The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 79

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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 Young Talent — Chapter 79

“You have all worked hard to come this far.”
Though he spoke without raising his voice, his words filled the Training Grounds completely. Every collateral branch child straightened their posture and listened intently.
“Today only ten remain, but if you do not neglect your training once you return home, I shall soon call upon you again!”
His words were meant to reassure those who might fall short not to lose heart. Dan Mok Cheon Gi finished speaking curtly and glanced to the side.
Kang Rip struck the gong, and at that same moment twenty children lined up in neat rows before and behind one another.
Though they had never practiced forming such orderly ranks together and were all still too young to manage it smoothly, they soon arranged themselves well enough.
Then.
“Wait—is someone missing?”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo, resting her chin in her hand as she looked down from above, murmured the question. Hearing this, Dan Mok Hyeon U began counting the children one by one.
“You’re right. There are nineteen. One is missing.”
Murmurs rippled both from above and below. Dan Mok Ryeon pretended to hide her mouth behind a round fan, then checked each child’s name and documents one by one before speaking.
“Seo Geuk Rim? Seo Geuk Rim isn’t here.”
‘This is the boy I’ve been watching carefully.’
Seo Geuk Rim was the great-grandson of Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s cousin, and upon hearing that he possessed outstanding aptitude and had just turned eleven years old this year, she had sent an invitation for him.
Among all the children Dan Mok Ryeon had seen, he possessed the finest aptitude. Though his circumstances were not particularly well-to-do, he had the discipline to teach himself the Twelve Stars Falling Blade, which he had learned from his grandmother, up to the first star. He was a boy of true grit.
The next most talented was Dan Mok Wan, who stood in a remote corner with an anxious expression, hunched shoulders and all.
“Seo Geuk Rim? How did you know which child was missing? Have you already memorized all their faces?”
Dan Mok Han So leaned forward and spoke.
“Ah, teacher.”
“Teacher, nothing. Speak freely, young lady.”
“No, it’s just— anyway, does anyone know where this boy has gone?”
Dan Mok Ryeon looked around and asked. She posed the question to the younger children below as well, but they only whispered among themselves.
In the meantime, children who were somewhat more closely related seemed to have grown friendlier with one another, but no one appeared to have developed any connection with Seo Geuk Rim.
It was then that something else bloomed above Dan Mok Ryeon’s fan.

Dan Mok Jun
Traits: Bruised orange / Kicks over a rice bowl / Dark shadow beneath / Overgrown branch
Aptitude: Middle-Low
Worry: Could he have noticed that I fed him spoiled meat?
Advice: Pruning is required.

Dan Mok Ryeon wanted to strike her forehead with her fan.
Dan Mok Jun!
When she examined Seo Geuk Rim’s file, there were a few notes of reference listed beneath it, and among them was the name of Dan Mok Jun.

— It is noted that Dan Mok Jun and Seo Geuk Rim live in neighboring villages and have maintained contact.

The two already knew each other. So Dan Mok Jun would certainly have known of Seo Geuk Rim’s abilities.
‘I had just resolved not to hate a child who hadn’t done anything wrong yet, and now—!’
Dan Mok Ryeon’s eyes narrowed sharply as she fixed her gaze upon Dan Mok Jun.
“Dan Mok Jun!”
Though her voice was youthful, cold intensity settled into it, and everyone turned to look at her, then shifted their gaze to Dan Mok Jun.
“You left your home village together with Seo Geuk Rim and came to Hang Zhou together, didn’t you? You don’t know where he’s gone now?”
“I… I don’t?”
The boy Dan Mok Jun, who had mocked others saying ‘A genius would just sit around, wouldn’t he? Since you’re direct line, you’ll sit around. You’re collateral, so you’re here instead,’ suddenly stammered in flustered alarm.
The way he reacted with excessive surprise to a simple question about Seo Geuk Rim’s whereabouts seemed suspicious to everyone watching.
Dan Mok Ryeon’s fingertips trembled slightly. If he had eaten something spoiled, he would surely be afflicted. Vomiting and Diarrhea Chaos
(吐瀉癨亂)
— in that state, he wouldn’t have been able to make it to the Training Grounds.
‘And if he ate something spoiled in large quantities, it could be truly dangerous!’
If one consumed spoiled meat and fell ill from it, it was quite possible to die from it outright.
“I… I don’t really know much about Seo Geuk Rim. I’m sorry.”
‘I see right through those darting eyes!’
“Aren’t you curious that the friend who came all this way with you hasn’t shown up for the final trial?”
“What? Oh, no, well…… It’s just that Seo Geuk Rim is terribly timid…… He kept saying he was afraid of the final trial!”
Rather than interrogate Dan Mok Jun without a shred of evidence, Ryeon turned her face toward her grandfather beside her.
“Grandfather, send a physician and someone to the Guest Hall lodgings right now, or I should go and check……!”
That was the moment.
“S-Seo Geuk Rim, I’ve arrived, I’ve arrived! I apologize for being late!”
A boy with a pallid, gaunt face stumbled halfway through the entrance.
Despite the brisk autumn chill, cold sweat beaded on his forehead and chin, and his limbs trembled so visibly that anyone could see he was unwell.

