The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 36

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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 Clan’s Doomed Bride — Episode 36

“Young lady, did you sleep well last night?”
Yeop Un approached Hwa Ryun quickly and offered a respectful salute, cupping her fist in her palm. Hwa Ryun clasped her hands and bowed her head in return.
“Thanks to you, I slept quite soundly. But the two of you don’t seem to have rested much at all.”
“Ha! I’ve been awake all night, turning over everything you said. Or should I call you Master now, I wonder?”
Tae Heo joked lightly, saying that any Taoist Master worth the name could not hesitate to call the one who had taught her by that title.
“If you do that, Grandfather will scold me.”
“Who would scold whom?”
Danmok Cheon-gi appeared suddenly from behind, his tone brooking no argument. If anyone meant to reprimand Hwa Ryun, he looked ready to make short work of them. The menacing glint in his eyes, coupled with the scar across his face, would have made an ordinary person’s knees buckle.
“The Master said he would call Ryun by that name, and Ryun politely declined — that’s all, sir.”
“Master? What are you saying? That girl’s barely more than a duckling without even a proper name yet.”
“A duckling? How can you speak so harshly of such a lovely granddaughter?”
“She pouts her lips and quacks at everything, so what else would you call her?”
“Grandfather……”
Hwa Ryun furrowed her brows and looked up at Danmok Cheon-gi. He flinched as she fixed that stare upon him, then cleared his throat and looked away.
With everyone growing uncomfortable, Hwa Ryun dragged Yeop Un away, declaring that they had preparations to make for the upcoming Martial Competition with Geum Gasang and would focus entirely on training together. The adults could only nod their acquiescence.

* * *

“You need not worry any longer.”
Tae Heo spoke as he watched the two children cross swords below, his gaze fixed on the tips of their blades.
“About what?”
“Your first grandson has been blessed with such extraordinary talent, and such a gentle disposition as well. What in this world could there be to fear?”
“Talent, you say……”
“Indeed. Such a gift as comes once in a thousand ages. Sir, though I may have eaten fewer bowls of rice than you in this life, I have never witnessed talent like that. Even when I first met Danmok Hyeon-seong, I was amazed, but……”
He recalled Danmok Hyeon-seong, now departed from this world.
If one were to shape overwhelming martial genius into human form, it would wear his likeness.
Among countless souls, none had shone more brilliantly than Danmok Hyeon-seong.
Even as a child, the moment Danmok Hyeon-seong took up a sword, he understood precisely how to overwhelm the opponent before him.
It was in the year Danmok Hyeon-seong turned fifteen, just before the fire of Hyeol Ra Valley blazed up like wildfire.
He had defeated Namgung Gyeong-hae of the Namgung Clan from Nanjing Province — a man five years his senior — in a single exchange.

— D…… Danmok Hyeon-seong! Victory!

The judge’s hollow voice still echoed in his memory from that day on the martial stage, dust swirling in the air.
Danmok Hyeon-seong had simply said he understood it.

— I could see how he would move. Ha. I knew how to counter it, so I just tried what came to mind.

He had said it in a cheerful, lighthearted voice.
In that moment, Tae Heo had thought, “This is true talent bestowed by heaven.” This man possessed something rare — a genuine gift.
“Remarkable — it seems the heavens teach us anew that there are heights beyond heights. Once that child begins building Inner Power, who could dare approach such a talent?”
The words of the True Immortal were fervent praise, but Danmok Cheon-gi’s lips moved without sound, the words dying in his throat.
Though Tae Heo was a companion through trials, he could not speak carelessly of his granddaughter’s inability to build Inner Power. The unspoken words seemed to pierce his lungs.
He had thought this much talent, this much gift, would be enough to compensate even for that absence. Yet each time he dwelt on the truth that Hwa Ryun could not build Inner Power, his chest ached.
“Do you truly see it that way?”
“I haven’t slept a wink since that first night. I’ve been turning over everything Hwa Ryun showed and told me, and by the time I had digested it all, the sun was rising. Yeop Un was the same.”
Viewed thus, Danmok Ryun was a perfect heir as if drawn by design — the eldest grandson of the clan, a gift from heaven, sensitive yet extraordinary in temperament.
“Yet she is barely eight years old now…… the future is almost frightening to contemplate.”
“Who knows what the world will bring? Don’t speak nonsense.”
“How stingy you are with your praise.”
Seeing Danmok Cheon-gi’s reticence with kind words, the True Immortal laughed, thinking he was concerned Hwa Ryun might grow conceited, and let out a hearty laugh.
But the laughter stopped short. Hwa Ryun’s Wooden Sword had moved with fluid grace and successfully deflected Yeop Un’s blade.
As Tae Heo rushed between the two children, chattering excitedly about the movement she had just executed, Danmok Cheon-gi watched in silence, saying nothing.
A faint smile lingered at the corner of her mouth.

