Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 32

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

Chapter 32.
“Right… right now?” Seol Young asked, her voice trembling with uncertainty.
“There is no reason to delay. Saengsa Jjon, please observe as well. We must be prepared for any unforeseen complications.”
Seol Young found herself entranced by Yun Cheon’s commanding presence, and even Saengsa Jjon nodded without hesitation.
The momentum had already shifted entirely into Yun Cheon’s hands.
“Very well. I shall watch over this. Begin.”
Seol Young carefully crossed her legs and sat before Yun Cheon.
Between them, a chill and a faint warmth intertwined.
Yun Cheon’s quiet voice cut through the silence of the Demonic Physician Hall.
“Forgive my intrusion. I must examine your meridians directly, so I will place my hand upon your back.”
Beyond matters of propriety between men and women, for one warrior to probe another’s inner essence through qi was nearly forbidden.
A single misstep could lead to demonic possession or the permanent sealing of one’s cultivation.
“Indeed. It is wise to take every precaution.”
Yet Saengsa Jjon consented, and Seol Young offered her back without hesitation.
“I am in your hands.”
Yun Cheon’s palm made contact with Seol Young’s back.
‘So warm….’
For her, who had always suffered beneath the bone-gnawing torment of yin-cold energy, the true primordial qi flowing from Yun Cheon’s hand felt as gentle as spring sunlight.
Yet Yun Cheon’s expression grew grave.
“Your condition is far more severe than anticipated. Have you cultivated yin-cold lineage techniques?”
“…Yes. I learned the internal cultivation method of my mother’s family, the Bingbai Snow Family. It is called the Bingbai Divine Art.”
Yun Cheon’s eyes narrowed.
The Bingbai Divine Art—a technique from the Northern Sea, spoken of as the supreme cultivation method of foreign powers.
It was a peerless martial art coveted by all under heaven, yet for Seol Young, it had become nothing less than poison.
“That was the root of your affliction.”
“What? The root of my affliction?”
“Ordinary internal cultivation methods gather qi and confine it within the dantian, a vessel. However, for those like you and me who suffer from congenital severed meridians, such a method is no different than suicide.”
Yun Cheon continued, his gaze fixed upon Saengsa Jjon.
“One born with yin-severed meridians would have achieved cultivation at a breathtaking pace in childhood. What takes others ten years, you accomplished in one or two. You were called a prodigy, were you not?”
“…!”
Seol Young’s eyes wavered.
It was precise.
In her childhood, she had been called a child prodigy.
A miracle—cultivation accumulating with every breath.
Her family had rejoiced, and she herself had believed she was blessed.
Until the pain began.
“But it was no blessing. It was like pouring water into a cracked vessel.”
Yun Cheon’s diagnosis was merciless.
“The yin energy that already overflowed from your nature had nowhere to escape, only to pour inward relentlessly. Thus your weakest blood vessels froze and ruptured one by one. You are now imprisoned within an ice prison of your own making.”
A stifled groan escaped from Saengsa Jjon’s lips.
He had vaguely suspected as much, yet found himself paralyzed by the impossibility of severing the Bingbai Divine Art—trapped in a state of utter helplessness.
The moment internal energy was sealed, the suppressed yin qi would spiral into an uncontrollable maelstrom.
A dilemma where neither advance nor retreat offered salvation.
“Then… what am I to do? I cannot simply disperse my internal energy now!”
“Not disperse it.”
Yun Cheon’s gaze locked directly onto Seol Young’s eyes.
“Let it flow.”
“Let it… flow?”
“Do not confine your qi to the dantian. Rather, you must breach the dam and open the waterway.”
Yun Cheon explained, drawing upon his own hard-won experience.
“From this moment, I shall carve a path through your body. Not through the major meridians, but through the delicate minor vessels that have not yet frozen. I will circulate your qi through them.”
“Through minor vessels… such an immense force?”
“If the major meridians are the main current of a river, then the minor vessels are countless tributaries and streams. Stagnant water rots, but flowing water rarely freezes.”
Seol Young nodded at Yun Cheon’s explanation.
‘…He does not appear to have received proper medical training at such a young age. Yet his insight into the body is quite remarkable.’
Even Saengsa Jjon was inwardly astonished.
“Forget the breathing techniques of the Bingbai Divine Art for now. Simply follow the path my qi guides you along.”
Yun Cheon closed his eyes.
Through the palm pressed against her back, he began channeling the qi of the Lifeline Breathing Method he had created.
Uuuuung—
A faint yet tenacious vital force flowed into Seol Young’s frozen spine.
‘Even in the depths of winter, fish survive beneath the surface of frozen rivers.’
The qi Yun Cheon infused was like water flowing beneath a frozen river’s surface.
