Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 62

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

Chapter 62.
Thud.
Yun Cheon committed the blood-stained roster to memory before hurling it deep into a drawer.
One month remained until the inauguration ceremony.
To welcome the names inscribed in this death ledger, he required a stage grand enough to match their stature.
Crash! Boom! Screech—
From dawn onward, the cacophony of hammers and grinding wagon wheels filled the mountainside.
“Handle it with care! This is premium red pine bearing the Ilwol Trading Company’s official seal!”
“Double the road width! The company’s massive carriages must pass through freely!”
“Tear down that wall and rebuild it higher! We need three additional warehouses for the company’s supplies!”
The area surrounding Black Dragon Gang, which mere days ago had been nothing more than a squalid bandit den, was undergoing a complete transformation.
Under the direction of Geum Bu Dong, the Qinghai branch manager of the Ilwol Trading Company, enormous capital and manpower poured in.
The shabby Heuk Ryong Guest Inn had been expanded into a magnificent five-story tower pavilion, and the Black Dragon Gang’s broken gates had been replaced with imposing black iron doors.
With money flowing and crowds gathering, the remote village was metamorphosing before everyone’s eyes.
Wanderers and trading company guards arriving at the village entrance stood slack-jawed in astonishment.
“Has this area always been so prosperous?”
“The Ilwol Trading Company has made its move. They’re establishing this place as a logistics hub for northwestern Qinghai Province!”
Already a natural crossroads connecting the Demonic Cult’s headquarters in Tianshan, Xining City, and the Kunlun Mountain Range.
At that crucial juncture, a massive nest was being constructed where the Black Dragon would coil.
Yet what astounded the wanderers as much as the outward transformation was the sound emanating from beyond the newly erected walls of Black Dragon Gang.
“Hyaaaah!”
“Kraaagh!”
“Get up! Did you think to enter Black Dragon Gang in such a pathetic state?”
Crack! Snap!
The Training Ground was thick with blood, sweat, and dust swirling together.
Following Yun Cheon’s orders, four instructors conducted a bone-grinding selection process against the flood of incoming wanderers.
Whoosh!
“Gasp… gasp… please… spare me…”
“Any of you who would surrender at this point—crawl out through the gates now! But if you wish to remain a martial artist, take up your weapons again!”
Though the wanderers’ bodies became riddled with wounds through this brutal selection, their eyes gleamed with bestial fervor.
“Uuuugh!”
“Gasp, gasp… I… I can still continue…!”
For those who had spent their lives rolling in the streets, treated as refuse, the opportunity to learn true martial arts was priceless beyond measure.
And beyond the bars, two eyes watched in breathless silence.
The Medical Chamber of Black Dragon Gang.
Kang Hui, the Remnant Blood Wolf with his fractured jaw wrapped in bandages, gazed down at the Training Ground through the window and swallowed hard.
Hundreds of wanderers converged from every corner of the realm.
Yet the instructors’ selection process was so brutal it filtered out even impure intentions.
A veritable hellscape of chaos and suffering.
‘That senseless brutality… it’s not training… it’s selection?’
It was less a simple selection and more a process of rebirth—a complete metamorphosis of body and spirit.
Just as Yun Cheon, once ravaged by severed meridian syndrome and bearing the pallor of illness, had been reforged through excruciating pain, so too did these wanderers undergo their own crucible.
Every vagrant who wished to cultivate inner energy had to endure such a trial.
Expelling decades of accumulated turbid qi from their bodies, straightening twisted bones and sinews—it was a process no one could bear with ease.
Shuaack! Thwack!
Yalü Hee’s saber pierced mercilessly through a vagrant’s meridian points and withdrew.
“Your legs have given out! Leave if you cannot continue!”
Jin So Wol’s enormous halberd swept through the vagrants like a scythe, while Chui Geom Yi Mok, wine bottle in hand, mockingly exploited their openings and drove them into the ground.
“Krraaagh!”
