Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 68

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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 68.
The deepest, darkest secret chamber of the Sura Blood Sect.
In that place where not a single ray of light penetrated, Dan Hong sat in lotus position.
Before her lay a meal provided by the sect, alongside a bowl of medicinal broth that shimmered with a blood-crimson hue.
It was Elder Hyeol Young’s strict command.
[Elevate your Sura Blood Qi to the level where you can contend with this Yun Cheon. Drink this elixir and enter closed cultivation for a time.]
Dan Hong reached for the broth with trembling hands.
The sect had always spoken of it.
A treasure granted only to core disciples of the highest caliber—the sole essence capable of perfecting the Sura Blood Art.
Each time she drank it, her skull felt as though it might split asunder.
Her blood boiled and her vision flooded crimson, yet she believed this to be the inevitable agony one must endure to become a true Asura.
No—she had to believe it.
‘This time too… I must endure.’
Dan Hong squeezed her eyes shut and drained the broth in one desperate gulp.
A swallow.
From the depths of her stomach, a searing heat erupted as though she had swallowed molten lava.
A sensation of reason itself melting away.
It was the very moment when the urge to tear apart everything before her bared its fangs—
A whisper.
From the deepest point of the Baihui acupoint atop her crown.
The cool, frigid essence that Yun Cheon had planted there quietly awakened.
A sharp hiss!
The murderous intent that had surged like flames collided with the Frozen Heart, scattering like steam.
As if by illusion, the agony ceased. The roiling chaos of her mind settled clear as a winter lake.
‘…Ah… it doesn’t hurt?’
Dan Hong opened her eyes, breathing heavily.
Where the pain had vanished, ‘truth’ now took root.
Yun Cheon’s yin-cold essence had become a catalyst for purification, laying bare the demonic nature hidden within the medicinal qi.
Her dantian grew heavy as blood essence surged through her meridians.
Certainly, the elixir possessed genuine efficacy.
Yet beyond that intoxicating sense of achievement, threads of qi twisted like serpents toward her cerebral meridians, surging forward.
The remnants of the Demonic Way—devouring reason as the price of overwhelming power, filling the void with bestial murderous intent.
The crimson light bleeding across the edges of her vision was not proof of growth, but a warning that her reason was being eroded.
‘Side effects… no?’
This was how it had been designed from the beginning.
Dan Hong’s fingertips trembled as she confronted the truth.
The suffering she had endured all this time was not the price of cultivation. It was a leash.
A beast that grew more loyal the more blood it saw, more manageable the more reason it lost.
The sect had not raised her as a core disciple—only as an obedient hunting dog.
‘They never nurtured me at all.’
A searing sense of betrayal battered my entire being.
The conviction I had devoted my entire life to was torn to shreds beneath my feet.
Even the blood flowing through my veins felt foreign and repugnant.
Then came a chilling voice that struck my ears.
[To waste your life on such an incomplete martial technique… you truly do not cherish existence.]
Yun Cheon’s words finally pierced the deepest chamber of my heart.
At the time, I thought it was arrogant mockery.
But now I understood.
In that man’s eyes, I had been nothing but a leashed beast.
“Ha….”
A parched laugh escaped between Dan Hong’s crimson lips.
The sect that had raised and nurtured me my entire life had not raised me as a person—it had trained me as a tamed beast to command.
Meanwhile, that man, whom I should have rightfully subjugated as an enemy, had paradoxically been the first to restore clarity to my mind.
Because of this, my insides twisted.
The moment I acknowledged it, I felt as though I would retch.
Yet the more I wished to deny it, the more vivid that newfound clarity became.
I slowly closed my eyes.
Forcibly suppressing the surging bloodlust, I confronted the quieted depths within.
It was the first time.
The first time I had observed the flow of blood with my own will, not to tear someone to death, but for myself alone.
In the darkness of the secret chamber.
I breathed quietly and steadily.
From this moment forward, I could not live as a hunting hound intoxicated by blood, snapping at anyone.
* * *
“Dan Hong’s seal restriction….”
A crimson curtain stained with the stench of blood.
From behind it, the voice of the Sura Blood Sect Leader slithered forth like a serpent.
“What has become of it?”
Hyeol Young, the elder prostrate outside the curtain, answered respectfully.
“We mixed poison into her meal and sent her bloodlust into a rampage once more. In a few days, she will become a convenient blade to wield as before.”
