The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 2

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Countdown to Salvation — A Declining Sect’s Destiny, Episode 2

Only now did she admit it — how much she’d pretended detachment in the face of death. How desperately she wanted to live.
Even if she could never become a great master of the Martial World, she’d wanted to run and play in good health.
Stars bloomed in Ryeon’s eyes, glimmering with sudden brilliance.
“I’ll destroy everything that stands between me and Health and Longevity!”
The injustice of it burned — that she’d possessed this power all along, yet never known its nature, and had crumbled away ignorant. But Ryeon quickly shook her head, casting off the thought.
‘No. I’m back now. That’s what matters. Only good thoughts from here.’
She wasn’t fully healthy yet, and already the warnings haunted her — two months to manage her Spiritual Energy. But somehow, she’d find a way.
Thinking positively, Ryeon reached toward the Fan resting at her bedside.
‘Right. Use the Spiritual Energy first, reduce the reserves quickly.’
She wanted to test Purification, one of her abilities. A gentle breeze stirred, and with the illusory sound of wind chimes, the air grew crystalline and fresh.
And just like that, her Spiritual Energy count dropped visibly.
“Wow!”

Vitality : 4(1▲) / 100
Spiritual Energy : 75(1▼) / 100

Only just a little.
‘If I purify the air everywhere I go, I could become a walking air purifier, couldn’t I?’
Delighted by the thought, Ryeon couldn’t suppress a grin as she fanned from corner to corner of her chamber, purifying the air.
When she’d circled through the spacious quarters completely, suddenly — wasn’t the room spinning slightly before her eyes?
“Um… what?”

Vitality : 1(3▼) / 100
Spiritual Energy : 79(4▲) / 100
Warning: Do not concentrate Spiritual Energy…

“What in the world…”
Ryeon stared at the Fan in dismay. The Spiritual Energy number blazed bright red, shooting upward as if drawn with a marker.
In air cleaner and more crystalline than any Mountain Peak, Ryeon simply crumpled onto her bed with a hollow expression.
The space around her was saturated with the Spiritual Energy she’d scattered everywhere. The purified, cleansed energy was now slowly returning to her.

* * *

Purification : 2nd Level (1▲)
Vitality : 4 / 100
Spiritual Energy : 68 / 100

Ryeon glared at the mirror.

Warning: Please make an effort to keep Spiritual Energy at 50 or below.

The text floating above the mirror seemed to mock her.
Wherever there was a surface she could read from, she could manifest this message — on the white face of the Fan, on her wide sleeve, the bed’s canopy, the mirror, even on the water surface in a basin.
She’d regained consciousness in autumn, just before frost arrived, and after that the seasons turned — months of constant recuperation stretching past her birthday in February until she turned eight. All that while, her lifeline trembled and shifted.
Two months remaining. One month and a half remaining. Then two months again….
‘But how am I supposed to use Spiritual Energy any further than this?’
Using it for Purification wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
She’d eagerly purified everything around her, and Purification rose to the 2nd Level — that was fine. But the effect of the Purification itself was the problem.
As winter drew near, the tree outside her chamber’s window grew so vibrantly green without shedding a single leaf that people had begun to notice.
Because of that, Ryeon had to stop practicing Purification out through the window.
Before the rumor spread any further — that the flowers and trees in Young Miss Ryeon’s quarters would never wither, proof that an immortal had surely borrowed her briefly and returned her….
Moreover, the Spiritual Energy in purified confined spaces amplified, which actually harmed her body.
But she couldn’t just stop using her power. What was she supposed to do?
‘Should I learn even a little medicine and pretend to be a skillful physician?’
“Lian! Lian, Mother’s here!”
Just as Lian was turning over these various worries, the door swung open and the person she had been longing to see appeared.
A woman as delicate and beautiful as if a celestial being had sketched her features with the finest brush—her mother, Wei Zhiqing.
In that instant, the words displayed on the mirror before Lian shifted rapidly.

Wei Zhiqing
Traits: Nurturing / Successor / Devoted / Intertwined Roots
Huashan Swordsmanship: Foundational
Luo Xing Twelve Swords: 2-Star
Talent and Aptitude: Divine Eye 3-Star Unlocked
Preoccupations: Dan Mu Lian becoming healthy, Dan Mu Lian living happily, Dan Mu Lian’s future
Insight: It is important to shed unnecessary guilt!

