The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 46

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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 Time-Limited Eternal Contract — Episode 46

“Of course. Not to anyone else either. To no one at all…… it’s a secret between just us two.”
“I heard you. Do I need to swear an oath or something? Stake my sword on it?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi tapped his Treasured Sword with his fingertips as he spoke.
It was a blade they had carried together even at Dong Jung Hyeol Sa, a sword with history. He could probably rebuild the Dan Mok Clan manor ten times over if he sold that blade alone. It was a Treasured Sword bearing the sorrow of the greatest martial master under heaven, after all — worth whatever price one could name.
Yeop Un’s eyes brightened and she nodded eagerly.
“Yes!”
“What? No, this is…… all right, I swear on this blade that I will not speak of it to anyone.”
“You mustn’t give it to me and then go telling people about it.”
“I won’t, I won’t!”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi spoke playfully. Only then did Yeop Un relax, breaking into a gentle smile.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi watched the smile bloom across his still-young granddaughter’s innocent face and chose his next words with care.
“Yeop Un.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“That Spiritual Energy you possess…… it is the force that humans slowly refine and accumulate to become what we call Internal Energy.”
“Yes? Yes……”
Though she already knew this, Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s expression was so grave that Yeop Un merely nodded quietly in response.
“Yet if you cannot use Internal Energy despite possessing it, if you cannot command a corresponding force in kind—that makes no sense, does it?”
Yeop Un scratched her cheek. She had mulled over this question many times herself.
“I…… I thought a person’s Internal Energy was like a stream. You cultivate a small pond in your Dantian. But I have waves churning inside me, so I thought it couldn’t work.”
“Yet what does one do with that stream? Turn a water wheel, unleash a torrent, extinguish flames. Surely the same should be possible with seawater as well.”
“Huh?”
Yeop Un, who had been listening quietly to her grandfather, widened her eyes and tilted her head.
Now that he said it, he was right.
What did one do with Internal Energy? Run faster, channel Sword Qi, wield Sword Force. That was all.
One wasn’t trying to drink or eat with Internal Energy—what did it matter if it was seawater or stream water?
‘Really…… there’s no reason it shouldn’t work, is there?’
“A way to align your strength with the Martial Principle

—no one may know it yet, but one may exist somewhere. That thought occurs to me only now.”
“……!”
“Let us investigate and explore this matter

together.”
Yeop Un’s eyes widened.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi gazed quietly at his granddaughter’s face and felt the vitality he had dimmed across all these long years slowly returning to him.
For so long, he had sat in the shadows. There had been no reason to stand.
His granddaughter had just given him one. A fierce light blazed in Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s eyes.
Yeop Un met his gaze and nodded.

* * *

Geum Jeok Geol, returning to Geum Ga Jang, stroked his jaw as he read the paper that Dan Mok Yeop Un had written about this martial bout.
“Is this it?”
“Yes……”
Geum Jong Ha’s reply came in a voice drained of all spirit. Geum Jeok Geol glanced sideways at his son.
Being an only child blessed with exceptional talent, the boy had always been treasured and cherished.
Geum Jeok Geol had never seen his son appear cowed anywhere, and even on the rare occasions when he had scolded him severely, the boy would bounce back within half a day and talk back—yet now, after a single martial bout, he had been dispirited for days.
“Does losing in martial competition weigh so heavily on you?”
“It’s that……”
He had wanted to explain that his father’s notorious reputation was merely a misunderstanding, but late realization dawned that, unlike himself, this boy had no father—and guilt consumed him. The second bout, conducted without the adults’ knowledge, had left a fatal wound upon his son’s heart.
Moreover, in that second bout, Dan Mok Yeop Un had played with him like a cat with a mouse.
It was exactly as his father Geum Jeok Geol did when teaching him a lesson. She had eerily exploited his weaknesses again and again—two times, three times, four times—pummeling him and sending him sprawling across the ground……
In the aftermath, he had to receive a lengthy letter filled with nothing but self-recriminations about losing due to his own lack of skill, and upon returning home, he had faced a torrent of scolding from his mother Song Young Rang over his reckless actions—suddenly challenging the Dan Mok Clan to a martial bout, no less!
Of course Geum Jong Ha was not happy at all.
But Geum Jeok Geol paid no mind to his son’s expression and unfolded the bundle of papers. He even thought it might have been better if this had happened when Geum Jong Ha was a little younger.
Dan Mok Yeon had only just turned eight this year, it seemed, and while her control of force felt decidedly immature, her calligraphy was surprisingly clean and precise. He could already envision a future where, as she matured, her name would be celebrated as a master of the written word.
“Hmm…….”
Most of it was an account of how she had countered Geum Jong Ha’s secret technique, but there was almost nothing about the Dan Mok Clan Sword Method. Instead, it contained only a careful analysis of how to penetrate and master the Geum Ga Jang Sword Method.
“Ahem.”
Geum Jeok Geol drew his brows together.
He could understand why his son’s expression was not cheerful.
The text was written in simple, uncomplicated words—it seemed to stay within the range of the Thousand Character Classic—and flowed smoothly without interruption, yet there was something mysteriously poignant about the phrasing, something that tugged at the heart with each line.
“……Father?”
While Geum Jeok Geol was reading the papers a third time, Geum Jong Ha, who had been watching his expression carefully, tilted his head.
“Ahhhh.”
“Father? What is it?”
Geum Jeok Geol brushed his arm with his fingertips, where gooseflesh had risen. As the paper rustled softly, he startled and held his breath, then finally released it.
It was natural for a person to feel upset when their faults were pointed out, but seeing them dissected so thoroughly—as if from some vantage point in the heavens, looking down from above—made the spine tingle with something other than displeasure.
That was the feeling Geum Jeok Geol experienced now. This was a letter that—without erasing the character inherent in the Geum Ga Jang Sword Method—delicately showed how to cultivate and unfold it even more grandly. It read almost with a kind of tenderness.
This letter was as if some enlightened ancestor who had never existed within the Geum Ga Jang had appeared and arranged everything for Geum Jong Ha from beginning to end. And perhaps, in some way, for Geum Jeok Geol himself as well.
‘Did he hear something from his own father before the man passed?’
Geum Jeok Geol thought this, then realized the timing did not match. Dan Mok Yeon would have been only two years old then. So had Dan Mok Hyeon Seong left behind documents? Had she memorized them and written them down?
For a moment, complicated thoughts gnawed at his mind, but as he continued reading through the characters, idle speculation scattered and gave way to absorbed attention.

