Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 15

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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 15.
“Yun Cheon has wagered every single token he possesses on his own victory. You all know he won all five matches today, don’t you?”
Yu Ha’s declaration poured oil onto the already roaring flames of excitement.
“Uwaaaaah!”
A roar erupted that seemed to swallow even the thunderous sound of the waterfall.
“How many tokens does he have anyway?”
“This is going to be entertaining!”
“This is the biggest night match wager we’ve ever seen!”
Mist rose above the crackling torches, and the heat radiating from the excited trainees warmed the damp air until it became stifling.
What had been a match where one could wager at most ten tokens had instantly transformed into a far grander gambling spectacle.
“So… who from the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family will step forward for the match?”
When Yu Ha posed the question with casual nonchalance, all sound in the clearing died as if it had never existed.
Eyes naturally gravitated toward where the branch family faction of the Muk clan was gathered.
The branch family members had already been humiliated by Yun Cheon long ago.
They could neither advance nor retreat, only hanging their heads in shame.
“These useless wretches…!”
Muk Ha Jin ground his teeth.
Branch family or not, the Muk clan was still the Muk clan.
‘That we, bearing the Muk name, were crushed by a vagrant like that is already unbearable…’
He had planned to deploy numerous branch family members to seize dominance in Qian Mo Cave, but ever since Yun Cheon had destroyed the branch family faction, even that had become impossible.
And now they were forced to compete with actual stakes on the line in a formal match.
It was no longer merely a matter of pride.
“To think we can’t even dispose of a single vermin!”
Just as Muk Ha Jin was about to step forward himself.
“One moment, Young Master.”
A quiet, chilling voice came from behind, and someone grasped Muk Ha Jin’s shoulder.
“Young Master Ha Jin, why would you use a blade meant for slaughtering oxen to kill a chicken? Allow me to handle this.”
His words rang true.
For Muk Ha Jin, a direct descendant of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family, to step forward would itself be an insult.
The situation had to be resolved at the branch family level to restore the family’s honor.
“…Muk Wi Jin! That’s right… you’re here!”
Though Muk Wi Jin was from the branch family, his presence carried a different aura than the others.
He nodded, then glided like a shadow onto the Training Ground.
Yalü Hee swallowed dryly without realizing it.
‘That man… he’s the one called the greatest of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family’s branch members! I’ve heard his talent alone doesn’t fall short of Muk Ha Jin, the direct descendant…!’
Every eye in the clearing fixed upon the two figures.
Yu Ha, as if he had been waiting for this moment, introduced the match with exaggerated flourish.
“Behold, the grand finale of tonight’s spectacle! First, the hidden fang of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family! The inheritor of the Serpent and Scorpion Explosive Scale Fist. Muk Wi Jin!”
Crack—.
As Muk Wi Jin twisted his neck left and right with the introduction, an unpleasant sound of bones echoed through the air.
Yu Ha extended his hand toward the opposite side.
“And his opponent! A prodigy who appeared like a comet in the night martial arts tournament, seeing through every match with the eye of a betting master! Will his martial prowess match that keen insight? The mysterious boy adorned with iron rings! Yun Cheon!”
The moment the introduction ended, analysis and predictions erupted from the trainees like a dam bursting.
“It’s Muk Wi Jin! That genius from the collateral branch actually stepped forward!”
“A tragic genius born from the collateral branch!”
“Considering he’s from the collateral line, his raw talent might actually surpass Muk Ha Jin’s….”
Muk Wi Jin’s reputation was already well-known even within Zamadong.
But the rumors about Yun Cheon were the complete opposite.
“Isn’t that the thief who got lucky and climbed to the highest rank on the first day thanks to Instructor Chuk Mu Gwang?”
“Regardless, his bone structure remains at the lowest grade. He’s no match for the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family of the Twelve Orthodox Families.”
“No match? He shouldn’t even be in the same ring! I’m betting all my remaining tokens on Muk Wi Jin! I’ll recoup everything I lost with this single match!”
In an instant, the betting tokens flooded toward Muk Wi Jin.
Most predicted his victory.
Muk Wi Jin, confirming his advantage by the stack of tokens, turned to Yun Cheon with an arrogant expression.
“You’ll find I’m different from the trash you faced last time. Those weaklings were merely from the collateral branch of the Muk family….”
“The Snake and Scorpion Ink Family, is it? Your tongue is as long as a serpent’s.”
As Yun Cheon cut off his words, Muk Wi Jin’s face flushed red and purple.
“What did you just—! You bastard!”
Then Yu Ha stepped forward with brazen composure.
“Now, now… the match hasn’t started yet. Let’s settle the betting pool first.”
He alternated his gaze between the mountain of tokens stacked on Muk Wi Jin’s side and the pathetic few tokens placed on Yun Cheon’s side, sighing with exaggeration.
“Ah, this is too lopsided! The match won’t be any fun like this.”
