Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 44

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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 44.
Half a year passes equally for all, yet its density varies from person to person.
Whoooosh—!
In the depths of winter, beneath the frozen waterfall of the Demonic Way Hall.
A man sat in lotus position, his upper body bare to the elements.
The dark steel shackles that had once constricted his limbs now seemed as natural as his own skin.
“Exhale…”
Yun Cheon opened his eyes.
For the past six months, he had trained without ceasing, bound by those dark steel shackles.
Less training than an ascetic ordeal—a relentless march toward transcendence.
The result: his youthful frame now bore muscles compressed with explosive potential.
“Master.”
Seol Young stood upon a snow-covered boulder beside the waterfall.
The pallid sickness that had once marked her face had vanished, leaving only rosy cheeks and eyes sharp as steel.
“The promised day has arrived.”
“…So it has finally come.”
Yun Cheon stretched his body with fluid ease.
Crack, crack, crack.
Every joint in his frame released a satisfying percussion.
“Let us depart. The master awaits.”
The Demonic Physician Hall.
Its usual atmosphere had dissolved, replaced by grave solemnity.
Before the surgical table lay surgical blades and life-death needles, arranged with meticulous precision by size and purpose.
“You have come.”
He declared his words with uncompromising directness, dispensing with lengthy explanation.
“The Heaven-Defying Secret Art is not merely the opening of blocked meridians. It is the literal reconstruction of your entire being—severing bone from flesh, tearing muscle, and rewinding the twisted pathways of qi into their proper form.”
Saengsa Jjon’s hand traced across the anatomical diagram.
Three hundred and sixty acupoints.
The Twelve Primary Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.
“All of them must be corrected.”
Saengsa Jjon’s eyes blazed with intensity.
“Your entire body—every twisted, blocked passage will be physically reconstructed. The agony will dwarf even the phrase ‘bone-scraping pain.'”
Yun Cheon nodded with unwavering composure.
“I am prepared.”
Saengsa Jjon withdrew a small medicine vial from his robes.
“Numbness Powder. Drinking this will dull the pain somewhat.”
Yun Cheon stared at the vial, then asked:
“Does anesthesia increase the success rate of the procedure, or does remaining conscious?”
“…Theoretically, if you can endure the pain, consciousness is superior. You must feel the flow of qi yourself and respond to it—only then will the newly woven meridians take root with true strength.”
Saengsa Jjon fell silent for a moment, then answered with brutal honesty.
“However, it is a pain that no human spirit could endure.”
“Then… I will do my best to bear it.”
Yet upon hearing this answer, Yun Cheon swept the medicine bottle aside without hesitation.
“…Are you serious?”
Yun Cheon’s gaze was resolute.
In this moment, failure was more terrifying than pain.
“Heh, you’re a stubborn one….”
Saengsa Jjon clicked his tongue, yet inwardly marveled at the resolve.
“Very well. However, to prepare for any convulsions, I will bind you so you cannot move.”
Clang.
Thick iron chains locked Yun Cheon’s limbs firmly to the surgical table.
A thick leather gag was placed between his teeth.
Saengsa Jjon, observing this sight, pondered briefly before speaking.
“…Young Ah. Prepare the Essence of Clear Stone.”
“…!”
Seol Young’s eyes widened at Saengsa Jjon’s words.
Grandfather was having the Essence of Clear Stone prepared first—it was unexpected.
Yet Saengsa Jjon’s resolve was unwavering.
‘No matter what, I cannot let this boy—who saved Young Ah—die by my own hand. Moreover, his breathing technique and martial foundation are the very key to completely unraveling Young Ah’s severed meridians. If something goes wrong here, it will seal Young Ah’s future as well.’
Yun Cheon and Seol Young’s gazes lingered briefly on Saengsa Jjon.
Saengsa Jjon, noticing their attention, cleared his throat once and continued with an austere expression, as if nothing were amiss.
“Are you ready? Once we begin, there is no stopping.”
