Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 46

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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 46.
Kuguguguuu—.
With each step the old man took through the darkness, the air of the Inner Library grew heavy as lead.
The bookshelves trembled faintly, and layers of ancient dust swirled up into the void.
An overwhelming wave of qi that dominated space itself.
Cheon Gyeon, the watcher of the Inner Library.
The invisible tidal wave he unleashed crashed down upon both of them.
“Ugh…!”
Yalü Hee gasped involuntarily and staggered backward.
An invisible colossal hand seemed to constrict her entire body.
It felt as though the air in her lungs was being forcibly squeezed out.
‘I cannot retreat like this.’
She bit her lip to steady her mind.
Forcing strength into her trembling legs, she wrenched her qi up from her dantian.
Uuuoong—.
The Guang Feng Yalü Family’s secret cultivation method, the Raging Wind Qi Art.
Wind-like qi spiraled within her, opening her breathing passages.
Cheon Gyeon’s eyes gleamed with interest at the sight.
“Hooh… the scent of wind. Is that the Raging Wind Qi Art?”
“How… how did you know that?”
Internal cultivation methods were typically forces that worked in the most intimate depths of the body.
It was nearly impossible for an outsider to discern their origin at a glance.
Yet Cheon Gyeon was that eccentric who had witnessed a thousand martial techniques.
“Crude but pure. A daughter of the Yalü Family.”
He perceived Yalü Hee’s inner strength as though smelling it on the wind.
‘My clan…?’
Yalü Hee’s eyes widened, but Cheon Gyeon merely waved his hand dismissively.
“You pass. You have one day. Enter first. That one still has more trials ahead.”
The mountain-like pressure crushing Yalü Hee receded like a retreating tide.
Only then did Yalü Hee lift her head, breathing heavily.
Her gaze turned toward Yun Cheon standing beside her.
‘Are you… all right?’
Concern that needed no words to convey.
As Cheon Gyeon’s pressure released Yalü Hee, it intensified all the more relentlessly upon Yun Cheon.
Yet Yun Cheon’s expression remained serene.
Yun Cheon nodded toward her.
‘Go on ahead.’
A brief exchange of glances.
Yalü Hee understood the signal.
All she could do here was trust him and refrain from interfering.
‘…Yes, if it’s Yun Cheon.’
Yalü Hee turned without hesitation, disappearing into the darkness deeper within the Library Archive.
“Utterly… incomprehensible.”
Cheon Gyeon’s eyes narrowed to slits.
Inner energy was flowing from Yun Cheon’s body as well.
A crisp, crystalline chill.
Yet it was far too pure to be the Demonic Cult’s Glacial Technique, and its texture differed from that of the Northern Sea.
Whoosh.
Cheon Gyeon advanced toward Yun Cheon step by step, maintaining his momentum.
“Let me test something. Just how many steps of my Thousand-Fold Stride can you withstand?”
Thud.
With each step he took, the pressure bearing down on Yun Cheon multiplied exponentially.
“First step.”
A sharp crack echoed from Yun Cheon’s knee joints.
Yet Yun Cheon remained standing firm.
“Second step.”
Crunch.
Fine fractures spider-webbed across the solid black stone floor beneath Yun Cheon’s feet.
Cold sweat beaded on my forehead, but my gaze remained unwavering.
“Third step.”
Crash—!
The very space itself seemed to warp under such savage force.
A pressure eight times greater than before was being exerted.
‘Ugh… such tremendous inner energy. He’s no mere observer…!’
I clenched my teeth.
While pushing the Boundless Glacial Heart Scripture to its absolute limit to endure.
Creeeeak….
The Library Archive itself cried out in protest.
The surrounding bookshelves groaned, and the volumes within trembled.
Any further increase in pressure would damage the precious texts of the Inner Library.
Cheon Gyeon halted his steps at precisely that point and withdrew his momentum.
“Hmm… to possess first-rate inner energy yet withstand three steps. Remarkable.”
Cheon Gyeon scrutinized Yun Cheon with peculiar eyes.
It was certainly not the martial arts of the Demonic Cult.
Yet to call it orthodox martial arts would be misleading—the fundamental energy underlying it was yin-cold essence.
“Even I, Cheon Gyeon, who recognizes a thousand martial arts, cannot discern the source of your inner energy.”
The demonic energy lacked its characteristic turbid and violent aura.
Instead, it possessed the clarity and profundity of Daoist martial arts.
Cheon Gyeon regarded me with suspicious eyes, yet simultaneously burning with fierce curiosity.