“I… I cannot go on…”
The instructors gave fair opportunity to all vagrants seeking entry into the Black Dragon Gang.
Those whose will had broken departed of their own accord.
Since they had chosen themselves, there was no resentment.
Only those who rose again despite coughing blood—those possessed of venomous determination—remained at the edge of the Training Ground.
A chill ran down Kang Hui’s spine.
‘When I was content with my rank of 90th on the Feng Yun Ranking… where was the Black Dragon Gang Leader gazing?’
Now, from within the Black Dragon Gang, I could feel it keenly.
The Black Dragon Gang Leader was not someone who clung to mere rankings on the Feng Yun list.
‘If he had set his mind to it, he could have elevated his rank as high as he wished.’
How contemptible was I, who had grown arrogant with merely a rank of 90?
Shame made Kang Hui’s fists tremble violently.
Clang.
Then, a heavy metallic sound echoing through the corridor froze Kang Hui’s heart.
Creak.
The Medical Chamber door opened, and Yun Cheon entered, clad in pitch-black martial robes with a dark iron chain wrapped about his waist.
Yun Cheon’s cold gaze pierced through the bandaged Kang Hui.
In that instant, Kang Hui was seized by the illusion of a cold blade touching the nape of his neck, and his breath caught.
A gap felt without any aura being released.
Only then did Kang Hui understand.
It was this very thing he had been raging against in fear.
“Has your wound healed somewhat?”
“….”
“For days you neither fled nor looked away from the window.”
Yun Cheon settled casually into a chair in the Medical Chamber and spoke softly.
“Decide now. Will you bark like a frightened dog, or will you bow your head to the strong and learn?”
It was neither provocation nor mockery.
Kang Hui knew it well himself.
Forcing down the instinct to scream and charging forward regardless.
Was that truly courage?
Or was it merely arrogant recklessness born from refusing to accept the difference in strength?
“…I… I acknowledge my shortcomings. I shall follow you. When the day comes that I am prepared to challenge you…”
A soft rustle.
Kang Hui descended from the bed and knelt on one knee at Yun Cheon’s feet.
A declaration of submission.
The moment the master ranked 90th on the Feng Yun Ranking placed his own leash around his neck.
“Good. Learn the Black Dragon Heavenly Art from So Ryong.”
The very opponent I had defeated three years prior—the same man whose crushing loss that day had rendered my victory hollow.
Learning martial arts from So Ryong?
For a moment, pride reared its head once more, but Kang Hui suppressed it.
“…I shall do as you command.”
Yun Cheon rose from his seat with a faint smile.
“Now you have taken the first step. Only by accepting one’s own insufficiency can one advance further.”
* * *
At that same moment.
In Kyoto’s quarters at the Demonic Sect.
Ma Chung, the Kyoto, received an invitation delivered by messenger bird and tilted his head in confusion.
“The Black Dragon Gang Leader? Who dares send me an invitation?”
At Ma Chung’s side, Ya Jin, the senior Kyoto, appeared silently and spoke with a sneer.
“Tsk, your information is slow. Look carefully at the seal stamped below the sender’s name.”
Ya Jin wore an easy smile, as though he already knew the full situation.
Only then did Ma Chung examine the characters stamped at the bottom of the invitation, and his eyes widened.
“The Black Dragon Gang Leader…? Yun… Yun Cheon?! Yun Cheon has become the leader?”
“Indeed. I was shocked myself. He left the Combat Platform, and somehow he swallowed an entire faction whole…”
Ya Jin’s lips curled upward with amusement.
“This matter…! I must report it to Director Gal Mu Heun at once!”
“Hmph. Does the Director not know what you know? Stop making a fuss and go obtain permission for leave. We cannot afford to miss the spectacle that boy is orchestrating.”
“Of course! I was the first Kyoto to recognize Yun Cheon’s talent!”
“…Recognize? Have you forgotten about losing your identification token?”
