The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 75

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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 Fated Bloodline — Episode 75

As a boy, he’d paid to enter a martial academy to learn the craft, but they’d failed to teach him properly, twisting his Qi and Blood in the process.
Unable to build true internal energy with a body corrupted that way, he’d been cast out of the academy without recompense or apology—Baek Ui Myeong had never recovered a single coin of what he’d paid.
Yet the young Baek Ui Myeong refused to surrender. If internal energy was beyond him, he reasoned, then External Martial Arts would have to suffice. He threw himself into training with the desperation of a man chasing death.
Without internal energy, he could never aspire to the heights of Sword Qi Wounding—

but he believed he might at least reach the levels beneath it.
And he did.
Though in the process he’d tumbled through darker paths, drawn eventually to the attention of Ha O Mun—that organization even Hek Cheon Ryeon watched cautiously—

he’d made his way nonetheless.
The boy said as much, then sighed shortly, lifted his head to study the sun, and clenched his fist.
Watching that small hand, Baek Ui Myeong thought idly to himself that this must be what they meant by a child’s delicate grip.
“I figured it was time I had someone around. It’ll hurt a bit, but bear with it.”
“Ha, little one. Why do you keep muttering to yourself like that— Urgh!”
And then it began.
He was simply being beaten. Like clothes pounded clean on a riverbank, or dust being knocked from a hung quilt.
Though the boy’s frame was half his own size, Baek Ui Myeong couldn’t block a single blow.
East, a flash—west, a flash—bare fists only, yet he was pummeled helplessly until, in one careless moment, he fell face-down, and from then on he could only endure the onslaught.
Had he possessed internal energy, his name would have spread across the entire Martial World by now; even without it, he took pride in his strength among his peers—
“Ack! Gah! Gah! Ahhhhh!”
He’d trained only in External Martial Arts, and had always boasted of his durability as unmatched, yet each of the boy’s small fists felt as if daggers were being driven through his organs.
Halfway through, tears and snot began to flow unbidden.
He wanted to beg forgiveness, but screaming was all that would come from his mouth.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the boy’s hands and feet stilled.
Baek Ui Myeong, crumpled tight with his arms shielding his face, lay there for a long moment, then held his breath and cautiously raised his head—
“Heeeeee!”
“Where do you live?”
The boy’s face was inches from his own, and Baek Ui Myeong shrieked.
The boy, looking oddly refreshed, frowned at the scream and moved his hand again.
Suddenly Baek Ui Myeong’s voice caught in his throat. No matter how hard he tried to scream, nothing emerged.
“Ah! Should’ve pressed the Dumb Acupoint—

right away. Thought I’d die from the noise.”
‘I thought I really was dying!’
Tears still streamed down his face. But the boy paid him no mind, carefully securing the young lady’s pouch before speaking.
“I’ll release the point, so don’t scream and answer my questions properly. Understood? If not, it’ll hurt a bit more.”
‘A bit more? If this is just “a bit,” what does real pain even feel like?’
Baek Ui Myeong would have bitten his own tongue if he’d had the fortitude, but he knew himself well enough to understand he didn’t. Through tears, he could only nod.
“Where do you live?”
“I, I live near the Hwan Byeok Ru—

over there.”
“You’re rich enough to eat and sleep in a pavilion, yet you stole this? Why?”
“I, I don’t pay for my room and board myself. I work there, you know, throwing out troublesome customers and such…… That’s how I get by.”
Fear and broken spirit made him slip naturally into formal speech before a child.
‘He’s no ordinary master. How could a child reach such heights? Is he someone who achieved Return to Youth—

a true grandmaster?’
The thought rose like a sob, but understanding soon followed.
‘Wait.’
Return to Youth.
When a master of extraordinary skill transcends all limits and achieves supreme mastery, they revert not merely to youth but to a child’s form.
With that thought, everything aligned.
‘Then is it possible the young lady who was with him is his granddaughter?’
The boy’s delicate features marked him unmistakably as someone of noble birth, and his shabby clothes could be explained away easily enough—
‘People grow old and prefer comfort above all. They dress carelessly.’
“Hmm. With your skill level… is that even possible? Could you actually drive someone away?”
“I don’t lack skill, I lack internal energy!”
“You seemed to lack both.”
Curses gathered on his tongue, but he lacked the courage to speak them aloud.
“In any case, Hwan Byeok Ru. Understood. Go and wait there. If you run, you die. I’m not joking.”
“W-w-wait? What do you mean, what—”
Suddenly the world turned pitch black before his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to die. All this because he’d stolen a single pouch—what had he done to deserve this?
“I think you’ll be useful to me. You’re dim-witted, I’ll grant you, but you’ve got grit. That’s not nothing.”
The way this boy spoke such things right to his face—he was clearly someone like the great demon-head of some force, someone who’d undergone the Return to Youth technique.
Tears began streaming from Baek Ui Myeong’s eyes unbidden.
The threat of pursuit felt very real. Goosebumps erupted across his entire body.
“I—I really, truly apologize. Going forward, I’ll reform myself and donate everything I stole, and live that way, I swear—”
“Do what you like with that. As for me, I’m leaving now. Remember—run and you die. Though when you get back, I doubt you’ll want to run anyway.”
The boy laughed quietly and struck Baek Ui Myeong’s back once more before rising to his feet.
A pain like a bamboo stalk split cleanly in two engulfed him, and Baek Ui Myeong lost consciousness entirely.