“…Answer my question.”
The test of martial prowess had long since concluded.
Now came the test of ideology.
“What is true strength?”
Yun Cheon’s eyes gleamed with intensity.
The predictable answers that any Demonic Cult devotee might offer flickered through his mind.
‘One who climbs over the corpses of others’,
‘One who survives to the very end’,
‘One who holds the world beneath their feet’….
But Yun Cheon shook his head, dismissing every hackneyed response.
“A strong person is one who possesses an unbreakable will.”
“…The strength of will, I see. Very well then—what of the Way of the Strong as you understand it? Is it the survival of the fittest?”
The foundational doctrine of the Demonic Cult.
Most equated it with the survival of the fittest.
That the strong devouring the weak was simply the natural order.
Yet the boy directly refuted this.
“The survival of the fittest is merely the way of beasts.”
Cheon Gyeon’s eyebrows twitched.
“…Then? What is the Way of the Strong as you see it?”
“True strength lies not in the bestial struggle for survival, but in the clash of wills fought at the cost of one’s very life. That is the Way of the Strong as I understand it.”
The boy’s answer did not deny the Demonic Cult’s teachings, yet elevated them to a higher plane.
‘The struggle for life itself….’
An answer he had never heard in all his years of questioning countless Demonic practitioners.
“There is no scent of the Demonic in your inner power, nor in your words.”
Cheon Gyeon stepped closer.
His gaze pierced through to the very depths of Yun Cheon’s soul, gleaming with penetrating insight.
“Are you… a Demonic practitioner?”
Yun Cheon paused, choosing his words carefully.
Was he a Daoist of Kunlun, or a warrior of the Demonic Cult?
How should he define himself—one who had set foot upon the Demonic Way for the sake of vengeance?
“I am merely one who could not overcome the inferno burning in his chest, and so walked willingly into the Demonic Way.”
Losing oneself to obsession.
A term describing the state of madness that befalls those who practice martial arts.
But Yun Cheon redefined those four characters as his own destiny.
One who carried the inferno of vengeance and walked the path of the Demonic Way.
“Losing oneself to obsession….”
A grotesque twist formed at the corner of Cheon Gyeon’s mouth.
An answer of such depth could never come from those born and raised within the Demonic Cult.
“So you have stepped onto the path as a Demonic practitioner… Yes… none are born as practitioners of the Demonic Way from the start.”
A foolish question, answered with wisdom.
“Kekekeke! What an amusing little brat you are! A truly entertaining one has arrived!”
Cheon Gyeon mulled over Yun Cheon’s answer, then suddenly burst into laughter.
“Go in. I grant you one day.”
With Cheon Gyeon’s permission granted, Yun Cheon carefully stepped into the depths of the Library Archive.
‘That fool Gal Mu Heun, I thought he was wasting time… but he actually found it.’
A strange anticipation flickered in Cheon Gyeon’s eyes as he perched atop the Library Archive’s ceiling beam.
The air was far colder and heavier than outside.
The musty scent of aged paper, ink fragrance, and the subtle qi emanating from secret manuals mingled together, pricking my nostrils.
‘Is this the place?’
My eyes darted about restlessly.
I yearned to head straight for the Kunlun section, but I restrained my steps, conscious of my observer Cheon Gyeon.
Instead, I turned my body casually and began scanning the other shelves.
‘This is….’
The sight before me was entirely different from what I had anticipated.
The Library Archive, crammed with secret manuals from orthodox sects and renowned schools, was a colossal tomb.
Into the darkness that stretched endlessly, shelves stood in solemn silence, lined in formation.
‘It’s as if… I’ve entered a burial ground.’
The name plaques of renowned orthodox sects arranged in rows on the shelves resembled tombstones.
Because they signified that these sects had either been annihilated by the Demonic Cult or plundered.
Upon confirming the names of two particular sects, my heart grew heavy.
‘Even Qingcheng and Emei….’
Judging by the considerable number of secret manuals on display, these two sects, like Kunlun, had not escaped the catastrophe of total annihilation.
‘All of them… are sects geographically close to Kunlun.’
A sharp ache pierced my chest at that desolate sight.
‘I despise the Martial Alliance… but to see the very roots of Qingcheng and Emei severed like this….’
Simply by observing which sects’ manuals were housed here, one could estimate how far the Demonic Cult had advanced into the Central Plains.
‘The Demonic Cult’s influence has extended beyond Qinghai Province, where Kunlun stands, all the way to Sichuan Province…!’
