The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 9

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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 Great House’s Limited Time — Episode 9

True, you’ll grow up one day and become someone cold-hearted who refuses even my requests, but you’re not there yet. And even if you’re destined to become the deputy leader of the Macho Cult someday, once in this lifetime it wouldn’t be bad to be on the same righteous path in the Martial World. Besides, if we grow close, you probably won’t kill me on the spot later if things go awry, and also…
Hyeonwoo opened her mouth wide as a basin, then slowly closed it again.
Everyone in the Martial World knew the Macho Cult wasn’t a place that nurtured its younger disciples with warmth.
‘It’s the kind of place where they make deputy leader candidates compete against each other and only use the ones who survive.’
They gathered children of the same age and trained them with such harshness, and moreover, they said they also learned techniques like the Star Absorption Technique

— the kind that absorbed other people’s Internal Energy.
Whether one became the giver or receiver of Internal Energy, heaven would decide that.
‘But really, those people who worship the Nine Heaven Mysterious Woman are actually this cruel.’

But setting aside such matters, the Macho Cult’s headquarters lay ten thousand leagues beyond this place, across Qinghai Province, in a region with biting weather. It was at opposite ends of the world from Zhejiang Province in the east of the Central Plains.
How had Hwaryun made it all the way there from Hangzhou?
Had the Macho Cult discovered his Martial Talent and kidnapped him? Even if that were the case, the ten thousand league journey from here to the Tianshan Mountains couldn’t have been pleasant.
“That’s…”
If Hwaryun had been within the Danmok Sega, there would be no kidnapping to speak of.
And if it wasn’t a kidnapping, if instead the boy had entrusted himself to the Macho Cult of his own will,
if he’d walked that ten thousand league road because there was nothing else in the world he could lean on or depend on,
then of course one would want to take away the need for such a thing.
It would be better if this small, thin child didn’t have to leave for the northern lands — didn’t have to endure such hardship and heartbreak.
That’s… what any person would naturally think, wouldn’t they?
She didn’t wish to save everyone in the world. She didn’t even think this counted as salvation.
There was nothing particularly special about her feelings toward the Macho Cult’s deputy leader from her past life.
But if right now in front of her there was a child, and if that child had a path that didn’t require him to leave ten thousand leagues away, then it was only natural she’d want to show him that path however she could.
‘Even if this child defeated everyone there in his previous life, right now his sharp edge has dulled quite a bit, so there’s no telling what might happen.’
Wasn’t Hwaryun already saying things like, “What’s the point of sword-play but death?” and keeping his distance from such things?
“It’s just… learning alone is boring for me… so…”
“…”
“Hwaryun, do you really hate learning your Characters so much? Hmm?”
You ought to learn your Characters at least — it would make things a little easier for you later, no matter what you end up doing.
Hyeonwoo gazed at the child with quiet desperation, sighing inwardly. What was she to do with this little boy?
The boy, who had been staring back at her evasively, took a deep breath, rolled his eyes, and shrugged his shoulders.
“…Fine. I’ll learn.”
“Really?”
Hwaryun simply nodded without a word. Hyeonwoo broke into a broad smile and pushed the rest of the rice ball toward him.

* * *

But she hadn’t expected it to turn out like this. Hyeonwoo looked bewildered as she glanced from the nurse Jang to her mother Wi Jicheong, and then to the two young boys before her eyes.
“Mother… I… what…”
Both were children she already knew well. One was her younger brother Danmok Bi, who had just turned five and was already busy wielding a wooden sword with great pride. The other was…
“So his name is Hwaryun? A fine name indeed. Since he’s of similar age to Bi, I thought it would be good if you two learned and studied everything together, so I invited him into the household.”
After being thoroughly washed and stripped of his rags, Hwaryun now wore a clean white martial robe. With his features no longer obscured, he suddenly looked like a noble young master of a distinguished house.
Hyeonwoo stared at her mother Wi Jicheong with a helpless expression.
She hadn’t imagined the household wouldn’t notice her chatting idly with the boy in front of the chicken coop, but she’d never dreamed in her wildest fantasies that Wi Jicheong would bring such a boy into the family.
What she hadn’t expected even more was that the boy would simply accept it without hesitation.
‘He made such a fuss with me about learning Characters or not learning Characters, and now…’
As Hyeonwoo floundered about in bewilderment, Hwaryun let out a quiet laugh and gave a respectful bow.
“So it’s settled, Miss. Thank you for having me.”
“Miss! Thank you for having me!”
Her younger brother Danmok Bi stood beside him and imitated the way Hwaryun bowed.
Wi Jicheong didn’t scold her son for mimicking a servant’s manners — she simply found it endearing and laughed.
“Bi, you should call her sister.”
“Sister! Sister!”
Danmok Bi called out with crystalline brightness, then came bounding over to cling to Yeon’s leg.

