The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 70

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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 Antidote — Episode 70

Dan Mok Hyeon Yo had come to collect her daughter, who had bolted at dawn and whom she’d spent a long time searching for before finally hearing she was here at Wol Yeong Jae. Her expression was deeply conflicted.
“You…….”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo gazed down at Ryeon for a long moment before murmuring.
“I always thought you took after your older sister alone…… but you’re like your brother too.”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo, who habitually referred to Wi Ji Chung as the “Inner Hall Master,” had unwittingly used that same form of address. Ryeon looked down at her sleeping cousin and spoke.
“Seong seems to take after her aunt, I think.”
“No, Seong…… .”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo trailed off, as if unsure what she’d been about to say.
From the moment she’d borne her daughter and raised her, she’d spent a lifetime believing that one day Seong would resemble her brother.
That even though she herself had not achieved it, Seong would be as remarkable a talent as her uncle had been, and thus capable of restoring the clan to its former glory.
“No, Seong is…… yes. Seong takes after me. Who else would she take after? She’s my only daughter…… .”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo trailed off again, then drew a deep breath.
“Thank you for putting Seong to sleep. I’ll repay this debt someday.”
With that, Dan Mok Hyeon Yo lifted Dan Mok Seong into her own arms and left Wol Yeong Jae. Lost in dreams, the child clung drowsily to her mother, babbling softly in her sleep — which delighted Dan Mok Hyeon Yo.

* * *

Gyeong Hang Un Ryeon.
It had begun as a gathering of the Martial Families along the Gyeong Hang Grand Canal — a union founded by the Pung Clan and Yan Family in Ha Buk, the Hwang Bo Clan, the Ak Family in San Dong, the Nam Gung Clan, and finally the Dan Mok Clan, all seeking to advance together in the martial way. Now it had grown into something much larger, with training halls throughout the region participating as well.
Yet within such circles, where a sense of belonging took root, one thing became all the more sensitive: the education of one’s children.
For the past decade, this had been dominated almost entirely by the Dan Mok Clan, a dominance whose foundation crumbled with the death of Dan Mok Hyeon Seong. Since then, the gathering had grown somewhat withered.
After all, who would wish to boast of their own son’s accomplishments before the father of a dead child?
But then Ryeon had awakened, and the Nam Gung Clan, whose turn it was to host the gathering, had pushed hard to convene the group again in the spring of the following year.
Though it was still distant — a matter of months away — the children were excited and the adults busied themselves with preparations, while here, a young man who had not quite matured into adulthood yet remained far from being a child, stood in turmoil.
‘What if we go and the younger ones are disappointed…….’
No matter how one searched for righteousness and cooperation, the Martial Families were ultimately nothing more than a collection of blood relatives pursuing worldly gain — not a school devoted to studying the Way or virtue.
So naturally, when they gathered in such large numbers, envy and jealousy arose, and sometimes they showed each other nothing but contempt.
Dan Mok Hyeon U remembered how those same people had once hesitated even to glance at his brother when he stood at the peak of his talents — and how drastically they had changed by the time his brother was on the verge of death.
“Uncle?”
Dan Mok Hyeon U, who had been lost in worry, looked up to see a pair of eyes as bright and sparkling as stars suddenly appear before him. He swallowed a sigh and smiled.
“Ryeon, but wait…… did you finish washing already?”
“Pardon? Yes.”
For a time, Clear Lotus Water had enjoyed such surging popularity that Ryeon had become little more than a machine for producing it. But as she’d grown more skilled and the supply and demand had stabilized, she’d finally found room to breathe.
Her recent undertaking was Doraji Cheong. They’d named Dan Mok Ryeon’s special preparation “Baek Yak Cheong,” and its efficacy was undeniable — but the taste was a fatal problem.
Worried that no matter how potent the remedy was, it would never sell if it tasted so bitter and unpleasant, Ryeon had been spending whatever free time she could find working on the Doraji Cheong.
Today was the day she’d arranged to help with the preliminary work on the doraji roots themselves.
Yet Ryeon’s hands already held an entire basin full of doraji, scrubbed pristine white, while Dan Mok Hyeon U’s and Pung So Gang’s doraji roots were still caked in soil.
Pung So Gang, who had only meant to glance aside upon hearing Dan Mok Hyeon U’s astonished question, widened his eyes at the sight of the gleaming white doraji roots.
“How—how did you already finish?!”
Washing the soil from between the long fine rootlets and carefully scraping away the outer skin of each doraji was tedious and exhausting work.
The dirt seemed endless, and the doraji’s form was far from cooperative for such delicate peeling.
Yet Ryeon’s cleaned doraji gleamed as white as if the skins had already been stripped away entirely.
And it didn’t look as though she’d scrubbed them roughly either. The water held only fine sediment, and the doraji bore not a single mark.
“When I wash them gently in the water, they come clean…….”
“Could you perhaps show us how you did it?”
Pung So Gang watched Dan Mok Ryeon gratefully for Dan Mok Hyeon U’s question on his behalf.
Dan Mok Ryeon seemed somewhat embarrassed at having suddenly become the focus of attention, but after a brief moment’s thought, she took a few of Dan Mok Hyeon U’s doraji roots.
She fetched fresh water and gently swirled the roots…….
“Um…… wait? What?”
“When you do it this way, it works.”
“What?”
The soil fell away in a whisper, revealing pristine white doraji.
Dan Mok Ryeon demonstrated with a few more roots, but neither Dan Mok Hyeon U nor Pung So Gang could grasp the secret of her technique.
‘I wasn’t even trying to use Jeong Hwa, and yet here it goes anyway.’
So this was what “Normal Performance breaks down” meant? Even Ryeon found herself taken aback, glancing between the two of them.
“This won’t do. I’ll wash all the doraji myself—you two handle the other prep work. Chopping and things like that.”
Pung So Gang wondered how he could possibly entrust all the water-work to Dan Mok Ryeon alone and sagged his shoulders, but he was powerless against the way she nudged both of them aside.
In the end, Dan Mok Hyeon U capitulated.
“Right, yeah. Sure. Sure! I’m good at that. Isn’t that so, Vice-Master Pung?”
“Ah…… yes, quite so.”
Pung So Gang still gazed at nothing but the tips of Ryeon’s fingers, as though bewitched, before being drawn along by Dan Mok Hyeon U to seize a blade and begin chopping doraji.
Yet the speed at which the doraji was washed far outpaced the speed at which the two men could chop.
‘This is mortifying…’
Dan Mok Ryeon had rinsed clean an entire basin brimming with doraji in the blink of an eye, and while hovering about them, she began fanning them with a fan.
Even the breeze from the fan felt sweet. As Pung So Gang sank deeper into mortification, Ryeon spoke.
“From now on, I’ll handle washing the herbs and preparing the base.”
“No, no, Miss. How could we allow you to do such menial work…”
Such tasks had always fallen to the newest or youngest in the herb workshop. Dan Mok Ryeon shook her head firmly.
“There’s no such thing as menial work in clan affairs. I should naturally lead by example.”
She couldn’t bring herself to admit that watching them go about it at a snail’s pace was simply unbearable.
“Ah, my goodness, Miss…”
“I can swish through it faster than three people combined, you know?”
“That’s…”
There was no denying it, even under torture. Pung So Gang stared at the mountain of doraji piled before him with a hollow expression. Could roots buried in soil ever be washed so white?
‘No, truly. How can she wash things so quickly and cleanly?’
Did the direct lineage of the Martial Families possess extraordinary talent even in herb-washing? If so, what was the point of the Medicine House? The eldest grandchild would handle everything herself, wouldn’t she? She’d even produced the Clear Lotus Water alone.
Pung So Gang harbored such thoughts before glancing sidelong at Dan Mok Hyeon U. Dan Mok Hyeon U’s herb-washing wasn’t so different from his own. If anything, the difference in skill made him slightly better at it…
“Vice-Master Pung, I can tell what you’re thinking just from the look in your eyes.”
Pung So Gang started so badly he nearly cut his hand on the blade. Dan Mok Hyeon U spoke with a note of threat.
“Still, I’m better at the chopping.”
“Of course you are, sir.”
He’d spent years wielding a sword, after all—it was only natural that this kind of blade work would come easier to him. Yet Dan Mok Hyeon U, despite having bragged first himself, drooped his brows instead.

