The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 86

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

A Doomed Great Family’s Time-Limited Elixir — Chapter 86

“Dan Mok Ryeon’s posture is almost like a textbook itself — always watch it carefully.”
Heat crept up my neck at the praise. But Dan Mok Hyeon U wore the expression of someone stating a simple fact, unbothered by my embarrassment.
‘Uncle gets to do it, but I don’t!’
Dan Mok Hyeon U himself was somewhat overshadowed by Dan Mok Hyeon Seong’s brilliance, though he lacked nothing in talent or skill.
But what could be done? My uncle had decided to showcase his exceptional niece’s abilities and use that to improve the children’s training.
‘Fine. Better they learn from a correct stance than pick up strange habits.’
My posture was accurate — it couldn’t have been more precise than the forms I’d learned through my Heart Method and expressed through harmony.
I drew a deep breath to settle my nerves, then began moving the wooden sword in my hands with fluid grace.
Everyone here already knew the basics of the Twelve Stars Falling Blade, yet their eyes gleamed with fresh interest.
Surely what the Direct Lineage of Dan Mok Cheon Gi was about to show them would be something different!
But when my demonstration ended, an oddly strained and heavy silence fell over the training ground.
“Hah…! It’s… finished. What?”
Everyone was watching me with faces that seemed somehow deflated. I’d expected to meet eager, flushed expressions — or at least polite enthusiasm — but instead I saw them shrink back, and a spike of alarm shot through me.
‘Did I come across too serious? No, they have to learn to be strong!’
Dan Mok Hyeon U cleared his throat and pointed the end of his Teaching Staff at my feet.
The ground beneath lay smooth and unmarked — not a single footprint remained.
“Do you see? Where a strong blade passes, nothing remains behind. You must learn to think of Footwork Method and Form together as one.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Train steadily, and in no time you’ll all reach this level.”
“Really…? We could actually…?”
Dan Mok Wan asked in a small, hesitant voice. His gentle nature kept him from asking many questions, but the blade technique I’d just shown seemed to have struck something deep within him.
“Of course. You’re all the finest talents our Clan has to offer!”
Dan Mok Hyeon U spoke with warmth, and at last a warm glow of hope bloomed across the children’s faces.
Yet among them, the stern-looking boy Mae Sin Yu kept his brow furrowed, his eyes flickering between my hands and feet, studying every detail.

