The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 56

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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 Limited-Time Elixir — Episode 56

Ryeon caught on that the old man was speaking of Yak Yeo Cheong’s grandfather, who had died half a year ago, and shook her head slowly.
The old man looked at Ryeon and Dan Mok Hyeon U with an expression of deepening bewilderment, then turned back toward the dilapidated house and spoke.
“All the medicinal herbs from this house are dug up by that young one there, but… is it really true?”
Just then, the girl emerged, having finished packing the Bellflower Root. Yak Yeo Cheong, clutching a thick bundle of poorly wrapped roots to her chest, looked at them with bright eyes.
“I’m here!”
“Goodness…”
The old man laughed softly at the sight of Yak Yeo Cheong, clicked his tongue, and pulled the girl over before grasping the crown of her head and pressing down firmly.
“Still so young, running about wild as a monkey, making a mess of things — but I’ll say this much: when it comes to digging up medicinal herbs, this one is the finest in all of Zhejiang Province, just as the young lady said.”
The girl’s thrashing movements stilled as she clung to the Bellflower Root in her arms.
Ryeon, who had been pursing her lips in concentration as she listened, nodded with genuine warmth.
“We’ll have the Dan Mok Clan source exclusively from you. The herbs that Yeo Cheong — I mean, Miss Yak — brings in. We’ll set the price at eighty percent of retail.”
“I… really?”
“As long as you maintain the quality.”
“Even though I’m the one who dug them?”
The girl swallowed hard and pointed to herself as she turned the question back to Ryeon.
For a year before her grandfather passed away, every herb in their inventory had been dug by her own hands, and back then the herb merchants had traded with them readily. But the moment her grandfather died, those same merchants suddenly acted as though nothing had happened and cut off the arrangements entirely.
They couldn’t buy herbs at that price from a child, they’d said. No one trusted an herb digger so young.
Only the Cheong Un Herb Shop, where they had some personal connection, would purchase her herbs at all—and at a pittance.
They claimed the quality wasn’t good because it came from a child, but they bought it out of kindness and consideration for her difficult circumstances.
Yak Yeo Cheong took pride in the herbs she dug, but she had no choice in the matter. Without those few coins, she and her ailing grandmother couldn’t survive.
In the meantime, her faith in herself—something she’d believed could never waver—had rotted away like the wooden pillars of a crumbling house. When someone appeared saying they would buy from her, she was so stunned that she found herself asking if it could truly be real.
Ryeon nodded as if the answer were obvious.
“Oh, and—can you dig up herbs that I specifically request?”
Yak Yeo Cheong’s eyes still trembled with disbelief as she glanced back and forth between her grandmother and Ryeon.
“How… how can you trust me like this?”
“You said you dug up that Bellflower Root yourself, didn’t you? And those too.”
She gestured toward the drying herbs. It was a strange situation—the one who wanted to buy was expressing trust, while the one selling was suddenly asking for reassurance.
“Even though I really was the one who dug them?”
“Yes.”
Ryeon fell silent for a moment, then stepped closer to the girl and whispered in her ear.
“Though somehow I don’t think your grandmother dug them…?”
Yak Yeo Cheong’s face flushed crimson as she fought to suppress her laughter. Having barely managed to hold it back, she quickly bowed to Ryeon.
“I’m Yak Yeo Cheong! I swear I won’t disappoint you, miss!”

