The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 26

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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 Fading Clan’s Limited-Time Covenant — Chapter 26

* * *

Seol Gwan-hui, steward of the manor, had long believed that this annual custom of scattering dumplings on Danmok Ryeon’s birthday was nothing but a wasteful charade that drained the household’s coffers to no purpose.
Simply distributing free dumplings to the poor hardly obliged the Celestial Worthy or the Buddha to heal one’s daughter—otherwise, every wealthy family in the world would be spared the anguish of raising a sickly child.
Moreover, should the girl recover and the annual dumplings cease, they would likely earn only curses for their trouble; there was no genuine kindness in such charity.
Yet in recent years, despite the Family’s declining fortunes, Seol Gwan-hui had come to see that the act of giving itself held no evil—the Danmok Family had wielded considerable influence in Zhejiang Province for a long time, after all.
So when the girl herself proposed continuing the dumpling distribution using the budget that might otherwise have funded a birthday celebration, he was genuinely taken aback.
He had imagined that at her age, one enjoyed grand spectacles and basked in the attention of others.
‘Though this tale of an immortal spiriting her away and returning her can scarcely be true….’
“Still, it would have been nice if we’d at least held a small celebration within the household.”
Cho-il, who had spent the entire day assisting with the dumpling distribution and now reeked of dumpling skin and meat, spoke with a dejected air. Seol Gwan-hui clicked his tongue.
“The young lady ought to have her wits about her. This is her Coming of Age, and yet it passes in such a desultory fashion.”
“You need money in the coffers to hold a celebration.”
“I understand, but… it’s not as though we have nothing at all.”
Seol Gwan-hui certainly found it remarkable that, despite the influx of funds they had recently acquired, the eldest daughter’s Coming of Age feast had not been held—though he took care not to show it.
“Even the current household head dotes on the young lady so. I wonder why he didn’t arrange a proper celebration.”
Seol Gwan-hui recalled the recent scenes at Wolryeong Manor and nodded slowly.
From what he remembered, when he had raised Danmok Hyeon-seong, Danmok Cheon-gi had never shown such devoted attachment.
“The young lady herself said she disliked the idea. What choice did he have?”
“That’s exactly why! Why did she say she didn’t want it?”
Her first birthday after awakening had been spent convalescing and had passed uneventfully; this was, in essence, her first true Coming of Age, and it had slipped away without fanfare. Cho-il continued to grumble in an aggrieved tone.
“Because we’re not holding a celebration, the Geum Family dogs are looking down on us, aren’t they?”
“Anyone who judges us by such things is a fool.”
Though Seol Gwan-hui had quelled Cho-il’s complaint with cold words, he privately admitted that the boy had a point.
Human beings were foolish creatures; they tended to gauge substance by what appeared on the surface.
With Danmok Hyeon-seong gone and the Family’s fortunes visibly declining, there were indeed those who would seize on the fact that his daughter had recovered from her illness yet no grand celebration had been held to mark it.
“Still, no one had any trouble with the dumplings, did they?”
“No, sir. Everyone was delighted to learn that the young lady had recovered safely, and she herself seemed quite pleased.”
Seol Gwan-hui reflected on the sum the household had been able to save by choosing the dumpling distribution over a lavish feast, and he too smiled with quiet satisfaction.

* * *

Danmok Cheon-gi seemed to have suffered his own turmoil ever since Ryeon had convulsed during that first lesson.
The detailed instruction in the Falling Star Twelve Swords had lasted only until the day of her seizure; after that, the training consisted mainly of basic physical conditioning and exercises to improve flexibility.
In the evenings, they would share a meal and discuss the movements one step at a time—that was all.
“You didn’t watch the meteor fall? It comes from a great distance far away, dropping to your very nose in the blink of an eye before vanishing—that’s what I’m telling you about, little duckling.”
“But the meteor doesn’t actually….”
Ryeon opened her mouth as if to speak, then clamped her lips shut. At the same moment, something like glittering powder bloomed distinctly across her eyes.
She had activated the Heavenly Eye and Harmony.
Ryeon shifted the chopstick, grasping it firmly in her hand, and drew a light line. She began to correct and redraw the final movement of the Falling Star Twelve Swords, bit by bit.
The power of the Heavenly Eye at fifth mastery was considerable. Once she saw a flaw, she now also saw how to transform that flaw into an advantage.
“That wouldn’t be so light, though. So the Falling Star Twelve Swords should be more….”
At first, a faint glimmer of intrigue crossed Danmok Cheon-gi’s eyes, but now it slowly shifted to one of astonishment as he watched Ryeon move the chopstick.
“…It should be heavy?”
“Yes. And you said the Falling Star Twelve Swords isn’t a sword that mimics the meteor’s movement—it’s a sword that creates the meteor, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“So perhaps it should feel more… forceful, shouldn’t it? And when the meteor falls like that, it becomes Meteoric Iron, doesn’t it? I thought—maybe the feeling should be like what comes to mind when you think of Meteoric Iron?”
“Have you ever seen Meteoric Iron?”
Ryeon nodded.
“Grandfather’s sword.”
“Ah, that’s right…. Ahem.”
Danmok Cheon-gi gave a small, embarrassed cough.
“So what you’re saying is that it can be slower, then?”
He hadn’t been unaware of it. But what he had only just begun to think about, this young granddaughter had already grasped.
“It’s not slow, and well, the Falling Star Twelve Swords is certainly fast, but…… it’s fast yet weighty, you understand? Like how a feather and a stone fall side by side but their forms are different, so it’s like…… this, like this, this sort of feeling…….”
The single chopstick held in Danmok Ryeon’s hand traced a peculiar arc as it moved with deliberate slowness.
Activating the Heavenly Eye and Harmony, she recreated exactly the final move of Danmok Cheon-gi that she’d witnessed in her mind, yet her movements carried a weight and subtlety that was fractionally slower and more imposing.
“Yes, keeping this feeling…… ah.”
Standing the chopstick upright and delighted with the motion she’d perfected, Danmok Ryeon’s eyes suddenly went wide.

