Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 41

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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 41.
“Stay close behind me. Their numbers exceed our expectations.”
Yun Cheon’s chilling warning had scarcely left his lips when shadows surged forth like a tide.
They were assassins of the Dok A Faction, secretly cultivated by the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family.
Not warriors who met their foes in open combat.
Professional killers who erased their footfalls, concealed their breath, and murdered through poison and coordination.
While their martial prowess alone might fall short of the Twelve Orthodox Families’ regular forces, the moment they completed their encirclement in this forest path, the equation shifted entirely.
Moreover, the blades they wielded—lightless swords—wept with a virulent toxin that would rot flesh with merely a graze.
Baek Ri Hyeon’s face drained of all color.
“We must retreat to the Inner Library for now! Cheon Gyeon is there!”
Baek Ri Hyeon cried out in desperation, but Yun Cheon did not yield a single step.
All directions were sealed by blades dripping with deadly poison—there was nowhere safe to retreat.
“If you show your back, you die first.”
Yun Cheon’s reply was glacial.
There was no opportunity to flee.
Then I would reduce their numbers first.
My hand brushed across my waist.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
Light erupted.
What I unleashed were the hidden blades gifted to me by Ya Jin.
The Shadowless Kill Sect’s supreme technique—the Soul-Severing Daggers.
“Evade!”
A cry of horror shattered the forest’s silence.
“What…what is this!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Three assassins charging from the vanguard collapsed simultaneously.
“Ugh!”
“Gasp…!”
The dark shadows that had leaped forth from all directions, their poisoned blades raised high, crumpled like puppets with severed strings.
Between the brows, beneath the nose, and through the heart.
The Soul-Severing Daggers pierced only the assassins’ vital points with absolute precision.
Speed beyond mortal perception—no defense, no escape.
The assassins embedded in the earth did not rise again.
Instant death.
Peculiarly, no blood flowed from where the daggers had struck.
My inner force, channeled through the blades.
Yin-cold energy had frozen the blood solid.
“This…what is….”
“Just…just now?”
“What…how did that…?”
The intelligence was clear: he suffered from severed meridians, his body devoid of inner force.
Capable only of unarmed combat and footwork techniques, or so the reports claimed.
Yet with merely a handful of flying blades, he had dispatched three assassins of near-first-rate caliber in an instant.
As his companions crumpled, the assassins trailing behind faltered in their momentum.
“Ugh…!”
The Dok A Faction leader barely managed to raise his sword and deflect the incoming flying blade, but the weighty impact transmitted through the blade forced him back several steps.
His grip burned as though his hands might tear apart.
“Do not stop! Maintain the encirclement!”
The leader’s pupils trembled violently as he gritted his teeth.
‘Flying blade technique? How is this possible from someone without inner force…!’
But Yun Cheon did not miss the opening created by the assassins’ momentary hesitation.
Srrring—.
With a crisp metallic ring, the blade he had never once drawn finally emerged from its sheath.
Yun Cheon’s form moved with the Shadowless Step, piercing into the midst of the assassins.
“Block it!”
The assassins hastily raised their swords in defense.
But Yun Cheon’s blade carved through their expectations like mockery, tracing bizarre trajectories as it descended.
Skreeeee—!
Each time Yun Cheon’s blade flashed, space itself seemed to split.
Wherever the steel passed, flesh and blood froze solid in grotesque clumps.
The leader’s eyes widened to the point of tearing at this eerie and terrifying spectacle.
It was entirely different from the intelligence he had paid dearly to obtain.
“What! I was told he was a martial artist who wielded leg techniques and iron rings!”
This man was no martial artist at all.
Yun Cheon’s blade flashed once more.
Skreeeee—!
Frost crystallized wherever the blade passed, flesh and blood freezing in its wake.
Cold sweat trickled down the leader’s spine.
‘What manner of blade technique is this?’
It was neither as domineering as the Demonic Cult’s methods nor as righteous as the orthodox sects’ techniques.
Excessively savage, excessively cold.
A terrifying swift blade that seemed capable of severing even the soul itself.
To the leader’s eyes, it was merely a blade of unknowable origin.
Kunlun’s forbidden technique—the Pursuit of Fate Blade.
The blade’s already dense killing intent was layered with the yin-cold energy of the Limitless Frozen Heart Scripture.
The result was a sharp and frigid swift blade of devastating perfection.
‘An excellent choice indeed.’
The burly man observing Yun Cheon’s prowess twisted his lips into a smile beneath his mask.
‘The winning side is clear—it lies with that one!’
At that moment, the leader fixed the burly man beside him with bloodshot eyes.
“You rat bastard! The information I sold you at such a price—it’s all fake, isn’t it! You’ve led us into a trap!”
At that, Ma Chung let out a soft chuckle beneath his mask.
“I didn’t know either… that he’d be capable of such things….”
His voice carried both profound bewilderment and a peculiar exhilaration.
The leader’s blood surged backward in fury.
The Dok A Faction—equipped with poison, hidden weapons, and coordinated formations.
They had believed themselves capable of capturing even masters at the pinnacle of cultivation.
