Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 96

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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 96.
“I’d like to cross blades with that wolf’s master. Do you think you can climb all the way here?”
Upon the blood-stained Combat Platform.
A cerulean aura still flickered faintly at the tip of the blade.
The hall stirred with unease.
Those who had held their breath at Kang Hui’s defeat mere moments ago.
Yet Ul Ji Geuk’s single utterance transformed the lingering shadow of defeat into kindling for the next match.
It was unmistakably directed at the wolf’s master—Yun Cheon, the master of the Black Dragon Gang.
“Well… being called a wolf isn’t entirely unpleasant.”
At those words, Kang Hui laughed despite the blood smearing his face.
Yalü Hee reproached him sharply.
“Wipe the blood from your mouth, you fool. Tend to your vital energy.”
“…Yes, yes. I hear you, sister.”
Yun Cheon glanced at Kang Hui once, then turned his gaze back to Ul Ji Geuk.
“…You are an arrogant one, but you are nonetheless a warrior of the Black Dragon Gang. Wait. I shall face you shortly.”
“Heh… I look forward to it.”
Ul Ji Geuk laughed as though amused.
Yet an unexpected figure interjected.
“Fool of the Ul Ji Family. Have you lost count of the order?”
A man with his hand resting upon a scabbard marked with a crescent moon emblem regarded Ul Ji Geuk.
It was Dok Go Un, the rising prodigy of the Cham Wol Dok Go Family.
Ul Ji Geuk’s brow twitched.
“What did you say?”
“The quarterfinals have seen but one match thus far. Yet you speak as though you have already decided who shall stand before you.”
Dok Go Un rose from his seat as he spoke.
“Dok Go Un. I have grown weary of your blade long ago.”
“One hundred and thirty-four matches: thirty-four victories, thirty-three draws, thirty-three defeats.”
Dok Go Un’s response came without hesitation.
“I still maintain the advantage.”
Ul Ji Geuk fell silent for a moment.
“…You still keep count of that?”
“You have lost so often that you have forgotten.”
Ul Ji Geuk’s laughter took on a sharper edge.
“I won the last one.”
“And yet I remain ahead. Can you not even manage such simple arithmetic?”
Until moments ago, Ul Ji Geuk’s provocation had been directed at Yun Cheon.
Now, all could see that his challenge had touched the pride of another of the Twelve Orthodox Families.
Ul Ji Geuk of the Pae Roe Ul Ji Family.
Dok Go Un of the Cham Wol Dok Go Family.
The two were not meeting for the first time at this martial exhibition.
They appeared to be warriors who had been gnawing at each other’s blades and techniques for a very long time.
A few in the audience swallowed hard.
“A hundred matches fought—that’s impressive.”
“The record is just one victory apart. A narrow lead.”
“They seem almost evenly matched, though….”
“Wouldn’t Dok Go Un’s account carry more credibility, given he remembers the record?”
The gap between them was paper-thin, yet the numbers clearly showed Dok Go Un one step ahead.
Dok Go Un rose slowly to his feet.
“Master of the Black Dragon Gang.”
He turned and fixed his gaze upon Yun Cheon, his tone sharp with displeasure.
“The moment you answered that fool’s provocation, I too could not overlook it.”
Dok Go Un’s fingers came to rest upon his scabbard.
Even before drawing the blade, his aura cut through the air like a razor-thin line across skin.
“If you mean to claim victory regardless of your opponent and ascend, then I shall break that arrogance first.”
As he finished speaking, the cold aura finally subsided beneath his scabbard.
The Cham Wol Dok Go Family.
They lived up to their reputation.
Yun Cheon opened his mouth slowly.
“If you can.”
A brief utterance.
In that instant, Dok Go Un’s eyes narrowed to slits.
Ul Ji Geuk burst into laughter upon the Combat Platform.
“Ha.”
Upon the blood-stained Combat Platform.
The azure lightning of the Pae Roe technique still coiled around his body.
“Entertaining. Both of you speak well.”
Dok Go Un no longer looked at Ul Ji Geuk.
His gaze remained fixed upon Yun Cheon.
At that moment, the Butler stepped forward.
“Quarterfinals, second match.”
The commotion in the Grand Martial Arena gradually subsided.
Everyone knew.
Whatever name was called next, the tide of the tournament would shift dramatically once more.
The Butler’s voice rang out.
“Black Dragon Gang, Yun Cheon.”
In an instant, all eyes in the audience turned as one.
The Black Dragon Gang.
When I first entered this place, that name had been nothing but mockery.
A small faction from the borderlands of Qinghai.
A motley force that barely held a name at the bottom of the Feng Yun Ranking.
But now, things were different.
Kang Hui had forced Ul Ji Geuk to draw his blade.
Yalü Hee had earned recognition as a successor candidate from the family head of the Guang Feng Yalü Family.
Yun Cheon had advanced past the Round of Sixteen without even drawing a weapon.
And now.
“Representing the Cham Wol Dok Go Family, Dok Go Un.”
The second name had been called.