As Yu Ha said, only a handful of trainees, including Yalü Hee, had bet tokens on Yun Cheon.
He pulled out a heavy pouch of tokens he had set aside for himself, as if making a grand decision.
“Alright! To heat up this match, I, Yu Ha, will graciously add to the betting pool!”
Yu Ha dumped a heap of tokens onto Yun Cheon’s side before everyone’s eyes.
“There, now we’re barely at a one-to-one ratio, wouldn’t you say?”
Still, the tokens on Muk Wi Jin’s side were double.
To the trainees who had bet on Muk Wi Jin, Yu Ha’s contribution merely looked like more prey to divide among themselves.
Finally, Yu Ha positioned the two fighters face to face and shouted.
“Match, begin!”
The moment the signal fell, Muk Wi Jin’s form burrowed into the ground like a viper.
Upon his hands rested gauntlets inscribed with bizarre patterns resembling serpent scales.
Shhhwick!
With a sharp sound of air being torn, his fist aimed at Yun Cheon’s upper body.
Yun Cheon stepped back slightly.
But his movements were noticeably sluggish.
As if the weight of the iron rings dragged at his ankles, each step appeared precarious.
“Kekeke, showing off with those iron rings. How pathetic! Though it works in our favor.”
“That hunk of metal is dragging him down! He’s nothing but prey for Muk Wi Jin!”
Muk Wi Jin pressed his assault relentlessly.
Yun Cheon barely managed to evade or deflect each strike, appearing overwhelmed.
Crack! Thud!
He was driven back step by step, his tattered robes shredding under the razor-sharp fist wind.
To any observer, he was clearly at a disadvantage.
“Keep pressing him, Muk Wi Jin!”
“Well done, Muk Wi Jin! Show that bastard what we’re made of, and get our tokens back!”
The trainees, led by Muk Ha Jin, hurled mockery at him.
Yalü Hee clenched her fists without realizing it.
‘Why is he moving like that…? His movements are unnatural compared to usual…!’
She grew anxious, but soon detected something peculiar in Yun Cheon’s motions.
‘He hasn’t fully adapted to the weight of the iron ring? To enter a match in such a state is reckless!’
Meanwhile, Yu Ha saw through everything.
An intriguing smile played at the corners of his mouth.
‘Yun Cheon is plotting something. But Muk Wi Jin is no pushover—he’s wearing the iron ring for a reason…’
Even the trainees supporting Yun Cheon grew anxious; the disadvantage was that pronounced.
‘Muk Wi Jin… his strength is indeed formidable. The finest opponent I’ve faced since arriving here.’
The Yun Cheon of my past life would have severed his neck a dozen times over by now.
But that was not the case now.
Simply keeping pace with Muk Wi Jin’s speed was a struggle.
The weight of the iron ring pressed down from his ankles through his entire body.
‘If I cannot be faster than my opponent…?’
In that instant, lightning struck through his mind.
‘That’s it… the essence of the Boundless Step is not speed.’
It was the art of occupying the most fitting space, not the fastest path.
A footwork that demanded insight into space rather than swift footfalls.
‘I must abandon the subtlety of swiftness…’
The Swift Blade—that overwhelming speed which had defined my past self.
I released it completely from my heart.
Only then could I perceive the new path that lay before me.
A blade that subdues without speed.
The subtlety of the Dull Blade that dominates space itself.
‘…I am awakening to a sword’s subtlety in this wretched body that my past self never glimpsed.’
It was the furthest remove from the Swift Blade Master of Kunlun that my past self had been.
‘Or perhaps… was it only possible because of this weakened body?’
My past self would move faster than others when speed was desired, would cut when cutting was desired.
A paradox born of innate talent.
The subtlety of the Dull Blade—moving slower than one’s opponent while reading their movements and dominating space itself—remained forever beyond my grasp.
‘Strike late, arrive first.’
The blade that moves last reaches its mark first.
Yun Cheon had always resolved such situations through sheer speed.
‘Being faster than others is all that matters.’
However, the Infinite Void Step was a footwork technique that dominated space without moving faster than one’s opponent.
Precisely because of this profound subtlety, it had been underestimated as merely basic martial arts.
In that instant, a peculiar gleam of excitement flashed across Yun Cheon’s eyes.
‘Still… I can comprehend new martial techniques, master new sword forms. How could this not excite me?’
Above all else, I was a swordmaster who had devoted my entire life to the blade.
With that enlightenment and the joy that accompanied it, my movements transformed entirely.
My body, which had previously wavered unstably under the weight, now flowed like water.
‘What is this? That wretch who was floundering under my speed just moments ago… his momentum has suddenly changed!’
I no longer retreated backward in response to Muk Wi Jin’s attacks.
A subtle shift.
Just a half-step.
As if I had been standing there from the beginning, my body glided like flowing water.
Boom—!
