Reincarnation of the Cloud Dragon - Chapter 99

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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 99.
“Ul Ji Geuk, stop your prattling and climb up here to prove it.”
Their gazes locked directly across the distance.
The air that had churned restlessly beneath the Combat Platform settled once more.
Before the Eight Strongmen’s tournament had even concluded, the entire Grand Martial Arena was already anticipating the next match.
The Butler held the scroll firmly, his eyes lifting cautiously toward the Pan Gwan Seok.
“Master of the house. Now that all Eight Strongmen matches are complete, shall we proceed directly to the Four Heavenly Kings tournament?”
Yalü Jin closed his eyes briefly, then opened them.
Until moments ago, he had been a father—but now he was once again the patriarch of the Guang Feng Yalü Family.
“Two martial artists wish to cross blades immediately. There is no reason to delay. Begin.”
At those words, the Butler turned swiftly.
“Four Heavenly Kings tournament, first match!”
His voice rang out across the Grand Martial Arena.
“Pae Roe Ul Ji Family, Ul Ji Geuk!”
Ul Ji Geuk drew his blade. Cerulean lightning crawled like fine cracks across the broad, thick steel. It was far more intense and turbulent than when he had faced Kang Hui.
“Black Dragon Gang, Yun Cheon!”
Yun Cheon slowly raised his blade as well. He had not yet drawn his sword fully. The blade in his hand was narrower and more composed than Ul Ji Geuk’s. On the surface, it bore neither overwhelming pressure nor brilliant momentum.
Yet the moment that indifferent blade tip cast its shadow upon the Combat Platform, Dok Go Un’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
‘Another blade technique.’
He recalled that blade which had defeated him moments before—one that seemed slow yet was never tardy, that appeared dull yet claimed the first position at every critical juncture.
Ul Ji Geuk, however, was different from Dok Go Un.
He was not a swordsman who read slowness and tore through with speed. He was a destructive force wielder, a brute-force swordsman, and today lightning rode upon that force.
‘Can the subtlety of dullness withstand it?’
Even Dok Go Un held his breath, watching the two figures.
Nak Wol laughed softly beneath her veil.
Kang Hui unconsciously bit the inside of his lip. It was obvious that the overwhelming blade momentum that had crushed him would now turn toward Yun Cheon.
The Butler lowered his hand.
“Begin!”
The moment the word left his mouth.
Ul Ji Geuk’s foot moved first.
Boom!
As one foot struck the Combat Platform floor, the stone slab rang out sharply.
Simultaneously, the blade shot upward in a diagonal arc.
It was different from the brute-force technique he had displayed against Kang Hui. The weight remained the same, but cerulean lightning flowed across it like silk.
The lightning qi that tore through space and rushed forward was faster than the blade itself could reach.
“The Lightning Blade Technique….”
Yalü Jin murmured very quietly. He had not concealed the lightning qi from the first move. It meant he regarded Yun Cheon as an opponent of equal standing or greater from the outset.
“He revealed the lightning qi immediately!”
“This is true intent—far more serious than against Kang Hui…!”
The spectators instantly recognized that Ul Ji Geuk was committing his full strength from the very beginning.
Ul Ji Geuk’s blade descended toward Yun Cheon’s head.
My blade rose diagonally. I didn’t meet it head-on. Instead, I angled it upward, deflecting the trajectory of his swordplay.
Clang!
Yet where the blades collided, azure lightning scattered, flowing along my blade.
Crackle!
“…What is this? What…?”
Not to be outdone, my own blade released a frigid aura. Frost spread thinly across the Combat Platform where my feet touched.
“Good… so you do have a hidden technique or two up your sleeve?”
Ul Ji Geuk laughed with interest. With that laughter, the azure lightning flowing along his blade grew more vivid.
The trajectory of his blade split—not into one line, but two, then three.
I lowered my body. The blade crackling with lightning passed overhead. A single strand of black hair was severed, and the cut end ignited as it brushed against the sparks, bursting into flame in an instant.
Ul Ji Geuk’s blade did not stop.
With the same momentum, he withdrew and struck downward again.
This time it was not a simple sweeping strike—the spaces between each blade movement were woven together with lightning like a net.
As one passed, the second was already coming; as the second was blocked, the third’s lightning was already clearing the path.
Boom! Crack! Crash!
Azure lightning embroidered the Combat Platform in rapid succession. Truly, the name Pae Roe suited this domineering swordplay. Lightning flashed repeatedly across the platform.
The spectators drew in shallow breaths.
“Incredible…!”
“That weight at that speed…?”
“Truly domineering swordplay…! And with lightning on top of it… can even the Black Dragon Gang master withstand this?”
Yet Ul Ji Geuk’s expression, despite appearing to dominate the match, was far from pleased.
