The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 200

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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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Chapter 200 — Terminal Fate of a Fallen Clan

“Fire!”
“Seize him!”
Screee!
In that same instant, a volley of arrows sharp with killing intent streaked through the air.
Gok Ju swept his arm in a wide arc. The sound of wind followed, and every arrow tumbled down like autumn leaves scattering to earth.
Gok Ju smiled faintly.
“Our fates are truly intertwined. Neither of us saw this coming, did we?”
With that, Gok Ju leapt skyward, treading on raindrops, ascending higher and higher until his form vanished in an instant.
“Divide into squads — some pursue him, others hold this position!”
“Understood!”

* * *

Shaaaa.
The thunder had grown distant, yet the rain continued to pour relentlessly.
Ryeon stared blankly at the two elderly figures who stood far apart at a gesture from Hwa Ryun, and at the men in black garments who knelt in unison even further beyond them.
Though torrential rain fell from all sides and so many people surrounded them, the silence pressed down like suffocation—as if only the two of them existed.
Hwa Ryun gazed quietly at Ryeon’s face.
Fragments of broken ornaments clung to her hair and the hem of her clothes, scattered when she’d fallen from the cliff. Even in this dim forest, they caught what little light remained and glittered like scattered stars.
It was as though Ryeon alone were sitting atop a river of galaxies.
“You… where… are you going?”
“I have to go.”
“Where?”
“To Ma Cheon Gyo.”
Having come this far, there was no way she could fail to understand.
Ryeon pressed her forehead hard and cried out, her voice choked down.
“I told you I didn’t want you taking an interest in your sect business!”
“Can’t you think of it as faith from birth?”
Ryeon spoke in a tone that said she’d rather not utter these words.
“You said you don’t even know who your parents are!”
“…….”
“…….”
“Really? Here? Now? You’re saying this?”
Ryeon’s face flushed crimson with embarrassment.
“I didn’t want to say it either! But faith from birth is a lie!”
In that moment, a flood of memories swept through Ryeon’s mind—what she’d thought was his genius as a boy, the ease of understanding that had let her let her guard down, and all the things she’d simply chosen to believe.
Suddenly dizzy, Ryeon steadied herself against her forehead, and Hwa Ryun reached out in alarm to support her—only to meet her eyes, where stars blazed and flickered like burning flames.
Ryeon seized Hwa Ryun’s shoulders and shook him.
“You’re not a child! You’re not! You aren’t! You weren’t! I thought you weren’t!”
“How could I not be when I’ve told you countless times? Or is it just me? My sister isn’t a child either, after all!”
“I’ve told you a hundred times I’m grown! How old are you really!”
“Well… actually…”
Hwa Ryun began to count on his fingers, but Ryeon hurriedly raised her hand to stop him.
“No, no—don’t say it. Come to think of it, that doesn’t matter anyway. Either way, I’m two years older than you.”
“These two years… no matter how many times you die and come back, you can never overtake them…”
Hwa Ryun sighed.
Shaaaa.
In the pause that followed, silence hung in the air as nothing but the sound of rain filled the space around them.
Ryeon looked at Hwa Ryun as though she might burst into tears any moment, her voice having been a lie only seconds before.
“So then… you’re really going back to Ma Cheon Gyo now?”
“Yes.”
“When did you plan to do this?”
“From the beginning.”
“Then why… why doesn’t our clan have…?”
“I thought about seeing the face of the one who shared dumplings with me, but… never mind.”
Hwa Ryun spoke as though lamenting his fate.
Dan Mok Ryeon stared at that face blankly, then recalled the moment Gok Ju had risen from his seat.
Hwa Ryun had not even attempted to avoid that blade. Why was that?
“… Don’t go.”
Hwa Ryun blinked, having not expected Dan Mok Ryeon to hold him back with such directness.
“… Why?”
“It’s ten thousand leagues from here to Ma Cheon Gyo’s main stronghold! You’re hurt like this—how do you expect to travel? And even if you get there… even if you do, what will you do? You’re not going as Junior Sect Leader. They gather candidates there and run a fearsome operation, don’t they?”
“It’s nothing much.”
Having tried it once before, Dan Mok Ryeon understood well enough, yet her expression twisted as though she were about to weep.
“Pain is the same whether you bear it once or twice. Just don’t go—stay here…”
But Dan Mok Ryeon’s words could not continue. Hwa Ryun had responded calmly.
“You want me to abandon the position of one among ten thousand and keep living here as a servant?”
The phrase—’it was all originally yours’—remained unspoken, yet both Dan Mok Ryeon and Hwa Ryun understood it.
Dan Mok Ryeon opened her mouth for a moment, then slowly closed it.
His words seemed right. Hardship was her argument. But the one involved said he was fine, so her insistence to hold him back felt strange.
Holding him back wouldn’t grant him anything greater. What she could offer was at best a place as an adopted son of the Dan Mok Clan, or perhaps a position as a disciple in a prestigious school.
Her reaching hand slowly fell back to the ground.
“Yes… even so…”
She could not say that they should stay together because it was pleasant and fun when they were.
The joy she felt, the fun, the small happiness that perhaps lay within it—none of it could compare to the loyalty arrayed behind Hwa Ryun’s back, all those people.
Perhaps Hwa Ryun had never been truly joyful, never truly entertained, never truly happy all this time.
In that moment, Hwa Ryun lifted his head and glanced briefly toward a distant point, then turned to look at Heuk Dam and Baek Dam, gesturing with a nod.
Heuk Dam drew something from his breast and lit it. Soon a globe of light that would not die even in this rain shot high into the sky, then burst with a pop. It was a Signal Flare to mark their position. Another Signal Flare bloomed in the distance.
After confirming the sight, Hwa Ryun helped Dan Mok Ryeon lean against a wooden pillar and rose to his feet.
He clenched and unclenched his fists as he looked at Dan Mok Ryeon, but Hwa Ryun no longer fastened her clothes or swept her hair back for her.
“Don’t be too kind to strangers. Dial back the dumplings too. You’ll just end up entangling some strict fellow.”
With those words left behind, Hwa Ryun began to walk slowly into the rain.
“Really… are you really leaving? You said you’d stay here… if you go, you’ll get a flick on the forehead! You broke the promise—you said you’d eat a hundred glutinous rice cakes!”
Dan Mok Ryeon cried out in a rain-soaked voice, but Hwa Ryun did not turn back.
“Ryun!”
Whoooosh!
The sound of rain swallowed her voice.
Baek Dam received an umbrella from one of the figures in black and quickly held it over him.
And without anyone turning back, they vanished as though they had never been there from the start.
And when Dan Mok Ryeon was left beneath the tree with only the sound of rain.
The sound of people rushing urgently was heard from afar. It was the men of the Dan Mok Clan and the Moyong Family.
“Ryeon! Ryeon!”
“Ryeon!”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi immediately located where Dan Mok Ryeon was. All around her glittered.
As he drew near, he could see what it was. Gemstones ground to sand were scattered around Dan Mok Ryeon.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi hurried to examine her condition.
There were scratches on her cheeks and a serious injury to her ankle, but no other wounds were apparent.
“Grandfather… I… I’m fine… I’m fine.”
His granddaughter’s expression was strange—as though she were laughing even as she held back tears. Between these moments, Dan Mok Hyeon Yo and Dan Mok Seong approached and wept aloud.
Moyong Chu Ryeo, who had led the Moyong Family’s martial masters to meet them earlier, breathed heavily and then issued orders to those around him with perfect coordination.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi removed his outer robe and draped it over Dan Mok Ryeon, then carefully lifted her into his arms.
Then he looked around. A very large number of people seemed to have disappeared all at once.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi noticed that the boy who was always at his granddaughter’s side had also vanished, but he said nothing.

