The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 179

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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 — Chapter 179

“I should send the children back in a carriage laden with gold and jewels.”
“……Won’t you return with them?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi asked in a hollow voice. Bing Xue Yan laughed heartily.
“I’m still not fully recovered. If I went back to Hang Zhou in this state, I’d only drain your medicine funds, and I’d rather not face the awkwardness of it.”
“Who would dare say such a thing?”
“Can you afford my medicine yourself? Your granddaughter has been earning everything for the clan — surely you don’t mean to ask her to hand over money?”
At Bing Xue Yan’s teasing laugh, Dan Mok Cheon Gi let out a long sigh.
After a moment of lighthearted banter passed, Bing Xue Yan spoke slowly.
“Ryeon…….”
Bing Xue Yan swallowed hard, her throat tightening. It hurt.
“Even though I’ve recovered this much, that child’s expression…… she looked as though she carried some burden…… as if she’d committed a sin.”
“…….”
“I can see she’s unusually brilliant and yet tender-hearted. But that doesn’t mean you should heap all your burdens onto her shoulders, does it?”
The air grew heavy for a moment. Bing Xue Yan soon laughed again, openly.
“Well, setting that aside — in any case, if I’m to recover my martial arts, I’ll need to put in effort here. My power all stems from Beijing, after all. So I think when that time comes, you should come to Beijing.”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi nodded calmly.
“I had hoped to see Hang Zhou once more before that…….”
“Ugh, how boring.”
When no response came to her teasing, Bing Xue Yan pouted. Dan Mok Cheon Gi shook his head.
“At your age, you still want to spend your whole life being entertained?”
“Your face was entertaining enough that I married you — and it all fell apart anyway. So shouldn’t you at least find some other amusement?”
“……Should I then become a Poison Immortal

and play strings that ring out of tune?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi privately offered a small apology to Dang Yu Byeok, whose strings had indeed fallen out of tune after Dan Mok Cheon Gi had worked so hard to heal the old friend’s wounds.
‘Forgive me, old friend.’
But if Dang Yu Byeok had seen Bing Xue Yan’s expression now, he surely would have understood.
“Then we’ll go together and play them!”
Bing Xue Yan let out a hearty laugh and gently traced the scar that remained on Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s face with her hand.
She knew well that the scar had healed to only this extent thanks to Dang Yu Byeok, the Poison Immortal. She also knew that she had survived and come to Beijing this day because he had worked himself to the bone.
“That Poison Immortal must be dying of indignation.”
At her murmur, Dan Mok Cheon Gi laughed softly.
“What can I do? This is the karma of having such friends.”
Bing Xue Yan laughed a little as well.
The aftereffects of a fierce battle from long ago still lingered and bound them together.
Yet somehow, that bond seemed to be what sustained them.
Still, it was enough that they were alive like this — Bing Xue Yan murmured the words she could not speak aloud in her heart.
Just then, word came from outside that Ryeon had come to find them.
“At this hour of the night?”
Both Bing Xue Yan and Dan Mok Cheon Gi rose in surprise. Their dignified granddaughter rarely moved impulsively without good reason.
Though there had been many urgent matters until now.
“Bring her in at once!”
Bing Xue Yan urged hurriedly.

* * *

A night when the moon hung bright and full.
Ryeon arrived at the small shrine Moon Bi had told her of.
The door had been oiled and was well maintained, and inside a small lantern burned, allowing her to see the interior clearly even in the dimness.
‘Does someone come here often?’
A cushion lay on the floor, worn and polished at the center from frequent kneeling, slightly depressed from use.
Ryeon lit an incense stick, sat upon the cushion, and set down the small box she had brought beside her.
‘Please…….’
She’d harvested the Red Flower Fruit, and all that remained was to bring it to Grandmother and the task would be complete—but unease coiled in her chest, keeping her from going straight to her.
The thing she’d created wasn’t the Red Flower Stone that Seon Gyeong had mentioned, but a Red Flower Fruit, and she wasn’t certain whether simply feeding it to Grandmother would be enough.
Since ripe persimmons are typically called Red Persimmons, she thought she’d ripen the harvested Red Flower Fruits a bit by cradling them beside the brazier and infusing them with Spirit Energy.
In the vigorous heat of the brazier, it was not the fruit but Ryeon herself turning rosy-red with warmth, and Hwa Ryun saw this and pulled her away, her expression growing stern.
The Red Flower Fruits that had been taut and plump when first harvested had softened somewhat, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to call them Red Flower Stones.
‘This shrine must be quite old.’
So, hoping to receive at least a word of advice, she’d asked Moon Bi about an ancient shrine in the Bing Palace and come all this way.
She’d left without telling Hwa Ryun, not wanting her to worry. Ryeon’s cat, Baek Ryeon, had been instrumental in this escape.
Thanks to Baek Ryeon seizing Ryeon’s hair ornament and running off with it, Hwa Ryun had dashed out in pursuit.