The Leader fell silent for a moment.
“The Black Dragon Gang Master….”
Viscous displeasure dripped from his voice.
“We lost Maeng Ung, and now he has even laid hands upon Dan Hong’s mind. At this point, it would be difficult to let him live.”
Hyeol Young raised his head.
His eyes gleamed like a viper’s.
“That is precisely why we must not rush. Behind that man stands Saengsa Jjon, one of the Five Great Sages. If we send assassins carelessly, our sect will face a backlash instead.”
“Then.”
The curtain trembled faintly, as if responding to the Leader’s wrath.
“What do you propose?”
Hyeol Young’s lips twisted into a grotesque smile.
“If we cannot strike in the shadows, then we shall sever the head in broad daylight.”
The air behind the curtain grew cold and still.
“Tianshan.”
Hyeol Young intoned the words with sinister reverence.
“Fortuitously, the curtain of the Demon Sect Grand Tournament draws near. None may intervene in the slaughter that unfolds upon that stage—not even the Venerables themselves….”
The Sect Leader asked nothing further.
Instead, a low, murky laugh seeped from behind the crimson curtain.
“Hehehehe… excellent. You would have him ascend that place of death by his own feet? Then we need not soil our blades with blood at all.”
* * *
Qinghai Province, Black Dragon Gang.
The fervor of the inauguration had dissipated, and silence settled over the Faction Leader’s Office.
Amid the subtle fragrance of steeping tea, the Demonic Path Pavilion Master Gal Mu Heun and Saengsa Jjon sat across from Yun Cheon.
On one side: one of the Demonic Cult’s Five Great Venerables.
On the other: a master who commanded the Demonic Cult’s educational institutions.
For a fledgling faction leader barely spreading his wings, their combined weight was as immense as Mount Tai itself.
Yet both wielded their authority with different expectations, watching Yun Cheon with keen interest.
“Reckless fool.”
Saengsa Jjon set down his teacup with a sharp tap.
“When you pressed upon that woman Dan Hong’s crown, I wondered what madness possessed you.”
He stroked his beard and clicked his tongue.
“It was far more than merely channeling cold energy. You perceived the seal-marks tangled within her cerebral meridians and severed only those knots—a technique as exquisite as my own medical arts.”
His eyes gleamed with profound admiration.
“Yet… the Sura Blood Sect is rooted in the headquarters, one of the Ten Demon Sects. The physiology of the main sect differs greatly from this Qinghai Province. This place is merely an outpost of our Cult.”
Yun Cheon raised his teacup in silence.
Gal Mu Heun snapped open his fan and continued.
“You have broken the seal-marks, you say? If Saengsa Jjon speaks truly, you have severed the leash of a hunting hound the Sura Blood Sect painstakingly raised.”
Gal Mu Heun’s eyes narrowed.
“Had you merely slain the beast, it would be one thing. But to restore reason to its eyes….”
His voice sank with grave weight.
“A slave master fears a thinking slave far more than a dead one. The Sura Blood Sect will move heaven and earth to tear you apart.”
Gal Mu Heun’s gaze fixed upon Yun Cheon.
“They know how to wield people rather than simply kill them—that is what makes them dangerous. And to place blades in the hands of vagrants and the defeated? It is precisely what those old men at headquarters despise most.”
A tense silence hung suspended.
Yun Cheon spoke quietly.
“Then… what is your view, Pavilion Master? Do you oppose this?”
A question that sounded almost like provocation.
Yet Gal Mu Heun felt no displeasure; instead, he snapped his fan shut with a crisp sound.
“Oppose? Hardly.”
A thick smile spread across Gal Mu Heun’s face.
“On the contrary, I find it rather intriguing. What I fear is not a wavering order, but one that has stagnated and rotted away.”
He rose from his seat and looked down upon Yun Cheon.
“You are still small. Yet smallness does not render a spark harmless—it merely makes it easier to overlook.”
Gal Mu Heun’s gaze was not that of a refined scholar.
“I wish to observe how far you will go.”
Saengsa Jjon let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha. How refreshingly candid for a scholar. I, too, harbor no intention of obstructing your journey to Tianshan.”
Saengsa Jjon spoke to Yun Cheon as though issuing a warning.
“Yet mark this well. Should you ascend to the main sect, you will entangle yourself in affairs that even my patronage cannot shield you from. Your only recourse shall be your own strength.”
