The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 180

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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 Fallen Clan’s Limited Lifespan — Episode 180

She had barely regained her health, though in truth she’d recovered none of her former strength.
She was simply grateful to have escaped the day-to-day struggle for survival.
“So that’s…… well, that was something.”
She didn’t mention how today’s acquired Limited Life Span had been the groundwork for solving that very problem.
“I see…….”
“Do you have worries, Do Wi? Is it because of something I said this afternoon?”
Do Wi couldn’t bring herself to deny it, only pressing her lips together.
During the long silence that followed, Ryeon moved her hands gently behind her back. Spiritual Energy rose, and she began to purify the surrounding air.
Whether it was the purified air settling Do Wi’s body and mind, she suddenly broached something weightier.
“I…… don’t belong in Beijing.”
‘I never expected her to open up like this!’
Though she was inwardly startled, Ryeon showed no sign of confusion, merely tilting her head.
“Is there a type of person who belongs in Beijing and another type who doesn’t?”
“My…… father came from outside Beijing.”
It seemed she’d chosen her words carefully out of consideration for Ryeon’s feelings — he appeared to be from the Central Plains.
Before Ryeon could respond, Do Wi continued.
“But that’s not all of it.”
“Then what is it?”
Do Wi hesitated for a moment, then laid bare her heart. Perhaps the fact that Ryeon was a child who would soon leave, yet didn’t speak like one, had lightened the burden she carried.
“The truth is…… I couldn’t understand the Bing Palace Master’s choice, or the choice of the Cheol Dam Bing Hun elder.”
“Hmm?”
Do Wi released a quiet sigh.
“The Cheol Dam Bing Hun elder was all but decided to become the Bing Palace Master at that time. Yet she left Beijing in a single breath.”
“Ah…… yes, that’s true.”
And thanks to that, I was born……
Ryeon didn’t say as much, only nodding and listening carefully to Do Wi’s words.
“The Martial Arts World of the Central Plains calls us the Periphery. They consider us marginal, but to us, here is everything — our whole world, our brightest place. To abandon all of it and become the wife of a distant family, a different clan…… I couldn’t understand it.”
Do Wi wasn’t disparaging the Dan Mok Clan, but rather explaining patiently how just as the Beijing Ice Palace was the Periphery to the Central Plains, so too was the Central Plains something external to the Beijing Ice Palace.
Ryeon nodded with an expression of full understanding.
“The Bing Palace Master also…… continues to protect one person she holds dear in her heart. Until now. But had I been in her place, I would not have done the same.”
“So what you’re saying is…… that the Bing Palace Master holds someone dear, so she hasn’t married, and instead she’s painstakingly raised Do Wi — not even her own child, mixed with Central Plains blood — as her successor?”
“……Yes. Had it been me, I would have put such feelings aside quickly, married another, and borne children.”
At that point, Do Wi smiled with something like self-reproach.
“The people of the Bing Palace don’t think such thoughts.”
“Then what do they think?”
“They admire those two for being true to their hearts.”
And they all harbor such fervent feelings in some corner of their own hearts.
Ryeon found herself largely convinced.
The people of the Bing Palace she had observed seemed cold and rational because of the prejudice that came with their northern position, but looked closer and they were actually quite fiery and passionate.
How else would the temperament that brought the Dan Mok Clan person to manipulate Bing Xue Yan manifest — from the very moment she hauled out the Frozen Basin?
And precisely because they were so passionate, once they’d lost a contest of strength, they’d readily submit and trail along after their victor.
“But for such reasons…… you won’t become the Minor Palace Master…… is that it?”
Ryeon’s voice trailed off slightly as she asked.
“Yes? Yes…… I’m simply not suited temperamentally to be called a Beijing person…….”
“Right now, you seem like the most Beijing person of all.”
“Pardon?”
“Once Beijing people decide on something, they rush at it with obsession. Bing Mun Bi was like that at first, wasn’t she? She revered Grandmother so much that even though I’m Grandmother’s granddaughter, she brought me the Frozen Basin. Because Grandmother was hurt because of me and the Dan Mok Clan.”
She’s already apologized, so it’s fine, Ryeon quickly added before continuing.
“What you’re doing now is exactly the same.”
“Pardon?”
“A Beijing person must be this way, a Bing Palace Master must be that way. You’ve decided it all down to the last detail, and you won’t hear of anything else. You say you don’t understand Grandmother for leaving — but aren’t you doing exactly what Grandmother did? Kicking away with your own feet the position of Minor Palace Master that everyone else would kill for.”