Ma Chung cleared his throat and straightened his robes.
“That was… merely a moment of carelessness!”
Regardless, this boy was no different from a disciple whom I had first spotted as a seedling and painstakingly trained.
‘Yun Cheon is the successor to the Blood Wind Sect!’
At the very least, Ma Chung genuinely believed this.
“Ahem! I shall go report to the Director at once.”
As Ma Chung rushed eagerly toward the Administrative Office, the eyes of Ya Jin, left alone, grew dark and heavy.
‘In mere months, he seized a backwater faction and joined hands with the Ilwol Trading Company… I knew his martial prowess was exceptional, but to manipulate the board like an old serpent—that is another matter entirely.’
Ya Jin’s gaze turned toward the dark clouds gathering over the sky of Qinghai Province beyond the window.
‘If that boy truly spreads his wings… soon the stench of blood will permeate the Sect.’
* * *
Time flowed relentlessly toward the inauguration ceremony.
The training ground of the Black Dragon Gang reeked perpetually of blood and sweat.
Half of those who fell spat crimson onto the earth.
Half fled, unable to endure the ordeal.
Of the hundreds of vagrants who had arrived, merely fifty or so remained to don the black martial robes of the Black Dragon Gang.
“Training concludes here. Return early today and use the time for personal maintenance!”
“Understood!”
The new gang members responded with disciplined vigor, their voices resonating through the training ground as they filed out.
The four instructors had ended the recruits’ training earlier than usual.
“At last, tomorrow arrives.”
The eve of the tempest—when the formidable powers of Qinghai Province would descend upon us.
Yet the four instructors’ day remained unchanged from any other.
Since Yun Cheon became faction leader, the four instructors had ascended the Combat Platform without fail each day, testing and selecting among the vagrants.
Every single day burned with intensity unlike any before, and we stood fully prepared.
Screech, slash—
Sharp friction sounds tore through the silence.
Particularly in Yalü Hee’s hands as she sharpened her blade against the whetstone, a peculiar restlessness lingered.
‘Will they come from the main family?’
So Ryong noticed how her gaze kept drifting northward, toward where the Guang Feng Yalü Family was located.
‘Tsk tsk, she’s wound up tight as a bowstring.’
So Ryong clicked his tongue inwardly, a characteristic sly smile playing at his lips.
Easing her tension was his responsibility as the chief administrator of the Black Dragon Gang.
“Sister, you’ll ruin the blade at this rate.”
“…Quiet. Don’t interfere.”
Yalü Hee snapped at him, but So Ryong laughed good-naturedly and pressed forward.
“Come now, tomorrow is the inauguration ceremony. Surely you can afford to relax for just one day?”
“…”
Yet Yalü Hee offered no response, methodically tending to her weapon in silence.
“Facing the jackals who covet the Black Dragon Gang tomorrow is already inevitable.”
Unable to bear it further, So Ryong broached the subject.
“So why not make a wager among us instructors?”
“A wager?”
Jin So Wol, who had been quietly organizing the Black Dragon flags, lifted her head.
“So Ryong. Tomorrow is a solemn occasion to proclaim the faction leader’s authority to the martial world. Such frivolous wagering is entirely inappropriate.”
“Ah, Sister Jin. Frivolous? I’m proposing we prove which of us instructors, as the faction leader’s arms and legs, is truly the strongest. This is our chance.”
So Ryong struck his chest with a resounding thump, presenting a thoroughly calculated proposal.
“Whoever has the least blood on their hands loses. The loser handles dawn running drills for these fifty new members for the next month. How about it?”
“What…?”
In that instant, Yalü Hee’s eyes transformed.
“A month of uninterrupted sleep? Fine. I’ll do it. There’s no way I’ll lose.”
“Ah, Sister Yalü Hee, now that my Black Dragon Physique and Black Dragon Cultivation have begun to harmonize, you mustn’t underestimate me. But Sister So Wol—you’re the real mystery. Surely you’re not lacking in confidence?”