* * *

“Hwa Ryun! Where have you been?”
“There was a vendor selling Candied Berry Treats nearby. I went to buy some. And I found this too. It’s your pouch, isn’t it?”
“What?”
Dan Mok Ryeon glanced down at her waist and released a long sigh.
“My cultivation is still lacking. I lost something and didn’t even notice it was gone.”
‘Having abundant Spiritual Energy doesn’t mean I sense things well. That’s a matter of internal energy and Energy Sensing…’
So with Dan Mok Cheon Gi, she had agreed to explore what else this Spiritual Energy might be used for, beyond Clear Lotus Water and Hundred Herb Clear—but neither had yet found a suitable method.
“Here now, young lady. I’ll look after this.”
The Nurse hurried forward and took the pouch, tucking it safely away. As Dan Mok Ryeon, Hwa Ryun, and the Nurse huddled together murmuring, Jeong Young, who had been standing at a distance, approached.
“Young lady, is something the matter?”
“Nothing at all. I must have dropped my pouch earlier. Hwa Ryun found it while buying the treats.”
“…My negligence in failing to notice, young lady. I apologize.”
“Don’t say that. Here, share these with your partner.”
As Dan Mok Ryeon selected two Candied Berry Treats to give to her escort, Jeong Young found herself meeting Hwa Ryun’s gaze—a look that seemed to pierce right through her.
‘What—what is this?’
Under that look of disdain and dim-wittedness, Jeong Young swallowed hard.
She should have felt offended, yet instead she found herself tense—as if being scolded by a master after making a mistake.
The moment Jeong Young took the Candied Berry Treat from Dan Mok Ryeon’s hands, that gaze deepened, then vanished entirely when Dan Mok Ryeon glanced back at Hwa Ryun.
“But where did you get money for these treats?”
“You gave me allowance last time, didn’t you?”
“If you spend it on things like that, what will you use for yourself? I gave that to you for your own needs—”
“That’s what I did. I used it.”
Watching Hwa Ryun, Dan Mok Ryeon found her endearing and reached out to ruffle her hair—but Hwa Ryun scampered away and hid behind the Nurse—before she popped a red berry from the Candied Berry Treat into her mouth.
“Well, since I’ve confirmed Yeo Cheong is doing well today, shall we head back?”
Dan Mok Ryeon had come seeking Yak Yeo Cheong today to settle the matter of Yak Cho Dang buying her medicinal herbs at a pittance.
Dan Mok Ryeon felt it was unforgivable, but Yak Yeo Cheong shook her head.
Even at that cheap price, it was the only place that had bought her herbs, she said. Without it, she couldn’t have survived those difficult months before meeting Dan Mok Ryeon—so let that be enough.
‘Let that be enough? What are you saying!’
If Yak Cho Dang had prospered because of Yak Yeo Cheong’s herbs, shouldn’t it collapse now? Yak Yeo Cheong had laughed innocently at this.
Yet fearing that Yak Yeo Cheong might be alone while gathering herbs, and worry over what might happen to the old woman in her absence, they had concluded by deciding to move Yak Yeo Cheong’s dwelling within the Dan Mok Family Estate.
“Now we should head back… Oh? Uncle!”
Dan Mok Ryeon’s eyes went wide upon encountering an unexpected figure.
Seok Ban An, emerging from a small pigment shop nearby, approached her in equal surprise.
“Ryeon, it is you. Are you out today?”
“There’s a medicinal herb gatherer I hired living near here. I came to check how she was doing. What about you, Uncle?”
“Ah, I was looking to procure some ink and pigments. I prefer to see and choose them myself, you understand.”
“Did you buy many beautiful ones?”
“This time I found a lovely bright orange pigment. Tong Huang Fen”

And the color is very deep, almost a beautiful yellow. When I returned to the Dan Mok Family Estate, the osmanthus was blooming so prettily that I thought I might try to paint it.”
Thanks to Dan Mok Ryeon’s Spiritual Energy spreading outward, the withered garden came alive, and various flowers bloomed there, but among them what Dan Mok Ryeon loved most was the osmanthus.
As a result, Wi Ji Cheong cut down osmanthus branches and planted them, sought out saplings and planted those too, and tended them with such care that one couldn’t say where it ended.
For fear that Wi Ji Cheong might grieve if the flowers withered, Dan Mok Ryeon also devoted herself to their care, and now the entire Dan Mok Family Estate was filled with the sweet fragrance of osmanthus blossoms and the flowers themselves.

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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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