When Ul Ji Geuk’s blade fell like thunder, my blade seemed to rise always one beat too late. Yet my blade always blocked his path before his strike fully extended.
Clang clang clang!
‘So this is what a Dull Blade feels like. Something about it is unsatisfying. Like being trapped in a swamp, suffocating.’ Ul Ji Geuk’s blade twisted at an angle.
Ul Ji Geuk’s blade twisted diagonally.
“No matter…! I’ll simply cut and crush through!”
Ul Ji Geuk gritted his teeth and poured more force into his wrists. Lightning erupted along the blade, forcibly carving a path through.
Yalü Jin’s eyes deepened.
‘That is the subtlety of Dull—it is not merely slowness. It appears like an exchange of offense and defense, but… the understanding of space is different!’
If the Pae Roe swordplay was a technique that drove force and lightning to open a path by brute strength, the Black Dragon Gang master’s blade was compressing that very path.
What stood out was Ul Ji Geuk, continuously wielding his blade with crackling lightning, yet to Yalü Jin’s eye, his movements appeared strained and constrained.
Meanwhile, Yun Cheon’s movements were neither excessive nor lacking in defense.
‘…How is this possible? And that inner force…?’
If the Pae Roe swordplay was a technique that wielded domineering force and lightning without restraint, Yun Cheon’s was different. The lightning that was difficult even to receive, he was blocking without the slightest difficulty.
Yet contrary to appearances, I was not idle in facing the blade wreathed in azure lightning.
The Wuji Bing Xin Jue.
Following my will, a cold yin-cold force was released from my dantian. The frigid, crystalline inner force flowed along my blade, wrist, and feet, receiving Ul Ji Geuk’s lightning.
Only, unlike Ul Ji Geuk’s lightning, the yin-cold force did not reveal itself outwardly.
It was Ul Ji Geuk himself who felt it most acutely at close range. Normally, sparks would have scattered each time a blade carrying lightning collided, but now what spread in all directions was a biting chill.
“…Such a chilling inner force.”
Ul Ji Geuk laughed even harder.
“Refreshing and exquisite!”
His eyes blazed to life.
“Now this is worth trampling!”
Ul Ji Geuk’s form exploded upward with even greater force.
This time, it was height.
Boom!
The blade soared overhead, and in the next instant, it dragged two streaks of azure lightning down like a thunderbolt. With the crushing force of the descent, the cerulean radiance splitting from the blade’s edge engulfed the entire radius of the Combat Platform.
Pae Roe Sword Technique.
Seventh Form.
Thunder Explosion Slash.
Azure light flashed across the Grand Martial Arena.
Yun Cheon’s eyes narrowed.
Rather than meeting the lightning head-on, I twisted my body and retreated lightly.
Crash!
The stone platform shattered.
“You! Dodging so nimbly!”
Lightning scattered wildly through the debris, and in that gap, Ul Ji Geuk’s second blade was already streaking toward me. The edge of my robe tore.
Kang Hui clenched his teeth. He had been formidable when facing me, but this Ul Ji Geuk was a different beast entirely. The weight of his tyrannical blade was now fully awakened with lightning.
But in that moment.
A fleeting instant.
Ul Ji Geuk, wielding the Pae Roe Sword Technique, suddenly felt resistance. Thin ice crystallized at the junction where his blade momentum should have continued, shattering and severing the flow of lightning.
“Petty tricks…!”
That single beat.
Screech—
My blade carved into the interior of Ul Ji Geuk’s blade momentum. The blade itself was not particularly fast.
Yet the point where it entered was precisely where the Pae Roe Sword Technique’s flow needed to go next. With that single junction blocked, the chain of attacks that had been flowing seamlessly through the technique shattered in an instant.
Clang!
“…Ha. So you wedge your way in like that?”
There was no wound.
But it was the first time. Ul Ji Geuk’s momentum had clearly been severed. A short laugh escaped.
“Now this is a worthy fight…!”
Ul Ji Geuk’s eyes flashed with intensity.
He raised his blade again. The azure lightning dancing along the blade no longer scattered outward—instead, it began to gather inward.
The entire broad blade glowed a brilliant blue, like a thunderbolt condensed into solid form.
The air above the Combat Platform grew oppressive.
Yalü Hee’s eyes narrowed.
“…He didn’t use that against Kang Hui.”
Dok Go Un’s brow also tightened subtly. The Pae Roe Sword Technique was not merely a method of crushing with force and lightning.
The essence lay in how one wove together the overwhelming force imbued in the blade with the lightning aura. And at this very moment, Ul Ji Geuk was altering that very weave.
From a frontal assault that crushed all resistance, to a lightning strike that tore through the opponent’s senses in a single explosive burst.
“…Let’s see if that dull blade of yours can withstand this as well.”