A low murmur swept through the Grand Martial Arena.
“What a curious twist of fate…!”
“The Black Dragon Gang Master and Dok Go Un?”
“This one won’t end with a single kick, that’s for certain.”
“It’s the blade of the Cham Wol Dok Go Family. No matter how formidable the Black Dragon Gang Master is….”
Yun Cheon and Dok Go Un.
The two ascended onto the Combat Platform.
Three paces apart.
Dok Go Un unsheathed his sword and gripped it in his left hand.
The scabbard, inscribed with a crescent moon pattern, flashed once in the sunlight.
Yun Cheon also unfastened a blade from his back.
A dao.
The sword remained sheathed on his back.
Unease rippled through the spectators once more.
“…A dao again?”
“Now that you mention it… he didn’t even draw a dao against No Ja Gyeom. But this time he’s unsheathed one.”
“Is he saying he’ll meet the Cham Wol blade with a dao?”
Dok Go Un’s brow furrowed.
“…Black Dragon Gang Master. You must have a weapon you’re more accustomed to between the dao and the sword. Which is it?”
Yun Cheon lifted the dao lightly and tested its weight once.
“The sword. However, whether I draw it or not is my decision to make.”
He raised the dao naturally to shoulder height.
“Should the Dok Go blade prove worthy, I shall not hesitate to draw.”
The arena fell silent for a moment.
A declaration to face one of the Twelve Orthodox Families’ swordsmen—a master of the Cham Wol Dok Go Family—with a secondary weapon rather than his primary.
Tendons rose visibly on Dok Go Un’s forehead.
“I took you for a man worthy of mutual respect. Yet you are merely arrogant.”
His hand grasped the sword guard.
Ready to draw the moment the signal to begin was given.
“Today, I shall teach you the true blade of the Cham Wol Dok Go Family.”
The spectators held their breath first.
The corner of Ul Ji Geuk’s mouth rose.
Yalü Hee watched Yun Cheon with her arms crossed.
Even beneath Nak Wol’s veil, a faint smile bloomed.
“Combat begins!”
The moment the Butler’s words ended.
Dok Go Un vanished.
No—a single flash of cold moonlight streaked across the Combat Platform.
“F-fast!”
“Is that the Cham Wol Sword Technique…!”
“Incredible speed!”
No, “fast” was insufficient.
A blade reaching the neck before the eyes could follow.
Moonlit sword light was already cutting into Yun Cheon’s shoulder.
“…!”
“D-danger!”
Too late.
Several spectators thought so.
Yet in the next instant, an incomprehensible metallic ring erupted.
Clang!
With it, the tip of Dok Go Un’s blade deflected diagonally away.
Yun Cheon’s saber, drawn belatedly, stood precisely in that spot.
“…?”
Dok Go Un’s blade tip halted one inch before Yun Cheon’s shoulder.
One inch before it, Yun Cheon’s saber blocked diagonally.
Blade and saber touched at a single point.
Yet the contact point was neither the blade’s tip nor the saber’s center.
Where the saber had received the blade’s trajectory at an angle.
The blade’s arc was slightly deflected at that point.
Dok Go Un’s eyes narrowed.
‘…It was clearly late, yet it reached?’
He had drawn his blade first.
Yet Yun Cheon’s saber had arrived precisely at the blade’s tip.
Preventing it from advancing even an inch further.
It was a late response.
Yet it arrived first.
Dok Go Un withdrew his blade and stepped back.
On the Combat Platform, the distance between the two returned to three paces.
“…A saber technique I have not seen before.”
“Your blade is swift. Thus I met it with a slow saber.”
“Slow…saber technique? A dull blade?”
The saber descended diagonally from the shoulder, angling across the center of the Combat Platform.
A stance where the saber’s imaginary line bisected half the platform.
An elderly martial artist in the audience muttered softly.
“Embodying the subtleties of a blunt blade? What… utter nonsense…?”
Fundamentally, a blade is a single-edged weapon.
A tool designed for cutting.
Swiftness and dominance.
Those are the blade’s most familiar paths.
Strength and weight—one could understand those.
But bluntness? That made no sense.
Using a blade to block, to slow, to seal space.
It defied all convention.
“It’s… impossible…”
Such was the typical reaction of those who had cultivated considerable martial skill.
Yet Dok Go Un refused to be swayed by logic that defied common sense.
He focused only on what he himself had witnessed in Yun Cheon’s blade technique.
“…A blunt blade, is it? I begin to understand why it bears such a name.”
The single sword remaining on his opponent’s back.
If he was originally a swordsman…
And had mastered a blade infused with the subtleties of bluntness.
Then wielding a blunt blade would hardly be unreasonable.
“Yet… swords have their proper usage, and blades have theirs!”
Yun Cheon’s eyes gleamed at Dok Go Un’s reaction.
It was not mere excitement speaking.
Swords have their way, and blades have theirs.
An obvious truth.
And only those who truly understood that truth could find displeasure in transcending a weapon’s nature.
“You understand, then.”