You have arrived at an ancient shrine.
You may receive counsel.

As expected, Seon Gyeong came to mind. The moment Ryeon released a held breath and waited for that advice, the words rose swiftly.

— You cannot escape the shadow of blood.

The instant she heard the first counsel, Ryeon collapsed onto the floor.
She thrashed silently, rolling back and forth. The ornaments wound around her hair, wrists, and ankles jangled with each movement.
Ryeon had threaded a gemstone into each braid of her twisted hair, hung another from the base of her skull, and fastened more at her waist, wrists, and hidden ankles.
It came from a nervous heart. If worse came to worst, she was prepared to scrape together Spirit Energy and do something with it.
She couldn’t give Spirit Energy directly to a person—that was too dangerous—but if things fell apart, she planned to keep casting Purification and Harmony Cultivation on Bing Xue Yan.
‘Damn these Blood Demons!’
She knew they couldn’t be escaped—that was exactly why the Blood Coral Valley Eradication Alliance existed!—but hearing it again made her feel as though her chest would burst.
Ryeon thrashed for a long while before finally going limp. As if timing itself to that moment, the next counsel rose swiftly.

— When virtue accumulates, fortune follows. When fortune accumulates, miracles manifest.

‘I already know that.’
She’d saved more than one life because of it, and ever since, whenever the chance arose, she’d steadily accumulated fortune by helping others through Harmony Cultivation, Divine Insight, and Purification.
As if sensing Ryeon’s discontent, Seon Gyeong hastily wrote another line.

— The mighty oak begins with a small acorn.

‘No… I already said I know.’
Ryeon grumbled a bit, then sat up. Everyone knew that an acorn sprouts and grows into a tree, but Seon Gyeong must have had a reason for saying it.
‘Is he telling me to focus on nurturing the next generation? But I’m not really nurturing anyone, am I?’
All her peers were acorns, and so was she. A defective acorn, one that cheered on other acorns while possessing no internal energy of her own.
But Ryeon decided to temper her complaining. The counsel from this shrine sounded like words meant to encourage her—not to give up, to know that what she was doing now held meaning.
Every acorn she cherished and polished clean would grow into a mighty oak, forming a great forest.
‘When virtue accumulates, fortune follows… When fortune accumulates, miracles manifest…’
A miracle?
Right now, there was only one miracle Ryeon wished for.
For Grandmother to recover.
‘At this rate, I’m a bit short on fortune…’
She hadn’t completely filled the Fortune meter to 120. To achieve a miracle, she’d need to fill it all the way, wouldn’t she?
But then again, Bing Xue Yan’s recovery wasn’t a miracle. It was simply something that would happen. A little fortune might help, but that should be sufficient.
As Ryeon steadied her heart, the final counsel rose before her.

— Push the back of the one who opens the door and enters.

‘What?’
Until now, all the advice had been abstract and vague—though she’d heard hints of it before and could piece it together—but this was oddly specific.
‘Push the back of someone who opens a door and enters?’
Yet she couldn’t reason beyond that.
It was still cryptic either way. Ryeon fixed her clothes with a deliberately sullen expression, glaring at the incense that shed ash, and was just about to open the shrine door and step outside when—
From without, a door opened first, and moonlight stretched long and dark across Ryeon’s form.
“Oh? Do Wi.”
‘So it was about Do Wi!’
The one who had been about to enter the shrine was none other than Do Wi.
“You’re here? What brings you to the shrine?”
“I was just lighting some incense. What about you?”
“I… well.”
Do Wi, who had been about to enter the shrine, asked her first with an awkward expression.
“Is something troubling you, if I may ask?”
The worn prayer mat seemed to be one that people with worries often sought out and used.
Ryeon hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Grandmother hasn’t actually recovered completely, has she?”

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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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