Ul Ji Geuk’s foot pressed against the Combat Platform once more.
Boom!
Yet this time, the sound was not as thunderous as before.
Rather than embedding deeply, his body slid forward with sharp, rapid momentum.
A speed that seemed impossible given Ul Ji Geuk’s frame and the size of his blade.
‘Withdrawing the force, advancing with lightning.’
The blade dipped low before surging upward like a bolt of lightning.
The Overwhelming Force and Lightning Sword Technique.
Eighth Form.
Azure Lightning Sprint.
Crack—!
What made contact first was not the blade itself.
Before Ul Ji Geuk could even fully swing his sword, the cerulean lightning aura concentrated at the blade’s tip tore through the air and engulfed Yun Cheon’s vision.
Yun Cheon’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
His blade rose sharply.
It was slow. Yet that slowness had already claimed its place in the void. The instant the cerulean lightning touched the blade’s edge, a cold and crystalline aura enveloped that very space.
Crackle—!
Lightning and frost tangled together in a single moment.
Ice fractured, and lightning scattered.
Seizing that opening, Ul Ji Geuk’s blade swept through relentlessly.
Clang!
Yun Cheon’s shoulder was driven back half a step.
Even with the deflection, the impact lingered.
His robes billowed backward, and the stone beneath his feet was scraped thin.
The crowd drew in a sharp breath.
“He’s been pushed back!”
“This time it landed for real!”
Yet Yun Cheon did not retreat further.
His blade remained low and quiet.
Though it seemed to rise a beat too late and meet the strike a breath too slow, Ul Ji Geuk’s next move always found its path already sealed.
“This is it! Dull blade or whatever, I’ll shred you to pieces!”
Ul Ji Geuk twisted his blade.
This was no mere rotation.
He spun the sword half a revolution behind his waist, then detonated both the accumulated force and lightning aura simultaneously.
The Overwhelming Force and Lightning Sword Technique.
Ninth Form.
Azure Lightning Annihilation.
A cerulean flash erupted in a fan-shaped burst.
Each individual sword strike seemed indivisible. It was as though not a single blade descended, but rather multiple bolts of azure lightning crashed down simultaneously.
Kang Hui unconsciously clenched his fists.
“That is…!”
Even Dok Go Un’s eyes wavered.
That technique was no mere display of speed.
A supreme technique that maintained the oppressive weight of a tyrant’s path while using the explosive force of lightning to layer the sword strikes themselves, making them appear as multiple overlapping images.
Yun Cheon’s pupils turned glacially cold.
The Absolute Frozen Heart Scripture.
The yin-cold qi rising from the depths of my dantian released itself even deeper.
This time, it was not merely beneath my feet.
Across my blade, wrists, shoulders, waist, and everywhere my gaze touched, thin and transparent frost spread outward.
Ul Ji Geuk felt it—not that his lightning had grown faster, but that his opponent was freezing the very spaces where he needed to move first.
The two blades collided head-on. Azure lightning and white frost exploded and tangled together in an instant.
In that single breath between the moment the lightning and frost clashed, devouring one another.
A sharp whisper—
My blade slid through that frozen moment and severed Ul Ji Geuk’s wrist.
Yalü Jin’s eyes trembled deeply.
‘From slowness… to speed?’
The Tyrant’s Heavy Path continues.
Speed transformations can also resonate with one another.
Yet slowness and speed are the farthest apart.
To kill time through slowness,
and tear open a single gap in that dead time with speed alone.
That was no longer merely a sword technique—it was a transcendent martial principle beyond mortal reach.
Upon the Combat Platform.
Ul Ji Geuk slowly opened his mouth.
“Slow… was that not what you were? When could you move this swiftly?”
Ul Ji Geuk’s grip loosened, and his blade fell to the ground.
A dull clang—
“He released his sword…?”
“Ul Ji Geuk?”
“What just happened?”
Only then did the shallowly cut wrist of Ul Ji Geuk become visible.
The frozen blood there began to thaw gradually, dripping down drop by drop.
Drip—. Drip—.
“…I, Ul Ji Geuk, have lost.”
The Butler’s voice rang through the hall belatedly.
“The victor—Yun Cheon of the Black Dragon Gang!”
The Grand Martial Arena held its breath.
And in the heart of that silence, Nak Wol slowly rose from her seat.
Nak Wol’s gaze remained fixed on Yun Cheon, who had just finished his match. Beneath her veil, she bit her lip.
“Ah…”
A soft gasp escaped her.
‘To traverse both restraint and swiftness so freely within a single person… truly magnificent…!’
Nak Wol was certain.
‘That man is the one! The Sect Leader will surely be pleased with him.’
If I advance to the finals, I can finally claim that man.
Beneath her veil, a fierce hunger gleamed in her eyes.
“Now… it’s my turn.”

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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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