Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 104

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This chapter is translated by Falnar Novels Team.
Support us by reading on our official site: https://falnarnovels.com
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Chapter 104.
The moment the blade was drawn.
A crisp wind swept across the Combat Platform.
It was the wind stirred by a single sword.
Shhhhh—
The heat of the Grand Martial Arena dissipated in an instant.
It was neither a surge of killing intent nor the thickening of blood-scent.
Frost.
A cold, razor-sharp frost wind swept low across the Combat Platform.
Nak Wol, standing before Yun Cheon, was the first to feel the difference.
Zzzzzt—
The Crescent Moon Saber trembled ever so slightly as it cut through the void.
‘He merely drew his blade, and yet….’
Yun Cheon had been formidable even when wielding his saber.
The man who had crushed Dok Go Un and Ul Ji Geuk.
When Nak Wol had faced Yun Cheon with saber in hand, she harbored no illusions of victory.
But Yun Cheon with a sword was something altogether different.
Clang—
Yun Cheon had sheathed his saber entirely across his back.
In his right hand, a single sword.
His left hand held two fingers—index and middle—extended rigidly, forming a sword-finger technique as sharp as a blade’s edge.
In that moment, Yun Cheon’s aura transformed completely.
Nak Wol’s eyes flickered subtly beneath her veil.
‘The instant he grasped the sword, he became an entirely different person.’
The low, weighty pressure of his saber-wielding form had vanished.
In its place stood a swordmaster.
One who wielded a blade as piercingly cold as winter itself.
‘…How is this possible.’
Nak Wol recalled the masters of the Nak Wol Bi Yeong Sect she knew.
Elders who had wielded the Crescent Moon Saber their entire lives.
Assassins who had severed throats beneath the moon’s shadow.
She mentally positioned them one by one before Yun Cheon.
Strangely enough.
The outcome did not come easily to mind.
A thin rivulet of cold sweat traced down Nak Wol’s spine.
‘Am I… afraid?’
In that moment, Nak Wol became aware of the emotion she felt.
Yet it was not fear alone.
Exhilaration.
Anticipation.
And the faintest glimmer of fighting spirit.
Nak Wol drew in a slow, measured breath.
It was I who requested the Moonlit Covenant.
It was I who declared that I desired this man in the name of the Nak Wol Bi Yeong Sect.
Then there was no turning back now.
No.
Rather, I was pleased.
A man so desirable it was terrifying.
‘He must be of this caliber.’
Beneath the veil, my lips curved slowly into a smile.
A man of such quality was worthy of the Moonlit Covenant.
“Hehe….”
A soft laugh escaped from beneath the veil.
Yun Cheon’s eyes turned quietly toward Nak Wol.
“Is this a matter for laughter?”
“Indeed it is.”
The Moonlit Saber flowed slowly from Nak Wol’s fingertips.
“The man I chose exceeded even my own expectations.”
Shiiing.
The Moonlit Saber swept low across the Combat Platform.
A thin, elongated line of moonlight.
Faint white marks remained on the stone platform where that line passed.
“You were formidable when you wielded the dao. But with the sword in your hands….”
My eyes curved like the moon.
“You are someone entirely different.”
Yun Cheon did not answer.
Someone entirely different.
It was not an inaccurate assessment.
In my past life, I did not favor the dao as my primary weapon.
The dao was merely a path I learned anew within the Demonic Cult.
But the sword was different.
The sword I held before I died.
Before the Kunlun Sect’s mountain gate burned.
Before my senior brothers’ laughter vanished.
Before I swallowed tears of blood before the Sect Master’s corpse.
It had always been in my hands.
But I could not reveal it as it truly was.
The Jingyang Sword Technique.
The Taihu Sword of the Azure Dragon.
Merely recalling that name sent a chill deep into my chest.
This place was the Guang Feng Yalü Family’s Combat Platform.
A gathering place for the eyes of the Demonic Cult.
One sword strike spreads rumors, and rumors compound until they reach the main headquarters.
I could not reveal any trace of Kunlun.
Therefore, it had to be a different sword.
A sword never shown to anyone before.
A sword that carried Kunlun’s roots yet would not be called Kunlun.
The frigid essence of the Wuji Bing Xin Jue. A body corrected through the Qiankun Dong Gong. The flow of the Wuji Bo.
And beneath the cold ice, the subtleties of the Taiching Yong Hyung Sword and the Taihu Do Ryong Sword.
If one were to name it.
‘Wuji Bing Ryong Sword’
It was not yet a perfected blade.