Yet from the very first exchange, everything had gone awry.
The hidden weapons, the swordsmanship, the inner force—all of it lay beyond their intelligence.
“This… this is outrageous! Do you think you can answer me like that and walk away! I’ll end you with my own hands…!”
But before he could finish speaking, the situation shifted catastrophically.
“Aaahhh!”
“Patriarch! The formation has collapsed!”
The Dok A Faction’s assassins were falling like autumn leaves in the wind.
Cold sweat streamed down the leader’s spine.
‘I’ve miscalculated. At this rate, we’ll be annihilated.’
A single thought flashed through the leader’s mind like lightning.
‘I alone must survive.’
The others could perish without consequence.
The assassins were mere expendable tools, trained to leave no trace of the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family.
But he himself was a direct bloodline of the family.
Should he be captured, the entire clan would suffer irreparable damage.
‘Not for myself! This is for the main house…!’
The leader steeled his resolve and cried out.
“With the determination to perish together, strike him down! One blow is all we need!”
The command was absolute.
The assassins, resigned to death, raised their poison-coated blades and rushed at Yun Cheon.
Using the moment when Yun Cheon’s gaze fixed upon them, the leader hurled himself backward without hesitation.
‘Forgive me. Die for the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family!’
It was the instant he sought to vanish into the forest.
Crash—!
A sudden impact slammed into his ribs.
“Gahhh!”
The leader screamed and tumbled across the ground.
Lifting his head with difficulty, he saw that blocking his path was none other than a massive man.
“You… you bastard, wasn’t the faulty information enough? What in the hell are you doing!”
At the leader’s cry, the man slowly tore away his mask.
The revealed face was Ma Chung Kyoto, wearing a bloodthirsty sneer.
“Did you truly believe I, Ma Chung, would fall for the forked tongue of some snake?”
Ma Chung growled, tensing the muscles of his thick thighs.
‘I, Ma Chung, have witnessed that monster’s talent closer than anyone else.’
Yun Cheon was far too vast and attractive an investment to be sold off for mere coins.
“You… you traitor!”
“Traitor? Choose your words carefully. I was never on your side to begin with.”
Ma Chung laughed with a metallic rasp.
“I backed him from the start.”
“Profit…! And you, Kyoto, stand with him despite the humiliation of having your recognition token stripped by a mere student!”
“Humiliation?”
Ma Chung unleashed the Blood Wind Sect technique.
“My pride took a hit. But my eyes remain clear.”
Ma Chung smirked and charged at the leader.
The Blood Wind Sect technique erupted, completely sealing off the leader’s escape route.
“Master! Your orders…! The encirclement is collapsing!”
Each time the leader’s fist extended, Ma Chung’s shoulders and ribs burst open.
But Ma Chung had never intended to win.
When he couldn’t block, he took the blow, and even as he bled, he locked down the escape with his arms.
He only needed to hold him in place.
“Tch! Stop being difficult, you bastard!”
The leader lashed out in desperation, but Ma Chung clung to him relentlessly, sacrificing flesh to preserve bone.
“Is the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family’s fist technique really just this? It seems inferior to my leg arts.”
He even threw in provocation.
Ma Chung scratched away methodically, dragging out time.
Meanwhile, the Dok A Faction leader’s mind raced with urgency.
Occasional muffled groans drifted through the air.
The death cries of assassins he had personally trained.
Assassins conditioned never to scream even in the face of death.
‘My Dok A Faction…! An organization capable of assassinating even those at the peak realm!’
The leader harbored no regret over the assassins’ deaths.
After all, assassins existed to be expended in such ways.
The only problem was that despite his assassins’ encirclement crumbling, he still couldn’t break free.
Yun Cheon caught the shift in his demeanor.
“Fools. Abandoned hunting dogs don’t even realize they’ve been cast aside.”
*Slash.*
Yun Cheon severed an assassin’s arm as he spoke with chilling clarity.
“What…?!”
“Look at the one who sent you. If he had any intention of taking responsibility, he wouldn’t be attacking while wearing a mask.”
“What…! That can’t be…!”
Yun Cheon’s words planted seeds of doubt in the assassins’ hearts.
When they glanced back, they saw their leader—ankle caught by Ma Chung—attempting a pathetic escape.
A commander throwing his own men into the jaws of death while fleeing alone.
In that instant, the assassins’ movements froze.
“Can’t you see your leader attempting to flee? If you voluntarily discard your weapons now and confess everything, I’ll spare your lives.”
“Why should we believe your words!”
One assassin spat out a rebuttal.
Yun Cheon flicked the blood from his blade and shrugged.
“You don’t have to believe me. After all, it won’t be you who knows the most—it’ll be that leader fleeing over there.”
Those words cut sharper than any dagger.
A declaration that they were nothing but expendable pawns.
Yun Cheon held up two fingers.
“Just two.”
“…!”
“That’s all I need. I only require enough people to cross-verify that leader’s testimony. The rest of you have no reason to remain alive.”
In that moment, a subtle fracture rippled through the assassins’ ranks.