Information about others differed greatly from what she could see about herself.
She could glimpse the star ratings of any martial arts they had mastered, but nothing else appeared. Only Talent and Aptitude seemed as though she might perceive them once her Divine Eye reached higher mastery.
What struck her most forcefully was the section labeled “Preoccupations”—presumably, the subject’s most recent consuming thoughts.
‘My health, happiness, my future…’
Just as Nurse Chang did, Wei Zhiqing always smiled brilliantly whenever she looked at Lian—as though nothing in this world was wretched, only abundant with goodness.
But could such a thing truly be? One could not help but harbor worry and concern, only one could not let a young daughter see it….
‘Mother… I will absolutely ease your worries for you.’
Health and longevity was her dream and her hope as well. Though she had failed to achieve it in the future she had lived through.
‘I died when I was barely twenty.’
When the dogs of Hyeol Ragok reared up again, the turbulent tides of the martial world swept her about; she had been driven here and there until at last she could not control her spiritual energy and collapsed into unconsciousness—a sorrowful end.
Over the past seven years, Wei Zhiqing had never once abandoned her daughter, even when the girl did not answer her calls.
And in the future Lian had lived through, when her daughter barely passed her twentieth year and died young, Wei Zhiqing followed, withering away in tears.
Lian made an effort to shake off the memories of the past. It was a future that would never come. Now she could see so much and do so much more.
“My precious girl! You were eating the Ice Candy Gourd?”
Wei Zhiqing at once scooped Lian up into her arms.
In the same moment, the characters that had floated upon the mirror scattered away. Lian melted into her embrace.
“Mother! You’re here? The Master of the Medicine Pavilion made this for me. It’s so sweet and tangy and delicious.”
Wei Zhiqing heard the bell-like clarity of Lian’s voice and smiled again.
Watching that expression, Lian plucked one fruit from the Ice Candy Gourd she had been eating and placed it between Wei Zhiqing’s lips.
Though this body had only risen and spoken for the first time seven years later, her speech had been terribly halting at first, but thanks to the harmonizing force among her abilities, she had swiftly learned to speak with crisp precision. The elders of the Declining Sect had marveled at it, but faced with the great miracle of a child awakening, small miracles were merely fragments of joy.
“This is truly delicious. And for my sake, you interrupted your closed-door training midway through to come out, yet you still saw fit to be mindful of this gift….”
Wei Zhiqing instructed Lian to see that a thank-you gift be sent to Dan Mu Hyun-woo, Lian’s young uncle and Master of the Medicine Pavilion, then gestured toward the servant she had brought.
“Come now, Lian. Shall we see what Mother has brought you?”
The servant carefully set down what she had carried before Lian.
Between thick twigs, clusters of tiny grain-like flowers gleamed pearly white, and they were the source of the sweet fragrance that had drifted since before.
“I plucked them to decorate your chamber.”
Lian stared at the clusters of flowers with a bewildered expression. Wei Zhiqing beamed and arranged the flowering branches in a white porcelain vase.
“They are called Mali Flowers. With them in your room, the scent will be lovely and they’ll add a certain charm.”
From among them, Wei Zhiqing tucked one small blossom behind Lian’s ear. Then she closed her eyes and smiled radiantly.
“One cannot tell where the flower ends and the girl begins, can one? Don’t you agree, Chang?”
“Indeed so, madam.”
Nurse Chang echoed her words from beside them.
If Lian were truly only eight years old, perhaps—but she could not simply sit still and listen to such talk. As her face flushed crimson, Wei Zhiqing laughed.
“Why is my Lian so very bashful?”
Lian, embarrassed, pulled the blanket up to cover her face, yet she could not bring herself to remove the flower Wei Zhiqing had tucked behind her ear. Wei Zhiqing brushed her cheek gently.
“When I came today, I noticed new shoots sprouting in the garden that had withered for so long. The sweet osmanthus tree that I thought dead has sprouted leaves once more—I was so astonished. Perhaps all living things celebrate your awakening in this way.”
It was likely due to her own spiritual energy, but Lian said nothing and leaned her cheek against her mother’s hand.
“If only Hyun-sung could see you like this… how happy he would have been….”
“Madam….”
Wei Zhiqing noticed her hands trembling and turned her head.
Watching her mother’s shoulders shake, Lian recalled something she had not thought of until now.
Her father, Dan Mu Hyun-sung, had left this world five years ago. It had been not long after her younger sister Dan Mu Bi was born.
Believing it too early yet to tell Lian such things, Wei Zhiqing composed herself, wiped her damp cheeks, and forced a smile.
“I heard you were going to pay your respects and thanks to Grandfather today?”
Lian nodded.

“Your grandfather is the one who helped us create the medicine that will heal Ryeon.”
Wei Zhiqing explained methodically, dismissing the nursemaid and fastening Ryeon’s collar herself. The air was still cold—early spring had barely arrived.
“The Ten Thousand Year Ultimate Blood Treasure that goes into Ryeon’s remedy—

—he gave that to us. It was supposed to be used for his own medicine, but he set it aside for you.”
Ryeon’s eyes went wide.
‘He gave me the Ten Thousand Year Ultimate Blood Treasure?’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————