Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 30

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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 30.
“…!”
When Saengsa Jjon’s cold rebuke pierced through the eardrums, Elder Muk Wi Gyou’s entire body trembled like an aspen leaf in the wind.
His face drained of all color, he scrambled forward and prostrated himself, pressing his forehead to the ground.
“I-I apologize, Saengsa Jjon! I had no idea such an esteemed presence was here. Please forgive my grave discourtesy…!”
In an instant, the situation had reversed entirely.
The arrogant elder of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family now crawled upon the floor.
Yet Saengsa Jjon, having removed his bamboo hat, paid no attention to Muk Wi Gyou or anyone else sprawled before him.
His gaze fixed solely upon Yun Cheon, piercing and unwavering as he approached.
At last, his parched lips parted.
“…So it was you. The one who summoned me. Had it not been for Young Ah, I would not have stepped forward.”
Saengsa Jjon’s withered voice resonated through the space.
Only questions swirled in the minds of all present.
‘Young Ah…?’
‘A mere student moved Saengsa Jjon to action?’
No one dared voice their thoughts aloud, overwhelmed by Saengsa Jjon’s oppressive presence.
Heavy silence descended upon the Training Ground.
Then Saengsa Jjon, studying Yun Cheon intently, spoke in a low voice.
“…Hmm. Indeed, an unusual constitution, just as Young Ah said. No dantian, and congenital meridian blockage as well.”
Saengsa Jjon’s diagnosis was itself a sentence.
‘Meridian blockage…? Then from the start, this body was incapable of properly cultivating inner force!’
‘How could such a person have displayed orthodox inner force? It makes no sense!’
‘Was the child innocent then? Those dogs from the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family and the Inspection Bureau!’
In that moment, sensing the shifting atmosphere, Muk Wi Gyou’s eyes gleamed with sinister intent.
‘Damn it! Saengsa Jjon has appeared! The entire situation has fallen apart!’
Muk Wi Gyou’s hand stealthily slipped into his sleeve.
A hidden trump card prepared even without the Inspection Bureau’s knowledge.
‘If this continues… it’s the end.’
But his hand never reached what it sought.
“Foolish wretch!”
Saengsa Jjon’s voice thundered without even turning his head.
In the same instant, his sleeve fluttered, and something invisible shot forth like a flash of lightning!
Whoosh—!
“Ugh!”
A heavy impact sounded, and Muk Wi Gyou’s scream tore from his throat.
What had been launched was Saengsa Jjon’s secret technique—the Life-Death Needle.
With a sharp piercing cry, it embedded itself in the shoulder of Muk Wi Gyou, who had been attempting to slip his hand into his sleeve.
“Kgh!”
His arm hung rigid as deadwood, utterly immobilized.
Only then did Saengsa Jjon’s gaze turn toward Muk Wi Gyou, glacial and piercing.
“Elder of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family! What treachery is this? Do you wish to die?”
All eyes froze upon Elder Muk Wi Gyou’s hands.
At his fingertips hung a small, black poison pouch that he had failed to conceal—precariously exposed.
“You dare produce poison before me? Now that the child is confirmed to be no royal spy, did you intend to commit murder and erase all traces?”
The assembly gasped and murmured in shock.
Cornered, Muk Wi Gyou cried out desperately.
“I… I beg your pardon, Saengsa Jjon! That… that is…!”
“Enough with your pathetic excuses!”
As Saengsa Jjon extended his hand, the poison pouch in Muk Wi Gyou’s grasp rose into the air like a living butterfly.
“Void Seizing!”
Before the assembly’s astonished gaze, the pouch rotated slowly, as if being displayed to all.
“How vicious. Truly the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family.”
The pouch descended gracefully into Saengsa Jjon’s palm.
Saengsa Jjon inhaled the scent of the powder within and let out a cold laugh.
“Hmph… Heavenly Mechanism Blood-Sealing Powder. Even the elders of the Tang Clan rarely lay eyes upon such a thing.”
He spoke toward the assembly as if explaining.
“This poison leaves no trace. It merely twists the victim’s blood vessels, making it appear as though they severed their own meridians and took their own life.”
Once the poison’s nature was exposed, Muk Wi Gyou ceased his meaningless protests and closed his eyes as if surrendering all hope.
“With this, you could have made the child appear as a royal spy of the orthodox sect who took his own life in fear of exposure. Is that not so, Muk dog?”