Some clenched their teeth and gripped their blades tighter, while others turned with wavering eyes toward their retreating leader.
“Don’t be deceived! Fall for his words and we all die!”
One assassin snarled and charged forward.
A sharp whistle.
Yun Cheon’s blade flashed once, and the man’s neck twisted with pathetic ease.
A dull thud.
Almost simultaneously, another assassin gritted his teeth and drew a poison needle from his robes, attempting to thrust it beneath his own tongue.
“Madness—!”
Baek Ri Hyeon reflexively hurled his judge’s brush, and the needle end pierced through the assassin’s hand.
The poison needle clattered to the ground.
The remaining assassins’ complexions drained of all color at the sight.
Resistance meant death.
Suicide was no longer an option.
And their leader was gone.
Then, finally.
A metallic clang.
One assassin dropped his sword.
“I—I’d rather confess and live than be discarded as expendable!”
“You fool—!”
The assassin beside him immediately lunged forward with curses, but Yun Cheon’s hidden blade pierced his throat first.
A wet sound.
Silence.
Then a second sword fell.
A metallic ring.
A clatter.
Some clenched their teeth to the bitter end,
while others cast about with desperate eyes, searching for any path to survival,
In the end, there were those who lowered their heads in surrender.
But the fissures that had already spread among the assassins could not be mended.
The Poison Fang Hall’s encirclement crumbled before the blades could fall.
Yun Cheon observed the scene with detachment, then called out to Baek Ri Hyeon, who stood in a daze.
“Baek Ri Hyeon.”
“Uh… yes? I mean, yes?”
Baek Ri Hyeon’s mind was half-absent.
He was overwhelmed—the man he’d known only as a pulse-severing patient was now slaughtering assassins and commanding the battlefield.
“What are you doing? Seal their pressure points and subdue them completely.”
“Ah… understood… sir!”
Baek Ri Hyeon fumbled to draw his judgment needle and rushed toward the assassins.
Meanwhile, the leader—held fast by Ma Chung’s grip—watched it all unfold, his eyes bloodshot with rage.
“These… these bastards! I ordered them to fight to mutual destruction, and instead they surrender?!”
Consumed by fury and desperation, he seized a gap in Ma Chung’s guard and unleashed a heavy palm strike with all his power.
Boom!
“Ugh! Ptui!”
Ma Chung coughed blood from the internal wound.
Seizing the moment, the leader shook him off and hurled himself toward the forest.
‘I must survive! I must reach the clan and report this!’
As he steadied himself and plunged into the darkness, it happened.
From the shadows, a hand suffused with killing intent suddenly emerged.
Snap.
Something cold and deadly pressed against the leader’s throat.
“That’s far enough.”
A low, measured voice.
Blood trickled from the gash at his neck.
Before the leader could resist, a tremendous force of inner power struck his carotid artery.
“Gack…!”
The leader lost consciousness without even a scream, crumpling to the ground.
Ma Chung approached, clutching his chest and breathing heavily.
“Damn it, one more second and he’d have slipped away.”
The figure that emerged from the darkness wore pitch-black martial robes—it was Kyoto, Ya Jin’s senior.
He kicked the fallen leader like a sack of grain, then smirked at Ma Chung.
“Can’t you even finish what’s served to you?”
“Tch… Yun Cheon will recognize my contribution!”
Ma Chung huffed indignantly, then his expression shifted as he called out triumphantly toward Yun Cheon.
“Yun Cheon! Over here!”
Yun Cheon approached them slowly.
Ma Chung, despite his internal injuries, was too busy boasting of his exploits to care.
“Listen, Yun Cheon—you do realize my contribution in pinning down the leader was substantial, right?”
Yun Cheon sheathed his blood-stained blade and nodded.
“Of course. It was made far easier thanks to you holding him in place, Kyoto.”
At that moment, a man standing over the fallen leader interjected with an air of deliberate solemnity.
“Heh heh… but don’t forget, it was I who ultimately captured the leader, yes? Without the Shadowless Kill Sect’s prowess, the bastard would have escaped.”
Yun Cheon’s gaze shifted toward the man.
“You speak truly, Senior Kyoto Ya Jin.”
Standing beside Ma Chung was none other than Senior Kyoto Ya Jin himself.
The two Kyotos regarded Yun Cheon warily, each watching the other.
Observing their posturing, I allowed myself a bitter smile inwardly.
‘…I set two traps, and they both snapped shut perfectly. Almost too well.’
The Snake and Scorpion Ink Family dug their own grave without realizing it, attempting to bribe Ma Chung’s Kyoto.
Thanks to that, I had already identified the situation beforehand by planting an informant within their ranks.
Now only one thing remained—to punish those behind this conspiracy.
My gaze fixed upon the unconscious leader.
“Let us proceed together to the Demonic Path Pavilion Master’s office.”
Ma Chung and Ya Jin exchanged puzzled glances, yet my expression brimmed with certainty.
“I will force him to kneel before the Pavilion Master and strike down the Snake and Scorpion Ink Family.”
My eyes grew cold and sharp.
“With the blade called the Inspection Bureau.”

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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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