Danmok Bi
Traits: Tendon Collector / Devoted / Marked / Spirited
Talent and Aptitude: Upper-Middle
Worries: What snacks to eat with sister today / The way Jeong Young walks

‘My younger brother, but he seems like the real deal.’
Yeon was startled and stroked Bi’s head. His talent rivaled even Danmok Cheongi’s. More than that—his worries were remarkable.
‘The way Jeong Young walks… could he mean Footwork Technique?’
Jeong Young was the martial master who stood guard at the wall surrounding Yeon’s residence. Yeon had noticed during their encounters that he trained without pause—even during his casual walks, he practiced Footwork Technique.
It seemed Danmok Bi had caught that as well.
‘If he’d simply grown up well, he might have become something close to the greatest under heaven.’
She should have stopped her observation there and returned, but she couldn’t see that future.
Because……
─ No, no, no……. Sister, no. Don’t go, please no! Sister, without you, if I lose you too, then I……
─ What use is it for me alone to live on, to inherit a clan with no one left?
─ I didn’t want to leave, I didn’t either, I wanted to stay with the clan’s people and……
Old, murky memories came crashing down in fragments.
The face of a young child clinging to her hand with tear-soaked cheeks, weeping—then that same face grown gaunt and sharp after her death, expressions shadowed by sorrow and melancholy, all of these overlapping and sinking into darkness.
Somewhere within that torrent, Yeon barely regained her senses.
“Then… then Hwaryun should call me sister too……”
“Would that be alright? I’d like that.”
Since she intended to raise him not as a mere servant but as a brother-sister from childhood, letting him use a more comfortable form of address would draw no reproach from anyone.
Sure enough, Wi Jicheong smiled gently and gave Hwaryun a little push on the back. This time even Hwaryun seemed somewhat taken aback. But he quickly recovered his composure and laughed softly.
“…Sister Yeon.”
Yeon could neither weep nor smile, only nod in acknowledgment.

* * *

“Try copying these characters.”
“Yes!”
The spirited response came from Danmok Bi, while Yeon and Hwaryun nodded quietly and began moving their brushes.
Danmok Bi’s hand strength hadn’t yet fully developed, so his strokes were somewhat shaky, but he wrote with earnest determination. Yeon glanced sideways—Hwaryun’s expression gave little away as to whether he was concentrating, yet his characters flowed neatly across the page.
“All three of you wrote well. ‘Among swords, the Gyeoqul is most renowned; among pearls, the Moonlight Pearl stands supreme.’ Do you know what a Moonlight Pearl is?”
The teacher explained the characters quietly.
The teacher of all three, the head of the Danmok Clan’s Medicine Hall, was a young man of twenty-five this year.
With a face as if carved from jade, had he ventured outside frequently, surely not a soul in Hangzhou’s streets would have failed to know his name. But since his seventeenth year, he’d been occupied with repeated closed-door cultivation, so few outside the clan knew his face.
Only the subtle shadow lingering in his eyes hinted at the Inner Demon dwelling in his heart.
Yeon quietly smoothed her sleeve.

Danmok Hyeonwoo
Traits: String-Plucking Heart / Eight Unrelenting / Doors Sealed / Playful
Falling Star Twelve Sword: 7 Stars (8 Stars)
Crimson Heaven Flying Sword: 5 Stars
Infinite Footwork: 8 Stars
Meteor Formation: 5 Stars
Talent and Aptitude: Upper-Middle
Worries: Guilt and responsibility over Danmok Yeon’s health, doubts about himself
Advice: Sleep soundly without cares, meeting diverse people—that’s the best medicine!

Before even reaching thirty, he’d mastered the clan’s signature sword arts to the eighth star—and despite the seventh star being all he could manifest due to the Inner Demon’s interference, that alone was remarkable.
‘Is it right to use him as a teacher of characters? What if my presence has only fed the Inner Demon

within him?’
Seven years ago, when Yeon was just born.
A branch of the Heukcheonryeon launched an assault on the clan. It was a crisis grave enough that the Murim League nearly split in two.
In the dead of night, when the moon barely hung in the sky, seventeen-year-old Danmok Hyeonwoo—already a prodigy skilled enough to match his elder brother—took up the task of protecting the clan’s most precious asset, Yeon, his first niece, alongside the other swordsmen of the clan.
His eldest brother, Danmok Hyeonseong, had faced Hyeolragok at nearly the same age, so Danmok Hyeonwoo was confident he could do the same.
Blades and war cries crossed overhead, and he—barely more than an infant then—was shuffled from place to place through the chaos, wailing all the while.
Still, Hwaryun hadn’t been badly hurt, and when it turned out the attack came not from the Heukcheonryeon but from the remnants of Hyeolragok’s followers, everyone thought the matter was settled.
Yet before even a hundred days had passed, they all came to realize something was wrong with Hwaryun’s condition.

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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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