Yun Cheon set down his teacup.
A cool, crystalline edge swept across his previously serene gaze.
“I shall prove that your expectations were not misplaced.”
The corners of Saengsa Jjon’s mouth twisted upward.
Gal Mu Heun, too, released a brief chuckle.
“This shall suffice for today.”
It was then.
Whisper.
The faintest tremor of presence brushed past the paper screen.
Gal Mu Heun and Saengsa Jjon simultaneously recognized the intruder’s nature, exchanging a meaningful glance.
“It seems we have a nocturnal visitor.”
Saengsa Jjon rose with a smirk.
“We shall withdraw. We shall hear the details another time.”
Gal Mu Heun folded his fan and turned to depart.
The two titans left the chamber, and the moment the door closed, a shadow slipped through the window and into the room.
It was Sa Do Myeong of the Inspection Bureau.
“We have successfully escorted Maeng Ung, the Blood Axe Stronghold Master who moved as a puppet of the Sura Blood Sect and the Golden Pavilion, into the custody of the Inspection Bureau.”
Thud.
Sa Do Myeong placed a heavy leather pouch and a silver token upon the table.
“The Deputy Director was most pleased. This is both a reward for capturing Maeng Ung and compensation for eliminating the Killing Bureau’s first target.”
“Quite a sum of silver… But this is…?”
Yun Cheon reached for the silver token beside the leather pouch before the pouch itself.
A silver token engraved with the Haetae, symbol of the Inspection Bureau.
Sa Do Myeong lowered his voice.
“It is the credential of a Secret Inspector of the Inspection Bureau. The Faction Leader has now been granted authority to investigate rival factions within the sect under the Inspection Bureau’s name, anywhere within our walls.”
It was far more than mere wealth.
Within the Demonic Cult, it was legitimate justification to draw the blade—and power itself.
Yun Cheon traced the silver token lightly with his fingertips.
“I understand Si Kong Zhen’s calculus now. Along with the reward comes a greater task, does it not?”
A faint smile crossed Yun Cheon’s lips.
In exchange for toppling Blood Axe Stronghold and surrendering Maeng Ung, the Inspection Bureau had granted him both material gain and the blade itself.
Sa Do Myeong hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“I do not deny it. However… there is a concern that troubles the Faction Leader.”
“Speak.”
“The Sura Blood Sect has lost Maeng Ung and suffered Dan Hong’s defeat at your hands. They have surely harbored deep resentment toward you. There is a considerable chance they will make a move soon. It would be wise not to leave the Black Dragon Gang undefended for the time being—”
“You believe the Sura Blood Sect will attempt something?”
Sa Do Myeong nodded.
“Given their nature… it is entirely—”
“It appears so at first glance.”
Yun Cheon spoke with certainty.
He slowly rotated the silver token between his fingers.
“They will not be satisfied with merely taking my life.”
Yun Cheon rose slowly from his seat.
The hem of his black martial robes stirred faintly.
“Above all, Saengsa Jjon is here. Should they recklessly draw their blades, they would only spill needless blood.”
“Then…?”
Sa Do Myeong’s Adam’s apple bobbed visibly.
“Thus, they have but one path to choose.”
His gaze turned toward the northern window.
“As I did before. This time, they will orchestrate their own stage, summoning me to a place where I can be struck down before all eyes and their honor restored.”
A dark smile etched itself across Yun Cheon’s lips.
“Tianshan. That is where I shall ascend.”
The very air shifted at those words.
“…Gasp!”
Sa Do Myeong’s eyes widened as if they might split.
In that instant, he understood.
Why the Faction Leader had sent not merely compensation, but also the silver token of an Inspection Bureau official.
The moment Yun Cheon set foot upon the headquarters’ stage, the blade of the Inspection Bureau could extend far beyond through him.
Yet the man himself had already seen through even such hidden intentions.
Yun Cheon spoke first.
“Inspector Sa Do Myeong. Convey this to the Faction Leader.”
His pitch-black pupils blazed with fierce light toward the northern sky of Kunlun, where the Demonic Cult’s headquarters lay.
“Since you have granted me the authority to wield the blade legitimately… prepare not a hollow execution list from some backwater corner, but a proper roster.”
Sa Do Myeong’s breath caught.
Yun Cheon, holding the silver token of an inspector, laughed low and coldly.
“The Black Dragon shall soon ascend to the headquarters.”

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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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