Even Sa Do Myeong, who had been recruited by Muk Wi Gyou, had not heard of this.
“I… Saengsa Jjon, sir… is that truly the case?”
Seeing how the situation was unfolding, Sa Do Myeong’s head might well roll alongside Muk Wi Gyou’s.
He had merely sought to pocket some silver.
He possessed no loyalty worth dying for.
“I… I know nothing of this! The informant was indeed Muk Wi Jin, a disciple of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family! Elder Muk Wi Gyou simply said that as long as the student Yun Cheon was dragged to the Inspection Bureau under any pretext…!”
The identity of the mysterious informant was revealed.
A cadet branch of the Muk Family who had been defeated and knocked unconscious by Yun Cheon in a night sparring match.
‘…I keep becoming entangled with the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family.’
While a martial sect at least upheld some semblance of righteousness and discipline, families bound by blood were typically far more murky in their principles.
‘Their methods are no different from those of the Twelve Orthodox Families.’
It seemed that merely subduing Muk Wi Jin or Muk Ha Jin would not be enough to stop them.
After today, Yun Cheon and the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family would likely find themselves unable to share the same sky.
In the moment when all eyes fixed upon Sa Do Myeong’s testimony.
Murderous intent flashed in Elder Muk Wi Gyou’s gaze.
“This traitor…!”
His unparalyzed arm launched a sudden attack.
A black Poison Palm strike flew toward Sa Do Myeong’s chest.
Thud!
A decisive counterattack seized the moment when all were distracted by Sa Do Myeong’s confession.
“Cough!”
Sa Do Myeong, struck by the blow, collapsed while spewing black blood.
It was a move even Saengsa Jjon had not anticipated.
“You bastard!”
Saengsa Jjon reacted immediately and subdued Muk Wi Gyou, but the elder had already bitten down on a poison pellet he’d hidden in his mouth.
“Grrk…!”
Dark crimson blood trickled from the corner of Muk Wi Gyou’s lips.
“Damn you!”
Saengsa Jjon struck his jaw lightly upward, forcing his mouth open.
As Saengsa Jjon peered into Muk Wi Gyou’s mouth, he clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. The Snake and Scorpion Ink Family always operated this way. Still hiding poison pellets beneath the tongue, I see.”
Even as death claimed him, Muk Wi Gyou erupted in deranged laughter.
“Krahaha! What good does it do you? Did not the Venerable One of our sect declare he would no longer practice medicine?”
“You wretched….”
“The Venerable One would never break his oath and treat a wretch like me! Krahaha!”
Muk Wi Gyou had chosen self-destruction by turning Saengsa Jjon’s own oath against him.
Fury flashed across Saengsa Jjon’s face, yet he did not move.
“Hmph… a cunning one indeed. But your words ring true.”
The dying Muk Wi Gyou elder stirred only slight anger in Saengsa Jjon.
With his granddaughter’s life draining away as her vital channels froze, there was no possibility of extending his medical arts to another.
“I will not break my oath to save the refuse of a corrupt Inspection Bureau or the vermin of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family. Now die.”
“Hehehehe… I knew you would say so.”
The assembly accepted the deaths of Muk Wi Gyou and Sa Do Myeong as inevitable.
“…Sigh. How ruthless.”
“When his attempt to make that child a spy for the orthodox sects and poison her failed, he instead murdered his accomplices to cover his tracks….”
“Silence!”
Muk Wi Gyou squeezed out his final strength and roared.
“Who murdered accomplices?! This elder merely punished Sa Do Myeong for bearing false witness and slandering the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family! Do not defame our family without evidence!”
Even as he died, his venom turned the proceedings into a quagmire, and from the observer’s gallery erupted voices mingling anger with resignation.
“Sigh, that viper is destroying evidence before our very eyes, yet there is nothing we can do!”
Resigned sighs escaped from the other observers.
“Regrettably, nothing will remain but his corpse….”
“Without physical evidence, we cannot directly confront the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family….”
“Tsk… we’ve extracted the price of Muk Wi Gyou’s life. We must conclude here.”
Suspicion remained, but physical evidence had vanished, and the two key witnesses who had opened this case were dying before their eyes.
The truth lay plain before them, yet no one dared seize it.
Before the power of the Twelve Orthodox Families, the conspiracy seemed to end, leaving only a bitter aftertaste.
Then, at that very moment.
Yun Cheon moved.