* * *

Ryeon stood with hands on her hips, surveying her work with undisguised satisfaction.
The Baek Yak Cheong was complete, sealed in jars, bound with cord, and arranged in neat rows—and her heart swelled.
“Do you think this batch will taste… acceptable?”
“Well, I… suppose…”
Even Dan Mok Hyeon U, who ordinarily gave limitless praise to his young cousin’s work, trailed off.
Doraji Cheong, made as it was with honey and sugar, shouldn’t taste either unpleasantly good as a confection or lethally bad—and yet, strangely, whenever the clan produced it, the flavor turned peculiar.
An oddly crisp and refreshing pungency mingling with bitterness into a taste difficult to describe.
The elderly were said to swallow medicine however vile if it was good for their health, but even Dan Mok Cheon Gi, Ryeon’s grandfather, had taken a sip of it diluted in water, recoiled in surprise, and coughed.
‘Sigh. Even Yun talks about it being poison or something.’
“Isn’t this the distinctive character of our Medicine House’s Baek Yak Cheong alone?”
“If the distinctive character is bad taste, won’t it not sell?”
“You’re thinking of selling this?”
Dan Mok Hyeon U looked genuinely surprised. Ryeon nodded.
“We can’t rely on the Clear Lotus Water alone. And I need to use the herbs Yeo Cheong prepared as well.”
“Ah! You mean that herb medicine woman, that herb gatherer?”
At the mention of Yeo Cheong’s name, Pung So Gang’s eyes gleamed with a sudden, restless brightness.

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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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