* * *

The Moyong Family was bustling with unexpected guests.
To confront clear evidence that Blood Coral Valley had emerged again was tragic, but the simultaneous annihilation of hundreds of them was an extraordinary triumph.
“How did you think to come meet us ahead of schedule?”
Those who helped eliminate the malevolent spirits of Blood Coral Valley together in the rain and aided in finding Dan Mok Ryeon and Dan Mok Seong were the Moyong Family’s martial masters and Moyong Chu Ryeo, who had come to meet them earlier than planned.
“Since you said the Cheon Rang Dae would accompany you until now… it seemed there was something you were concerned about.”
The fact that Dan Mok Cheon Gi had mobilized even the Cheon Rang Dae meant there was something he was guarding against.
“I am grateful to you.”
“It’s only natural—they’re the children and grandchildren of my friend.”
Moyong Chu Ryeo fell silent for a moment, then exhaled a short, weary breath.
“So it’s truly happening again.”
He’d asked without naming the object, but the meaning was unmistakable. Dan Mok Cheon Gi nodded in acknowledgment.
“Yet this operation must have cost them dearly as well. Since all their deployed forces were destroyed, they’ll likely remain quiet for some time.”
“These ■■ ■■■ of theirs—I still can’t fathom what they truly want. I understood them no better then than I do now.”
“How can one comprehend the hearts of those bent only on bringing calamity to the world?”
“Still, there are signs Ma Cheon Gyo has been here. Do you have any suspicions about their intentions?”

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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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