Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 77

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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 77.
“I’m going to the Iron Shark Gang. Will both of you come with me?”
At Yun Cheon’s proposal, both wore bewildered expressions.
“Again?! We just hit the Jinguan Pavilion moments ago….”
Yalü Hee’s voice carried a note of complaint.
“Me too?”
Yu Ha raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“…The three of us together. You have a point. It wouldn’t be bad to stir up something entertaining for once.”
Yu Ha accepted with a soft chuckle.
Yalü Hee, who had shown signs of weariness moments before, eagerly joined in.
“…Then I can’t be left out.”
Shortly after.
Three shadows tore through the dawn air, racing along the mountain path.
Yun Cheon led the way.
Yu Ha and Yalü Hee pursued closely behind.
Yun Ryong.
Once, in Kunlun and across the martial realm, this was the epithet by which they called me. Few know that name now, yet I alone remain aware of it.
Whiiing—!
A bitter wind that licked the mountainside whipped across the three of us.
Lightness Technique.
In the martial realm, it was commonly said that lightness technique most honestly revealed a warrior’s foundation.
How long could one sustain the run?
How swiftly could one surge forward?
Ultimately, everything hinged upon the quantity of true qi accumulated in the dantian.
Therefore, the one leading now could not possibly be Yun Cheon.
‘This makes no sense.’
Yu Ha’s eyes narrowed.
‘When I first saw him at Zamadong, Yun Cheon had no inner strength whatsoever.’
Raised as the successor to the Ilwol Trading Company, Yu Ha had tasted the finest medicines of the Central Plains since childhood. Though he had never openly displayed it, he had never once felt inferior in the absolute quantity of inner strength compared to his peers.
‘My total inner strength is surely greater. The same must be true for Yalü Hee.’
Yun Cheon had not been cultivating inner strength for long.
‘No matter what secret techniques he experienced from Saengsa Jjon….’
It should not compare to one who had filled the dantian since childhood.
‘…Let me test this once.’
The playful fox with a smiling face—Yu Ha’s lips curved upward slightly.
The true qi flowing from his feet subtly thickened.
Srrrrk—.
As the true qi channeled into the Yongquan point dispersed through his ankles and palms, his body grew lighter still. With each step, weight dissolved, and his form rose like silk caught on the wind—a transformation so natural it seemed he merely steadied his breathing and matched pace.
With each step on the ground, his weight seemed to disappear, and Shingyeong floated up like silk carried on the wind. To the eye, it appeared to be nothing more than a natural shift—as if he were simply steadying his breath and matching his pace.
But that wasn’t the case.
Yu Ha was testing Yun Cheon’s maximum speed right now.
Whoosh—!
Gathering true qi at the Yongcheon acupoint and pushing off the ground, gravel scattered and dry branches snapped and fell. My body glided forward like an arrow.
For a moment, it seemed the distance would close instantly.
But.
Yun Cheon’s form ahead remained completely unshaken.
There was no sign of him squeezing out his power, no roughness in his stride, no change in his breathing. Just the same rhythm as before, the same effortless grace.
And yet.
Rather than closing, the gap widened further.
Yu Ha’s eyes narrowed sharply.
‘…This is a bit wounding to my pride, isn’t it?’
Yun Cheon’s movements were eerily smooth.
A lowered torso. Shoulders without a hint of wasted motion. Feet that barely seemed to touch the ground.
Rather than fighting against the mountain’s undulations, he flowed with the ridge’s contours. It wasn’t a man running up a mountain—it was like watching a dragon glide through the landscape.
‘…Such movement is even possible?’
Yu Ha gritted his teeth. The playfulness was over.
Instead, competitive fire ignited.
Boom—!
The refusal to lose. The hunger to win.
How long had it been since Yu Ha felt genuine competitive spirit against someone his own age?
‘…This feeling isn’t so bad!’
True qi from my dantian surged through the meridians, flooding my feet with power. I launched high off a massive boulder, closing the distance in a single bound.
The one bearing the full brunt of Yu Ha’s acceleration was Yalü Hee.
