The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 93

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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 Decline of a Great House — A Limited Lifeline 93

“I… I held Ryeon back and… tormented her. I’m so sorry…….”
An uncle weeping openly while gripping his young niece—the girl must have been terrified.
“You said you were crying because you were happy watching her play. How could that ever be tormenting her? Please don’t speak such things.”
“My lord…….”
Dan Mok Hyeon U trailed off. Wi Ji Cheong, observing his struggle, brought up the argument she’d made countless times before.
“Ryeon’s illness all this time—it was never the Pharmacist’s fault.”
“No. If only I had protected her properly that day…….”
Dan Mok Hyeon U tried to press on, but Wi Ji Cheong shook her head.
“Ryeon’s suffering was likely my doing. I was always ill, even before she was born.”
“No! No, that’s not—Your ladyship couldn’t possibly be to blame…….”
“Then shall we agree that neither of us bears fault?”
Only then did Dan Mok Hyeon U understand: all this time, he had been indulged in his self-recrimination.
This woman before him had scarcely been afforded the same luxury.
A sickly woman had recovered completely upon bearing a child, yet her daughter had fallen ill—of course she must have wondered, more than once, whether the child had inherited the mother’s disease.
Once? Hardly.
A day, two days, five days, ten days…… and for seven years without end, surely.
But Wi Ji Cheong could never have spoken of it. They had afforded each other no respite for consolation.
“Ryeon wept. She said she was sorry for burdening you with worry all this time.”
“What? How…….”
Dan Mok Hyeon U nearly sprang to his feet before Wi Ji Cheong gently stayed him, and he sat back down.
Wi Ji Cheong smiled softly.
“I do hope the Pharmacist will now do as he pleases, free of all worry and concern. Think no more of Ryeon.”
She was saying he need not torment himself with the thought that he must abandon his own ambitions while his niece suffered, or that he must forfeit the same stretch of years she had lost. Such thinking could end now.
Dan Mok Hyeon U flushed to his neck, waving his hand in protest.
“I… I’ve always done only what I wished. The Closed Door Cultivation—I undertook it because I wanted to.”
“Yes, yes. Once you’ve recovered from your cold, you must play go with me as well.”
“Of course…… if you’ll give me three stones’ handicap.”
“Agreed. But you must recover quickly. You’ll need to prepare for the journey to the Nam Goong Clan.”
Dan Mok Hyeon U nodded vigorously. And so the Dan Mok Clan welcomed the new year.

