Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 33

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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 33.
“Let’s go, now!”
The world inverted the moment Saengsa Jjon’s cry pierced the air.
An explosive force that seemed impossible from an aged frame—a power that defied belief.
Saengsa Jjon tucked Yun Cheon under his arm like cargo and kicked through the iron doors of the Inner Library.
Crash—!
The massive iron doors warped like taffy, torn from their hinges.
The long corridor of the Inner Library blurred past in an instant.
This was no mere sprint.
His feet barely grazed the ground before launching into the void—a masterful display of the Lightness Technique at its zenith.
‘Saengsa Jjon… his prowess extends far beyond medicine!’
The speed at which he cut through the air was so tremendous that breathing itself became a struggle.
Yet even in this chaos, Yun Cheon’s mind remained sharp, analyzing the situation.
‘The Prolonged Breath Technique… and a reversal of qi and blood flow….’
A breathing technique alone could never fully control the yin meridians.
It was merely a temporary measure—like carving a small channel through a dam.
When the volume exceeds what the channel can bear, the dam inevitably breaks.
Thud!
Before the thought could finish, Saengsa Jjon descended into the courtyard of the Demonic Physician Hall.
The interior, reached in mere moments, was saturated with a cold that surpassed even a frozen mountain pass in deepest winter.
Frost clung thickly to door handles and window frames.
“Ugh… hah….”
Seol Young lay in the center of the chamber.
Her condition was ghastly.
Her lips had turned a sickly blue-black, and frost accumulated along her eyelashes.
The yin-cold qi surging within her body had frozen even the surrounding air itself.
“Damn it! Even my needles, even my medicine cannot stop this! The qi has congealed into a mass strangling her heart!”
Even Saengsa Jjon, master physician of all under heaven, trembled as he cried out.
A rampage that defied all his medical expertise.
This was no longer an illness—it was a calamity.
“You created the Prolonged Breath Technique, didn’t you? Do whatever you must!”
Saengsa Jjon shoved Yun Cheon toward Seol Young’s side.
Yun Cheon staggered upright and grasped Seol Young’s wrist.
The moment contact was made, a sharp, piercing cold burned through his fingertips.
‘…It’s too late.’
Yun Cheon’s brow furrowed.
There was no need to take her pulse.
The yin qi had already seized complete control of her heart meridian.
With each heartbeat, not the warmth of life but the chill of death spread throughout her entire body.
‘This is beyond what the Prolonged Breath Technique can salvage.’
The dam had already burst.
If I forced my breathing technique in this state, the remaining life force would be swept away by the yin energy and consumed entirely.
Saengsa Jjon would surely understand this as well.
Yet he still brought me here….
‘He must be grasping at straws.’
The majesty of the Five Great Sages who once commanded the heavens had vanished without a trace, leaving only an old man standing helplessly before his dying granddaughter.
‘What if Seol Young dies?’
Saengsa Jjon would lose his will to live.
He would abandon medicine forever.
With his temperament, he might even blame me in his madness, making me his companion in death for teaching him the breathing technique.
Even if that didn’t happen, if Seol Young died, the path to treating my severed meridians would become impossibly distant.
In the end, the answer was simple.
‘She must live for me to live.’
So then.
‘I must do this.’
I made my decision.
This was no time to weigh possibilities.
I had to create a way, even by force.
“Her heart meridian is freezing. Even with my true essence qi, I can suppress it for only one hour at most….”
At my cold pronouncement, Saengsa Jjon’s face turned ashen.
“One hour…! Is that truly all?!”
“We need a countermeasure within that time. Merely suppressing the qi is insufficient. We need a spiritual elixir to neutralize the yin energy and restore her life force.”
“Where in the world would we obtain such an elixir within one hour!”
Saengsa Jjon, his heart racing, released a murderous aura from his entire body.
Then, my eyes flashed with sudden clarity.
Yu Ha’s gift—which I had momentarily forgotten amid the brilliance of our collaborative research.
“Elder Saengsa Jjon! The Ilwol Trading Company should be arriving near the Demonic Way Hall by now with the ‘Void Azure Stone Marrow’ they’re transporting here!”
“Void Azure Stone Marrow! That’s right! If we have that….”
“It’s the only key to overcoming this crisis!”
I stared directly into Saengsa Jjon’s eyes and cried out.
“I will stake my life holding onto the young lady’s thread of existence. You are the fastest here, Elder—please hurry and retrieve the Void Azure Stone Marrow!”
Saengsa Jjon studied me intently.
Even with his supreme inner power, he could not stop Young Ah’s rampage.
How could this man, without any inner power, endure the frigid cold of the rampaging Nine Yin Severed Meridians for an entire hour?
It was tantamount to suicide.
Yet there was not a shred of hesitation in my eyes.
‘This man… he means it.’
Saengsa Jjon asked nothing more.
Now was not the time for doubt—such luxury was beyond reach.
“Endure! I will bring it back, no matter what!”
Boom!
As Saengsa Jjon kicked off the ground, the roof of the Demonic Physician Hall exploded outward.
Watching his figure vanish like a streak of lightning, Yun Cheon let out a hollow chuckle.