A sword that concealed Kunlun’s roots beneath ice, to survive in the heart of the Demonic Cult.
My sword’s tip lowered ever so slightly.
At that minute movement, Nak Wol’s pupils responded.
A sharp metallic ring—!
The Wol Yeong Sak moved first.
Not directly forward.
From the lower right.
It seemed to target my ankle, but in an instant it spiraled upward toward my waist.
Simultaneously, Nak Wol’s long sleeves billowed wide.
White fabric spread like a lunar halo, and from within, a hidden blade slipped out without sound.
The blade aimed for my wrist.
The Wol Yeong Sak for my waist.
Nak Wol’s form had already shifted to my left side.
Three threats converged within a single breath.
Someone in the stands held their breath. Not because of the speed. Because of the beauty.
Nak Wol’s attack was deadly, yet it appeared as a dance.
That made it all the more dangerous.
The moment the eye chases beauty, the throat opens.
I did not move.
In an instant.
My sword’s tip trembled ever so briefly.
A tick.
A clear, small sound.
The blade’s point pierced a single point in empty space.
There was nothing there.
But in the next moment, the Wol Yeong Sak’s trajectory froze.
Precisely half a breath.
Nak Wol’s pupils wavered.
‘What was that?’
Nak Wol’s momentum froze for the briefest instant as she prepared to flow into her next technique.
In that fleeting moment, a minuscule crystalline formation bloomed in the empty air.
A frost flower cradling moonlight.
It was a cold, ethereal blossom that vanished the moment it appeared, without even a breath between.
Yun Cheon’s left hand sword fingers followed in its wake.
His index and middle fingers sliced through the void like blade tips.
The trajectory of the hidden weapon was deflected sideways.
Clang!
‘He altered the trajectory with just his sword fingers?’
Before the thought could complete, Yun Cheon stepped forward.
Wuji Step.
The pace was unhurried.
Yet to Nak Wol’s eyes, her escape routes seemed to inexplicably diminish.
Nak Wol flowed her body away.
Whoosh—
The tip of Yun Cheon’s blade grazed past her sleeve.
The hem of her white robe scattered into the air.
There was no sensation of being cut.
Yet a half-foot length of white fabric had been cleanly severed.
Pat.
The torn cloth descended onto the Combat Platform.
Nak Wol’s form was pushed backward.
Half a step.
A retreat so minute it was almost imperceptible.
Yet the masters gathered in the Grand Martial Arena did not miss that movement.
This was different from a simple defeat of a lesser technique.
The Lesser Sect Master of Nak Wol Bi Yeong Sect had drawn her precious weapon and unleashed her exclusive martial art, yet she had still been pushed back by half a step.
“….”
Several masters who recognized this fact swallowed hard.
Among them, an unexpected voice arose.
“Ah….”
Yeon Ha Ran murmured in a daze.
“It’s beautiful.”
Yeon So Ran turned to look at her.
“Ha Ran?”
“The Black Dragon Gang Master… it was like he bloomed a snow flower.”
“A snow flower?”
Yeon So Ran found herself echoing the words without thinking.
Yeon Ha Ran kept her gaze fixed on the Combat Platform and nodded.
“Yes. Look there—wherever the sword’s tip passes, white flowers bloom.”
The spectators felt the shift as well.
“…This is a finals-worthy duel.”
“A feast for the eyes…”
“Can martial combat be this… beautiful?”
“The caliber of this duel unfolding at a family’s social martial exhibition is… almost unbelievable.”
Beautiful.
It was undeniably beautiful.
Yet it was far more than mere beauty.
In the instant the Moon Shadow Saber’s trajectory solidified, frost traces crystallized upon it.
Wherever the flow halted, delicate frost flowers blossomed.
“…”
Yalü Jin’s eyes deepened.
‘A sword wielded for beauty’s sake, it is not.’
His fingers stilled upon the armrest.
‘Yet the result is beautiful. The flow frozen, yet the sword’s momentum remains untainted.’
For the first time, Yalü Jin harbored a thought.
He wished to witness more of this man’s martial prowess.
‘Black Dragon Gang Master. How far does your martial path truly extend?’
Nak Wol’s eyes narrowed to slits.
The Moon Shadow Saber was the Nak Wol Bi Yeong Sect’s secret weapon.
A single tremor in the fingertips, a single misaligned breath, and it would turn upon its own master.
Yet that Moon Shadow Saber…
…responded to an aura that was not Nak Wol’s.
‘So cold…!’
The Moon Shadow Saber flowed smoothly with her fingertips, meridians, and breath—none could sense the shift faster than she.