Muk Wi Jin’s fist struck the space where Yun Cheon had been moments before, shattering the air with a thunderous sound.
“What—! It didn’t connect?”
For the first time, bewilderment flashed across Muk Wi Jin’s eyes.
He unleashed another furious barrage of punches.
But the result remained the same.
Yun Cheon rendered his attacks futile with minimal movement.
‘What is this sickening feeling…! He’s right in front of me, yet my fists won’t connect!’
Muk Wi Jin attacked with frenzied desperation.
But he failed to realize.
That he was not driving Yun Cheon back—rather, he was being toyed with upon an invisible path that Yun Cheon had created.
Yun Cheon’s mind remained as cold as ice.
‘Yes, come closer. The moment you unleash your finishing blow, that opening will only grow wider.’
Muk Wi Jin was a massive frame sinking into a swamp.
The more he struggled, the deeper he sank.
Questions arose repeatedly in his mind.
‘That frail wretch should fall with a single blow…! Why… won’t it connect?’
Suddenly, Yun Cheon deliberately slipped, exposing an opening.
Just as Jang Dae San and Jo Gyeom’s sparring had demonstrated.
Muk Wi Jin’s eyes gleamed with greed as he seized upon the gap.
“There it is! It’s over, you vermin!”
He unleashed the Snake and Scorpion Fist’s most devastating technique—the Explosive Scale Strike—with all his power.
His fist shot toward Yun Cheon’s face.
‘He’s taken the bait.’
I had deliberately exposed openings throughout, drawing out increasingly powerful and heavy attacks.
‘Now!’
Rather than dodge the incoming fist, I simply positioned the iron ring at the precise moment where my face had been.
Yet the result of that graceful maneuver was devastating.
Crack!
What erupted with the dull impact was not a cry from Yun Cheon.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
It was the agonized scream of Muk Wi Jin, who had launched the attack.
His fist collided head-on with steel, and the sickening sound of bone shattering pierced through the roar of the waterfall.
Before everyone’s eyes, Muk Wi Jin’s fist twisted into a grotesque angle.
“My… my hand!”
Muk Wi Jin clutched his shattered fist, writhing in agony.
His eyes were flooded with tears, filled with the terror of a reality he could not accept.
Having lost all reason, he charged forward with his remaining arm and legs.
“I’ll kill you!”
Yun Cheon rotated his body toward the direction of the attack as if he had been waiting for this moment.
With his lower body anchored like roots in the earth, following the principles of the Heavenly Qian Technique.
Using the weight of the iron ring as his axis, I spun—whirling smoothly.
Muk Wi Jin’s fist passed by Yun Cheon’s rotation by the thickness of a single sheet of paper.
Whoosh—.
‘What?’
Toward his completely exposed opening, an explosive Blood Wind Kick surged forth.
Boom!
Yun Cheon’s kick, amplified by the weight of the iron ring, was like a massive siege hammer.
Not even a scream escaped.
The massive frame of Muk Wi Jin flew like a sheet of paper, crashing into a boulder at the corner of the clearing.
‘There’s no need to hold back against him….’
The opponent was a disciple of the Demonic Cult.
‘Unless he were somehow a captive brought here against his will.’
With Muk Wi Jin lying motionless, only the sound of the waterfall echoed eerily through the arena.
All the trainees stared at Yun Cheon in shock.
“With that, the match is decided, isn’t it?”
Yun Cheon turned to look at Yu Ha.
Yu Ha, his eyes gleaming as if he had witnessed an entertaining spectacle, declared Yun Cheon’s victory.
“The winner… Yun Cheon!”
In that instant, Yun Cheon swept the mountain of betting tokens into his pocket.
‘…A talent unbelievable for a mere trainee! Is he truly the greatest hidden dragon of Zamadong?’
No.
He transcended the level of Zamadong alone.
Though I had seen rising talents soaring across the entire Central Plains, none impressed me as much as Yun Cheon.
‘With such talent, and a clean background… Is heaven testing me? He possesses the optimal conditions for a candidate successor. I must set my hooks in him.’
Yu Ha’s gaze seemed fixed on Yun Cheon sweeping up the tokens, yet it reached toward something far more distant.
“You cowardly bastard, using iron rings…!”
Muk Ha Jin stepped forward to take Muk Wi Jin’s place just as his brother lost consciousness.
“Stop. That’s enough.”
A glacial voice cut through the trainees from behind, freezing their fervor in an instant.
From the darkness, Instructor Chuk Mu Gwang emerged with a stern expression.
His gaze swept across the unconscious Muk Wi Jin, Yun Cheon gripping a mountain of wooden shields, and the trainees whose faces had gone ashen.
“All of you… what exactly are you doing here?”
The secret night sparring had been discovered.
Chuk Mu Gwang fixed his stare directly on Yun Cheon and Yu Ha as he spoke.
“…Did you two orchestrate this?”

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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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