* * *

Grandfather and granddaughter sat side by side in lotus position, eyes closed, bathed in the winter sunlight.
The air at Wol Yeong Jae was serene and mild; dust motes drifted and gleamed in the rays of light.
“Your uncle has at last shed his Mental Demon.”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi, hands resting on his thighs, spoke quietly while circulating the Yu Seong Hwan Gyeol through meditation. Beside him, Ryeon’s eyes snapped open.
“Yes! He’s fully recovered from his cold. Finally…….”
At her word “finally,” Dan Mok Cheon Gi opened his eyes as well.
“Did you know such a thing about your uncle? Well, of course you did. That’s why I had you play scout in the first place, wasn’t it?”
Ryeon only smiled. Dan Mok Cheon Gi shook his head and ceased his circulation of the Yu Seong Hwan Gyeol.
“But Grandfather—you’ll come to Gyeong-Hang Yunryeon with us, won’t you?”
“Why? Worried an old man will get in the way?”
“No! Please do come. All right?”
As Ryeon pleaded with her grandfather’s teasing, a faint smile crossed his face.
“Hmm. So you’re the one who asked me to go?”
“Yes, yes! I did ask, Grandfather.”
As she said this, Ryeon retraced the path ahead to the Nam Goong Clan, where the Gyeong-Hang Yunryeon was to be held.
‘Gyeong-Hang Yunryeon…… this never happened before.’
In her past life, she herself hadn’t fully recovered, and Dan Mok Cheon Gi hadn’t recovered either, so there had been no opportunity for the Gyeong-Hang Yunryeon to gather again.
Other meetings may have occurred, but the Dan Mok Clan had never received an invitation.
Martial families near the canal held their customary gatherings—nothing to worry about—yet how reassuring it would be if Dan Mok Cheon Gi were present should anything go awry?
And beyond that, Dan Mok Cheon Gi and Nam Goong Hwan, the patriarch of the Nam Goong Clan, were old friends and war comrades who had faced Blood Coral Valley together. Though they hadn’t met while Dan Mok Cheon Gi was in seclusion.
In her past life, the last time Nam Goong Hwan had seen Dan Mok Cheon Gi was at his funeral.
Ryeon remembered the old man’s hot tears. He seemed to accept Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s death as though his body had shrunk by a hand’s breadth.
“You’ll find many children your age there. The ones who picked up a wooden sword before they learned to walk.”
“Are you worried I might lose when I compete against them?”
“At that age, winning and losing are the order of things. Or tell me—how could a martial artist live a whole lifetime without ever tasting defeat?”
“Have you lost before, grandfather?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi burst out laughing. Ryeon’s question had sounded so innocent.
“Of course. Many times over.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
Though victory and defeat naturally alternate, victory tastes sweet and defeat tastes bitter.
What grandfather wouldn’t wish that the bitter thing his granddaughter tastes were nothing but medicinal decoction? And yet he himself counted the days until she could stop taking even that.
After receiving the Beol Mo Se Soo and awakening, Ryeon had grown much healthier and could follow along with training without difficulty, though there were moments when she would stumble without apparent reason.
At such times, Ryeon would insist her spirit energy was simply out of balance and that she was fine now, flashing a bright smile almost at once.
But on those days, Dan Mok Cheon Gi would brew her decoction anyway, knowing it was meaningless. It was all he could do.
“……You’re right. Listening to you speak, it sounds as though there’s not a single hardship in this world.”
“If grandfather comes with me, I won’t lose.”
“Losing would be fine.”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi was startled that he couldn’t quite believe his own words.
Even though winning and losing were routine in martial families, he had never let his children harbor careless thoughts.
He had been stern before victory and harsh before defeat. That was how the patriarch of Zhejiang Province had to be, or so he’d thought.
“Would it be alright if I made the other children cry?”
“All the better. But don’t overdo it.”
“Yes!”
Ryeon laughed upon hearing Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s words.
Her goal was to live peacefully and long, and among the many smaller branches of that goal was “completely eradicating Blood Coral Valley.”
Eradicating Blood Coral Valley was not something Ryeon could accomplish alone. Considering that roughly ten years remained before the Blood Coral Valley—which Dan Mok Cheon Gi had once broken—would spread again like wildfire.
‘What if I met them at each Gyeong-Hang Yunryeon going forward and raised our strength a little higher?’
If she was ten now, in ten years she would be twenty. The children of today would become the pillars of the great clans tomorrow.
If these three great clans positioned along this long canal simply held their ground and properly defended against Blood Coral Valley, it would be an enormous help.
Seeing Ryeon’s expression, Dan Mok Cheon Gi’s face shifted from laughter to concern.
“……Go easy on them.”
“I will go easy. But don’t you think the deeper the learning, the better?”

* * *

“I told you to keep watch, not to bring him here and raise him.”
At the boy’s words, Baek Ui Myeong stiffened completely.
He hadn’t even managed to call Hwa Ryun out from behind the tavern and explain things before this.
How had the boy seen through everything at a glance?
“And you moved him from Hwan Byeok Ru? To somewhere else?”
“Yes? Well, to the Gyorong Guest Inn, a bit farther away…….”
‘How, how did he know?’
It had seemed wrong to keep a boy of several years at a tavern, so with difficulty he’d arranged to move him to a different residence.
Unlike a tavern, a modest guest inn brought no extra income, but he thought Dan Mok Jun might be able to do some work there as an errand boy.
The boy stood with his arms crossed, staring down at him, his brow furrowed.
“What are you trying to do, anyway? Take him as a son? You can’t even take care of yourself.”
“Not quite a son……. No, listen. When I arrived, his family was about to beat him with a club.”
“Why were they doing that?”
“Because he didn’t pass.”
“Did you hear why he didn’t pass?”
“Ah, no—yes, I did. I heard…….”
He’d heard directly that someone had fed the competitor spoiled meat.
“Then you realize that boy could end up eating San Gong Dok from his hand and lose everything you’ve gathered.”
“……!”
San Gong Dok is a poison that scatters internal energy. For martial artists, it is naturally a nightmare.

All the more so for Baek Ui Myeong, who had only recently begun to gather his cultivation—just imagining it made his appetite vanish.
Suddenly his spine went cold and beads of sweat began to drip down.
‘No, it couldn’t be……. Surely not.’
“He’s just desperate……. That’s all it is…….”

“When pushed to the wall, people will stab anyone to save their own skin, won’t they?”

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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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