The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 61

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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 Noble House’s Limited-Time Heir — Episode 61

Dan Mok Han So was one of the two people who had taught Lyeon the Foundation Cleansing Technique. The martial arts a Martial Artist builds over a lifetime are as precious as their very life, yet she had burned through her own internal energy to raise him and said not a word of complaint about it.
In fact, watching the legitimate heir of the household she had built by spending even her internal energy move about so unsteadily—if this was the extent of her reaction, she was truly a sage of remarkable virtue, was she not.
“Good. You’ve caught your breath now…… Let me show you the Heukyung Dancheon Sword that you two will learn.”
At last Dan Mok Han So brought the two girls to a halt and drew her thick saber.
Lyeon swallowed hard and summoned forth her Inner Eye. Starlight flickered across her pupils.

Dan Mok Han So
Traits: Tendon Collector / Refuses What She Dislikes Even in Death / Stubborn Pride / Swift
Heukyung Dancheon Sword: Level 10 (11)
Infinite Footwork: Level 7
Meteoric True Seal: Level 11
Talent and Karma Stars: Superior-Inferior
Concern: Where can one find good meat dishes in Sichuan Province?
Advice: Currently depleted of substantial internal energy. Restore physical stamina.

And her expectations did not go unmet.

* Inner Eye Level 6 Achievement (1▲)! *
You can perceive strengths.
Harmony: Level 7 – You can go unnoticed.
Inner Eye: Level 6 – You can perceive strengths.
Purification: Level 3 – You can purify malice.

‘Wow……’
Lyeon’s mouth fell open and her eyes blinked rapidly.
When she had first declared she would wield a saber alone at the Renowned Sword Family, there must have been people who objected or worried—just as they all seemed concerned seeing Lyeon and Dan Mok Seong now—and now this display of footwork showed exactly what it meant to claim the first position among the Falling Star Eighteen Masters while wielding a different weapon.
In the fierce rush of wind, Dan Mok Han So’s saber moved with freedom and without hesitation.
Rather than a star tracing its orbit, it was like sparks from burning firewood—unpredictable in direction, and the wild heat could be felt unfiltered.
‘Certainly, books alone cannot convey the true understanding.’
What had only been hazily grasped now flooded in with crystalline clarity. Every movement she had once found puzzling now made perfect sense.
And she could almost sense how Dan Mok Han So herself had interpreted it.
A young person who had simply preferred saber to sword, pure and free-spirited, had met Dan Mok Cheon Gi, and as she became increasingly vital to the household, she had to prove her own strength—all of that history was written in the arc of the blade.
“This is the technique you will learn. Hmm. Though I’m not certain a month of training will suffice for this.”
She would have been better off stopping there.
“Now, try it.”
“Pardon?”
“Pardon?”
Both girls echoed the same question in unison. Dan Mok Han So’s brow furrowed.
“You watched it, so you understand. Try it.”
‘The grandfather really did teach her well—they’re exactly alike.’
Dan Mok Cheon Gi had also shown her sword forms once and then simply told her to try them.
“But…… what about the hand seals?”
At the confused question from Dan Mok Seong, Dan Mok Han So gave no reply, only crossed her arms and nodded toward the wooden sabers the two girls held.
When a teacher commands, there’s no choice. The two girls grasped their wooden swords together.
Lyeon visualized her movements in her mind and slowly swung the wooden saber in her hand, and when finally all the forms had been executed, Dan Mok Han So’s face had somehow grown even more rigid than before.
Dan Mok Seong, who had been gasping for breath while blindly mimicking unfamiliar movements, sensed the strange atmosphere and rolled her eyes.
And as for breathlessness, Lyeon suffered more than Dan Mok Seong.
‘Huff, puff, huff—wait, why are you glaring like that!’
Even though Dan Mok Cheon Gi had driven her quite hard, she still felt inadequate. At least now she didn’t collapse backward after seeing something once and attempting it, so that was fortunate.
Dan Mok Han So said nothing, then nodded—granting permission for the two to lower their wooden swords—before she spoke.
“……Hmm. It seems both of you need more physical stamina training.”
There was no comment on what they did well or poorly. And Dan Mok Han So simply continued the lesson.
“Then, from the first form again!”