Instead of answering, Yun Cheon widened his eyes and nodded firmly.
Whoosh—!
Saengsa Jjon’s hand moved like lightning.
With the first great needle piercing deep into Yun Cheon’s dantian acupoint, the barrier of Defying Heaven rose.
“Gggghhh!”
The jaw clenching the gag twisted as if it would shatter.
Crack!
Snap!
The sealed chamber filled with horrific sounds.
The scraping of bone, the forceful realignment of dislocated joints.
‘This much pain… is nothing.’
Even as his entire body burned with agony, Yun Cheon’s gaze remained unwavering.
He used the pain as a landmark, coldly observing the great reconstruction unfolding within his own body.
‘At last… the path is opening!’
With each needle Saengsa Jjon inserted, the tightly sealed meridians surged as if a dam had burst.
It was succeeding.
A faint smile was beginning to bloom at the corner of Saengsa Jjon’s mouth.
Uuuuoooong—!
Deep within Yun Cheon’s dantian, a vibration erupted that no one could have anticipated.
It was not the ‘yin energy’ that Yun Cheon had been controlling.
Beneath it lay a ferocious beast that had been holding its breath for years.
The Scorching Solar Qi surged upward through the newly opened meridian.
‘This… this is… surely not yang energy?! There was this much of it all along?!’
Saengsa Jjon’s pupils trembled.
Extreme yin and extreme yang—two forces that could not coexist within a single body.
That very abnormal coexistence was the calamity inherent to Yun Cheon’s constitution.
The true nature of the Yin-Yang Supreme Spirit Severed Meridian had finally revealed itself through the newly opened pathway.
The yang energy rushing through the newly opened channel collided head-on with the existing yin energy near the heart.
An unexpected collision between extreme yang and extreme yin.
The result could only be destruction.
“Kugh…!”
The impact sent Yun Cheon’s consciousness spiraling away.
Black blood fountained from his mouth, and his bound body arched grotesquely like a bow.
Even the yin-cold energy that Yun Cheon had been consciously suppressing began to rage violently.
“Urrgh!”
Saengsa Jjon’s hands trembled as he worked.
‘This won’t do! At this rate… he’ll die and the Eternal Heaven Technique will fail forever!’
There was no time to apply acupuncture.
He needed something that could simultaneously suppress the rampaging yin and yang, and instantly mend the torn heart meridian.
There was only one thing possible in this moment.
Cerulean Stone Marrow.
In that instant, Saengsa Jjon’s eyes wavered ever so briefly.
A supreme elixir of the world that he had been saving for his granddaughter.
The very essence of life that even absolute masters could not obtain without karmic fortune.
Yet the moment of hesitation did not last long.
Thud—!
A chilling sound of blood vessels rupturing near Yun Cheon’s chest echoed through the sealed chamber.
“You fool! Would you make me an ungrateful wretch who cannot repay the debt to my granddaughter’s benefactor?!”
Without hesitation, he flicked the stopper from the jade vial and poured the Cerulean Stone Marrow directly into Yun Cheon’s mouth.
Splash—!
The crystalline essence that poured in flowed down the esophagus like a cascading waterfall.
‘Not a single drop can be wasted!’
Saengsa Jjon immediately drove acupuncture needles in rapid succession to seal off the pathways of the rampaging energy, then used his inner force to drive the Cerulean Stone Marrow’s essence toward the collision point.
Sizzle—!
The Cerulean Stone Marrow enveloped the fiercely colliding yin and yang energies.
Drawn by Saengsa Jjon’s inner force, it then meticulously rewove Yun Cheon’s tattered heart meridian, thread by thread.
Shattered bone fused together, severed blood vessels reconnected.
‘Hah… this is…’
Saengsa Jjon continued his work without pause, even as admiration filled his heart.
He poured every ounce of remaining vital force into the boy, allowing the essence of the Luminous Azure Stone to permeate through the final reaches of his meridians.
And then.
The dying boy’s body began to reshape itself within perfect equilibrium.