[The Fortune attribute has been unlocked!]
Current Fortune Value: 10/120
Good deeds are always repaid.

Light scattered softly, and characters materialized before her eyes. She could only blink in shock, but across from her, Danmok Cheon-gi had already closed his eyes.
The air swirled slowly and gently toward him, drawing in. A strange, taut tension spread gradually through the inner chamber.
The characters that had hung in empty space soon vanished. Danmok Ryeon, who had been sitting there with a bewildered expression, came to her senses shortly after.
She stepped out with careful footsteps, quietly closed the door, and gestured for the approaching servants to withdraw. Seeing the household manager Kang Rip approaching with a puzzled face, she called him over and gave him instructions.
“Well, since Grandfather has gained an insight…… I think it would be best to keep things quiet tonight.”
“Ma’am?”
The household manager didn’t understand what she meant and bent his knees, straining to hear her words.
“Young lady, just now…….”
“Grandfather has gained some kind of insight. There was a flash of something, it seemed.”
Hearing this, the household manager sat stunned for a moment before jumping up with such vigor that he startled her.
Offering repeated apologies to the startled Danmok Ryeon, the household manager moved only his lips, passing orders to the servants in complete silence.
Danmok Ryeon held the chopstick that had served her as a sword in her hand and gazed out at Wolryeong Manor settling into quiet.

* * *

While the handful of warriors remaining in the Danmok Family moved busily to stand guard, Danmok Ryeon quietly returned to her bedchamber and looked down at the pristine paper spread before her eyes.
To the eyes of others it was blank, but to Danmok Ryeon’s sight, neat characters floated before her. The very words she had seen at the moment Danmok Cheon-gi gained his insight.

* The Fortune attribute has been unlocked! *
Current Fortune Value: 10/120
Good deeds are always repaid.

Danmok Ryeon focused on the final line.
‘Does Fortune increase when I do good deeds?’
But if good deeds were the measure, she thought she’d done quite a few until now, and yet nothing had registered—so why only now?
Danmok Ryeon turned over the situation in her mind and realized the truth. She hadn’t simply performed a good deed; she had drawn upon all the Spiritual Energy she possessed to help her grandfather.
It was no small matter—she’d expended Spirit Fire bit by bit, and even used Harmony and the Heavenly Eye to grant him enlightenment.
‘Giving insight to the greatest swordsman of the previous generation only yields ten…….’
Ten was an extremely small number to look at, and even with the Fortune attribute unlocked, she felt no tangible difference whatsoever.
‘But!’
Still, Danmok Ryeon wasn’t discouraged and clenched her fist tightly.
Such attributes couldn’t be accumulated all at once, and there was no reason to expect them to be.
‘These things you set aside and forget, then they usually explode in the second half.’
There would come a time in life when Fortune was truly needed. The Independence Age when a person must stand alone
(thirty)
, the Age of No Doubts when one is not misled by the world
(forty)
, Knowing Heaven’s Will when one comes to understand the way of heaven
(fifty)
…….
It would seem distant if she tried to achieve it all at once, but wouldn’t there surely come a day when the sun would shine upon her?
Danmok Ryeon thought in turn of her own twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty. She had never even lived to see thirty before.
This time would be different.
Having decided to travel through life longer and farther, there was all the more to prepare.
‘Hmm? But there’s a limit set. One hundred twenty……? What happens when I fill it completely?’
What would happen when Fortune was full……?
Danmok Ryeon tilted her head, but the answer did not appear on the blank page.

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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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