The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 191

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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 Falling Clan’s Terminal Elixir — Episode 191

‘A formidable one.’
The commander of Cheonrang-dae steadied his breath, eyes fixed forward.
With each heavy footfall, three long shadows stretched across the ground.
One man who appeared to be in his thirties, and two women. The woman standing in the center smiled at Dan Mok Cheon Gi, her eyes narrowing to slits.
“Hehehehe… the Muweol Geom

— you’ve been waiting for us, then?”
Her face was middle-aged, yet her voice carried the unsettling rasp of an eighty-year-old crone.
As the woman raised her hand, shadows deepened along both sides of the road. Armed figures packed densely between the trees closed in step by step, drawing closer with each breath.
‘When did they gather so many?’
“I am Jeok Sa Geom

, and these are Heuk Sa… well.”
The commander of Cheonrang-dae could not hold his tongue.
“Never mind their names — one’s obviously Heuk Sa Geom and the other Cheong Sa Geom! I’ve no interest in what these evil spirits call themselves. What became of Seon Wun Sin Ui?”
“What’s this? You dare speak to us so disrespectfully!”
Crash!
At the commander’s words, Jeok Sa Geom’s rage erupted, and several younger members of Cheonrang-dae coughed up blood.
It was a variant of the Eum Gong — a technique that poured malevolent internal power through the voice itself.
Jeok Sa Geom smiled with satisfaction, watching the members stagger.
“Seon Wun Sin Ui? We don’t know either. That physician proved stubborn enough to be troublesome. Kept pounding on him until he tumbled off a cliff. If fortune favored him, death came swift. If not, he became tiger meat while still breathing.”
The black-robed figure behind her answered in turn.
“Enough talk, Jeok Sa Geom. Strike.”
“Hold your tongue, Heuk Sa Geom. This is why those weaklings call us blood ghouls and evil spirits.”
Yet among them, Jeok Sa Geom was plainly the strongest, and neither Heuk Sa Geom nor Cheong Sa Geom pressed further.
“If you carry Spirit Tablets as we suspect, surrender them and crawl beneath our feet — and you’ll keep your lives.”
“What? We need to exterminate every trace of them here. What nonsense is this?”
Cheong Sa Geom frowned as he spoke.
They had always meant to kill every passing physician and disciple — wiping them from existence. Coveting whatever Spirit Elixir the physician might carry was merely a secondary gain.
“Once we take their Spirit Elixir, we no longer need to hide. Blood Coral Valley has risen again — this is our moment to declare it to all under heaven!”
“Don’t presume to interpret the Clan Leader’s will by your own desire.”
Cheong Sa Geom said this, but did not forcefully restrain the matter.
‘Spirit Elixir?’
The commander of Cheonrang-dae knew this company carried no such thing.
They might possess some herbs of a hundred-year vintage, but for so many blood ghouls to swarm over them for such a prize — it made no sense.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi unsheathed his blade and laughter burst forth like the roar of a lion.
“I know not what delusion drove you here, but I hold both the right and the duty to annihilate you all — how can I not welcome that you’ve come willingly to your doom?”
Killing intent so thick that no martial artist could have mustered it made the birds cry out in panic and scatter skyward.
Jeok Sa Geom’s cheek trembled as she shrieked.
“I’ll keep you alive to the end and show you how your wife’s blood and your children’s blood, every last drop, becomes my strength and youth!”
“Evil spirits — you’ve chattered enough. Now it’s time to walk the path to the underworld.”
“Ha! When were you ever the Greatest Master Under Heaven to speak so boldly? Just last year you cowered in your quarters like a beaten dog!”
Jeok Sa Geom shrieked, but Dan Mok Cheon Gi didn’t even blink.
When Bing Xue Yan provoked enemies, she would weave together three generations above and three below, flip inside and outside, strip the crown from their heads, tear away what lay beneath — without a single hesitation. Would he flinch at mere words like these?
Besides, the commander of Cheonrang-dae had just shown himself to be an heir of Bing Palace.
“How dare you speak such filth to the Muweol Geom? Ridiculous, you worm of Blood Coral Valley! Parasites draining blood to cling to life — I’m sick of your pathetic buzzing! The only things that stick to that rotting, rank flesh are leeches sucking your blood, and even your mother and father in the underworld would not lift their heads for shame, biting their own tongues to death!”
Jeok Sa Geom’s face flushed crimson.
“You dogs with your flapping mouths — !”
In that instant, Dan Mok Cheon Gi raised his blade high and roared.
“Annihilate-! Obliterate-!”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s voice shook the very heavens and earth.
And the warriors of the Dan Mok Clan and Bing Palace raised their blades, uniting dozens of voices in a single cry.
“Advance! Strike!”