* * *

Geum Jeok Geol’s Enlightenment 1
Geum Jong Ha’s Learning 2
Current Luck Statistic : 21/100 (3▲)

* * *

The day after the match with Geum Ga Jang ended, Tae Heo Jin In and Yeop Un stood together before Wol Young Jae. Now it was time for them to depart Hang Ju.
“We came here by way of the Yangtze, so now we thought we might take the canal and survey the lands above before returning to Kunlun Mountain.”
“Won’t you stay a little longer……?”
At Yeon’s rather forlorn words, Tae Heo Jin In chuckled warmly and stroked her hair.
“There is an old saying that a guest and fish grow tiresome by the fourth day, and we have already overstayed. Besides, to visit various places on the way up and then reach Kunlun Mountain would require us to move swiftly.”
The distance from Hang Ju to Kunlun Mountain was nearly ten thousand li, so haste was certainly warranted. Yeon felt a private sense of regret.
It did not seem likely she would ever have occasion to travel there herself.
In truth, it was already remarkable enough that Tae Heo Jin In had come all this way.
Yeop Un too wore an expression of unmistakable reluctance.
“It would have been wonderful to speak together a while longer…….”
His eyes gazing at Yeon were heavy with lingering affection.
Since arriving at the Dan Mok Clan, Yeop Un had accomplished in a single visit what would normally take years to achieve.
Even if he ate his fill of candy cakes, he would never taste sweetness like this; even if he slaughtered an ox and consumed it entirely, he would never feel such satisfaction.
“I am sorry that I could not be more helpful to you, young miss.”
“You were an enormous help! Before Daoist Yeop came, I had never seen anything but the Dan Mok Clan Sword Method. Without you, it would have been so much harder to prepare for the match with Geum Ga Jang.”
“That preparation was actually almost…… well.”
Hardly anything, was it not?
All day and night making True Blue Lotus Water. But with the tact of a perceptive daoist, Yeop Un let his words trail off. Yeon quickly changed the subject.
“I have a gift for you. It is True Blue Lotus Water.”
It was a rather large jar.
“What? Something so precious…….”
Yeop Un was taken aback, and Tae Heo Jin In was likewise startled and began to refuse, but Dan Mok Cheon Gi gently took his hand and pressed it down.
“It comes from the child’s heart. Accept it.”
“But still…….”
Tae Heo Jin In had made up his mind to decline. He knew from rumor that this substance had pain-relieving properties and helped scholars concentrate on their studies.
It was far too valuable an object to use himself directly, so he assumed the intention was for him to sell it and use the proceeds to support his journey…….
“Apply a small amount to your temples and practice Qi Circulation Breathing morning and evening.”
Then Yeon, as if she understood his heart completely, added these words and pressed the jar into Yeop Un’s arms.
“What? Qi Circulation Breathing?”
“It will help. And now, whenever our clan takes on new disciples, we will have them all use it as well.”
Yeop Un glanced sideways at Tae Heo Jin In. Dan Mok Yeon never spoke nonsense or boasted about herself, so when this girl said something “would help,” it truly would.

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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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