Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 2

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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 2.
The impact of my body striking the cold bed jolted my consciousness fully awake.
“Ugh…!”
Every joint in my body creaked with a sickening sound.
I tried to rise, but couldn’t move a single finger.
As if my consciousness had been severed from this unfamiliar flesh, my skeletal limbs refused to obey.
‘At this rate, I’ll truly die!’
By instinct, I activated Kunlun’s Supreme Clarity Technique.
Drawing breath in stillness, I gathered the essence of heaven and earth, guiding it toward the dantian in my lower abdomen.
A meditation method I could once unfold with eyes closed in my past life—as natural as breathing, as familiar as my own limbs.
‘First, I must circulate qi through this corpse-like body.’
The flow of qi was perfectly mapped in my mind.
Yet as the gathered energy began to spiral and coalesce into the seed of inner power….
In that very instant!
“Ahhh!”
Unimaginable agony seized me.
As if something were tearing apart near my dantian!
The barely-gathered qi scattered in all directions, flowing backward in violent reversal.
Every meridian shrieked in unison.
Even the faintest current of qi was rejected, twisted, and blocked.
‘My entire meridian network… is twisted! This is… congenital severed meridian syndrome!’
In the throes of unbearable pain, I finally understood.
The realm I had achieved in my past life as Kunlun’s greatest swordsman was nothing but a mirage before this ruined flesh.
‘If this continues…!’
The terror of death gripped my throat—the knowledge that without controlling my qi, I would destroy my own body with my own hands.
Yet at the peak of that terror.
A bitter laugh escaped my lips.
‘Kunlun’s greatest swordsman, Yun Cheon, dying because I cannot control a single thread of qi properly?’
This absurd situation paradoxically drove back the fear of death.
‘I’ve finally obtained the chance to take revenge on the Demonic Cult and the Martial Alliance—I cannot end so pathetically!’
The fog that had shrouded my consciousness lifted, and my mind awakened sharp as a blade.
All the martial knowledge from my past life swept through my thoughts like a tempest.
‘The Supreme Clarity Technique won’t work. With my entire body’s qi and blood twisted, accumulating qi itself would be poison. Then….’
I boldly abandoned the major meridians.
The major meridians are like great, flowing rivers of qi.
Conventionally, one gathers the qi flowing through these vast channels into the dantian.
But I discarded convention.
Rather, I had no choice but to discard it.
My body existed far beyond the realm of convention.
‘Building inner power immediately is impossible with this body! I must simply let it seep in….’
Rather than through the major meridians that were now blocked, I began channeling my breath itself thread by thread through the secondary meridians that spread across my entire body like capillaries.
A choice to divert around the main current of a river, taking the tributaries instead.
‘At least the secondary meridians haven’t been sealed yet…!’
This was not a martial technique.
A breathing method never before seen in this world—conceived solely to survive within a body ravaged by severed meridian syndrome!
Life-Extension Breathing Method.
A flower bloomed from Yun Cheon’s genius in the face of death itself.
“Gasp… gasp….”
Yun Cheon barely suppressed the rampaging qi and drew ragged breaths.
‘Hah… reborn into this broken husk of a body. I nearly died right then and there….’
In that brief moment as I caught my breath!
Someone seized my wrist roughly.
It was The Physician.
“Ho, so the wretch whose heart stopped from a gu poison attack somehow survived. Impressive.”
The Physician completed a cursory pulse diagnosis with obvious indifference and turned away without concern.
“Kekeke, now that you’ve swallowed the Demon Bell Soul-Chasing Gu, you’re nothing but a slave of our Demonic Cult—alive or dead.”
Yet Yun Cheon’s heart turned ice-cold.
‘The Demon Bell Soul-Chasing Gu…! I swallowed a gu poison of the Demonic Cult?’
Yun Cheon immediately mobilized every scrap of his feeble qi and turned his awareness inward.
A body that was his, yet was not his.
Twisted and blocked everywhere, a wasteland where even life force could not flow properly.
‘…Misfortune upon misfortune.’
Between the meridians twisted by severed meridian syndrome.
A damp and sinister presence coiled around the heart meridian that beat faintly.
It was undoubtedly a gu poison.