‘This is the way.’
Yun Cheon’s qi bypassed the congested major meridians, burrowing instead through the web-like minor vessels.
The path Yun Cheon had revealed was perilously narrow—a route no martial artist would dare imagine.
Not the grand highways of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians or the Twelve Standard Channels.
Hidden crevices between flesh, muscle, and bone.
Along these hair-thin passages, the qi Yun Cheon released began to flow.
Seol Young felt an instinctive resistance.
A current of qi that defied everything she had learned as a martial artist throughout her life.
Yet Yun Cheon’s voice pierced through her hesitation.
[Do not fear. The minor vessels are also part of your body.]
At that resolute declaration, Seol Young released her iron grip on control.
Then, something miraculous occurred.
Kugugugung—
The yin qi frozen solid in her dantian, immobile until now, began to flow slowly but unmistakably along the hair-thin channels Yun Cheon had opened.
Surely, it should have brought agony.
The tearing pain of minor vessels rupturing should have followed.
But.
“Ah…?”
She trembled.
What burst from between Seol Young’s lips was not a scream, but a gasp of relief.
It was exquisite.
Like a chest sealed tight suddenly opening wide—a refreshing clarity flooded through her.
The massive ice boulder that had pressed upon her chest for years shattered into fragments, scattering throughout her entire body.
‘I can… breathe.’
Without the searing pain of cold blades scraping her lungs, air flowed deep into her bronchi and back out again.
She had never known that such a simple act of breathing could be so sweet.
“Haaaa….”
A thick, murky gray vapor poured from Seol Young’s lips in a long stream.
The turbid qi that had frozen within her was finally being expelled.
At the same moment, color returned to her cheeks—no longer deathly pale and blue, but flushed with a faint yet unmistakable rosy hue.
“What—!”
Saengsa Jjon’s jaw dropped as he watched.
With trembling hands, he seized his granddaughter’s wrist and felt her pulse.
“This… this cannot be! Her meridians—they’re slightly open?”
It was not a complete cure. The severed meridians, the root cause, remained.
But a small passage had formed in the blood vessels that had been completely blocked, on the verge of rupture.
“The vital qi… it’s circulating. Without passing through the dantian, it flows throughout her entire body, sustaining her life force on its own!”
Saengsa Jjon stared at Yun Cheon as though he were a monster.
This transcended the realm of medicine—it was a new frontier in martial arts.
Martial cultivation without a dantian.
The subtlety of flowing qi rather than storing it.
This young boy had overturned the very foundations of martial knowledge for the sake of survival.
Yun Cheon slowly withdrew his hand and steadied his breathing. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
Guiding another’s qi was several times more taxing than manipulating one’s own.
“For now, I’ve extinguished the immediate crisis. If you can master this breathing technique and learn to sustain yourself, then at least you need not fear losing your life to the cold poison.”
Before Yun Cheon had even finished speaking, Seol Young attempted to rise but stumbled.
Her legs had lost their strength.
Yet her expression was drenched in joy.
“My benefactor….”
Tears cascaded from Seol Young’s eyes.
They were not tears of sorrow, but of relief—the tears of one who had been granted life.
“The pain… it’s gone. I can breathe without it hurting.”
With trembling hands, she clutched her own chest.
Her heart was beating.
Not cold and aching, but warm and vigorous.
“Thank you… thank you so much….”
As Seol Young collapsed to the floor, tears streaming down her face as though she might prostrate herself in gratitude, Yun Cheon simply shook his head with composure.
“It is not yet fully healed. For now, you have merely taken half a step back from death’s threshold.”
My gaze turned toward Saengsa Jjon.
“I have kept my promise, Saengsa Jjon.”
Saengsa Jjon stared blankly, his eyes alternating between his granddaughter and me.
What he had failed to accomplish despite devoting his entire life to medicine, I had proven possible with a single procedure.
Shame, gratitude, and exhilaration surged through him simultaneously.
“…Yes. You have done it.”
Saengsa Jjon withdrew from his robes an old tome and a weighty scroll, placing both upon the table.
“As promised, these are the secret teachings of the Shedding Flesh Demonic Bone Technique—my life’s masterwork. And this is….”
He hesitated briefly before sliding the scroll forward.
“The hidden art of the Western Regions that Young Ah risked her life researching—the Dual Extremes Unified Wall. Young Ah has personally annotated it.”
Seol Young looked at her grandfather in astonishment, but Saengsa Jjon shook his head.
“We lacked the strength to complete it ourselves. But if this boy applies himself… perhaps he can find the answers you could not.”
Saengsa Jjon’s eyes grew serious.
“Yun Cheon, if the three of us combine our efforts, we may even conquer the incurable Severed Pulse Syndrome. Let us begin a formal collaborative research in earnest.”
