could you have done such a thing?”
“Did you hear why I was ill?”
Though the conversation had suddenly shifted, Bing Xue Yan calmly shook her head.
Ryeon slowly drew Spiritual Energy forth from her fingertips. Though invisible to ordinary sight, the ethereal luminescence that gathered on her young fingertips was not lost on Bing Xue Yan.
“What is that?”
“Strangely, I’m the type of person whose body accumulates Spiritual Energy, but my body couldn’t accept it, so I fell ill. I was sick for such a long time…my mind wandered…but thanks to Grandfather and Mother having me learn the Beolmo Sesoo technique, the illness went away.”
It was an unbelievable story, and yet the miracle of her body recovered in an instant, the miracle of sensing Spiritual Energy shimmering before her eyes—there was no way not to believe it.
“Truth is, I’m not fully healed. If I don’t keep using Spiritual Energy to empty it out, I’ll fall ill again. And since I can’t build internal energy right now, I haven’t been able to learn any Martial Art Manual yet…”
“Ah…”
A sad sigh passed through Bing Xue Yan’s eyes. To be born so brilliant in a martial family, and yet unable to build internal energy.
“Right now only Grandfather knows. If Mother or Aunt or Uncle found out, it would pain them too much.”
Bing Xue Yan’s eyes reddened.
Ryeon felt the mood growing too heavy, so she deliberately brightened her voice and changed the subject.
“Anyway! It seems that power is connected to all this. And how I figured it out was…”
She began talking about Hwang Chaejoo’s daughter, Hwang Gyou On, with her strange honorifics; about how Hwang Gyou On’s nickname was Vegetable Noodles; about how that came to be—because Dan Mok Seong was Rice…
As Ryeon’s story went on, a smile began to bloom on Bing Xue Yan’s face as well.
“So, so? What did you learn from Moyong Seol Ho?”
“That secret technique of the Moyong Family! That one!”
“Don’t tell me it’s the Dujeonseong? That’s impossible! He never taught it to me!”
It was only natural. Even the closest of friends would never reveal a martial family’s secret techniques to outsiders.
“The Dujeonseong’s…… training method! I learned it. It was a night like this, with flower petals trembling softly in the breeze…….”
Dan Mok Ryeon moved her fingers. Following the motion of her hand, the lamplight flickered and cast shadows. Those shadows looked like scattering petals.
Bing Xue Yan’s face glowed with quiet delight as she listened to Dan Mok Ryeon’s fascinating story.
“So that’s how you became the Vegetable Noodle expert? These mischief-makers!”
Bing Xue Yan laughed heartily, then startled at the sound of her own laughter.
In the years when pain ran so deep she lacked even the energy to complain, her coughs had been like frost and her laughter like dew—vanishing in a blink whenever greater suffering emerged.
Bing Xue Yan opened and closed her own hand. Watching this, Dan Mok Ryeon spoke.
“You’ll grow even stronger now. I have my power, after all!”
After saying that much, Dan Mok Ryeon hesitated for a moment before continuing slowly.
“There was…… a shrine at that Mountain Estate. It was very old. Inside, there was a large statue of the Heavenly Maiden…….”
In that instant, Bing Xue Yan’s chest sank.
“I heard Father guarded that place. He was trying to protect the Taegeuk Medallion that the Heavenly Maiden possessed.”
“……Yes, he was.”
Dan Mok Ryeon worked her lips. She had started this story to tell Bing Xue Yan that arriving even a few hours earlier would not have saved Dan Mok Hyeon Seong.
Dan Mok Hyeon Seong’s fight had taken place a day before, and truly there was nothing anyone could have done. The only reason he had managed to hold on until Bing Xue Yan’s arrival was perhaps thanks to the power of the Taegeuk Medallion.

— Sometimes, knowing that something was beyond your control becomes a strength in itself.

It was advice she had heard in that shrine. Dan Mok Ryeon felt as though she were saying this to Bing Xue Yan.
But when the moment finally came to speak, her lips would not move.
‘Would it really help?’
Would it only make her blame herself more for not rushing to arrive a day or two sooner?
Would it only make things harder……?
Was Bing Xue Yan the sort of person to take refuge in the excuse that things were beyond her control?
Wouldn’t her heart ache all the more at the thought that her son had lain alone before that shrine for a full day, counting down toward death while his life drained away?
“……So I thought it might be the power of that Taegeuk Medallion. This power of mine. I think what Father was guarding came to me.”
“Ha, but back then Dan Mok Seong smashed it to pieces.”
“That was Father protecting me too, wasn’t it? He kept it from falling into the Blood Demons’ hands!”
Bing Xue Yan’s expression visibly softened at Dan Mok Ryeon’s words.
The knowledge that what her son had done had circled back and continued on—it did not feel so unwelcome after all.
“Will Dan Mok Seong sleep with us tomorrow too?”
“If you two are happy with it, then I’m the delighted one. Now that you’re well because of you!”
Bing Xue Yan laughed cheerfully, but Dan Mok Ryeon’s expression was not quite as bright. Bing Xue Yan understood why Dan Mok Ryeon looked that way.
“Is it what Jin Yi Won said that’s troubling you?”
That Jin Yi Won could not promise whether her martial arts mastery could be fully restored.
How could there be any joy in telling a martial artist who had lived her entire life as a warrior that she might never regain her martial arts?
“There must be…… another way. I will find it. I will definitely heal Grandmother.”
If she said she harbored no ambition, it would be a lie. But that did not mean the present moment brought her no joy.
Yet here was her granddaughter wearing an expression as though she carried guilt—as though she had failed in her duty.
“Dan Mok Seong said you declared you would crush the Blood Coral Valley when it rises again.”
“What?”
In that instant, Dan Mok Ryeon’s face flushed deep red. She looked embarrassed, as though her outlandish childhood dream had been exposed—exactly as a girl her age would.

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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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