“No, that’s not…….”
Do Wi wanted to deny it, but couldn’t bring herself to, her lips only moving silently.
“Or maybe it’s not that at all—maybe you’re bothered by the fact that Do Wi has mixed Central Plains blood in his veins?”
“…….”
This time, Do Wi couldn’t even move his lips. He simply closed them.
“It’s strange. You said it yourself—the successor to Bing Palace isn’t determined by bloodline.”
“That statement…….”
Do Wi found himself trapped in contradiction, unable to continue.
“Or did someone bother you about it?”
She asked whether anyone had questioned how someone of such mixed blood could become Minor Palace Master, and Do Wi started, vehemently denying it.
“No, no. No one said anything like that.”
Do Wi’s hesitation was, to some extent, understandable.
His bloodline was not merely distant from Bing Palace’s pure line—it carried the blood of the Central Plains—and surrounded by people who, once fixed on something, would throw caution to the wind, he alone bore the burden of reason. That difference cut all the deeper for it.
‘……He is precisely the talent Bing Palace most needs right now.’
And so Bing Seol Han, the Palace Master, appeared to have designated him as successor.
Yet his very rationality and composure had become the obstacle.
Even if someone else—a girl who wasn’t even from Beijing—declared herself the next Palace Master, he couldn’t take that final step.
Ryeon intensified her Purification and wove in Harmony Cultivation as well.
Moonlight sifted through the narrow window of the shrine, trembling among the wisps of incense smoke, and where it touched the ornaments hanging throughout Ryeon’s hair, it scattered into fragments of soft radiance.
The dimly glowing ornaments, the glimmering of her eyes, the boundary between Ryeon’s form and presence blurred—neither quite there nor quite absent.
Strands of her loosened hair and the hem of her robe lifted gently, buoyed by the undulating Spiritual Energy. The ornaments chimed softly as they touched one another.
His gaze widened, captivated by that hazy, precarious, and subtle presence.
‘Is the atmosphere right enough?’
This matter concerned Bing Palace’s successor. How much thought and conversation must Do Wi himself, and Bing Seol Han, and Bing Xue Yan have already spent on it?
Yet it seemed unlikely that a few words from a ten-year-old child would sway them now.
But to ask for a push at the back meant he was already looking in that direction.
Even without grand declarations, a small spark would be enough for him to walk toward what was right of his own accord.
‘Something like a healthy spirit dwelling in a healthy body.’
Do Wi had been the first to welcome the guest from the Central Plains, clashed daily with Dan Mok Hyeon U, and carried the weight of the succession question. How exhausted he must be.
Ryeon released the purified air as she spoke.
“Do Wi. When I return to Hang Zhou, Dan Seong and I will compete to see who becomes clan head of the Dan Mok Family.”
“Pardon? Compete……?”
Bewilderment flickered across Do Wi’s eyes, but Ryeon continued.
“Yes. We both carry Beijing Ice Palace blood, but neither of us will yield the clan head position to anyone else.”
“That bloodline…….”
He wanted to say it was something noble, connected to the Palace Master, but Ryeon shook her head and spoke first.
“Because Dan Seong and I understand our clan’s martial arts better than anyone our age, and we love the clan more than anyone else does.”
At those words, Do Wi’s eyes widened.
Ryeon left him there in silence and quietly slipped out of the shrine.

* * *

‘Will that be enough?’
Having heard such words in that peculiar atmosphere and breathed in so much purified air, he would sleep soundly tonight, and waking refreshed in the morning…….
‘He’ll decide well.’
If he could strip away hesitation and anxiety and fear, and choose what he truly wanted, that would be enough.
Even if that choice was to refuse the position of Minor Palace Master after all.
Having given Do Wi’s back one push, Ryeon resolved to give her own back a push as well.
Everything was prepared. The ripe Hong Hwa Ja nestled in her embrace radiated warmth.
When she made her way to Bing Xue Yan’s quarters, Dan Mok Cheon Gi was there with her. Ryeon smiled at the sight of them together.
Even if they bickered, after so long apart they could hardly be unhappy to see one another. To watch them was itself a longing,
“It’s night and the air is cold—how did you come all this way? Is something the matter?”
Bing Xue Yan rushed out in bare feet and wrapped Ryeon tightly in a blanket as she spoke.
Ryeon poked her head out of the blanket and shook it.
“No, what I brought is warm, so I wasn’t cold at all.”
“What did you bring?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi lifted Ryeon up and set her on a seat, then asked. Ryeon emerged from the blanket and produced a small box.

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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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