“He’s certainly fast… remarkably so.”
Then I turned my head again, my gaze falling upon Seol Young, locked in a desperate struggle against death itself.
Now only two of us remained.
‘He said one hour, but even that feels uncertain.’
Still, I had to do something.
I pressed my palm firmly against Seol Young’s back.
A biting chill flowed through my hand and rippled across my body.
‘Damn it—so this is what it means to be frozen to the bone.’
I clenched my teeth.
A perilous tightrope walk, with life itself as the wager, had begun.
* * *
Forest Path near the Demonic Way Hall.
The Ilwol Trading Company, one of the Ten Great Trading Companies of Central Plains.
A procession bearing the flags of the Ilwol Escort Bureau, its subsidiary, stretched out in formation.
Rumble—!
In an instant, thunder roared across the clear sky.
Lightning struck down in its wake.
Crash—!
Saengsa Jjon emerged from the swirling dust like a specter.
“Is this the escort procession of the Ilwol Escort Bureau headed for the Demonic Way Hall?”
The ferocious killing intent radiating from Saengsa Jjon sent the escorts scrambling backward in terror.
Then, two shadows—one white, one black—blocked his path.
Two elderly masters, one in white robes and one in black.
Two towering mountains that protected the Ilwol Escort Bureau.
“I am called Il No. What brings you here, honored guest?”
“And I am Wol No. Could you be… Saengsa Jjon of our sect?”
The Twin Elders of Sun and Moon.
The mere fact that they accompanied the escort personally spoke volumes about the value of the cargo.
“The Twin Elders, no less. I’ve found the right place.”
Saengsa Jjon’s eyes gleamed.
“Time is of the essence. Hand over the Essence of Pure Clarity at once.”
The Essence of Pure Clarity—a divine elixir whose very name could shake the Central Plains.
Even the escorts seemed unaware of what they were transporting, their confusion evident.
Only the Twin Elders responded with unwavering resolve.
“How can you, Saengsa Jjon, attempt to plunder the cargo of the Ilwol Escort Bureau?”
“Regardless of your station, this transgresses all propriety.”
The Twin Elders simultaneously drew their weapons from their robes.
Clang—!
A crescent-bladed exotic weapon gleamed in the light—the Twin Wheels of Sun and Moon.
“All escort bureau personnel! Draw your weapons!”
The bureau chief and his escorts unsheathed their blades in unison.
Shiiing—!
Killing intent saturated the Forest Path, taut as a drawn bowstring.
Saengsa Jjon bit his lip.
‘There’s no time.’
Even now, Young Ah’s heart was freezing solid.
‘I finally found a way, and now this…!’
Masters beyond the pinnacle—the Twin Elders of Sun and Moon—and three pinnacle-ranked bureau chiefs.
Truly, a procession worthy of escorting the world’s most precious medicine, the Eternal Youth Elixir.
‘Would it be faster to kill them all and take it?’
If I steeled myself, I could break through, but time was the problem.
A situation where every second counted.
A ferocious gleam flashed across Saengsa Jjon’s eyes.
His hand emerged from his sleeve, fingers splayed, revealing dozens of life-death needles.
‘I don’t have time for words!’
Just as Saengsa Jjon resolved to force his way through and launched himself forward—
“Perhaps you might compose yourself, Elder Saengsa Jjon.”
A leisurely, soft voice cut through the deadly standoff.
Creeeeak.
The ornate carriage door at the rear of the procession swung open.
A youth in black martial robes, dark as ebony, stepped out, snapping his fan shut with a decisive flick.
Even amid the hair-trigger tension, a composed smile played at his lips.
“I hadn’t expected you to come in person. Though it seems circumstances are unfolding even more urgently than anticipated.”
It was Yu Ha, the young master of the Ilwol Trading Company.
* * *
While Saengsa Jjon was away.
The situation inside the Stone Chamber was deteriorating by the moment.
“Ugh…!”
A dark crimson clot of blood spilled from Yun Cheon’s lips.
I had reached my limit.
The yin-cold energy flowing from Seol Young’s Nine Yin Meridian was no mere chill.
It was death itself—a force that halted all vital functions.
‘Damn… it’s more vicious than I thought.’
The frigid energy coursed through my blood vessels, freezing my organs one by one.
Without inner strength, the time I could endure had long since passed.
‘My consciousness… is fading.’
I desperately bolstered my fading life force with emergency breathing techniques, and using the principles of yin energy manipulation, I drew the cold qi swirling around Seol Young’s body into myself.
‘I’ve done all I can….’
The Qiankun Flowing Technique was a martial art possessing the wondrous function of seeking harmony between yin and yang.
Yet even that proved insufficient to withstand the deathly chill of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
‘…there’s nothing more I can do from the outside.’
The amount of deathly chill I had absorbed with my bare body had long surpassed a lethal dose.
And yet Seol Young remained motionless, like a sculpture of ice.
‘Now it depends on whether she awakens or not….’
Yun Cheon grasped at the fraying threads of consciousness, squeezed out his last remaining strength, and cried out toward Seol Young.
