The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 196

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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 196

Even now, struggling to run alone, he insists on carrying Ryeon, pressing forward. Simply because he was born a few months earlier, he chooses to stand before the enemy first.
And in that vanished span of time, Dan Mok Seong chose to die protecting her younger cousin simply because she had been born a few years sooner, simply because Ryeon was her junior — perhaps for no reason at all.
Without strength, without margin, pressed and terrified though she was, she never gave in.
“Let’s go home, Seong. We’ll… ask Aunt to pick out a pretty dress for you.”
Dan Mok Seong muttered that she shouldn’t do or say such things at such a grave moment, then embraced Ryeon in return.
Her arms trembled visibly, so Ryeon gave them one more squeeze before releasing her.
Dan Mok Seong’s eyes had reddened slightly. As she tried to hide her face, Hwa Ryun’s lip jutted out.
“We done? Let’s head out then.”
“We have to do our glutinous rice dumpling too!”
“Ugh, seriously! That’s not what you were asking for!”
Hwa Ryun wore an expression of dismay but couldn’t escape Ryeon’s grasp, and only managed to slip free after being squeezed once more.
“Come on, let’s get back home with this sister. Don’t worry about anything!”
“……”
Ryeon took the hands of both children and moved ahead. As Hwa Ryun followed, a somewhat complicated shadow passed across her face, but the moment Ryeon glanced back, it vanished without trace.
Soon the lost path reappeared before them. It ran along the ridge of the mountain, one side a steep cliff, but wide enough for a small cart to pass.
“The fire keeps spreading — I wish it would rain……”
That moment, her eyes stung again. As Ryeon went to rub them, Hwa Ryun, a step behind, seized her hand in an instant.
“What? Did something get in your eye?”
“Huh? No, it’s not that……”
That was the moment.

Luck has been consumed.
Luck Points: 20/240 (20▼)

‘What? Why all of a sudden?’
The luck points she had painstakingly accumulated on the way here — why had they plummeted so sharply all at once?
Ryeon’s face went hollow as if her insides had been cut, and she looked up at the sky, her eyes widening.
“Wait…rain clouds…?”
From the heavens, clouds were gathering in a swirling vortex around the mountaintop.
It was an uncanny sight, as though some mountain spirit were drawing the clouds down.
Ryeon’s Divine Insight flickered slowly.
It seemed the rain clouds had begun gathering from the moment she had wished for rain, and her luck had been deducted only when the clouds were fully prepared to fall.
But this was not accomplished by luck alone. It was something that required luck to be spent.
Ryeon carefully wiped the corner of her eye.
‘Really…you said you wouldn’t complain even if I became an Azure Dragon, and it seems I really have, Hong Rin……’
Wasn’t it the Azure Dragon that originally governed trees and storms, thunder and lightning?
Thanks to the Black Moon Feather, the flames had not clawed at Ryeon’s cheek, and thanks to Hong Rin’s Scales, she had seen through the mountain’s geography today and navigated the path, even summoning the rain clouds.
Ryeon stood vacant for a moment, gazing up at the sky, when Hwa Ryun suddenly spun around to face her, her eyes half-suspicious.
‘Did you just do something else again?’
That was what she was asking.
Ryeon hurriedly waved both hands.
“Well, let’s hurry! If it rains hard, that’s great, but it’ll be a real problem for us……”
When she had desperately wished for rain, she hadn’t thought through such details, so she was just about to find shelter from it.
Boom-crack!
Suddenly a thunderous roar echoed from the far side of the mountain, and rocks began tumbling down loudly from above.
Crack! Crackle!
And when she looked up, she caught a glimpse of cracks forming in the cliff on the upper slope of that mountain.
‘Was Aunt’s fight that fierce?’
There was only one reason a perfectly solid mountain would suddenly begin to collapse.
“We have to get away!”
There was no time to stand idle while rocks rained down.
Ryeon quickly seized both children’s hands on either side and swept the surroundings with her eyes. Using her Divine Insight continuously made her eyes burn hot.
‘Rockfall ahead and behind…there!’
At the end of the winding mountain path, thick tree roots jutted out, forming a small hollow beneath them like a cave.
“Run!”
Hwa Ryun, understanding at once where Ryeon was headed, shoved both of them forward while sweeping away the cascading stones with a snapped branch, following close at their heels.
Thud-thud-thud!
Clatter-clatter!

Luck has been consumed!
Luck Points: 15/240 (5▼)

The moment the three children tumbled beneath the tree roots, a massive rockslide came crashing down directly above them.