‘I knew both of them were skilled, but… they’re so far ahead I can barely keep up?’
Yalü Hee clenched her teeth and pursued them both. Even deploying her lightness skill at full power, the two figures ahead only grew more distant.
“Haa… haa….”
What was even more frustrating was the sense that neither of them had yet unleashed their full strength.
For Yalü Hee, simply chasing after them both was already pushing her limits.
With her breath rising to her throat, Yalü Hee finally called out.
“Hey, you two… slow down!”
Yet seeing her refuse to give up and channel jade-green true qi into her feet again proved her temperament was unmistakably Yalü Hee’s.
‘If we keep running like this, Yalü Hee’s breathing will completely fall apart.’
Yun Cheon eased his pace by half a beat out of consideration for her condition.
Yu Ha also slowed, clicking his tongue softly.
“Tsk, we got a bit too caught up in our own competition. The lightness skill contest ends here.”
Only then did Yalü Hee catch up and rejoin them.
Yun Cheon, eyes forward as he ran, spoke without emotion.
“Both of you—perhaps because your inner power is abundant, you use your strength too roughly.”
Yalü Hee immediately shot back.
“What? Isn’t it common sense that lightness of body requires inner strength as its foundation?”
“It’s not merely about running fast with brute force. Don’t kick the ground so desperately—feel the wind and ride its current.”
Yalü Hee shot back sharply, her breath coming in gasps.
“Ha… what kind of nonsense is that!”
“You still don’t understand even after seeing it?”
With that brief reply.
Yun Cheon’s foot touched a pine branch stretching diagonally across the mountainside, and he launched himself forward once more.
His form slipped into the mist again.
Tch—.
Yalü Hee gritted her teeth.
Just keeping up was exhausting. But what was more infuriating was that his words didn’t sound like mere boasting.
Yun Cheon, running ahead, genuinely appeared at ease. He didn’t seem to be expending his vital energy lavishly.
“…How in the world is he doing that!”
Yu Ha didn’t answer, instead keeping his gaze fixed on Yun Cheon’s back.
Now it became unmistakably clear.
His lightness of body wasn’t simply about speed. It was a footwork technique that read the mountain’s grain, borrowed the wind’s current, and connected even the scattered force dissipating into empty space to the next step.
With the same handful of vital energy, I would strike the ground with force. But Yun Cheon—he read the terrain and wind flow, never wasting his energy.
‘It’s not the total amount of inner strength, but how it’s used. A method I’ve never seen before.’
That was when.
Whoosh.
Yun Cheon’s pace slowed by half a beat.
Yu Ha’s expression hardened instantly.
The scent carried on the wind had changed.
The damp smell of river water.
The scent of wet earth.
And beneath it, the metallic reek of blood clotted thickly.
“….”
All three descended onto the rocky ridge at the mountain path’s end nearly simultaneously.
Below them lay the Iron Shark Gang.
Pavilions lined along the riverbank.
Boats moored beside the dock.
Above them, far too many torches for dawn were flickering red.
These were not the lights of celebration.
It was chaos.
No—chaos drenched in blood.
Yu Ha murmured low.
“…Something’s already happened.”
Yun Cheon’s eyes grew cold and sharp.
He spoke briefly.
“I’m sorry, but there’s no time to catch our breath.”
And in the next moment—
my body extended once more in a long, fluid arc.
* * *
The moment Jin So Wol crossed the threshold of the Iron Shark Gang’s main gate, her footsteps slowed ever so slightly.
Something felt wrong.
She had never truly trusted Sa Hae Ryong.
She had knelt before Yun Cheon after witnessing what befell the Blood Axe Stronghold’s master, but he was not the sort to willingly submit to another’s authority.
Jin So Wol had come here vigilant, suspecting he might merely bow his head in appearance before returning to scheme in secret. Had Sa Hae Ryong genuinely submitted to Yun Cheon, he should by now be purging the Iron Shark Gang’s internal rot, one corrupted element at a time.
So the somewhat chaotic atmosphere within the gang was something she could overlook.
But the atmosphere was not as she had anticipated.
