The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 30

Crack!

I clenched my teeth.

‘Wrath!’

Interrupted just before reaching the state of absolute focus where I could manifest my aura, the gathering energy began to scatter.

‘Ugh!’

I concentrated my mind and condensed the aura of the Ten Thousand Harmony Technique that was fading away. As I forcibly tried to anchor the aura, a chilling cold descended upon me.

-Didn’t I tell you?

Mockery laced Wrath’s voice.

-I would strike at the moment you were weakest.
‘Damn….’

He was right.
Wrath had warned me he would attack at the most dangerous moment. To be honest, I had even anticipated this instant.

But as I suddenly fell into that state of absolute focus, I completely forgot his very existence.

-Now it begins!

Wrath erupted with tremendous cold and rushed at me. My teeth chattered at the chill so severe it could freeze even cold sweat.

I wanted to open my eyes immediately from the pain of my bones freezing, but if I moved now, my mana would backflow and cripple me.

‘This bastard….’

I had forgotten for a while in the silence, but Wrath was not an ally. A demon. And the king of the Demon Realm at that. It seemed he intended to destroy my body and devour my soul.

Whoooosh!

As Wrath’s frigid aura grew increasingly vicious, even the mana circuits that had been suppressed like held breath began to rampage.

‘Ugh….’

A scream tore through my lips. It felt as though bone and flesh were splitting apart. The biting cold and the emotion of rage began to gnaw at my very consciousness.

-It’s over.

At Wrath’s cool voice, not rage but exhilaration surged through me.

-Now your body and soul belong to me.

Just as he said, a piercing, numbing cold flooded my entire body. Beyond pain, sensation itself was fading away. I felt as though I might lose consciousness at any moment.

‘Damn it!’

I bit my tongue hard. The shock of pain jolted my mind back into focus, like plunging into ice water.

‘Think. Think!’

Wrath’s cold had already consumed my entire body. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before he claimed it completely.

‘I can’t stop the Mana Circulation Technique.’

Activating the Ring of Fire now would be too late. Wrath’s cold would devour my body and mind before the ring could even complete its rotation.

‘I need to find a way out.’

I endured, continuously cycling the Mana Circulation Technique. It was like hanging from a single rope over a cliff.

-Give up. Your body already belongs to me.
‘That’s something I’ll only know after I try.’
-A futile effort. Like that old man who tends the Charcoal Kiln every day.
‘The Charcoal Kiln…. The Charcoal Kiln!’

There it was. A way to survive.

Squeeze!

Raon clenched his fist with all his remaining strength and pulled mana toward himself with desperate intensity.

Roooar!

He drew in not the natural mana warmed by the Charcoal Kiln’s heat, but the mana from within the Charcoal Kiln itself.

-You! What are you doing?!
‘A last stand!’

Yes. This was a last stand. Dying without accomplishing anything was enough for my previous life. In this life, I would never perish so meaninglessly.

Crack, crack, crack!

From the ceiling of the Charcoal Kiln, hardened with solid clay, came a sound like withered leaves crumbling.

-Stop this instant, you fool!
‘Ugh!’

Wrath’s frigid aura intensified. Power that would freeze not just skin but bone marrow itself. Now I felt no sensation in my arms and legs. I endured through sheer willpower and drew in one final breath.

Boom!

With a sound like the earth splitting asunder, tremendous heat surged into the air. Flames erupted from within the Charcoal Kiln.

Whoosh!

Raon inhaled that heat in a single breath. Just as I had on the day I first breathed after being born into this world.

The heat I absorbed not merely through nose and mouth, but through every pore of my body, swept away the cold that had consumed me. Overwhelming inferno. It felt like molten lava surging through my veins.

Blaze!

Wrath’s frigid aura melted like spring snow beneath the torrential heat.

-This… what is this?!
‘Vanish, Wrath!’

Raon ground his teeth and operated the Mana Circulation. He drew in even the vast cold that had melted within his mana circuits and guided it down to his dantian.

Gooooh!

The aura of the Mana Circle, which had been like a dying ember in the furnace, took on a distinct form as it absorbed the heat radiating from the Charcoal Kiln.

Whoooosh!

But that wasn’t all.

Right beside the perfectly formed aura of the Mana Circle, a pristine white energy condensed like a glass marble. It was the bitter cold that had filled the mana circuits.

-Damn it all!
‘Phew….’

I let Wrath’s frustrated cry fade into the background as I gathered all the heat dispersed in the air and the cold deep within my body.

With extreme concentration, I overcame Wrath’s interference and fell into a second state of transcendence.

*

*

*

“Huff!”

Balkan tossed firewood into the furnace and exhaled a heavy breath.

Crackle!

As the flames ignited instantly and roared to life in the furnace, old memories surfaced.

‘Has it really been thirty years?’

Thirty years ago, I had created my final masterpiece—the Jincheon Blade. After presenting that greatest sword of my life to Glen Zigheart, I thought my life had come to an end.

I had declared my retirement, saying I would enjoy the remainder of my days since there were treasures one could not exhaust even in a lifetime of effort.

Yet whenever I came to my senses, I found myself sitting before the flames once more.

There was no need to wake early or kindle the furnace, yet his feet carried him toward the Smithy of their own accord.

He had stopped. Completely and utterly.

His time had frozen in that distant era when he forged the Heavenly Blade.

‘I cannot sever myself from it.’

He had crafted countless blades and contributed greatly to Zigheart, and Glen Zigheart—the family head and one of the Continent’s mightiest—wielded his creation.

