The Fragile Elixer of the Fallen Clan

Seeing the water rise in the sea is one thing, but figuring out how to stop it is a whole different challenge. That’s exactly how I felt now. I also knew the truth about the guard Jeong-yeong, who protected my quarters. He was supposed to be one of the elite Yu Seong Eighteen Masters of the family, but with the shortage of manpower, he was filling in wherever needed.

‘Money? Is it money?’

Is it really about money? I had to admit I had been naive. I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to revive the family since I was a living miracle and Dan Mok-bi had the potential to become the best in the world. The family’s decline was due to the unhealed injuries of our great elder, Dan Mok Cheon-gi, and the death of the head of the family, Dan Mok-hyeonseong. I believed that once Dan Mok-bi made a name for himself in the martial arts world, these issues would naturally resolve.

A family or sect with a strong, young, and living top martial artist is bound to prosper. 

But seeing the state of the family now, it seemed unlikely that we could hold out until Dan Mok-bi grew up.

‘Yeah, that’s right. Even in the future I saw… we couldn’t hold on that long… even with the high price of my medicine.’

Dan Mok-bi had tried so hard to care for his frail sister and took on the difficult tasks without showing the strain. But looking back now…

I tried to recall my hazy memories but eventually let my body go limp. Dwelling on the past and what could have been was useless now.

I suddenly jumped up. “We need to… we need to make money.”

There was a reason other families, without masters on the level of Dan Mok-cheon-gi, were still above our family. They had skilled fighters, even if not as strong, who were healthy and uninjured, and they had money! Money was what the Dan Mok family needed now. With money, we could recruit disciples, train them, and strengthen the family.

I sighed, feeling down. It was overwhelming to think about how I could earn money with this small body.

***

Every martial arts family has its own medicine hall. With all the intense training and sparring, there’s always a high demand for medicine. That’s why remedies like the Golden Wound Medicine are best made by martial arts families or sects, not just any medical clinic. These remedies have been tested thousands of times and proven effective. The Dan Mok family also has a medicine hall, separated from the medical pavilion when the family started to decline decades ago. Even though the head of the hall, Dan Mok-hyeon-woo, had been neglecting it due to his closed-door training, the hall still existed.

“Why are you dressed so lightly?”

Dan Mok-hyeon-woo had been inspecting the medicine storeroom before dawn, feeling guilty for not taking care of the hall properly. When he heard there was a visitor, he went out to find his young niece waiting, wearing just a thin robe with a fur vest over it. Her nose was red from the cold, and the guard next to her looked helpless. It seemed the vest was his.

Startled, Dan Mok-hyeon-woo quickly took off his own coat and wrapped it around me, lifting me up into his arms.

“If you walk around in the cold dressed like that, you’ll catch a cold! What if I wasn’t here…” 

“Achoo!”

Before he could finish, I sneezed, making Danmok Hyeon-woo stop mid-sentence. He quickly led me inside. It wasn’t exactly warm where we stored the herbs, but it was better than outside. 

“What brings you here at this hour? Did something happen? Did you have a nightmare?” Hyeon-woo asked, his voice a bit anxious. I shook my head and answered.

“I sneezed because of the fur on the vest. I’m here because I’ve memorized the Thousand Character Classic. You said you’d reward me if I did.”

“What? You could have come during our lessons in the day.” 

“I didn’t want Bi-a or Ryun to feel upset if I got the reward and they didn’t…”

Hyeon-woo blinked for a moment, then nodded in understanding. He wrapped my blanket tighter around me until it covered my forehead, then led me to his quarters. He asked a servant to bring more charcoal to stoke the fire and glanced around nervously before closing all the windows. When the servant, who was quick on the uptake, brought a hand warmer, he placed it in my hands before sitting across from me.

“A promise is a promise. Let’s see if you’ve really memorized it.”

He quietly wrote a few random lines from the Thousand Character Classic and handed them to me. I calmly read what he had written.

“Of the fruits, the plum and the apple are the finest, and among vegetables, mustard and ginger are the most important. If you know your mistakes, you must correct them and never forget what you have learned. Do not speak of others’ shortcomings, and do not rely on your own strengths.”

Hyeon-woo looked at me in amazement, glancing between me and the characters he had written. It seemed I really had memorized the entire Thousand Character Classic.

Just to be sure, he wrote down a few more phrases, but I recited them all without hesitation.

“Ah… already, amazing… truly amazing. You’re remarkable. So, what is your wish? I will grant you anything.”

What wish could his niece, who had only been awake for less than a year, have that he couldn’t fulfill? Besides, my intelligence was a great joy to him. I looked up at him and smiled brightly.

“I want to make something in the medicine hall.”

“What? In the medicine hall?”

“Yes!”

***

I used the excuse that I didn’t want the others to feel bad, but I didn’t really believe it myself. Dan Mok-bi would be thrilled, jumping with joy at my accomplishment, and Hwa-ryun…

‘He definitely wouldn’t care about this at all.’

What’s his deal, anyway?

I pushed the thought aside. The real reason I rushed to Hyeon-woo in the early morning, claiming to have memorized the Thousand Character Classic, was to have the chance to look through the ingredients in the medicine hall while no one else was around.

Hyeon-woo, looking both bewildered and intrigued, granted my wish. ‘I need to make money. Right now.’ How could I make money?

The simplest way was to create something here and sell it. The market was there. We were in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. As the saying goes, “In heaven, there is paradise; on earth, Suzhou and Hangzhou.”

This beautiful and prosperous city was full of people. Hangzhou was so wealthy that there was a saying not to flaunt your wealth here.

Lots of rich people meant lots of potential buyers for a good product. So, what should I sell?

I racked my brain, trying to figure it out. It needed to be something small, easy to distribute. It also had to be easy to make.

Production needs to be easy to keep labor costs low. The raw materials should be easy to source. It also had to be something with excellent performance or effectiveness. Then, a thought struck me: why not use my own abilities? It didn’t need to be a miracle drug that even great immortals would admire. It just had to be a little more effective than what was already available on the market.

Instead of real medicine, something commonly used among the people would be better. That’s when I first thought of making bellflower syrup. Bellflower, also known as “White medicine,” could be branded as “White Medicine Syrup.” While I wasn’t great at cooking, no one would complain if medicine didn’t taste good, right? And since our family liked to wear white, the name would fit perfectly.

However, when I followed Hyeon-woo into the medicine storage room, I had to abandon my idea.

“Ah…”

Using my inner sight, I scanned the shelves. Information about the ingredients popped up clearly. Names and quality levels appeared, and very few had a clear blue light indicating high quality. Most were average or below, and the bellflower root showed up as red, indicating it was “low grade.”

“Uncle, where do we get these ingredients from?”

“We share herbs with Hosan Medical Pavilion. That was agreed when we split the pavilions.”

‘Is the problem with Hosan, or is it that we can’t move our stock?’ Either way, making medicine with this poor-quality bellflower root was pointless. Seeing my disappointed face, Hyeon-woo looked unsure of what to do.

“Would you like to visit the herb garden outside next time?”

“Can I?”

If the problem was the supplier, I’d need to address it directly. As I thought about this, my eyes landed on some small jars on a shelf.

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Essential oils. Would you like to see?”

Seeing that I was interested in something other than the poor-quality bellflower root, Hyeon-woo quickly pulled down one of the jars.