The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 73

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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 Ruined Great House’s Fading Covenant — Chapter 73

After playing shadow puppets for so long that their fingers grew sore from the constant bickering, they finally collapsed in exhaustion.
During a moment of natural silence that settled between them, Ryeon gazed quietly at Hwa Ryun sprawled across the chair, and on an impulse of guilt, thoroughly mussed her hair.
Hwa Ryun grumbled that after all that play, she was going to torture her—but unlike usual, she didn’t pull her hand away.
“You don’t have to worry about anything.”
“I’m not worrying.”
“It’s a good thing you’re so cute.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you weren’t, I’d flick you on the forehead a hundred times, I really would.”
Ryeon pretended to flick her, then gently smoothed Hwa Ryun’s hair and took both of her hands in hers.
The hands that had once been rough and thin and small had somehow grown a little longer and softer.
‘Sigh. I’ve worried even my younger siblings because of myself.’
Ryeon steeled her resolve.
For her own sake, for the sake of her brothers who worried over her, and most of all for the sake of Dan Mok Hyeon U himself—she could not afford to drag this out any longer.
‘I’ll settle it all in one stroke.’

* * *

In the deepest part of Wol Yeong Jae, the sound of tea being poured echoed quietly. Ryeon offered a cup infused with refined Spirit Energy. Dan Mok Cheon Gi closed his eyes and savored the fragrance of the tea.
The scars etched across Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s face remained unchanged, yet he appeared visibly more at ease.
“I thought you’d keep grasping at the Dao and studying it.”
“I told you I’d study with you only until Seong’s martial trial, didn’t I?”
“Hmph. I thought you’d find it so engaging that you’d stay the course. Something about how it’s a joy to have sisters studying side by side—that sort of thing.”
Upon hearing her grandfather’s pointed remark, Ryeon smiled brightly.
“I need to keep learning the blade from you. The blade is the most fun thing!”
Having indulged her grandfather’s grumbling a little, Ryeon glanced down at the fan spread open on her lap.

Dan Mok Cheon Gi
Traits: Guardian of the Martial World / Tendon Collector / Non-Flying Bird / Beheld the Orbit of the Stars
Twelve Stars Falling Blade: 12 stars
Infinite Footwork: 12 stars
Meteoric True Seal: 11 stars
Aptitude and Five Elements: Upper-Middle
Concern: Dan Mok Ryeon’s power, his own duty
Guidance: There is time enough now. Do not rush at anything.

