The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 24

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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 Great House’s Doomed Heir — Chapter 24

‘Could it be… that’s why he was beaten and fled to the Macho Sect?’
As Yeon gave weight to her own suspicion, Hwaryun frowned and looked at her, lowering his voice.
“Why would I tell anyone else about something like that?”
“No… I just… I’m worried about you, that’s all.”
Cheeky little thing!
While Yeon was in turmoil, Hwaryun jutted out his lower lip and grumbled.
“You keep saying that. What do you mean, telling me to go somewhere else?”
“So you won’t go?”
It was a question Yeon had posed carelessly, but suddenly her eyes widened.
Scattered starlight gleamed softly across her dark irises.
“What are you suddenly saying…?”
“Will you stay here? Stay with me?”
Unconsciously, she had been wondering whether Hwaryun might leave. But that was natural enough. It was not easy to shake from him the shadow of the Macho Sect’s Sect Master.
Yet what if Hwaryun truly did stay?
If he would walk alongside her for all the years to come in the Danmok Clan?
“…If you hate it, then chase me out.”
“I’ll never chase you out. So you won’t leave, will you?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’ll stay here, won’t you?”
“Yes, yes.”
Hwaryun answered in a tone of gentle coaxing, as though somewhat weary of her. Yet Yeon pressed him again and again.
“You won’t leave? You promised you’d stay. You swore it.”
Hwaryun looked at her with a reluctant expression, then nodded. Yeon turned stern.
“Do you know what happens if you break a promise?”
“What could possibly happen?”
She had spoken with conviction, but found herself without a good answer when the moment came to follow through.
Yeon’s mind raced. What would a child that age hate?
“Well… I won’t give you anything delicious, and… I won’t talk to you. I’ll hate you forever. Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes.”
Though she had deliberately pitched her threats at a child’s level, Hwaryun nodded with a kind of dignified gravity, as though indulging a young child at play. Yeon’s expression turned sullen before she let it go.
The thought that Hwaryun would not leave anywhere kindled a warmth in her heart—spacious and gentle.
A future where he who might have been the future Sect Master of the Macho Sect would instead settle in a pleasant manor in Hangzhou, living at his ease and contentment, and after a long span of time would pass away in peace and tranquility.
‘What is happiness, after all?’
There was no need to force him to learn martial arts when he said he didn’t want to. Let him do what he wished. His talent might be wasted, but forcing someone against their will was far worse.
His mind seemed quick enough—it wouldn’t be bad if he took the examinations for past imperial scholars and became an administrator, would it? He might develop an interest in instruments. Poetry and calligraphy were fine too. If he preferred, he could even go to a merchant company and work.
‘The future Sect Master of the Macho Sect? Let them find their own replacement.’
Yeon simply felt content. The knowledge that this small child would not wander ten thousand leagues away brought relief to her heart.

* * *

A dark alley in the provincial capital of Sichuan Province.
Two elderly men with wrinkled faces stood motionless in a damp, shadowed corner between buildings, gazing endlessly at a small brass cup no larger than a palm.
One had hair white as snow with not a single black thread, while the other had hair as black as pitch with not a white strand to be seen.
The sharp contrast between black and white should have made them conspicuous even in an alley, yet no one passing through the street so much as glanced their way. As though nothing existed there at all.
“How… how has this come to pass, Heukdam!”
“That’s what I should be asking, Baekdam!”
The reason they wandered like this in the heart of Sichuan Province was that no light emanated from the cup in their hands.
“Surely… surely until just recently it shone with perfect clarity.”
“Exactly why we left the sect. But how could this have happened…?”
“Could he be dead?”
“How could a child born to the 36 Heavenly Stars die so easily?”
“Then why did the light vanish!”
“Let us return to the sect first…”
“That’s absurd!”
Baekdam, his hair white as fresh snow, cried out in alarm.
“I left the sect carrying the Constellation Treasure Cup,

and now I’m supposed to return empty-handed!”
The Constellation Treasure Cup was a set of three cups—a sacred relic the Macho Sect had received from the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden they served. When the time came, the Sect Master would place it in the hands of elders he trusted and send them out beyond the sect.