With conflicted emotions, I left the sections for Qingcheng and Emei behind and moved forward.
Then, in the corner of the Library Archive, my eyes caught sight of two thin books lying scattered, their covers torn in half.
As if someone had ripped them apart in a fit of rage, the jagged edges were grotesque.
‘…What is this?’
I picked it up as if possessed.
[Soul Division…]
‘Dividing one’s soul?’
As I turned the pages, sentences that read like the ravings of a madman leapt out.
[The left knows not the right, and the right betrays the left.]
[When heaven splits in two, so too must the mind be divided.]
“….”
The context made no sense whatsoever.
The more I read, the more my head throbbed as if it might split open.
Any ordinary martial artist would have dismissed it as the scrawlings of a madman lost to demonic cultivation and thrown it away.
But Yun Cheon knew instinctively.
Hidden within these dizzying passages lay the very ‘answer’ he had been searching for so desperately.
He picked up the remaining half—[Twin Absolutes].
‘Divided Soul Twin Absolutes?’
He laid both volumes side by side, yet the text still did not connect.
But Yun Cheon closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
‘I cannot simply read this.’
[Divided Soul].
To divide one’s consciousness.
It meant splitting awareness into two.
Yun Cheon focused not on sight, but on consciousness itself.
His left hemisphere rationally deconstructed the passages of [Divided Soul], while his right hemisphere sensually absorbed the imagery of [Twin Absolutes].
The sensation of cleaving his mind in half.
A sharp crack.
With a pain as though his skull were splitting, his vision fractured into two separate worlds.
In the left world, a Kunlun Sect master wielded a sword; in the right, a Demonic Cult warrior brought a blade crashing down.
Boom—!
Thunder erupted within his mind.
The passages from both books intertwined in the void, interlocking in the pattern of the Tai Chi before rearranging themselves into an entirely new text.
[In the Changes dwells the Tai Chi, thus yin and yang are originally one and two.]
[If nature follows such principle, how could consciousness not?]
“…!”
Goosebumps erupted across Yun Cheon’s entire body.
This was no madman’s ravings.
Righteous and Demonic.
Yin and Yang.
A solution devised to wield opposing forces simultaneously.
‘It resonates with the Dual Extremes Convergence.’
Yun Cheon’s pupils trembled violently.
To fragment one’s self—only a madman would conceive such a thing.
Any ordinary martial artist would recoil in horror, calling it a shortcut to demonic possession.
Yet Yun Cheon knew of precedent for a martial art possessing such capability.
‘The Wudang Sect’s Dual Aspect Heart Method is said to function thus. But… it is not an impossible goal.’
After all, Yun Cheon already harbored two different energies within his body simultaneously—yin and yang qi.
‘…I have found it. The final piece I needed.’
Yun Cheon fell into deep meditation right there.
Whoever left behind this strange tome must have been a predecessor who struggled desperately to master both righteous and demonic arts without losing their mind.
His eyes read both books simultaneously while his mind continuously fragmented his consciousness.
His body moved naturally in response.
Yun Cheon’s two hands moved in completely opposite directions.
‘Divide the soul to achieve dual severance.’
A deep hum resonated through the air.
‘It’s possible….’
Faint as it was, the path lay clearly before me.
A constitution born with yin and yang energies twisted together in opposition.
Yin-Yang Severed Meridian.
‘If one consciousness could release the yin energy while the other consciousness released the yang energy…!’
An intuition whispered that a new path might open before me.
Yun Cheon tucked the two volumes into his robes and settled into a cross-legged meditation on the spot.
“Hoo….”
High above, upon the ceiling’s massive beam.
Cheon Gyeon’s eyes, hidden in the darkness, widened in astonishment.
‘He deciphered that forbidden text…?’
Cheon Gyeon knew the truth.
In ages past, countless book collectors had been seduced by the promise of mastering two martial arts simultaneously.
Yet without fail, their dual selves would collide, causing them to cough blood and descend into madness.
‘Truly demonic cultivation… a cursed thing….’
That was why he had torn it to shreds and cast it into a corner, beyond easy reach.
‘Yet this one… far from losing his mind, his eyes have grown even clearer.’
Yun Cheon sat in meditation, his consciousness transcending the mundane world.
A strange smile curved across Cheon Gyeon’s lips as he observed him.
The one Gal Mu Heun had sent was far more intriguing than he had anticipated.
“After so long… to witness someone cultivating Divided Soul Dual Severance once more….”
Having decided to watch over Yun Cheon, Cheon Gyeon descended from the ceiling and took his place as guardian.

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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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