‘This achingly beautiful blade… your sword…’
Nak Wol’s lips curved into a slow smile.
Dok Go Un leaned forward without realizing it.
What entered his eyes first was not the result Yun Cheon’s sword had produced.
The preparatory movements that preceded the result.
The shoulders. The wrists. The stance. The direction the sword’s tip pointed.
‘…Not a swordsman. This one is a sword master. He can be nothing else!’
When Yun Cheon held his blade, he seemed nearly insurmountable.
He waited in a position from which he could receive any approach.
He read the flow, suppressed it, twisted it.
But Yun Cheon with sword in hand was different.
‘Had I faced that sword…’
Dok Go Un’s hand clenched the sword hilt at his waist.
Thirst and frustration welled up within him.
‘Even the manner of defeat would be different now.’
Only then did I begin to understand.
Why Yun Cheon had not drawn his sword against me.
It was not contempt.
There had been no need to draw the blade.
“Damn it.”
“For heaven’s sake….”
Ul Ji Geuk beside me shared the same sentiment.
“He concealed such a sword and still received my Dao?”
His words carried more exhilaration than anger.
“The Black Dragon Gang Master… he’s far more of a monster than I imagined, isn’t he?”
Upon the Combat Platform.
Nak Wol observed it as well.
The severed hem of the long robe.
White fabric fragments settling upon the Combat Platform.
And around them, frost crystals blooming with ethereal delicacy.
The trajectory of Wol Yeong Sak had frozen, losing its flow, and the dagger was pushed back by the sword’s edge.
I had no choice but to retreat half a step.
Both the Nak Wol Bi Yeong Sect’s prized esoteric weapon and exclusive martial arts proved powerless.
“Truly….”
Nak Wol exhaled slowly.
A smile bloomed once more beneath the veil.
“It exceeds my imagination.”
Yun Cheon remained motionless, sword in hand.
“You show no intention of yielding.”
“Having invoked the Moonlit Covenant, I cannot withdraw so easily.”
Until now, most of the spectators had been unable to predict the direction of the duel.
Yet those who heard the exchange between the two finally grasped how the match was unfolding.
“The Black Dragon Gang Master holds the advantage?”
“The Lesser Sect Master is being pushed back…?”
“Against the Black Dragon Gang Master with his sword drawn….”
The murmuring, breathing, and fervent energy that had filled the Grand Martial Arena suddenly turned cold and still.
“To answer my invocation of the Moonlit Covenant with snow flowers….”
Nak Wol laughed softly.
“How romantic.”
Her eyes curved like the moon.
Nak Wol slowly released the Wol Yeong Sak.
Zzzzzzzt—.
This time it was not a single thread of moonlight.
One line became two, and two scattered into four.
The four of them became eight moonlit streaks, crossing the Combat Platform once more.
White lines accumulated in layers around Yun Cheon.
Yalü Hee’s eyes hardened.
“She’s sealing off the space.”
Yeop Cheong A responded in a low voice.
“She’s erasing the path of the Wuji Technique.”
Nak Wol whispered softly.
“I don’t want to defeat you.”
The Lunar Eclipse Blade unraveled like moonlight.
“I want to capture you.”
She laughed with abandon.
Then she whispered in a low voice.
“Moonlit Celestial Net.”
In that instant, the Combat Platform was engulfed by a net of moonlight.
Nak Wol’s form vanished from sight.
Only her voice flowed from all directions.
“Your martial way is truly beautiful.”
White lines passed beneath Yun Cheon’s feet.
Next, across his shoulders.
Then behind his neck.
“So I wish to keep you by my side forever. In the name of Nak Wol.”
The net of moonlight tightened in an instant.
A single misstep would tear flesh asunder.
A careless sword strike would entangle the Lunar Eclipse Blade.
A delayed blade withdrawal would sever his neck.
No space to retreat.
No place to evade.
Nowhere to hide.
“This time, you cannot escape.”
It was not provocation.
It was a declaration.
“Will you surrender willingly into my net?”
The Combat Platform had become Nak Wol’s domain.
“True. There seems to be nowhere to escape.”
Yet Yun Cheon nodded.
Yun Cheon stepped forward with his blade.
“Frozen Dragon Bites Heaven.”
Upon the net of moonlight.
One.
And then another.
Frost flowers bloomed in full splendor.
Nak Wol’s eyes trembled.
They were not flowers.
They were the fangs of a dragon that had slumbered beneath the frozen river.

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This chapter is translated by Falnar Novels Team.
Support us by reading on our official site: https://falnarnovels.com
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