Ryeon was beginning to notice that this information did not reveal everything.
It did not disclose the gentler energy that had grown in Dan Mok Cheon Gi, nor the deeper cultivation that now dwelt within him.
‘I have to figure it out myself.’
“Before next spring, when I attend Gyeong Hang Un Ryeon, I’m thinking of calling in the Branch Line children to the clan.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about it.”
Because the clan’s circumstances had been difficult, they had postponed accepting and training the Branch Line children.
“Has Seol Gak Ju been prattling on about it in meticulous detail?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi narrowed his eyes as he asked, and Ryeon glanced down at the tea leaves before responding.
“It’s all my money, so of course she should tell me about it. Who else would she tell?”
“Isn’t that money from selling things made in the clan’s medical hall?”
“Then should I keep only the material costs for the clan and take the rest myself?”
“Would you do that?”
Ryeon had asked it playfully, but a far more serious answer than she expected came back.
She looked up, a little taken aback. Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s expression was calm.
“Take it. It’s money you earned. That is the right thing.”
Ryeon understood what Dan Mok Cheon Gi was thinking.
“Are you worried that because of that money, a situation might come about where you’d have no choice but to make me the House Master later?”
……
Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s eyes deepened as he heard Ryeon’s reply.
With the money Ryeon had earned, she was repairing the crumbling estates, paying those who had served the clan faithfully, and now finally beginning the education of the Branch Line children that had been postponed for so long.
Thanks to Ryeon’s help, Dan Mok Cheon Gi had overcome his injuries, Yu Seong had broken through his limits with Dan Mok Han So’s new enlightenment, and even Dan Mok Seong, another granddaughter, had found her footing—but all of this lay in the invisible realm.
“Do you think I’ll cry and throw a tantrum, saying it’s absurd if you don’t appoint me as House Master?”
Ryeon laughed at her own words, a bright, clear sound.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi watched her and tried to calm the burning within. Just then, her gaze drifted momentarily to some distant place before returning.
“No, it’s this—when you pass the clan to me later, will there be people saying I became House Master only because of my own money?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi could neither deny it nor continue speaking.
He knew Ryeon’s abilities and his heart inclined toward her, but only those who stand in high places can see far ahead.
For those in low places, the light must be shown nearby.
That light was Martial Arts.
“Didn’t you say to do everything you could about my Spirit Energy?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi let out a heavy sigh.
“But if, by some chance, you couldn’t manage it—does that worry you?”
“……Yes.”
“Then if I withdraw all my money, what will you use to recruit new disciples?”
“Money……money has a way of appearing from somewhere, as it always does.”
“Since you haven’t reached out to Pung Lim Jeon Zhang until now, are you planning to borrow from them for the first and last time?”
“……Yes.”
Even as the clan’s fortunes crumbled, he had not considered accepting help through his daughter’s marriage house, because no path appeared before him even if that help opened a way.
Dan Mok Cheon Gi now admitted to himself that he had been in despair.
When no path could be seen, he should have lit a fire within himself and found the way—but he had not.
He could not.
Once counted among the greatest under heaven, he could not overcome even his injuries; the injustice of it and his inability to accept his present self, seeing his son sacrificed for the Martial World fade from memory until he could not sleep at night—because of all this, he had come this far while merely watching his daughter strain to do something, anything. Granddaughter had laid a foundation for him; now he must stand and climb upon it himself.
He was still Dan Mok Cheon Gi, was he not the Former House Master of this Dan Mok Clan?
Ryeon studied her grandfather quietly, then lowered her gaze.
“Grandfather.”
“Yes?”
“You gave it to me—the Ten Thousand Year Ultimate Blood Treasure. That’s the price.”
“Insolent words! Who asks their granddaughter to repay medicine they bought for her?”
“But Yu Seong also lost his internal energy, didn’t he? That’s something money can’t buy at any price.”
“That’s something to be grateful for, not repaid. And you don’t know it, but he too transcended his limits because of you.”
Though she already knew, Ryeon only smiled.
“That’s just because he’s such a remarkable martial master.”
“How could that be so?”
“More than that, I’ve been thinking about why he did so much for someone like me, who can barely speak properly.”
There was only one reason.
Because he devoted his loyalty to Dan Mok Cheon Gi, and loved the Dan Mok Clan as he did.
“He has no interest in wealth and glory, no interest in rising higher than others—he only wishes for the Dan Mok Clan to prosper. So I thought, couldn’t I repay his kindness by governing the Dan Mok Clan well?”
Dan Mok Han So, who devoted his loyalty only to Dan Mok Cheon Gi who loved the Dan Mok Clan, had decided to freely give his own time—priceless beyond gold itself—to lift up the House Master’s granddaughter.
In his previous life, would he have regretted it?
When he saw Dan Mok Ryeon awaken with only just over twenty years lived, having died young and remained bedridden until the end.
When he saw his own internal energy vanish ephemerally within that sickly girl’s veins…….
Ryeon pushed away the sadness creeping in. That was already a forgotten past.
“……Ryeon.”
“There will be a way. And even if there isn’t, I’ll find one. Don’t worry.”
Sensing the air had grown heavy, Ryeon hurried to change the subject.
“Rather than that, Grandfather—since I’ve spent so much money, when you select the Branch Line children, may I choose a few myself?”
“You, directly?”
Not all Branch Line children were accepted as martial artists of the clan. They were selected and taught only after their Aptitude and resolve were confirmed.
So Ryeon’s plan was to use her Status Window to find children with exceptional Talent buried and overlooked, then choose them.
‘Now that I think about it, this is like asking for a favor hire.’
Giving money and having the people I want placed in positions.
If Ryeon hadn’t been a sickly girl merely occupying a seat until she was nine years old, it truly might have come to that.
“You understand that selecting disciples who will be pillars of the clan is not the same as choosing children to be your friends, yes?”
“Of course. Grandfather, someone who has earned money directly knows they cannot spend it carelessly.”
Truth be told, earning money earnestly usually triggers a compensation instinct that makes one spend freely, but the stronger thought that the clan must be revived prevented that from happening.
“Are you a child of a martial family, or from some merchant’s house? Where did you—ah, never mind.”
As Ryeon spoke with a touch of bragging, Dan Mok Cheon Gi clicked his tongue as if to scold her, but ended up laughing instead.

“It’s a promise!”
“All right, all right.”
“And one more thing.”
“Another one?!”
“Once the children start coming, we’ll need instructors to teach them, won’t we? That’s the thing…….”
Ryeon leaned forward and continued in a soft whisper.

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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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