‘Damn it, it’s already taken root!’
But… something was wrong.
I felt no movement whatsoever of a living creature.
‘…Could it be?’
Yun Cheon was astounded.
‘Is it dead?’
During the brief moment when my weakened host’s body had stopped breathing, the gu poison too had apparently run its course.
Yet relief was short-lived—the lethal latent toxin harbored by the dead gu poison remained intact within my body.
‘One wrong move and I’ll turn into a handful of blood. Severed meridian syndrome and latent toxin both… truly the worst possible situation. But….’
Even amid such despair, my mind blazed like a blade.
‘Since I’ve swallowed the gu poison, they’ll believe I’m still controlled by it.’
Free will.
That was the only weapon Yun Cheon possessed, fallen into this demon’s den.
‘If I play this right, calamity could transform into fortune!’
The prerequisite for that to happen.
I cannot let it be discovered that Godo is dead.
First, I will survive by pretending to obey the Demonic Cult’s control, then claw my way upward.
When the decisive moment comes, I will drive a fatal blade into the heart of the Demonic Cult.
Having steeled his resolve, Yun Cheon narrowed his eyes and surveyed his surroundings.
“Ugh… Hah….”
Children groaning throughout the Medical Chamber.
The Physician, who had been hastily taking pulses, waved his hand dismissively.
“Bah… No need to examine each one! Those who endure Godo’s seizures live, those who cannot die. Only take away those capable of controlling their own bodies.”
“Understood.”
One of the Demonic Cult’s lackeys, answering The Physician, shouted curtly.
“If you still have breath in you, crawl out now! Any who fail to return will suffer endless servitude!”
The children groaned as they struggled to their feet one by one.
Yun Cheon rose silently and mixed among the children, following behind the cultist.
The moment he stepped out of the musty cavern and drew the frigid air deep into his lungs, his footsteps halted of their own accord.
Familiar mountain terrain.
A wind so sharp it seemed to flay the skin.
Snow-capped peaks rising as if to pierce the heavens.
‘This landscape…! How could I ever forget it…!’
The blood in my entire body ran cold.
This place, which I had thought merely a den for cultivating the Demonic Cult’s warriors…
was Kunlun Mountain.
Yun Cheon lifted his trembling head and looked around.
Where the vast Underground Training Ground once stood, a sinister and massive structure now rose.
Upon the plaque of that building, suffused with a blood-red aura, three characters were carved in crimson script.
[Demonic Way Hall]
‘Those Demonic Cult bastards… how dare they erect such an abomination upon Kunlun Mountain…!’
My teeth ground together as fury surged within me.
Yet I judged the situation with cold clarity.
‘Wait… constructing a facility of this scale on Kunlun Mountain would have required considerable time….’
Could it be?
Even tracing back the memories of an orphan wandering the streets, I could not fathom the passage of time.
Whether ten years or twenty years had elapsed since that chaos.
I could not even estimate it now.
‘How much time has passed since my death? The information is far too scarce!’
Lost in thought, I arrived at the Underground Training Ground located deep within the Demonic Way Hall.
Cold stone walls, the scent of blood wafting from all directions mingled with the stench of mold.
And overwhelming it all—the heavy silence born from the children’s terror.
The place was packed with what appeared to be thousands of children.
‘…What is this place?’
Among them, certain children stood out distinctly.
A handful of children dressed in black or crimson martial robes, their chins held high with defiant pride.
‘Children of the Demonic Cult, perhaps.’
Their gait and bearing were extraordinary—they had consumed vital elixirs and trained in martial arts since childhood.
The majority of the other children, by contrast, trembled with fear.
‘…Not mere slaves, then. They’ve selected only children of an age suitable for martial training.’
Yun Cheon quietly positioned himself at the edge of the crowd, surveying his surroundings as he steadied his breathing.
‘In this weakened state, there’s no need to draw attention to myself.’
The murmur born from the children’s terror gradually subsided into silence.
As if entranced, their gazes fixed upon the platform of the Underground Training Ground.
There, as though he had been standing all along.
A man appeared like a shadow, utterly soundless.
‘A formidable master…!’
