The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 35

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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 Decline of a Fallen Clan — Episode 35

After a long silence, Tae Heo finally smoothed his brow.
“As if using a lever to flick a stone into the air… if the blade weren’t wooden but crafted by a master….”
Tae Heo was muttering to himself when Yeon’s eyes widened in surprise.

Tae Heo’s Enlightenment
Current Fortune Stat: 13/120 (2▲)

Tae Heo hurriedly asked, his lips moving anxiously and with wonder as he turned the thought over in his mind.
“Then you positioned the blade to strike at that exact location?”
“Yes? Yes. On the blade’s edge — at a valley-like part.”
“A valley?”
“Yes, just as you showed with the form earlier….”
Yeon moved her arm in place of the blade. A soft rush of wind scattered across her skin.
“At that precise moment, meeting the blade at just this position, drawing up the Inner Energy deployed through the blade’s momentum like scooping water.”
“…Wouldn’t it be difficult to handle another’s Inner Energy? Especially since your mastery of the Leaf Cloud Style is still shallow—what you call Inner Energy is really just raw force, isn’t it?”
“I did it with all my strength, as well as I could….”
“With all your strength, as well as….”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”

* * *

Though she’d been training steadily with Dan Mok Cheon Ki, this was her first time sparring with someone else in front of an audience.
Despite her attempt to appear composed, nervousness had settled into her bones—her whole body ached with tension.
And from the midpoint onward, she’d been exchanging words with Tae Heo constantly—a true battle of words—leaving her mouth painfully dry. Even having sipped tea repeatedly throughout.
While Jang bustled about to fetch warm compresses and light refreshments, two boys poked their heads in.
Yeon, who had been sprawled listlessly, quickly sprang to her feet.
“Hwa Ryun, Dan Mok Bi.”
“Sister!”
Dan Mok Bi whimpered and threw himself at her.
“What have you two been doing all day?”
In response to Yeon’s question, Dan Mok Bi rattled on about how he’d been running around all day, how he’d studied diligently to keep up with his sister, how he’d bickered with Hwa Ryun despite the latter’s teasing—and before Yeon could pat him more than a few times, he collapsed into sleep.
As Yeon climbed out of bed and pulled covers over Dan Mok Bi, Hwa Ryun stood behind her and swept his gaze across the room. Then he stared at Yeon, narrowing his spread hand as if gauging the thin thickness of paper, and peered at her through the gap between his fingers.
“What… what is it?”
“In just one day, you’ve grown so thin….”
“That’s harsh, Hwa Ryun.”
“Uh… Hwa Ryun?”
“Oh.”
Yeon covered her mouth without thinking, but Hwa Ryun’s expression was genuinely confused and curious—wondering where his sudden family name had come from.
“No, it’s really nothing. I was just thinking to myself….”
“Thinking what, that suddenly I became Hwa Ryun?”
Yeon felt terribly embarrassed and apologetic at once, speaking awkwardly.
“I composed a poem with Uncle not long ago.”
“Ah. The one Yak Dang Ju was happy about, saying a genius had appeared in our household.”
“Don’t mention that. I’m dying of shame. My uncle thinks I’m a genius just for breathing.”
“But what poem did you compose? You wouldn’t even tell me about it then, even though you said you were embarrassed.”
Yeon’s face flushed crimson as she buried it in her sleeve, trying desperately to cool the heat, and spoke.
“Moonlight adorns the lotus, snow accumulates in the clouds…
…
Desolate, the rainy night awaits the rain to come…
….”

Lotus blooms beneath the moon’s shadow, while rain clouds drift lazily between them—
on this desolate night when rain falls, I wait for rain to come.
“……You wait for rain to come on a night when rain is already falling?”
“Exactly! The rain I’m truly waiting for isn’t the rain falling now, it’s that among all the many things in this world, it’s important to know clearly what you truly desire—no, wait, that’s not the important part.”
While Yeon flushed crimson with embarrassment, Hwa Ryun pondered the poem.
“The ‘rain’ in ‘waiting for rain’?”
The rain falling on a desolate night.
“No, you fool! The ‘rain’ I’m waiting for.”
“Mm.”
All Hwa Ryun possessed now was his name—’Hwa Ryun.’ Nothing else, no parents, no family name.
He was supposed to become a disciple of Ma Cheon Gyo and take the name given by the master, but if he never left for Ma Cheon Gyo, that name would never come to pass.
A new family name might be something good for him instead.
As he pondered what might suit him, his eye caught on the character ‘우’ from a poem he’d composed, and he’d been rolling it silently on his tongue—
“Ah, well… this character isn’t used as a family name, is it? Anyway, I was only thinking about it alone.”
“I like it.”
“Hm?”
Yeon tilted his head.
“Hwa Ryun. I like it.”
The boy spoke thus and closed his eyes, smiling softly. A tear mark at the corner of his left eye trembled faintly. The moment Yeon’s eyes widened in wonder, the door opened and Jang, the nursemaid, entered.
While Jang seated Yeon on a long chair, rubbing his hands and feet, and pressed a cooled cup of tea into his hands, Hwa Ryun simply stood beside them, watching quietly.