“I’ve come from the Black Dragon Gang. I wish to meet with Gang Master Sa Hae Ryong.”
The gang members guarding the Iron Shark Gang’s entrance froze at those words.
“What? The Black Dragon Gang?!”
“Gang Master Sa Hae Ryong?”
Shock and bewilderment flashed across their faces first, followed by a brief flicker of wariness.
“Hmm… please wait a moment.”
“I’ll inform those inside.”
Shortly after, they bowed respectfully at the waist.
“The Gang Master says he will receive you. Please, come this way.”
As Jin So Wol accepted their guidance, she did not forget to ask a question.
“But… why were you so startled at first?”
“Ah… well… that is…”
“We were merely surprised that a young woman had come to meet the Gang Master.”
But then, one of the gang members carefully extended his hand.
“Since this is an audience with the Gang Master, you must leave your weapons with us.”
Jin So Wol’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The situation felt suspicious.
Yet this was nominally an audience with the head of an organization. Jin So Wol could not stubbornly insist on keeping her weapons.
“You may return them when I depart.”
“Please, follow me. I will escort you to the Gang Master.”
The deeper she ventured into the main hall, the stronger the sense of wrongness became.
Folding screens had torn edges, and several furnishings lay broken.
‘This… something definitely happened inside the Iron Shark Gang.’
At the corridor’s end, beneath pillars, beside doorframes.
Hastily wiped bloodstains, unmistakably dark and rust-colored.
‘Blood…!’
At first, she had thought these were merely signs of Sa Hae Ryong purging Jinguan Pavilion’s lackeys and overturning the organization.
Then, Jin So Wol spotted a familiar face she had encountered at the Black Dragon Gang.
A man who appeared to be Sa Hae Ryong’s direct subordinate.
The man standing beside the pillar’s eyes met hers, and he flinched in alarm, biting his lip hard.
‘…What is that expression?’
A face flustered and restless, unsure what to do.
That was when it happened.
Bang Do, who had been leading the way, came to a halt.
“We have arrived.”
It was the reception hall of the Iron Shark Gang.
As the door opened, a subtle fragrance of tea drifted out first.
“Come in.”
A low, hoarse voice.
It was Sa Hae Ryong.
Jin So Wol stepped inside.
The room was surprisingly neat.
Unlike the disarray glimpsed in the corridor moments before, this space was excessively orderly.
No broken vessels, no bloodstains were visible. Instead, there was a meticulously arranged tea service, a low table, and Sa Hae Ryong seated at the place of honor.
When Sa Hae Ryong’s eyes fell upon Jin So Wol, the depths of his pupils flickered not with welcome or caution, but with embarrassment.
“Ahem, it has scarcely been long since you visited the Black Dragon Gang… yet you arrive in such haste. What brings you here?”
Sa Hae Ryong spoke with a forced cough.
Jin So Wol did not sit.
“I have come by the order of the Gang Leader, so please clear the room.”
“…You may all leave now.”
Sa Hae Ryong waved his hand, dismissing Bang Do and the others who had been guiding them.
Jin So Wol’s sharp gaze swept across the room.
A folding screen.
A back door.
A shadow beyond the paper-covered window.
A faint metallic scent mingled within the fragrance of incense.
‘…He did not dismiss all of them? Has Sa Hae Ryong harbored different intentions?’
Jin So Wol asked without lowering her guard.
“I have come to inspect whether the Gang Leader’s orders are being carried out. How are matters progressing?”
Sa Hae Ryong’s eyes wavered for a moment.
Only briefly.
That fleeting tremor was, to Jin So Wol, more certain than any answer could be.
Sa Hae Ryong was not alone.
Rather, he was in no position to speak freely.
“That is…”
Sa Hae Ryong exhaled softly.
“First, perhaps some tea—”
“Tea is unnecessary.”
Jin So Wol cut him off.
Sa Hae Ryong’s gaze drifted to the side once more.
It was a folding screen.
Jin So Wol’s eyes grew cold.
‘So that’s where it is.’