It was the culmination of the life-death technique that Saengsa Jjon had pursued his entire existence to master.
Beyond merely restoring a diseased body—reaching the realm where a shattered form could be rebuilt into an even more complete state.
‘This is a domain I could never reach with merely the techniques I had conceived….’
Medical art and spiritual elixir, interwoven with the strange constitution of yin-yang supreme spirit severance, were producing results that transcended Saengsa Jjon’s imagination.
The boy’s labored breathing gradually stilled, and at last, a peaceful silence descended upon the sealed chamber.
Saengsa Jjon checked the boy’s pulse with profound relief.
But it was precisely then.
‘…?!’
In the deepest, darkest recesses of Yun Cheon’s body, which had been returning to peace.
Something foreign writhed there with microscopic tremors.
Saengsa Jjon’s pupils quivered as though struck by an earthquake.
‘This… this is poison!’
The Demonic Bell Soul-Chasing Gu.
Though its host was dead, the latent poison that had seeped deep into the bone remained alive.
That poison, which had hungered for the essence of the Luminous Azure Stone, finally stirred.
Saengsa Jjon’s face turned deathly cold.
‘This madness…! If this poison spreads while the heart meridian remains incomplete, the body restored by spiritual elixir will rot away entirely!’
It was not something that could be detoxified immediately.
“Haah….”
Saengsa Jjon set down the jade vial, still half-full, and with bloodshot eyes, drew forth the life-death needle once more.
‘For now… I have no choice but to exhaust every shred of my strength and seal it in the deepest place!’
There was no time even for a sigh of relief.
From the fingertips of the aged physician, another battle was beginning.
* * *
At that same moment.
In the underground Brain Prison of the Inspection Bureau.
In stark contrast to the scorching heat of the Demonic Physician Hall, this place was suffused only with biting cold and the stench of death.
“Ugh… this cannot be. Who am I….”
A man crawling across the floor, his dantian destroyed and limbs bound.
Muk Young Ki, once called the master of the Poison Fang Hall.
He bore no trace of the proud bearing from half a year ago—only the visage of a broken husk.
“The family head… will save me. Yes, surely he will.”
He muttered ceaselessly, denying reality.
He believed that the prestige of the Twelve Orthodox Families and the power of the family head would bring him salvation.
Then it happened.
Shhk―.
The torchlight flickered, and a figure emerged from the shadows beyond the iron bars—In Young.
“Sa… Sa Young?!”
The clan head’s most covert blade.
Color drained from Muk Young Ki’s face in an instant.
“Of course! Father sent you! Please, please unlock these chains!”
Muk Young Ki crawled toward the iron bars, dragging the shackles behind him.
“Once I’m out of here, I’ll tear that bastard Yun Cheon to shreds—”
But Sa Young didn’t move.
The eyes visible between the mask’s gaps were not those of a rescuer.
“…Sa Young?”
A chill ran down his spine.
Sa Young withdrew a small black needle from his sleeve.
A poison needle coated with Heavenly Mechanism Sealing Blood Powder—leaving no trace.
“It is the clan head’s command.”
Sa Young’s voice held no emotion whatsoever.
“Bring no further shame to the family. End it here.”
“Wh… what?”
Muk Young Ki’s face went deathly pale.
“You’re lying! How much blood have I spilled for this family—”
“If you speak to the Inspection Bureau, it becomes problematic.”
Sa Young raised his hand.
“This is the clan head’s final mercy.”
“Don’t come! Don’t—”
Whoosh—.
The poison needle embedded itself precisely in Muk Young Ki’s throat.
“Gack…! Grrgh….”
The toxin spread through his entire body in an instant, paralyzing his heart and lungs.
Muk Young Ki’s eyes bulged as he reached toward empty air.
‘Clan… clan head….’
Thud.
Until his final moment, his eyes had sought salvation, but now only betrayal and resentment remained as the light faded.
Sa Young gazed at the corpse for a moment, then turned away.