Seo Geuk Rim
Twelve Stars Falling Blade : 1 Star
Infinite Footwork : 1 Star
Aptitude and Five Stars : Upper-Lower
Ailment: Beast Meat Poison from consuming spoiled meat.
Purification will help.

“Ah, young lady……?”
Though still young, Seo Geuk Rim had a serious disposition and rarely left the Guest Hall, so he had never exchanged direct greetings with Ryeon—but he had caught glimpses of her from afar several times.
Even then, he had recognized her at once: ‘That must be Dan Mok Ryeon.’
Her features were finely drawn, and her eyes gleamed with a crystalline brightness. Sometimes he saw her with her younger siblings or cousins; most often she moved busily from place to place.
Occasionally she stood gazing at the flowers while conversing with a servant boy, and at those moments Seo Geuk Rim had always thought vaguely that she seemed like a good person.
A person who cares for each withered petal—what else could she be but good?
That same girl, whom he had thought of only from a distance, now stood directly before him. In his confusion, Seo Geuk Rim tried to bow, but his legs trembled beneath him and nausea welled up; he could not move properly. His lips had grown so dry they cracked and bled.
“Are you all right? Are you sick?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine!”
Seized by the thought that he might be sent away for his lateness, Seo Geuk Rim cried out desperately.
At that moment, Ryeon seized his wrist. The motion was as smooth as a carp gliding through water—the same technique her grandfather had used when he tried to trace her inner strength through her wrist.
“W-what is…….”
“Just a moment.”
And with that, Ryeon channeled Purification into him.
Given how weakened Seo Geuk Rim’s body was, she could not give much, and her intention was only to treat the immediate Beast Meat Poison—the food poisoning from the spoiled meat.

Warning!
Purification demanding sudden state change consumes a large quantity of Spiritual Energy.
Spiritual Energy: 13 / 100 (-30)

‘What?! No, that—they should have warned me!’
Her Spiritual Energy plummeted in one breath, and dizziness crashed over her. If it had dropped just three points further, disaster would have struck.
It would have been Dan Mok Ryeon retching and staggering, not Seo Geuk Rim.

Ryeon wiped cold sweat from her brow inwardly, thinking hard. Thirty Spiritual Energy points had vanished just to ease his food poisoning—not even to cure it completely, merely to let him endure for now. How much would it take to purify a person’s Heart Demon?
‘Two hundred, three hundred? I’d die before finishing.’
In that brief moment, the nausea and dizziness faded. Seo Geuk Rim blinked in shock.
“I…… What just…….”
“Can you manage? Will you be all right?”
“Yes? Yes! Yes, I can do this!”
To anyone watching, it seemed Ryeon had simply come over and steadied him a little, and now Seo Geuk Rim appeared reinvigorated.
Yet only Dan Mok Cheon Gi, seated on the platform, watched with sharp eyes as Ryeon returned to her place.
As she sat, Dan Mok Cheon Gi covered his granddaughter’s hand with his own, warming it. The cold that had drained from Ryeon’s hand began to yield beneath her grandfather’s palm.
“Does the boy seem all right to you?”
“Yes, Grandfather. He’ll manage.”
In that moment, Ryeon’s mind was turning over the facts. Dan Mok Jun was still just a child—a few years from adulthood at most, even if he might become a calamity to the clan in time.
It gave her a chill that even a child could orchestrate such a thing, and yet it seemed unlikely he had executed it with such deliberation.
‘There must be evidence somewhere…….’
She thought a thorough search of the Guest Hall would yield something. Ryeon wrote quickly with her brush and handed the note to Jung Yeong behind her.

Jung Yeong scanned the words written on the paper, gave a respectful bow to Ryeon, then slipped quietly and swiftly from the Training Grounds.
One person arrived late, stumbling slightly, and with the direct bloodline conducting the assessment having sent someone out separately, it was as good as a signal that something had gone wrong.
Dan Mok Jun’s eyes, watching from the platform, wavered anxiously back and forth.
Yet the assessment continued without further delay.
“Medicinal Hall Master.”
At Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s call, Dan Mok Hyeon U rose from his seat.
“Come forward one at a time and face him.”
The young children stared at Dan Mok Hyeon U with visible tension on their faces.
Seeing his tall frame, a few seemed to shrink, their shoulders sagging, but others clenched their teeth and their eyes blazed—eyes brimming with the determination to prove themselves in any way they could.
Dan Mok Hyeon U, observing the tense children, touched the back of his neck with a touch of awkwardness, then glanced up at the platform.
Ryeon met his gaze and smiled, nodding encouragement.

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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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