* * *

“But about those Black Valley Pills… we’re really allowed to take them?”
Dan Mok Gyul, a well-built boy among my peers, asked the question carefully.
Dan Mok Gyul had been born into a reasonably comfortable family and showed no shortage of talent, so he’d been diligently studying swordplay before this opportunity to come to the main household.
“Um, we’re allowed to…? Or not?”
Dan Mok Wan echoed the question in his timid voice.
After the evening meal, we’d gathered in small clusters in the courtyard outside our quarters, chatting casually. That’s when Dan Mok Gyul had glanced around carefully, leaned close, and begun to whisper.
“I heard something once — that some martial families raise collateral branch children, get them loyal and under control, and trick them into swallowing poison disguised as elixir.”
“Huh…? Really?”
“Yeah. So if they don’t obey orders, they suffer pain — that’s how it works.”
“But poison just kills you if you swallow it — how could something like that even work?”
“Uh…”
Dan Mok Gyul trailed off, as if he hadn’t thought that far, then quickly added his explanation.
“Right, so it doesn’t kill you outright — it just causes pain, you know? And if you don’t take the antidote, then you die. So to survive, I’d have no choice but to do whatever the Direct Lineage tells me…!”
Having woven the pieces of his story together, Dan Mok Gyul beamed. But his cheerfulness crumbled at the next voice.
“But if they’re going to that much trouble, is there really anything they’d need you to do?”
Mae Sin Yu’s cutting remark left Dan Mok Gyul blinking in confusion.
“What?”
“I mean, you can already handle anything they’d ask you to, right?”
Dan Mok Hyeon U was a pleasant and capable teacher, but he wasn’t lenient either. We all knew we were still stumbling along like toddlers in the martial arts.
“That’s… not really the point.”
“So why would they spend expensive poison on you while ordering you around?”
“Poison is expensive?”
“Haven’t you heard that you can’t even buy Immortality Herbs with gold bars?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Poison is the same. Killing someone costs as much as saving someone. If our family had that kind of money lying around, they’d be too busy buying Inner Pills for themselves.”
“Oh… I guess so. But if someday we grew up and became, you know, the best martial artists in the land…”
“Looking at you, it’s crystal clear that we’re already losing out on the deal. Even the greatest martial artist under heaven has to have brains.”
“Wait—you’ve already been swayed by the Direct Lineage?!”
Mae Sin Yu fixed Dan Mok Gyु with a gaze that made no effort to conceal his contempt.
“Then what are you even doing here?”
“Well… to learn martial arts… and become the greatest under heaven.”
“Ah, is that so? Then why is the Dan Mok Clan teaching you martial arts without charging you a thing?”
“No, it’s not like that. If I become a member of the Yu Seong Eighteen Lodges and bring honor to the clan as a swordsman of the Dan Mok Clan, then it’s good for the clan too…”
“And who does the Yu Seong Eighteen Lodges take orders from?”
“Well… the Patriarch…?”
“And the Patriarch—is that not the Direct Lineage? What else is he?”
“Oh… well… yeah, that’s right?”
Dan Mok Gyु scratched his head as he answered. Mae Sin Yu clicked his tongue and stood up abruptly. Dan Mok Gyु’s face flushed with embarrassment.
“I… I just thought it was an interesting topic to mention…”
“If you go around saying someone might poison you, do you think that’s funny?”
“No…”
“Then what happens to you if the Direct Lineage—the ones who could actually poison you—hear that and take offense? You’ve come this far; try thinking for once.”
With that final remark, Mae Sin Yu swept away from the room. A chill hung in the air among the children.
“Um… I think I’ll go too… to review what we learned today…”
“Me too…”
And soon everyone had left, leaving only Seo Geuk Rim and Dan Mok Gyु behind. Dan Mok Gyु looked at Seo Geuk Rim with an expression of lost bewilderment.
“Did… did I really make such a big mistake?”
Seo Geuk Rim stared at Dan Mok Gyु with an impassive face before letting out a heavy sigh.
“What the Young Mistress gives you every week isn’t something born from thoughts like yours.”
“…?”
Dan Mok Gyु’s eyes widened in surprise.
“If you’d grasped even a shred of the Heart Method, you wouldn’t have said such things.”
“But… we only just learned the incantation for the Heart Method the other day…”
“Mae Sin Yu grasped the subtleties of the Heart Method that very evening. That’s why he knew what the Black Valley Pill was.”
Seo Geuk Rim recalled what Mae Sin Yu had worried about in a different sense.
— I’ve heard he made a lot of money from Clear Lotus Water, but can he really afford to feed us something like this every week?
By Seo Geuk Rim’s count, only three out of ten had truly grasped the Heart Method. Himself, Dan Mok Wan, and Mae Sin Yu.
The moment all three had sensed even the smallest inkling of the Heart Method’s mysteries, they’d realized what they’d been consuming all along.
What that Vital Energy was, circling so quietly near the dantian. It wasn’t much, but it was soft and gentle and obedient—pure True Qi waiting only for them to digest it.
Mae Sin Yu, with his characteristic keen intuition, had sensed it and spoken to Seo Geuk Rim first.
— The Young Mistress of the Direct Lineage wears the same Martial Uniform as us, or else just goes around in faded plain clothes, and we’re eating a small Spirit Pill every week?
After hearing those words, Seo Geuk Rim finally recalled the Young Mistress’s appearance.
He’d never truly noticed before—he usually only caught glimpses of her face, and most times he found himself unable to meet her eyes, keeping his head bowed.
— If she invests like this in us and never recovers it, what then?
That word—investment—snapped Seo Geuk Rim into focus.
That was it. The headquarters was now investing in these collateral branch children. And investing a considerable sum at that.
Mae Sin Yu had been terribly anxious ever since grasping even a hint of the Heart Method days ago—like a man burdened with an unwanted debt as tall as mountains.
Dan Mok Wan, meanwhile, had changed somehow. Still timid by nature, but there was something eerily luminous in his eyes. Whenever the Young Mistress appeared at the practice hall, Dan Mok Wan was always the first to run to her.
‘Maybe Wan is the happiest among us, after all.’
Seo Geuk Rim thought of the small Gold Osmanthus branch that Dan Mok Wan had shown off—the Young Mistress had broken it off for him, he’d said. It still hadn’t withered; the fragrance was still vivid.
“No, I really just… thought it was interesting and funny that there was such a story. I didn’t mean it was definitely like that with our clan, truly!”
“Well, everyone finds that kind of talk tiresome, so don’t do it anymore.”
“Yes, I understand. I won’t, I promise!”
“Good. Sleep well, then.”
“Wait, Geuk Rim! Hold on, just a moment. Did you grasp the Heart Method too? Could you teach me a bit?”
“Even if I explained it, you wouldn’t understand.”
“Still, come on? Please~!”
“All right…”
That word—investment—kept circling through his mind.
He’d only thought about how disappointed Dan Mok Ryeon would be if this investment failed, yet his chest felt so heavy and suffocated that Seo Geuk Rim couldn’t bring himself to shake off the clinging Dan Mok Gyु and led him along instead.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————