“Yun Cheon….”
He whispered those words softly before dissolving back into shadow.
The Brain Prison fell silent once more, as quiet as death.
The final fate of a hunting dog whose usefulness had expired.
* * *
Dawn light seeped through the cracks of the Demonic Physician Hall’s door.
“…It’s over.”
Saengsa Jjon, having completed the forced march, collapsed to the floor covered in blood and sweat.
Of course, that blood had flowed from Yun Cheon’s own body.
A supremely difficult procedure that had driven even a master of the highest caliber to the brink of exhaustion.
Yun Cheon lay motionless upon the bed, appearing as though death itself had claimed him.
His entire body was wrapped in bandages and splints, a grotesque mixture of sweat, blood, and the dark impurities that had been drawn from within him.
“…Fate, it seems. For us both.”
Only after Saengsa Jjon had meticulously tended to Yun Cheon did he finally depart.
︙
Seven days later.
“Ugh….”
Yun Cheon’s eyes fluttered open with a low groan escaping his lips.
‘The… the procedure…?’
He had refused even numbing powder, insisting he would not lose consciousness, yet the violent collision of yin and yang erupting within had stolen his awareness regardless.
But the moment his eyes opened, he knew instinctively.
‘It succeeded….’
My body was different.
As I drew breath, the air seemed to seep not merely into my lungs but to permeate the meridian channels throughout my entire frame.
The vital energy that once I had forced to circulate through twisted paths now flowed unobstructed, like a river that had finally found its true course.
Crack.
As Yun Cheon slowly rose from the bed, a deep yet crisp sound emanated from joints throughout his stiffened body.
My body felt light as a feather.
Yet within it lay condensed a density of power incomparable to anything before.
The oppressive blockage and suffocation that had so long weighed upon me had vanished entirely.
My inner force no longer wandered through the cramped minor meridians.
It now flowed abundantly along the finally-opened major meridian.
“It truly… succeeded.”
Yun Cheon descended from the bed and unwound his bandages.
The man reflected in the mirror was no longer a sickly youth.
He had grown a hand’s breadth taller, his shoulders had broadened, and his skin gleamed white and firm as jade.
The twisted bones and muscles had found their proper place, and a physique worthy of being called a martial body had been perfected.
Yun Cheon raised his hand and slowly clenched it into a fist.
Crack.
From the mere sensation of my fingers interlocking, I could perceive that the quality of power dwelling within my body had transformed completely.
“Congratulations.”
Saengsa Jjon, who had appeared without warning, regarded him and spoke.
“The procedure has succeeded. Yet… I have merely unblocked the obstructed path and corrected your twisted frame.”
“Thank you.”
Yun Cheon bowed deeply.
Until now, unable to use the major meridian, he had rerouted his breathing through the minor meridians.
Forced to wind through tortuous detours and splice them together with strain, the efficiency of his inner force cultivation had been abysmal.
“Exhale….”
Yun Cheon drew a deep breath.
His chest, dantian, and the meridians throughout his limbs flowed in perfect harmony, the vital energy circulating with exquisite clarity.
Yet Saengsa Jjon’s expression remained far from radiant.
“Hmph. Do not let yourself run wild.”
Saengsa Jjon warned coldly.
“The path has opened, but the ordeal is not finished. I have merely managed to suppress the rampaging heat energy thanks to the Pure Azure Stone Essence.”
The yang energy of the Yin-Yang Grand Spirit Severing Meridian and the latent poison.
They still coiled within Yun Cheon’s body.
“Now that the Pure Azure Stone Essence is exhausted, if you provoke and awaken those forces again… even I cannot guarantee what will happen.”
Yun Cheon gazed down at his own hands and clenched his fists tightly.
‘And yet… things are different now.’
A resonant hum erupted—
The energy residing in his dantian responded to its master’s will, surging forth with fierce intensity throughout his entire frame.
The shackles that had bound Yun Cheon all this time had finally broken free.

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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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