* * *

The stench of rotting blood and the metallic reek of gore began to permeate the forest.
Hundreds of creatures surged forward at once, yet the warriors of Cheonrang-dae and the Dan Mok Clan held their ground with surprising ease.
“Ah, gods above. What do we do? Go in now and just extract the young master?”
“He said it wasn’t time yet. Come on—let’s finish these wretches first.”
Thwack!
Crack!
Whack!
Heuk Dam with his dark hair and Baek Dam with his white moved restlessly on their feet, their hands cutting through the air without mercy.
Thick pools of blood rose swiftly around them.
“You’re the one who sent out the Mil Seo in the first place, aren’t you?”
“And you agreed to it! So why are you changing your tune now?”
Baek Dam, stung by the accusation, shouted back and cleaved a Blood Ghoul in two.
Screech!
The Mil Seo they spoke of was one of Ma Cheon Gyo’s sorcerous arts—a technique inscribed upon paper that could be made to fly toward any chosen recipient.
Only initiates of the organization could decipher its contents; outsiders could not.
What they had sent was no ordinary message but one that only the Gyo Ju or a Jokju Candidate could unseal.
They had written in it a note about suspicious individuals catching their eye……
“You were just testing the young master, weren’t you!”
Heuk Dam found himself remembering the day he first met Hwa Ryun.
The memory was so vivid that he jolted awake in the middle of sleep, and even when he drank hot tea, his body shook as if he’d swallowed ice water.
They had spotted a promising youth and meant to recruit him, but when they were told there was an elder to attend to, they grew curious and tracked down who this elder was—only to find no elder anywhere, just a delicate-looking boy standing alone.
The tear mole below his left eye and the deep intensity of his gaze made a striking impression.
In that first moment, Heuk Dam’s heart had lurched.
— How did it come to this.
— What is this, even now…….
— Pick it up.
— What…… what?
— You dropped the Sung Jwa Bo Jsan! It’s annoying—pick it up quickly.
The small boy had gestured dismissively with his chin. The Sung Jwa Bo Jsan—the vessel they used to seek their Jokju Candidate—that Heuk Dam had dropped

was humming softly against the floor.
Heuk Dam reached out as if entranced and grasped the vessel.
In that instant, light erupted from the Sung Jwa Bo Jsan, filling the room before slowly fading.
His vision went white and then cleared, the boy’s form blurring and gradually sharpening into focus.
As the Sung Jwa Bo Jsan sang and gave forth its light, it became unmistakably clear that this boy was the Jokju Candidate they had been searching for, one born under the sign of the Cheonggoe Star

among the Thirty-Six Heavenly Immortals.
— You…… you…… are of our organization…….
— What family, er, ahem, what house do you belong to? Do you have parents? I suspect you don’t.
While Heuk Dam stammered, Baek Dam finally regained his composure and pressed forward with the interrogation.
Children born under the Thirty-Six Heavenly Immortals tended to be marked by misfortune; most lost their parents young and lived in hardship, or if they hadn’t, their bonds with their parents were cold and distant.
Orphans seized upon the promise of gaining strength and clasped the elders’ hands without hesitation. Those with parents often saw themselves sold off for little more than a few coins.
So neither Baek Dam nor Heuk Dam had worried about bringing the child back—only about finding him.
Even a Jokju Candidate meeting a martial artist for the first time would normally be terrified enough to burst into tears at such an intimidating presence, but the boy had merely flicked his eyebrows and let out a soft laugh before speaking.
— I have things I must do, so I cannot leave right now. Wait a little longer.
— What? Do you know who we are, do you know—!
— Then do you know who I am before you open your mouth?
The child was clearly speaking with naive audacity, yet Heuk Dam found himself nearly dropping to his knees.
— How could you, how could you do this!
The power that moved so gently was no different from the presence he had felt when receiving the Gyo Ju himself.
He knew that the very thought of comparing anyone to the Gyo Ju was a transgression, yet he could not stop it.
The boy’s hair rippled as if undulating in water. The boy smiled with his eyes gently closed, looking innocent enough, yet somehow Heuk Dam’s mouth had gone utterly dry and his throat ached.
As Heuk Dam’s lips fumbled silently, the boy stood with arms crossed, pressing him further.
— So who did you say you were?
— A, uh, we…… we were…….
— Ma Cheo, from the Ma Cheon Gyo. We’ve come to find a Jokju Candidate…… You’ve…… been selected as a candidate. Consider this a great honor and come west with us…….
— Ah, I told you I’m busy right now. Just wait a few months.
The boy sounded so irritated that she wanted to collapse and beg, not knowing why such an impulse seized her.
— You…… How dare you…… such rudeness…….
Baek Dam at least tried to maintain some dignity.
— So I’m a Jokju Candidate?
— T-that’s not to say you’ll become Jokju! The other elders are each bringing their own candidates, so you’ll have to compete against them and prove your worth.
The boy laughed, his expression alight with amusement.
— But if another elder’s candidate becomes Jokju, then you all just lose, don’t you?

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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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