* * *

Dan Mok Seong had a thought for the first time: learning martial arts itself was fun.
The sword and saber appeared similar but moved in entirely different ways, and when she wielded the saber, she felt herself far more clearly than when she wielded the sword.
Crack!
“Ow!”
“Again—again! Did I not tell you to watch your opponent, not just stare at your own saber?”
“Y-yes, I was wrong!”
“Talent means nothing without focus—how many times must I say it?”
“I’ll concentrate!”
The moment Dan Mok Seong yelped and tightened her grip on the training saber, Dan Mok Han So’s expression softened a fraction.
But when that gaze turned toward Yeon, it hardened again into its customary stiffness.
Though her face was naturally unexpressive and the shift went largely unnoticed, Yeon saw it.
‘Would she glare at someone just because they’re a little short on stamina? Grandfather said I was doing well enough anyway.’
Muttering under her breath, Yeon took up the wooden sword and stepped before Dan Mok Han So.
It was her turn for the same sparring match—or rather, to be soundly beaten, as it might be put—that Dan Mok Seong had just endured.
Against peers who barely controlled their internal energy, she could win despite her physical disadvantages; but before Dan Mok Han So, a master honed through decades of practice, it was hopeless.
So there Yeon was, being struck again and again in various places by Dan Mok Han So, when—
—suddenly, the training saber coming at her halted mid-swing.
“……?”
She’d expected to take a hit she couldn’t properly block and tumble backward, but the sudden stop caught even her off guard, and her eyes went wide.
“Why……?”
“Why did you move the saber that way?”
“Pardon?”
Dan Mok Han So’s voice sounded slightly quicker than usual. Yeon glanced down at her own saber, which she’d been holding at an angle, and returned it to its former stance.
What she had deployed in response to Dan Mok Han So’s attack was the eleventh form of the Heukyung Dancheon Sword.
Except the opening was half a breath faster, and from the middle onward, it slowed to half a breath behind.
“Well, I thought the attack was going to come at my left shoulder, so…”
“And why did you think that?”
Yeon hesitated for a moment whether to answer honestly, then decided—what did it matter?—and spoke freely.
“Because… just before that, I had blocked your right-side attack confidently, so I thought you were going to show me the weakness on my left side next…”
“…….”
Dan Mok Han So’s brow furrowed deeply, then gradually relaxed before she continued speaking.
“I see. Setting that aside—that eleventh form was different from what I taught you.”
“No, it wasn’t! You said the dark wind in the Heukyung Dancheon Sword is so fierce it can knock stars from the sky, and wind looks chaotic but follows rules too subtle for humans to grasp—didn’t you say that?”
“Hmm.”
“So I just applied that rule a little—made it look irregular. But the form itself was the same.”
Dan Mok Han So said nothing. The tempo differed slightly, but the form was indeed identical, exactly as Yeon had said.
“How did you apply that rule? Or rather—why did you?”
Someone of Dan Mok Han So’s caliber certainly wouldn’t fail to see the how of it.
What truly mattered was the why. Yeon felt the intensity radiating from her teacher and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
“And, well, since I’m fighting someone stronger than me, I thought I’d move my weapon quickly first, then take a solid, balanced stance to respond.”
Yeon’s embarrassment grew, and she fidgeted with her fingertips before hurrying to add more.
“Actually, this saber technique was created so that irregular movements like this can be performed smoothly from the start, so I just… tried it.”
But Dan Mok Han So’s sharp gaze did not dim.
Beside her, Dan Mok Seong, who had been listening intently to Yeon’s words, looked down at her own hands with deepening contemplation.

* * *

Yeon sensed the complicated feelings in the stare Dan Mok Hyeon Yo fixed on her back.
Dan Mok Seong was more enthusiastic than ever, wholly absorbed in refining her saber technique. In truth, she seemed to have stopped thinking about Geum Ga Jang partway through.
So the mother’s hope that her daughter would achieve mastery with the sword intertwined with the sight of the girl throwing herself into what she loved, leaving Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s heart conflicted.
Dan Mok Seong, now studying the saber under Dan Mok Han So, had come to pull Yeon along with the reasoning that a diligent student should review what she has learned even when her teacher isn’t present—shouldn’t she?
That was the true reason behind this afternoon’s snack time, which doubled as a theory study session, and the source of Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s troubled feelings.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo had ordered refreshments brought to the two girls, then quietly left the room. Dan Mok Seong watched her mother go, then crossed her arms and looked at Yeon.
“We agreed to ask each other questions. So you go first.”
It seemed she believed she shouldn’t accept help without first offering it to her seemingly frail cousin.
“All right, Seong. In the Heukyung Dancheon Sword, in the fifth form—that half-spin backward—what’s the purpose of that?”
Dan Mok Seong stiffened momentarily, then drew her shoulders in slightly and began to ponder seriously.
I had never thought about the reason for my movements until Ryeon asked.

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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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