* * *

Yeop Un kept touching the scrape on his cheek while kneeling in seiza, reviewing today’s match in his mind.
There had been only one bout with Yeon, and afterward came the sword discussion between Tae Heo and Dan Mok Bi, leaving no opening for him to intervene.
‘I said I came here to help, but…’
Dan Mok Bi had special circumstances, so he’d only been learning the sword for a few months, Yeop Un was told.
In such a situation, to face the blade-work of another house would at least build what little experience he had, or so the reasoning went.
Of course, Tae Heo had also said there would be things for him to learn in the process.
But the match had ended in confusion, and it remained unclear whether he’d truly been of any help. Could there have been room for help from the losing side? Likely not.
‘How did he possibly deflect my wooden sword?’
At first, he couldn’t believe the result of the bout. He possessed such exceptional talent that Tae Heo had resolved to make him the heir of the master-swordsman, and yet he’d lost without question to a sickly little girl.
He’d wanted to storm out of that place immediately—the shame was unbearable. The peers who’d lost to him had always acted as though nothing had happened, so he’d thought the word ‘defeat’ held no weight. He was wrong.
He couldn’t accept the defeat, but the shattered wooden sword proved the result, and later, Dan Mok Bi’s own words confirmed it.
Every single word she’d spoken—each one mattered.
‘How in the world?’
The Inner Energy he’d released during the bout was not some profound technique like sword qi—merely a weak dispersal of the power he possessed.
How had Dan Mok Bi gathered that scattered force, dispersed like snow shaken from trees, and sent it back at him?
Yeop Un recalled the conversation between Tae Heo and Yeon.
‘Like using a lever?’
The small girl’s words were enigmatic—he seemed to understand them, yet didn’t. The feeling was almost there, yet just beyond reach.
‘Matching the sword at the precise point and controlling the force? But then how did she manage the Inner Energy?’
The girl had spoken about that too.

—With all your strength.

Yeop Un let his posture collapse and his face fell.
With all your strength.
Yes, with all of it. But he lacked the audacity to ask how to do so. He knew Yeon wasn’t deliberately hiding it. It was simply all she had to explain.
‘With all your strength?’
Suddenly, Yeop Un straightened his back.
With all your strength. Pouring everything into it.
At the exact moment, at the exact point, pouring everything into it.
Yeop Un slowly moved his arms from where he sat. Following his motion, his sleeves began to flutter.

* * *

Early dawn.
Yeon stretched languidly and waved her fan back and forth.
Since people had begun coming and going from Se Ga, there was an added advantage—more to purify.
As Ryeon continued channeling Spiritual Energy through the air, she suddenly saw characters appearing on the fan like ink spreading through paper, and her eyes widened in astonishment.

Tae Heo’s Enlightenment 2
Leaf Cloud Style’s Learning 3
Current Fortune Stat: 18/120 (5▲)

Her Fortune Stat had jumped considerably overnight. What in heaven’s name had those two been doing all night…….
She could soon figure out what they’d been up to.
The two figures appeared beyond her line of sight.

Tae Heo
Traits: Recovered His Integrity / Walked a Long Road / Eternally Drifting / Glimpsed Beyond
Tae Cheong Sword: 9 Stars (10 Stars) (▲1)
Yun Ryong Dae Pal Sik: 12 Stars
Tae Cheong Divine Art: 10 Stars (▲1)
Aptitude and Five-Star Rating: Superior-Lower (Superior-Lower)
Concerns: Guilt toward Dan Mok Cheon Ki, Embarrassment at the Subtle Timing of His Arrival, Worry About His Enlightenment
Guidance: There are times when even the hawk of the sky must perch upon a branch.

Yeop Un
Traits: Unwavering Heart / Soaring Skyward / Reaching Beyond / Bamboo
Un Ryong Dae Pal Sik: 3 Stars (5 Stars) (▲1)
Tae Cheong Divine Art: 1 Star
Tae Cheong Sword: 3 Stars (▲1)
Aptitude and Five-Star Rating: Superior-Middle (Superior-Middle)
Concerns: How to Forge a Master-Disciple Bond, How to Repay His Kindness, Shame Over Yesterday’s Events
Guidance: No proof is needed between master and disciple.

Both of them bore the hollow-eyed look of those who’d trained through the night, yet their gazes burned with vivid intensity.
‘They only discussed swordsmanship, didn’t they—just talked through the night—yet somehow Yeop Un’s Yun Ryong Dae Pal Sik proficiency increased? And how did Tae Heo climb all the way up in his core method……?’
Ryeon furrowed her brow in genuine contemplation.
‘Perhaps receiving knowledge itself requires talent.’

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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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