“Seol Young! Awaken!”
* * *
A cold prison of ice.
Within darkness that seemed eternal.
[Awaken!]
A voice like thunder, calling to Seol Young’s consciousness from somewhere, pierced through.
‘Someone… is calling to me.’
She saw it.
The solid ice walls that imprisoned her, split in two by someone’s desperate cry.
And through that fissure, pouring in—the warm, desperate breath of life itself.
“Gasp!”
Seol Young’s eyes snapped open as she exhaled roughly.
The first thing she felt was Yun Cheon behind her, his hand pressed against her back, trembling like an aspen leaf in the wind.
He was bearing her pain in her stead.
With an empty body that had never even learned the inner cultivation method for controlling deathly chill.
“…Master!”
Seol Young cried out and tried to push him away.
The moment they touched, a chilling coldness so intense it felt like her palm would freeze to his skin transmitted through.
“Master! Release your hand from me! Don’t forcibly take on my deathly chill! You’ll truly die!”
But Yun Cheon shook his head and held firm.
Or rather, it seemed he no longer possessed the strength to let go.
“First… you must stabilize the rampaging energy within your body.”
Yun Cheon’s lips had turned blue, trembling violently.
“If I release my hand now… the backlashing energy will strike your heart again.”
“What does that matter! You’re dying in my place!”
The boy before her had unhesitatingly borne her pain when his own life hung by a thread.
And now he was dying because of it.
“If you cannot control the deathly chill, we will both die in the end. So… hurry.”
Yun Cheon’s head drooped.
He was on the verge of losing consciousness.
Seol Young’s gaze wavered, then hardened with resolve.
‘I must save Master!’
To accomplish this, there was only one thing I needed to do.
Break free from this accursed curse.
Reclaim control over the rampaging icy malevolence that threatened to consume me.
‘No more… I won’t be swept away by it.’
Seol Young closed her eyes and turned her awareness inward.
Into that savage tempest of frigid power—the very storm she would have fled from in terror, had this been any other time.
‘Return to me.’
It was both a command and a desperate plea.
Her will flowed into Yun Cheon’s body and seized the raging icy malevolence in an iron grip.
‘Frozen Origin Restoration.’
A technique to forcibly reclaim scattered energy and seal it within the dantian.
Normally, such a method would bring excruciating pain as blood vessels throughout the body tore apart.
But pain was beneath her concern now.
‘Compared to the suffering he endured… this is nothing!’
A lifetime of suffocating dread, stretching back to childhood.
In that moment, Seol Young—who had been drowning in that fear—made her first conscious choice to swallow pain not for herself, but for another.
It was less an awakening than a resolve forged in the fires of desperation.
Crackle!
A miracle unfolded.
Like an ebbing tide, the rampaging icy malevolence began to flow unobstructed back into Seol Young’s dantian.
Yet something was different.
‘…What is this sensation?’
Before, it had felt like forcing energy into her dantian by brute strength. Now it was entirely different.
The delicate meridian pathways Yun Cheon had opened with his life-extension breathing technique, and the vital essence he had nurtured within her.
And because he had thrown himself into the breach, the pressure had diminished.
Thanks to this, the power of the Glacial Soul Divine Art now flowed through the finest capillaries it had never before reached, circulating freely.
This was no regression to her suffering past.
This was a breakthrough.
Hummmmm—.
‘…The energy obeys me. No—my Glacial Soul Divine Art has actually advanced?’
A serene and crystalline blue radiance erupted from Seol Young’s entire being.
The frail, trembling girl consumed by fear had vanished. In her place stood a true descendant of the Glacial Soul, master of the frozen abyss.
An unexpected blooming in the midst of crisis. Seol Young clenched her fists, power surging through her veins.
Now it was my turn to repay the debt.
With eyes that gleamed like jade, I gazed upon Yun Cheon, who teetered on the brink of death.
“Hold on, Eun Gong. This time, I’ll be the one to save you.”
The icy malevolence that had already penetrated deep into Yun Cheon’s core could not be reclaimed by my power alone.
It clung to his vital essence and blood, as though claiming his body as its new nest.
‘If this continues, his heart meridians will freeze eternally.’
There was only one way. Yun Cheon himself would have to master that power.
‘Yun Cheon lacks the vessel to control yin energy. Then….’
She made her decision.
The Glacial Soul Divine Technique—the family’s absolute secret art.
Transmitting it to others was strictly forbidden, but now was no time to concern herself with such restrictions.
“Yun Cheon, can you hear me?”
Seol Young pressed her palm against Yun Cheon’s chest, channeling her inner force as she cried out.
“I will now recite the incantation of my family’s secret technique, the Glacial Soul Divine Technique!”
“…!”
“You must use it to control the yin energy! If you do not, Yun Cheon will die!”
Yun Cheon’s hazy eyes turned toward her.
Her gaze was resolute.
A will to shatter even her family’s taboos if it meant saving Yun Cheon.
[Glacial heart becomes sanctuary, cold qi takes form….]
Seol Young’s crystalline voice resonated through Yun Cheon’s mind.
It was the sole lifeline cast from the threshold of death.

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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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