The presence hidden behind the screen was meticulous. The breathing was shallow, the killing intent well-suppressed. But if a man who led a faction within the Iron Shark Gang like Sa Hae Ryong could let his gaze slip so awkwardly, then whoever lurked there was no mere servant or bodyguard.
The true master of this room.
Jin So Wol did not direct her gaze toward the screen.
Instead, she quietly drew upon her inner strength.
In that instant.
Soft applause drifted from behind the screen.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
“Indeed.”
A smooth, oily voice.
A man emerged from beside the folding screen.
Immaculate silk robes, jade rings adorning each finger, and a greasy smile hanging at the corners of his mouth.
An air entirely at odds with the rough, weathered sailors that permeated this room and the Iron Shark Gang as a whole.
‘This man…!’
One thing was certain: the aura emanating from the man before her was grotesquely immense.
It was not the clear, refined qi of a martial artist refined through the dantian.
A turbid, nauseating pressure of inner strength—as though countless meridians had been forcibly crammed and compressed together—tightened around her throat. Jin So Wol’s pores bristled.
“To think the Black Dragon Gang would send such talent. It seems the Black Dragon Gang Master has quite the discerning eye.”
Jin So Wol fixed the man with a piercing stare.
“…Who are you?”
The man’s smile deepened.
“I am Jeon Man Ho, Qinghai Branch Director of Jinguan Pavilion. Hehehehe… though I suppose you could call me the Iron Shark Gang Master now.”
At those words, Sa Hae Ryong’s facial muscles twitched minutely.
A reaction where anger and humiliation had congealed together.
Jeon Man Ho stood leisurely beside the tea table.
“It seems the former Gang Master hasn’t quite adapted yet. Even when I have you act, you’re so awkward about it—surely you don’t expect to fool anyone this easily?”
“You bastard….”
A bestial growl leaked from Sa Hae Ryong’s throat.
“Shh.”
Jeon Man Ho raised a hand lightly.
In that moment, a shadow behind Sa Hae Ryong’s back shifted subtly.
The tip of a blade.
Jin So Wol’s eyes turned razor-sharp.
‘Not aimed at me… but watching Sa Hae Ryong?’
He had merely been placed in the Gang Master’s seat as a figurehead.
“Jin So Wol, was it? You’re too fine a talent to kill. Your martial skill is considerable, and you have backbone. I’ve been worried about Dan Hong’s condition lately, so this works out well. Would you consider joining my ranks?”
“…I have no intention of following a man who hides so treacherously behind a folding screen.”
Jin So Wol shot back coldly.
Jeon Man Ho laughed instead.
“The timber that refuses to break becomes all the more useful once it’s been worked.”
He flicked his fingers.
Killing intent.
The air in the room transformed in an instant.
Behind the folding screen, beside the rear door, beyond the paper windows.
The hidden presences simultaneously revealed themselves.
Jin So Wol was already prepared.
She evaded the short blade that flew at her first, then pulled the cloth wrapping that covered the table.
Whoosh—.
“Hoh.”
A second man burst from beside the folding screen, swinging his sword.
Flutter—.
Jin So Wol unfurled the cloth to obscure her opponent’s vision.
As she evaded, she wrapped the blade with the cloth and seized it.
A flicker of interest crossed Jeon Man Ho’s eyes as he watched with ease.
“Don’t kill her. She’s mine.”
Footsteps rushed from outside the door.
Jin So Wol’s eyes narrowed coldly.
‘That bastard.’
He was appraising her as an object rather than an adversary.
That was the moment.
Crash!
Sa Hae Ryong suddenly kicked over the brazier beside him.
Red coals and sparks scattered in all directions, and flames caught on a silk curtain.
“What, what is this!”
“F… Fire—!”
In that instant of chaos.
Jin So Wol threw herself into the darkness without looking back.
“Jin So Wol! Summon Yun Cheon, the sect leader! Bring him here!”
Sa Hae Ryong bared his bloodstained teeth and roared.
“You bastard.”
Smack—!
“Seize her! Break that woman’s legs if you must and drag her back!!”
For the first time, the smile vanished from Jeon Man Ho’s face.

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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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