A faint smile crossed Yun Cheon’s lips.
“Which makes it all the more regrettable.”
Dok Go Un’s gaze turned glacial.
“Regrettable?”
“That one who understands a weapon’s nature so well remains shackled by the pursuit of swiftness.”
“How dare you…?”
With those words, Dok Go Un’s momentum shifted.
His sword energy, cold as moonlight, thinned in an instant.
The tip of his blade dropped lower.
“Whether that was arrogance or enlightenment.”
His feet pressed against the Combat Platform.
“I shall ascertain it.”
In that moment.
Sword light split into three.
A sharp gasp erupted from the spectators.
“Triple Moonlight!”
“The Cham Wol sword technique’s continuous form!”
Three streaks of moonlit blade.
One toward the neck.
One toward the wrist.
One toward the ankle.
Three strands of sword qi pierced forward at different heights, different speeds, and different trajectories.
Yet Yun Cheon did not retreat.
His saber descended slowly.
Heavily.
As if a black boulder were being placed in the center of the Combat Platform.
Clang! Clang—! Clang—!
The second and third strands of sword qi arrived with barely any delay after the first was blocked.
Remarkably, Yun Cheon appeared to parry all three strands of sword qi while standing motionless in place.
“What… what is this?”
“How did he just block that?”
Dok Go Un’s eyes narrowed sharply.
‘…!’
Yun Cheon did not evade the three incoming strands of sword qi.
Instead, he seized the path before them.
With merely a single step and the angle of his saber, the three streaks of blade light lost their trajectory.
The murmurs from the spectators grew louder.
“What kind of saber technique is that?”
“It’s clearly not fast, yet….”
“Dok Go Un’s sword is being blocked.”
“No, rather than being blocked… it seems he’s seizing the very space where the blade would land. A youth who has reached a remarkable realm….”
The one who spoke last was an elderly elder of the Guang Feng Yalü Family.
“Hmm… exquisite. Completely different in character from the Guang Feng saber technique… yet… it possesses equal depth.”
Family Head Yalü Jin drew a faint breath and spoke quietly to himself.
Upon hearing those words, Yalü Cheok’s gaze turned toward his father.
‘…A saber technique worthy of Father’s recognition.’
Upon the Combat Platform.
Dok Go Un’s sword transformed once more.
This time, it was not three strands.
One strand.
Only a single strand.
A silver thread so thin it seemed invisible.
That silver thread cut across the Combat Platform.
Yun Cheon’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.
‘He’s consolidated them.’
Three swords reduced to one.
Abandoning feints, transformations, and continuous strikes—leaving only the sword’s speed and cutting power in a single blade.
The essence of the swift sword.
A blade that cuts without granting a moment to think.
Dok Go Un’s judgment was not mistaken.
If a blunt sword controls space, then one need only cut before that space is dominated.
My saber moved.
Too late.
This time, it truly seemed too late.
Dok Go Un’s eyes gleamed.
The silver line reached first.
Shiiing—
My shoulder’s collar tore thinly.
The spectators held their breath.
“He’s cut him!”
But the next instant.
My saber followed in the wake of the silver line.
Not ahead.
Behind.
Along the path where Dok Go Un’s sword withdrew.
There, my saber was.
Clang!
Dok Go Un’s sword rebounded mid-withdrawal.
A heavy impact struck his wrist.
‘He blocked the withdrawal path?’
Dok Go Un’s expression hardened for the first time.
A swift sword is not only fast in its advance.
The withdrawal must be equally swift for it to be a swift sword.
When the path of withdrawal is blocked, the next move becomes sluggish.
And for a swift sword, sluggishness is death itself.
I stepped forward.
My saber remained slow, yet that slowness now strangled Dok Go Un’s breathing room.
Dok Go Un attempted to withdraw his sword.
It would not come back.
Tap.
Dok Go Un clenched his teeth and redirected his sword force.
A desperate attempt to retrieve his sword by any means.
But my saber’s spine already pressed upon his sword’s spine.
The moment Dok Go Un’s blade touched my saber’s body, he felt the tip of his sword grow heavy as if sinking into a vast swamp. The path forward was visible, yet at every threshold, my saber stood like stone, strangling the space’s every breath.
He had long since reached the pinnacle of mastery, wielding his blade as naturally as his own limbs, his sword energy capable of wounding from a distance.
Yet in this moment, the weapon in his hand felt unbearably foreign and cumbersome.
Yun Cheon’s saber rose through the opening, exploiting the gap in his guard.
Slowly.
So slowly that everyone witnessed it.
And still, he could not evade.
The cold touch of metal pressed against Dok Go Un’s throat.
No blood spilled.
The blade was blunt, after all.
Yet Dok Go Un found that dull sensation far more terrifying than any keen edge he had ever felt.
His sword remained in his hand.
But every path of counterattack had already been sealed shut.
This was not merely a difference in power—it was a transcendence to an entirely higher realm.
‘I have been completely overwhelmed….’
Dok Go Un exhaled slowly.
“…I concede.”

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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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