Beyond his pitch-black martial robes, an aura as sharp as a honed blade radiated outward, and across his back hung a long saber, its cyan edge emanating a palpable killing intent.
“Everyone has gathered.”
The man’s face was gaunt and cold.
A faint, cruel smile lingered at the corners of his mouth.
“Let us begin.”
His mere appearance caused the air within the training ground to grow even more frigid and oppressive.
The children around him looked up with eyes wide with terror.
The man seemed satisfied by their reaction, and slowly opened his mouth.
“I am Chuk Mu Gwang, the Mad Blood Blade, your instructor who shall hone you whelps into the very blades of our sect!”
His voice, laden with killing intent and reinforced by inner power, resonated throughout the entire Underground Training Ground with a deafening ring.
The children’s shoulders trembled at the echoing voice that filled the chamber.
Even the children of the Demonic Cult who had appeared confident visibly flinched.
‘The Mad Blood Blade, Chuk Mu Gwang? A title I’ve never heard before… A demon lord of the Demonic Cult, and his realm is approximately… the peak stage.’
Rather than succumb to fear like the others, Yun Cheon.
Tilted his head at an oblique angle, gauging the instructor’s cultivation level.
‘…Perfect as a target. A path I’ve already walked once before. This time, I’ll ascend it far more swiftly.’
In his previous life, Yun Cheon had already reached the peak stage while still in his prime years.
It was then that the Mad Blood Blade made his declaration.
“However… the Demonic Way Hall is not so idle as to waste time cultivating talentless vermin. You will all be classified into five grades according to your bone structure and aptitude!”
Unexpected words struck Yun Cheon’s ears just as he had begun to regard this man as his next target.
‘They’re evaluating bone structure?’
A bead of cold sweat rolled down Yun Cheon’s back, his earlier composure shattered.
“The results are five grades: Superior, High, Middle, Low, and… Lowest. Those judged as Lowest… yes, it means you possess no value as warriors. You will be immediately disposed of.”
Even Yun Cheon was taken aback by this shocking declaration.
‘…Wait! If they evaluate my bone structure in this current state, there’s no question—I’ll be judged as Lowest…!’
Lowest meant immediate disposal!
Yun Cheon panicked, but he had no time to respond.
“Instructors, begin the evaluations at once!”
Whoosh—!
Before Chuk Mu Gwang could finish speaking, over a hundred shadowy figures erupted from the darkness behind him in perfect unison.
If the instructor was the head of this den, then these were the limbs of that ruler—those who would directly teach the children on the front lines.
The instructors.
They moved silently between the children, evaluating grades with mechanical precision, then swiftly retrieved colored identification badges from their robes and affixed them to each child’s chest.
“Lower tier.”
“Middle tier.”
“…Defective. Lowest tier!”
The surrounding children could barely breathe, overwhelmed by the oppressive aura of the instructors who swept through their ranks like a black tempest.
‘At this rate, I’ll be discarded! There has to be… some way…!’
Rather than succumb to fear, I observed the movements of those approaching me.
In that instant, a brilliant strategy crystallized in my mind.
‘An evaluation? Fine. If you evaluate me, then I shall evaluate you as well.’
My gaze swept rapidly across the instructors, analyzing the characteristics of their martial techniques.
‘A master of fist arts… the energy emanating from his fingertips is sharp and piercing. If those hands seize me, they’ll instantly detect the distortion in my meridians.’
‘This one… has mastered palm techniques. His palms appear thick and soft, but hands like those are far more sensitive to subtlety.’
Then my gaze settled upon one particular instructor.
His lower body was unusually developed compared to the others.
He kept his hands clasped behind his back, only moving them to affix the identification badges.
‘…He’s the one. He’s trained in leg techniques, and his upper body lacks proper conditioning. Most importantly—that clasped-hands posture means he’s letting his guard down!’
I moved subtly, concealing myself behind another child while carefully shifting my position.
And finally, as the instructor I had marked passed by like the wind, he spoke in a cold voice.
“Your skeleton is twisted and your meridians are blocked. There’s no question about it. Defective. Lowest tier.”
The moment his hand reached into his robe to retrieve a black identification badge.
A cold smile that no one could detect crossed my lips.
‘Lowest tier? Says who?’

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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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