* * *

Ryeon wrapped up the meeting after asking Yak Yeo Cheong to source several varieties of herbs for her.
She was thinking that, given the limitations in obtaining high-quality Bellflower Root from just one young herb gatherer, the herb shop would need to venture into other goods if they were to turn a profit, when—
“Are you doing this because you feel sorry for the girl?”
At Dan Mok Hyeon U’s tentative question, Ryeon lifted her head in surprise.
“No, not at all. It’s genuinely because the herbs she gathers are the finest quality.”
“Truly?”
“Yes.”
“Is that so… then maybe we should have just brought that herb-digging girl back to the clan?”
Ever since Ryeon had created the Cheong Ryeon Water, Dan Mok Hyeon U had never questioned or worried over her judgment regarding herb shop affairs.
As he stroked his chin and muttered this, Dan Mok Seong stiffened and straightened her back.
“Uncle, you said we’re still poor. If you just keep taking in people willy-nilly, what will we do?”
“Ah, no. We’re not really that poor anymore…”
Dan Mok Hyeon U, who could assert himself to his sister but couldn’t speak with the same firmness to his niece, trailed off.
Ryeon saw through Dan Mok Seong’s gaze and nearly burst out laughing, but quickly stepped toward her and changed the subject. The clan’s circumstances could be discussed later in detail.
“Seong, look. I’m going to make medicine with what we bought today, and I want to give it to your aunt. Want to help me make it?”
“What…? Me too?”
“Yes. Do you mind?”
“……I’m not opposed to it, exactly. But Mother says a martial artist shouldn’t set foot in the kitchen.”
Dan Mok Seong spoke in a flat tone. Yak Yeo Cheong laughed without taking it to heart.
“Oh, what does that matter? Besides, this is being made in the medicine shop, so it has nothing to do with the kitchen.”
“Still, I should be training during that time…….”
Dan Mok Seong said as much, then caught a glance at Yak Yeo Cheong before exhaling with a sigh. Her tone suggested she was doing her a favor.
“There’s no help for it. I’ll make it with you. You might cause real trouble if you do it alone.”
“Thank you!”
As Yak Yeo Cheong and Dan Mok Seong chatted away, she suddenly felt a gaze from behind.
In that moment, Dan Mok Hyeon U had already stuffed the Bing Tang Hu Lu into his mouth in one bite, tossed the stick aside, and was already pulling his young cousins along.
“Sigh. They say Hang Zhou is vast, vast, but it’s really quite small. Meeting like this again here.”
Dan Mok Hyeon U muttered. From a distance, a boy wrapped in an extravagant Golden Embroidered Silk Robe was approaching them with an oddly awkward expression.
Dan Mok Seong’s keen eyes recognized who he was immediately, and she opened her eyes wide, staring at him.
Geum Jong Ha, unable to hide his awkwardness, cleared his throat several times before striding forward, clasping both hands together in salute.
“The Dan Mok Clan pays respects to the Clan Head of the medicine shop!”
“Hmm.”
Dan Mok Hyeon U only nodded after confirming the obvious bewilderment on the faces of Geum Jong Ha’s attendants and guards.
“What brings the young master here?”
“I was passing by and saw my friend, so I came to offer greetings.”
“Friend?”
“Friend?”
Yak Yeo Cheong and Dan Mok Hyeon U spoke simultaneously. And Geum Jong Ha seemed to interpret it as a response to his greeting.
Geum Jong Ha approached Yak Yeo Cheong hesitantly.
“Miss Yak! It’s……been a while.”
Yak Yeo Cheong briefly wondered if the Martial Match she’d had with him a few weeks ago—where he’d lost decisively to her after staking something like clan pride—had been a dream.
“Friend……?”
“Yes, that’s right! After reading what you wrote, I trained hard and achieved enlightenment. Since we’ve exchanged learning with each other, shouldn’t we now be fr……friends?”
“Usually people are called friends only when both sides engage in mutual exchange like that…….”
At Yak Yeo Cheong’s words, Geum Jong Ha’s expression clouded and his shoulders sagged as if his spirit had deflated.
He was clearly thinking of the second Martial Match he’d had without the adults knowing.
“Yes, that settles it then—we’re friends, friends.”
When Yak Yeo Cheong consented, though belatedly, Geum Jong Ha quickly straightened his shoulders, laughed with a hearty “Ha-ha-ha,” and spoke in a deliberately dignified manner.
“Wait until we have another Martial Match—it won’t be as easy as before!”
“Young master…….”
Yak Yeo Cheong looked at the attendant who’d come with Geum Jong Ha with a sympathetic expression.
A great upheaval had erupted between the two clans because of that Martial Match, and here was the heir apparent speaking like this in front of his retainers. How must their hearts feel? The blood would drain from their faces.
“My father also became tremendously strong after seeing what you wrote!”
“Young master!”
The servant standing behind Geum Jong Ha was nearly in tears.
The power of a Family Head who leads a clan is itself crucial military strength for that clan, and here he was, spelling out every detail on the street…….
Yak Yeo Cheong shook her head firmly.
“Don’t say things like that in front of others.”
“But why……?”
Geum Jong Ha quickly lowered his voice and asked.
His father’s achievement wasn’t shameful—if anything, it was something to be proud of. So why should it be kept secret?
But having taken a hard blow before, he lacked the confidence to insist on what Yak Yeo Cheong told him not to do. She gave up explaining.
“Well, anyway…… my grandfather also became stronger. Not long ago, he achieved enlightenment while eating breakfast.”
The fact that Dan Mok Cheon Gi had achieved a major enlightenment was already widely known in Hang Zhou, but Yak Yeo Cheong repeated it anyway.
At least this way, even if something should happen later, no one could accuse her of cowardice or any such thing.
“Right, I’ve heard about that…… Please convey my congratulations.”
Geum Jong Ha, who hadn’t made excuses about merely losing by carelessness, nor wept with swollen eyes after taking a beating from her, possessed an unexpected dignity.
Noticing that Yak Yeo Cheong’s gaze held a different meaning, Geum Jong Ha drew his posture up straighter, tensing his waist.
“Still, if my father grasps the Way and takes hold of it, he’d be the strongest in Zhejiang Province!”
Yak Yeo Cheong wanted to say that the very need for such assumptions was proof he wasn’t the strongest yet, but she held her tongue.
She didn’t want to mock a child for taking pride in his parents.
But trouble came from a different direction.

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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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