It was to find his successor.
The Constellation Treasure Cup would glow within its vessel once a child born under the 36 Heavenly Stars reached the age of five or six. Following the direction of that light like a compass, they would locate the child destined to become the successor.
The cup was supposed to show them the way,

yet nothing appeared within it. Without that light, how could they find either the Sect Master or a candidate for the position? And Sichuan Province—he’d grown sick of the food here. Did these madmen have some grudge against anyone who couldn’t handle spice? Were they all cursed to die choking on peppers?”
Heukdam, who had never been fond of spicy food, groaned his complaint aloud. Baekdam spat silently in agreement. The cuisine of Sichuan taxed him equally.
“The other teams already found their candidates and went back to the sect, I heard.”
Three cups meant three candidates. And the fortune of the elders themselves depended on which child the cup found.
The elders who’d gone in other directions had already returned with their children, but the one they sought—the child born under the Heavenly Leader Star—had left no trace. They’d been circling pointlessly through the heart of Sichuan ever since.

“Let’s head east for now.”
For months, the light in the Constellation Treasure Cup had pointed consistently eastward.
Then, as they drew near to Sichuan, that light had suddenly vanished. Both Heukdam and Baekdam had searched the region in silence, alarmed, but they found no child born under an ill-starred sign anywhere.
It was clear the sect’s successor was not here.
Yet neither man believed the child had simply died. There had to be something else—some other complication.
Heukdam pressed the question sharply.
“And if the child isn’t east?”
Baekdam answered him.
“The Murim Alliance has a presence in Henan Province, doesn’t it? We can contact the sect through them. Whether we ask them to send more people or not, at least we’ll have made our report.”
Henan Province lay east of Sichuan, beyond Shaanxi. Baekdam’s words sounded reasonably prudent.
“I’d rather not involve the Murim Alliance.”
Even Baekdam harbored a certain wariness toward the jianghu folk—a trait all Macho Sect members cultivated. That discomfort had lingered even after their sect had been drawn into the broader Murim Alliance.
“And if we linger much longer in Sichuan, we risk friction with the Dang family. That would only complicate things.”
Of course, they believed they could resolve any such conflict through strength and doctrine, but this was a sacred period—the quest for the sect’s heir.
“True. And we never know when the Kunlun Sect might show up.”
Kunlun Mountain was the closest major power to the Macho Sect’s home territory, so the two groups knew each other well enough.
Being bound together in the Murim Alliance meant their mere presence wouldn’t spark immediate conflict, but neither were they the sort to sit down and share pleasantries.
Baekdam continued.
“And while we’re headed that way, let’s stop by Hangzhou.”
“Hangzhou?”
Heukdam’s eyes sharpened. There was something the two of them had been pursuing in Hangzhou, in Zhejiang Province.
“The Six Paths of Eastwind?”
“The Six Paths of Eastwind!”
Heukdam and Baekdam exchanged a look, then nodded to each other. Heukdam poured the water from the Constellation Treasure Cup onto the ground, wrapped the cup in silk, and handed it to Baekdam.
Baekdam secured the Constellation Treasure Cup in his robes, and the two men slipped out of the alley together. Not a single soul in Sichuan paid them any attention.

* * *

As he finished packing the Blue Lotus Elixir to be sent to the Mansong Merchant Company, Danmok Hyunwoo murmured wistfully.
“It would be wonderful if everyone could recognize at a glance that Hwaryun made the Blue Lotus Elixir.”
“Pardon?”
Hwaryun’s eyes widened, and as she tilted her head in confusion, Danmok Hyunwoo added somewhat bashfully.
“No, it’s just that this uncle thinks… since Hwaryun’s talent is so exceptional, it would be nice if everyone knew. Perhaps we could mark the bottles with something—a mark of some kind.”
Hwaryun leapt to her feet.
“A trademark!”
“Ah… a trademark? Yes, that’s what one would call it.”
Hwaryun’s enthusiasm lit up his face as well, and color returned to Danmok Hyunwoo’s cheeks.
Hwaryun’s eyes sparkled as she chattered excitedly.
“What would be good? In the long run, we could put it on everything the Danmok Clan sells…”
‘Did Uncle have unexpected talent in this direction?’
It didn’t seem like a talent to keep him confined to the apothecary. Perhaps it would suit the merchant records division better.
Danmok Hyunwoo, unaware of Hwaryun’s thoughts, shrugged dismissively.
“It’s not so much that our clan sells them as that you do. Among our family, you’re the only one with any talent for making things.”
He was right. If even one of them had possessed the gift for earning money instead of martial prowess.
“Ah…….”
“Ah! What about ducks? Drawing green-winged ducks. Two of them, like this……. Hmm, should I make one a duckling?”
“……Ducks?”
Had Danmok Cheongi not teased Hwaryun more than once for the way he pouted his lips, saying she looked just like a duck?
“It’s perfect! Perfect! It’s you, Hwaryun!”

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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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