I picked up the tome and scroll, my lips curving upward.
This was precisely what I had desired.
“Excellent. Then from today onward, let us begin our struggle for survival.”
* * *
From that day forward, the lights of the Demonic Physician Hall never extinguished.
By day, we immersed ourselves in ancient texts within the Inner Library; by night, we gathered at the Demonic Physician Hall to explore the human body and debate the flow of vital energy.
It was a peculiar cohabitation and an intense pursuit of knowledge.
Saengsa Jjon poured forth without reservation the medical wisdom he had accumulated over a lifetime to save his granddaughter.
“Observe. This meridian is no mere passage. It is a pool where vital energy collects and a gateway that regulates its flow. Attempt to force it open carelessly, and the entire network of meridians will collapse like a breached dam.”
Saengsa Jjon gestured emphatically across the anatomical diagram.
“Grandfather, then what if we bypass this gateway? If we utilize the branch meridians of the Bladder Meridian of the Greater Yang here….”
Seol Young, naturally brilliant and driven by desperation, absorbed knowledge like water drawn into thirsty earth and applied it with remarkable ingenuity.
“Hmm? Branch meridians… the concept has merit, but that path is far too narrow and treacherous. One misstep and you would fall into deviation of the fire element.”
Just as the two physicians reached an impasse in their debate, I, who had been listening silently, finally spoke.
“If the path is narrow, then one need only traverse it swiftly, yes?”
I had been observing their passionate discussion in silence, and precisely because I lacked medical training, I could offer this extraordinary perspective.
Saengsa Jjon and Seol Young turned their heads simultaneously.
“Traverse it swiftly?”
“Rather than physically widening the meridian….”
I took up a brush and drew a spiral pattern across the anatomical diagram.
“Flowing water accelerates when passing through a narrow conduit. If we add rotation to the vital energy, increasing its velocity while compressing its density, even a narrow passage can be penetrated without touching the walls.”
In that instant, Saengsa Jjon’s eyes widened.
“Rotation of vital energy? Ha! To apply the principles of martial cultivation to medicine… what in the world occupies that mind of yours?”
“Master… that’s truly remarkable! It might actually work!”
When Saengsa Jjon grasped the essence of Central Plains medicine and established its framework, Seol Young added knowledge from the Western Regions and beyond, filling in unexpected variables.
And Yun Cheon shattered that unyielding barrier with his unorthodox intuition and revolutionary thinking, carving a path forward.
As the three minds interlocked like gears, the seemingly impossible problems began to unravel one by one.
The stale dust of the Inner Library dispersed, and a new horizon of medicine opened before them.
* * *
And a fortnight later.
Deep within the Stone Chamber of the Inner Library.
A subtle crackling resonated within Yun Cheon’s body.
Thump-thump-thump.
It was not the sound of bones colliding.
From the depths of my dantian, where two colossal serpents lay coiled, one finally raised its head.
‘…I succeeded.’
I clutched my lower abdomen. The Yin-Yang Supreme Spirit Severed Meridian.
A heavenly curse—a constitution where yin and yang qi bit each other’s tails, knotting themselves in death’s embrace.
It was an insurmountable problem that could never be resolved unless both forces were released simultaneously.
But I chose an unconventional path. The subtleties of the Glacial Soul Divine Art that I had grasped while aiding Seol Young.
Borrowing that principle, I managed to soothe only the ‘yin qi’ within the tangled knot and partially unravel it.
‘Though it is only half a success….’
The yang qi remained stubbornly sealed in silence, yet at least the yin qi I had released began to flow according to my will.
As I opened my palm, cool frost crystallized upon it.
‘Unexpectedly, I have come to command the yin qi first.’
Just as I clenched my fist to verify the sensation of this cold inner power.
Crash—!
The heavy iron door burst open, shattering the silence of the Inner Library.
An intrusion so disrespectful that it would have been unthinkable under normal circumstances.
But the moment I saw the face of the one who rushed through, my pupils trembled.
“Yun Cheon! Follow me at once!”
It was Saengsa Jjon. The face of the man called the greatest physician under heaven had turned ashen. His usual arrogance and composure had vanished entirely, replaced only by desperate urgency.
“Master Saengsa Jjon? What has happened?”
“Young Ah… Young Ah has collapsed!”
My heart plummeted.
The collaborative research had been progressing smoothly.
I had been certain we had found a breakthrough.
“This is different from her previous seizures! While employing your life-sustaining breathing technique, her qi and blood reversed, and she lost consciousness! Even my medical arts cannot control it!”
Saengsa Jjon seized my arm.
His hand trembled faintly.
“We must go! At this rate… she will not survive the night!”

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