Even in retirement, his name would endure in history, yet he could not remain idle. He could neither abandon the hammer nor distance himself from the flames.

There was but one reason for this paralysis.
Though he yearned to continue his craft, he lacked the confidence to forge anything surpassing the Heavenly Blade he had dedicated to Glen.

Caught in this ambiguous limbo, he kindled flames and wielded the hammer clumsily, only to find emptiness awaiting him.

‘So I created this kiln.’

For the past decade, he had built the Charcoal Kiln to produce charcoal—to forge Golden Charcoal beyond Black and White varieties.

Perhaps with such legendary charcoal, he could craft superior blades.

Yet he had never succeeded, not once.

He had employed countless methods drawn from legend and rumor, but Golden Charcoal remained beyond his grasp.

Still, he could not abandon hope. It was the sole obsession remaining in his dwindling years.

As he squandered time in this endless pursuit, that boy arrived.

Raon Zigheart.

From the moment they first met, that youth had communed with the embers within the furnace. The flames that had smoldered for over a decade roared to life like a ravenous beast.

It was unprecedented.
Never before had the flames responded, never had their intensity surged as it did now.

Thinking that something might change, he had allowed Raon to remain at his side, though he harbored no grand expectations.

‘This place is a hellfire furnace.’

The heat radiating from this kiln was so intense that even master craftsmen who had endured countless hardships avoided it. The artisans who had initially offered their help could barely last a few days before quietly disappearing.

Yet the boy came every single day, drenched in cold sweat and biting his lips in agony, only to collapse before the kiln once more.

On the first day, I could see he couldn’t focus on his cultivation amidst the heat rising from the ground. The second day was no different—trembling from the intense warmth, he gritted his teeth.

Four days, five days, a week, a month, and three months.
Raon never missed a single day at the Charcoal Kiln.

And today.
As if responding to Raon’s breathing, the embers within the furnace blazed fiercely, and the kiln’s heat intensified to nearly double its usual strength.

Whoooosh!

He had become the embodiment of flame itself, commanding the inferno within this space.

‘This is it!’

Balkan realized this moment was a precious opportunity that had come to him—not merely to forge new charcoal, but to live once more as a true master craftsman.

“Whoooosh!”

I focused all my concentration on maintaining the furnace’s fierce flames, repeating every action that could stoke, fan, and nurture the fire.

The embers breathed with life.
The transparent flame at the center consumed the murky, hazy fire and drew forth an even more intense heat.

But something strange occurred.
Frost descended upon Raon’s entire body—the very body that should have been drenched in sweat from the kiln’s heat.

‘What is this?’

I glanced around in bewilderment, but the chill had spread only across Raon’s form.

The coldness gradually enveloped his entire being, and eventually even his golden hair began to freeze over.

‘What… what should I do?’

My body trembles uncontrollably. I know this isn’t a good state, but I don’t know what to do.

I know I shouldn’t touch him at times like this, but leaving him as he is felt like watching him die.

“H-hey! You….”
“Don’t.”

Just as Balkan reached out to wake Raon, Rimer appeared. His movement was swift as the wind itself.

“Rimer! What are you doing! He’s going to die like this!”
“There’s no way to help right now.”

Rimer shook his head. He stared at Raon, who trembled even more violently with a furrowed brow.

“Even the slightest external shock will cause him to cough blood and die.”
“Is that the frigid aura you mentioned before?”
“Yes. This child has carried such a deadly chill within his body since birth.”
“That….”

Balkan bit his lip. His chest ached with a sharp pang.

‘This young one….’

It was heartbreaking that a child barely old enough to understand the world had been born with such a vicious chill that it could extinguish even the heat of a furnace, yet admirable that he had endured this long. I wanted to help him somehow.
I wanted to do anything to aid him.

“Is there anything we can do?”
“Nothing. Touching anything could be dangerous.”

Rimer’s expression was grave, unlike his usual demeanor. He kept his gaze fixed solely on Raon, his fists clenched.

The two of them watched in silence as the chill gradually consumed Raon’s body.

“A-at this rate, he really will die! Do something!”
“Wait! Raon moved!”

Hope flickered across Rimer’s face. He let out a hollow laugh as he watched Raon.

“What? What does that even…huh?”

Balkan turned his head to the side. The flames in the furnace that burned the Charcoal Kiln suddenly intensified.

Whoooosh!

The inferno burst forth from the furnace, engulfing the entire Charcoal Kiln. The clay-sealed kiln shattered, and a terrifying wave of heat consumed the air around us.

Roooar!

The immense heat made it impossible to breathe for a moment.

“Hnngh!”

Even as a master craftsman of the Continent, I had never experienced such heat. I bent low, but the searing warmth vanished in an instant.

Whoooosh!

The heat spiraled inward, drawn toward Raon. As the tremendous energy coalesced, the frigid aura that had enveloped his entire body began to melt away.

Blaze!

Brilliant flames erupted across Raon’s body. No—not red flames.

Gold.
Golden fire, dyed in the radiance of dawn breaking over the eastern mountains, bloomed forth.

Even as Raon was consumed by the golden flames, he did not cease his cultivation. He drew in the heat from all of Bekmang Mountain, not just this place.

Hummmmm!

As the sun revealed its magnificent glow in full and the cascading light began to fade into the distance, Raon opened his eyes.

Flash!

Balkan swallowed hard as he met that gaze. A chill ran from his feet straight through to his mind.

A deep golden radiance.
Golden flames that held the light of dawn burned in his irises.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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