‘…I cannot let this matter end with just one death.’
Yun Cheon approached Saengsa Jjon and whispered in a voice only he could hear.
“Saengsa Jjon, sir. I have procured a celestial elixir that may aid in treating your granddaughter’s ailment.”
“…!”
Saengsa Jjon’s pupils trembled.
His granddaughter. Young Ah.
His sole reverse scale—the very reason he drew breath.
“You arrogant whelp. Puffed up over calming Young Ah’s rampage, are you? How dare you mention my granddaughter as a bargaining chip? Do you wish to die here?”
Saengsa Jjon seized Yun Cheon by the collar, yet Yun Cheon neither evaded nor flinched, meeting his gaze directly.
“I speak precisely because I do not wish to die. If you examine my body, you will understand. I too suffer from severed meridian syndrome—just as she does.”
Saengsa Jjon’s gaze swept across Yun Cheon’s dantian.
The meridians twisted in grotesque deformity.
There was no doubt the boy suffered from severed meridian syndrome.
‘Yet… this is unlike ordinary severed meridian syndrome. Moreover, what is this aura emanating from within his body?’
The youth’s physiology defied Saengsa Jjon’s every expectation.
“I received word that the ancient celestial treasure ‘Void Azure Stone Marrow’ has been secured. Would that not serve to improve your granddaughter’s condition, if not cure it entirely?”
At the mention of Void Azure Stone Marrow, the grip of Saengsa Jjon’s hand loosened ever so slightly.
Yet the suspicion and wariness in his eyes deepened all the more.
“A mere disciple of Zamadong obtained Void Azure Stone Marrow? Do you truly believe such nonsense?”
“I did not obtain it myself. The Ilwol Trading Company procured it. They merely muddied the waters. I sought only to use it as compensation to request your aid, Saengsa Jjon, sir.”
Rather than answer, Saengsa Jjon pierced Yun Cheon with an unwavering stare.
Those were the eyes of a man who, across decades at the precipice between life and death, had discerned countless deceptions and falsehoods.
‘This gaze… it harbors no lie. This whelp came seeking me from the very beginning.’
Within the boy’s pupils, he perceived not mere cunning or trickery, but transparent resolve.
As his mind cooled, the chaos of the situation crystallized before him.
It was Yun Cheon who had nearly perished at Muk Wi Gyou’s hand, and it was the Muk clan who had orchestrated this entire tumult.
There was no conceivable way this whelp had engineered all of it.
“Tsk… it makes no sense for one nearly poisoned by Elder Muk Wi Gyou to orchestrate such schemes. So what would you have me do?”
“First, spare those two. The matter cannot be resolved in its current state.”
Saengsa Jjon finally suppressed the rage boiling within him and released Yun Cheon.
‘…Indeed. Should those wretches perish now, the wrath of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family and the Inspection Bureau would fall entirely upon this boy.’
No one would bear that burden in his stead.
Though he had evaded the immediate threat, the suffering to come was as certain as fire.
“…It seems your mind works well enough.”
As he spoke, Saengsa Jjon withdrew from his robes a worn and faded wooden tablet.
“Hmph… very well. In recognition of your service in halting Young Ah’s rampage, I shall trust your words this once. But know this—should you deceive me, you will suffer a fate far more terrible than those two.”
Saengsa Jjon gazed at the tablet for a moment, then fixed Yun Cheon with a penetrating look and slowly applied pressure with his hand.
Upon the wooden tablet in Saengsa Jjon’s grasp were inscribed two characters: ‘No Healing’.
A pledge’s testament—that he would render no medical art to any, unable as he was to save even his own granddaughter.
“…My medicine proved worthless before my dying granddaughter. So I abandoned it. Yet… you have returned its purpose to me.”
The tablet was but the sworn oath of his despair.
Should there exist a way to save his granddaughter, all would change.
Saengsa Jjon’s eyes blazed with fierce intensity.
‘If I possessed the Gongcheongseok Jade, I may not achieve a complete cure, but at the very least, I could extend Young Ah’s lifespan….’
It was a light too desolate to be called hope, yet too sorrowful to be called obsession.
“Very well. If it means keeping Young Ah alive even a moment longer…. What does such a trivial oath matter!”
Crack—!
The wooden token crumbled to dust, trickling through his fingers.
“…The deal is struck. But heed me well, whelp. This is a transaction. Should you fail to honor your end, you…must be prepared for the consequences.”

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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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