* * *

“What…… what, what…… what is this?”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s eyes flew wide in shock.
Baek Sa Geom was a formidable opponent, but he hesitated for just a moment between the falling rocks, and she drove her blade straight into him.
One might have expected a scream as the sword lodged in his abdomen, yet Baek Sa Geom didn’t so much as flinch—instead, his left hand, the one not holding a sword, clamped down on the blade.
Blood trickled down from his fingertips where he’d seized the edge with his bare hand, and yet he didn’t blink once.
“I must…… die…….”
“What? You?”
She’d meant to press him further, but in that instant Baek Sa Geom’s eyes flooded scarlet with blood.
“Yes!”
“What? Really?”
“Yes!”
His voice was raw, rasping with madness. Even Dan Mok Hyeon Yo felt her skin crawl.
“What madness are you spouting?”
“Traitors must…… die…….”
When Dan Mok Hyeon Yo tried to pull her blade free, his grip was so fierce it barely budged—then he dragged it deeper into himself, as if driving it through his own body.
He was turning the sword into an instrument of self-harm.
“Miss Hyeon Yo, moments ago we also saw the Blood Demons attack one another in this manner.”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo kept her hand firm on the hilt, watching Baek Sa Geom closely.
It was the first time she’d seen the Blood Demons of Blood Coral Valley behave this way, but if she could extract something—anything—from this…!
“Traitors must die, you say? Who? Who is the traitor? What is it you’ve betrayed? Who?”
Suddenly Baek Sa Geom coughed up blood, and in that same moment, light returned to his eyes.
“No! No, I won’t be slaves to the Blood Poison! I am…….”
Baek Sa Geom stumbled backward. The blade was halfway drawn when crimson flooded his eyes once more.
“I must…… die……!”
“Because you’re a traitor? Who is the traitor?”
“Those who betrayed the Master of Blood…… those who broke their oath…….”
“An oath? What oath did you swear?”
“An oath…… that must be kept…….”
“Kept? Keep what? The oath itself?”
“The Master…….”
“Do you mean Gok Ju? The Master of Blood Coral Valley?”
“……Must die! Must die! Must die! Must die! ……Must kill!”
Baek Sa Geom appeared ready to swing his blade wildly, so Dan Mok Hyeon Yo drew upon her internal energy and wrenched the sword free. Blood spurted in a terrible arc, but Baek Sa Geom paid no heed, slashing his blade about in frenzy.
“Get back!”
The moment Dan Mok Hyeon Yo cried out, the Cheon Rang Dae soldiers scattered desperately to escape Baek Sa Geom’s attacks.
It was astonishing that such power remained in him—a sword energy rose up with fearsome strength, raking chaotically across the surrounding mountainside.
Crash!
As the final blow struck the mountain with a sound like shattering sky, Baek Sa Geom drew upon even his Innate True Energy,

coughed up blood once more, and expired.
“This…… cannot be…….”
The ending was so hollow, so anticlimactic, that it seemed impossible this had been the end of such a ferocious clash.
Yet before Dan Mok Hyeon Yo and her soldiers could make sense of what had happened, two unfamiliar elderly figures approached at speed and descended before them.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo quickly repositioned her sword, her eyes narrowing.
They had approached with terrifying momentum using Lightness Skill, their entire bodies drenched in blood despite being singed in places—two old men it was.
One possessed jet-black hair that belied his age, the other possessed snow-white hair that made his age all the more striking.
The two paid no regard to Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s presence or to the corpse of Baek Sa Geom lying dead before them, addressing her urgently instead.
“Where are your daughter and niece? Tell me!”
“We’re in urgent need! Where are they? Why weren’t you guarding them?”
In that instant, a sharp edge of energy crackled along Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s blade.
“Who are you?”
“Ah, young one! We haven’t come to fight you.”
“Two strangers appear out of nowhere asking me the whereabouts of my niece and daughter, and you claim you’re not here to fight?”
“Well, when you put it that way……”
Baek Dam’s frown deepened as this tedious exchange wore on.
“Should we resort to force?”
“If we do, the young master will resort to force on us!”
“What band of rogues are you? Are you Blood Demons as well?”
“Insult me like that one more time, and I won’t show mercy. Watch your tongue!”
Baek Dam’s voice erupted in fury. Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s response came without a trace of hesitation.
“Then reveal yourselves! Who are you, and why are you searching for my daughter and niece?”

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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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