The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 87

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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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A Fading Great Family’s Limited Time and Elixir — Episode 87

“But just because other people tell entertaining stories doesn’t mean you should come home and repeat them in front of everyone.”
“Okay, okay. I listen well. Really.”
“Even if you hear something strange, tell me or Mae Sin Yu first. And only if we both think it’s fine should you pass it on to the others. Do you understand?”
“M-Mae Sin Yu too?”
Hadn’t Mae Sin Yu just left after humiliating everyone in front of the group moments ago? Dan Mok Gyu hesitated slightly, but Seo Geuk Rim spoke with firmness.
“Yes, Mae Sin Yu too.”
“Understood…… So you’re really going to teach me? The Internal Method?”
“I can tell you about it, but I’m not sure how much you’ll be able to grasp. It’s not so different from what the Medicine Patriarch taught you.”
“Okay, okay! That’s fine, that’s fine.”
“And besides, there’s that letter Young Mistress wrote on the first day, isn’t there? Wasn’t there a discussion about what was written in it?”
“Huh? I don’t remember…….”
“Read that first. She only wrote down what would be helpful.”
“Is it something like a secret manual? It had that kind of feel to it.”
Seo Geuk Rim scratched his cheek. Now that he thought about it, that wasn’t entirely wrong. After all, it contained writings about the subtleties and achievements of Martial Arts.
The special thing about it was that it had been tailored specifically for one person.
“Yeah, that’s right. It’s like a secret manual. A secret manual Young Mistress wrote.”
“I see. Then I’ll need to look at it again.”
Thus was born the
Nang Lang Secret Manual
.