When So Ryong provoked them, strange flames flickered in Jin So Wol’s eyes as she listened from beside him.
Though she had never properly interacted with peers her own age and had spent her days alone polishing her spear, her pride as a martial artist was no less than that of Yalü Hee, who came from a martial family.
“…My Black Dragon Heaven Stirring Banner technique is now completely mastered. I will not lose either.”
She declared this by striking her spear halberd against the ground with a resounding thud.
She had previously used a diluted version of the Black Dragon Heaven Stirring Banner through unconventional spear techniques.
But now that she had grasped the banner, Jin So Wol had relearned all the techniques she had discarded and returned to the original form.
‘Perfect. Both of them are fired up now.’
Sparks of tension crossed between the two women’s gazes.
So Ryong inwardly rejoiced at the deadly clash of qi between the two instructors, whose personalities and martial prowess were complete opposites.
‘Hehehe, this is what the Black Dragon Gang should be. I’m still far behind compared to these two elder sisters… but I’m curious. Which of them is stronger.’
At that moment, Chui Geom Yi Mok, who had been leaning awkwardly at the edge of the floor drinking spirits, burst into raucous laughter.
“Tsk tsk tsk! Youth is indeed wonderful! Such vigorous blood.”
Yi Mok tossed the empty bottle to the ground and placed his hand on the hilt of his worn sword.
The murky gaze of a habitual drunkard vanished without a trace, replaced by the piercing eyes of a Sword Demon.
“But alas. Tomorrow, this old man’s blade will be the first to drink blood and become intoxicated. You little brats will only be picking up scraps that fall behind me.”
The eve of a storm that should have been fraught with tension like thin ice.
Yet the leadership of the Black Dragon Gang treated the approaching enemies merely as ‘prey’ for their wager.
A faint smile also appeared at the corner of Yun Cheon’s mouth as he silently gathered his strength.
‘These blades have been honed quite keenly.’
* * *
At last, the official inauguration day of the Black Dragon Gang’s new leader.
The sky over Qinghai Province was bleak, covered with thick ashen clouds.
“There! The Black Dragon Gang’s signboard is visible!”
From all directions of Qinghai Province, forces harboring different malicious intentions converged simultaneously toward the Black Dragon Gang’s newly constructed massive black iron gate.
The leader of the Iron Shark Gang, who had come up the eastern waterway, laughed with a sinister grin, his massive saber like a guillotine blade resting on his shoulder.
“Krahaha! So the Black Dragon Gang has grown fat, have they? Today I’ll gut whether this black dragon or earthworm is, and the Black Dragon Gang’s wealth will all be seized by our Iron Shark Gang!”
From the west came the bandits of Blood Axe Stronghold, descending the treacherous mountain range.
Maeng Ung, standing at their head, clashed his massive black iron axe together and unleashed a blood-boiling roar.
“These ignorant vagrant bastards dare hold an inauguration ceremony? The feast they’ve prepared is clearly meant for us mountain bandits!”
The warriors of the Seven Star Sect, who controlled the southern passage, also walked in formation with hypocritical smiles.
“Tsk tsk, rootless vagrant trash gathering to falsely claim a faction. We of the Seven Star Sect will teach you painfully who the true master of Qinghai Province is.”
Finally, the northern passage of the Black Dragon Gang extending from Tianshan.
Unlike those noisy packs of wolves or herds of wild boar, only silence lingered here.
In the middle of that path, a man in a bamboo hat with a long horse-slaying saber slung diagonally across his back approached the Black Dragon Gang alone on a single horse.
The cold gaze beneath the bamboo hat fell upon the distant fluttering banner of the Black Dragon Gang.
“To think my elder sister would become a guest at such a shabby place….”
It was Yalü Hyeon, the youngest of the Guang Feng Yalü Family among the Twelve Orthodox Families.
“Black Dragon… Yun Cheon… What manner of man could he be….”

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