* * *

Yeop Un had far more enthusiasm than Hwa Ryun had anticipated.
‘Wasn’t that why you came—to help me prepare for the Martial Competition?’
It was almost bewildering. How did she think of this? What about that? What if we tried this approach? Was training in Martial Arts proving too difficult? All of it tumbled out in an eager rush.
‘No, wait—she was upset about losing the Martial Competition before.’
When Hwa Ryun glanced up, caught off guard, Yeop Un read the meaning in her eyes and flushed deeply, dropping her gaze as she spoke.
“The truth is, I’ve never had a friend I could really talk to before. Did I talk too much?”
“Oh…”
Hwa Ryun mentally struck herself on the forehead.
A talent so brilliant that defeat itself was still unfamiliar at her age, a mind so sharp—of course when she sought out peers her own age to call friends, conversations with them would only skim the surface. There would be no real meeting of minds.
“No, no. The truth is, I’ve never had a friend either.”
At hearing Hwa Ryun acknowledge her as a friend, light bloomed across Yeop Un’s face.
‘Yeop Un, Yeop Un the Taoist Master…’
With such exceptional talent and drive to improve, she would have become a celebrated master had she continued on this path. Yet because she belonged to the Kunlun Sect, Hwa Ryun harbored no memory of her. The distance was vast—a thousand leagues or more separated them utterly.
But that brilliant talent was real enough. What if Hwa Ryun were to give her a little more push?
‘The True Immortal himself travels all this distance to see her. That speaks to a man of true integrity.’
Which meant Yeop Un, studying under him, would not forget such kindness.
‘Still, it is strange. Why did he suddenly come to visit?’
Much had already changed in this life, yet in her previous one, the True Immortal had never sought her out.
Why had she not encountered him before, yet in this life did he suddenly appear simply because the memory of Danmok Cheon-gi had come to mind?
What was different?
“Now that we’ve become friends…”
Hwa Ryun moved to continue the discussion from the evening before, but a sound from outside brought her words up short.
Hwa Ryun, who had been standing some distance away, heard voices from beyond and approached.
She cast a somewhat sharp glance at Yeop Un before leaning close to murmur to Hwa Ryun.
“Sister, they’re saying the Mansongsangdan has come looking for you urgently? They rode hard—no carriage, just horses.”
“What could it be…”
Hwa Ryun started to respond but stopped, turning to look at Yeop Un. Yeop Un rose with a reluctant expression on her face.
“I’m reviewing what you taught me yesterday. Since the Venerable Tae Heo said he’d help me, please don’t worry.”
“Yes, Taoist Master Yeop Un! I’ll see you again in a little while.”
The moment Yeop Un left, two figures came hurrying down the path beyond the wall with quick strides.
One was Gyeon Wi-un, dressed properly this time unlike before; the other was her servant.
The servant, bouncing on his heels with an excited face, kept taking deep breaths behind Gyeon Wi-un, struggling to compose himself.
“Aunt Wi-un?”
‘What’s happened? Did something occur at the business? If she came to tell me in person, it can only be about the Qinglian Water. Next week I have the Martial Competition with Geum Gasang scheduled—what problem could there be now…’
“Hwa Ryun.”
Gyeon Wi-un had nearly run the whole way; now she called out softly. Her usually cold face seemed flushed with excitement.
Gyeon Wi-un’s voice came low and tight, as if clenched.
“The Qinglian Water…”
“Yes?”
“It’s here.”
“What?”
“A windfall… we’ve struck a windfall.”
“…!”
Gyeon Wi-un’s voice trembled. In that same instant, the words “Geum Gasang” were wiped clean from Hwa Ryun’s mind.
Gyeon Wi-un briefly explained what was happening in Hangzhou.
She had ridden here at full gallop because Hwa Ryun’s Qinglian Water was selling like wildfire—utterly sold out everywhere.
Until now, the Qinglian Water had been doing reasonably well in Hangzhou on its merits alone, but news that it had even partly assisted Gyeon Wi-hak’s first-place ranking in the examination swept through Zhejiang Province like a storm.
The craze struck not only Zhejiang Province but also reached Nanjing Province and Huizhou Prefecture where Gyeon Wi-hak had studied—now the product fetched whatever price people named for it.
“There’s nothing… nothing left anywhere? Not even stock in reserve?”
“They say every pharmacy has been completely cleaned out. Not a trace remains.”
When Gyeon Wi-un spoke in her cold tone of things being “cleaned out,” it should have been amusing, but when she flicked the abacus toward her, the urge to laugh vanished.

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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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