* * *

Baek Ui Myeong never thought it would come to this.
He stared at Dan Mok Jun, who had attached himself to his side with sparkling eyes, and could only swallow hard, over and over.
“This is driving me insane…….”
“Sir, sir! I can do anything you ask!”
“Then.”
Why don’t you go home?
The words rose to his throat only to sink back down. Looking at that earnest expression, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Baek Ui Myeong hunched his shoulders heavily and shuffled forward with heavy steps.
Not long ago, he had been eager, practicing the Concealment Technique, but now he wished to shout his existence to the whole world. His sorrow.
‘How did things come to this?’
He had come all this way following the orders of that elder—and Baek Ui Myeong had begun calling Ban Ro Hwan Dong an elder in his mind—to follow this boy. That much was fine.
To be honest, there had been many moments along the way where his spirits might have broken. It started from the moment he left Hang Zhou.
You never said I had to travel this far!
He had brought almost nothing but enough coin for a cup of roadside wine. Yet he had forced himself to follow along anyway.
Worried about leaving his room at Huan Bi Lou vacant without a word on when he’d return, he’d even sent a costly Communication Pigeon.
And after coming all this way following that boy…….
— You’re the one who fell behind and only Seo’s son stuck with you? What is this nonsense?
— Did I not tell you repeatedly that you must perform well?
— You couldn’t even manage that one thing, so what exactly do you intend to accomplish?
— And cast out from the main family no less? What is this? Who told you to do such a thing?
Crack!
Even Baek Ui Myeong had been genuinely shocked then.
The old man who appeared to be the grandfather wouldn’t even let the boy inside after his long journey home—instead, he stood him outside in the cold autumn wind and slapped his face.
Then he ordered a servant to bring a rod. And with all his strength, he brought that dark wooden rod down, again and again.
The boy couldn’t even cry out from the beating. How could Baek Ui Myeong simply watch?
— Aaaagh! Stop! Stop!
Baek Ui Myeong, who had been watching in secret, leaped forward without hesitation. He had to shield the descending rod with his body, and after the elder’s pursuit of the Qi and Blood technique, his body felt as though it might fly—so the blows didn’t even hurt.
But the eyes of that blood-stained young boy looking at him blankly, eyes so accustomed to submission—such eyes they were.
‘This crazy old bastard has some strength in him.’
Even upon seeing Baek Ui Myeong suddenly intervene, the family grandfather only flew into greater fury.
‘Where did this ruffian crawl out from?’ — that’s how it started, and then he hollered at them all to throw out every useless wretch, and the whole household descended into chaos, but right in the middle of it, this boy.
— I… I don’t need this dump of a house either!
And that was that.
“This is driving me mad…….”
‘The old man didn’t send me here for this.’
The boy had been struck so hard his lips were bleeding, and his eyes blazed with venom as he glared at his grandfather — but the old man didn’t even blink.
Behind that unmoved elder stood a thin, small girl with her shoulders hunched, looking utterly cowed.
Baek Ui Myeong read the entire situation in a glance. This family had pinned their hopes on the eldest, and when disappointed, simply turned their gaze toward the second.
When the chaos finally subsided, the boy approached him with desperate eyes swimming with wounds, hatred, and confusion.
Baek Ui Myeong went pale.
He didn’t need to think twice. In all this time, in this household, no one had ever stepped forward for this child.
‘What kind of parents are these people?’
And so this boy, merely because a stranger he’d just met had protected him once, now gazed up at Baek Ui Myeong with such desperate longing.
— I’ll do anything you ask. Anywhere you go is fine, please just take me with you……!
He begged to be taken away, and no amount of discouragement, scolding, or stern words made any difference.
His own family — parents and grandfather — never even came looking for him.
Instead, the second child came rushing out to Baek Ui Myeong and Dan Mok Jun, and only then did the parents arrive in the cold with nothing but an outer robe, searching for their youngest.
When Baek Ui Myeong tried to say something about how they shouldn’t beat a child like that, all he got was ‘Don’t meddle in other people’s family affairs.’
The parents left weeping, dragging their daughter away against her will to stay with her older brother, but Dan Mok Jun they left behind, abandoned.
Only the boy’s mother quietly slipped a purse into Baek Ui Myeong’s hand before hurrying away with her daughter and husband.
Dan Mok Jun stood there trembling, watching them go.
‘Sending a child back to a house where they beat him with a wooden stick just because he failed an exam — that’s not something a decent person should do…….’
And so, unable to refuse, they’d come this far.
“You’ll regret it. No matter how much of a trash family is, it’s different to have one than not to have one at all.”
“What about you, sir? Do you have a family?”
“……No, I don’t either, but…… my situation was unavoidable, and yours is.”
“Can I become like you even without parents and family?”
“Listen to what I’m saying, you stubborn kid!”
“Then I want to become like you.”
At that moment, Baek Ui Myeong’s expression hardened, and he glared down at Dan Mok Jun.
“You dense fool! Do you know what it means to be like me? Without parents, I couldn’t enter a proper academy, so I learned from strange places, twisted my Qi and Blood, and have been floundering along with only External Method all these years!”
He’d carried himself with confidence in front of others, pretended to lack nothing, acted as though what he had was sufficient — but if that were truly the case, he’d never have bothered with all that pretense, never have gone around shouting ‘I’m fine!’ to anyone who’d listen.
Because the truth was, he wasn’t fine. His hunger cut to the bone, and he couldn’t bear the sight of those who had more. That’s how he’d come to live.
Stealing coins from young mistresses who knew nothing, deceiving them and feeling superior, giggling to himself about it all…….
When Dan Mok Jun heard those words from Baek Ui Myeong, his eyes reddened with gathering tears, and he glared at the man before clenching his fists and beginning to pound his own belly.
“Hnngh — hnnngh! Ugh!”
“No, wait! Hey! Are you insane, you little brat?!”
“If you don’t have a dantian, sir, then I don’t need one either!”
“You’re out of your mind. How could you not need one?! I have one! I got one not long ago!”
“……?”
After traveling far from home, beaten by his grandfather, on the very brink of being cast out by the adult he’d been chasing, Dan Mok Jun looked up at Baek Ui Myeong with a vacant expression.
Baek Ui Myeong splashed cold water on his face several times and then spoke.
“Listen carefully. I didn’t come all this way to protect you.”
“…….”
“I came to watch over you, to make sure you don’t do anything strange.”
“Something…… strange, sir?”
“Yes. Did you do anything unusual during that exam?”
He’d already guessed that this child’s involvement was somehow connected to the Dan Mok Clan’s recent recruitment of branch members, and that something had gone wrong there.
His elder must also be connected to the Dan Mok Clan. Under Baek Ui Myeong’s pressing, Dan Mok Jun hesitated before confessing.
“I fed him meat…….”
“What meat? To whom?”
“Spoiled chicken…… To Seo Geuk Rim, the one who looked like he’d make First Rank…….”
“What?!”
“But, but if I don’t pass as First Rank, grandfather gets angry…….”
“How could you possibly…… that’s not…… !”
Baek Ui Myeong had lived long enough to know desire — he’d thought many times about people he wanted dead, even considered poisoning them — but he’d never actually done it.
He’d only waited until he was strong enough to beat them senseless.
‘The old man’s right to have me keep watch!’
Yet somewhere in his heart, he understood the desperation that drove Dan Mok Jun.
If the boy had known for certain he’d be beaten with that stick when he didn’t make First Rank, then…… well, that still didn’t make feeding someone spoiled meat the right thing to do, but it made sense.
The moment Baek Ui Myeong fell silent, breathing alone, Dan Mok Jun quickly looked down and murmured.
“I’m sorry…….”

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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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