The Hidden Arena Beneath the Falls
A deep night, steeped in tranquil moonlight.
The place Yu Ha had led them to was a vast open clearing — a spot where a waterfall came crashing down, tearing through the curtain of night.
Chwaaaaa—!
With the roar of water pounding against his eardrums, a cool mist brushed against his cheeks.
So this is the place….
Faint lights danced beyond the hazy veil of spray. Between the thunder of the waterfall, which swallowed every other sound, and the drifting mist, nothing that happened here ever leaked to the outside world.
An open-air gambling arena run by the cadets themselves, beyond the reach of the instructors' control. Here, under the moonlight, the instincts the cadets had suppressed all day in the name of Hidden Demon Cave discipline were finally set loose.
"What do you think? Pretty impressive, right?"
Yu Ha murmured in a low voice, as if savoring the clandestine atmosphere. "The rules are simple. Since this is strictly a sparring match, no internal energy and no killing blows. Pure technique against technique — nothing else."
Even as he explained, Yayul Hui crossed her arms and pulled a sour face. "Tch, seriously? This 'exciting event' is nothing but a betting match?"
"If it's betting, how does the wager work?"
But Yun Cheon, who needed every horn token he could get, asked Yu Ha about the rules instead.
"Simple. Predict the winner correctly, and depending on the ratio of tokens wagered, you can win up to double your stake."
Clusters of cadets gathered across the clearing each radiated their own heat and excitement. A few of them had noticed Yayul Hui's arrival, and their eyes gleamed lecherously in the darkness.
"Well, look who it is. The infamous 'Wild Flower' of Hidden Demon Cave, gracing us with her presence."
"A mere cadet with a moniker. Though I suppose she earned it with that face. If I step up, twenty exchanges will be plenty…."
Their voices were soft enough to drown beneath the waterfall's roar, yet they lodged themselves crisp and clear in Yun Cheon's sharpened ears. Yayul Hui seemed not to have heard — but she was hardly the type to stay quiet while people whispered about her.
"He actually brought Yayul Hui here… crafty as ever, aren't you?"
"But wait — did he drag that starving beggar along just to lure her in?"
Yun Cheon's eyes only grew colder. On the surface, he betrayed no reaction whatsoever.
Yu Ha… so you've been cooking up something amusing.
Yu Ha stepped toward the center of the clearing, as if the moment had arrived. All traces of the mischievous boy from moments before had vanished.
"Shall we begin?"
Like a seasoned barker, he warmed up the crowd with his smooth tongue. "Come, come, everyone, your attention! Our own secret festival, enjoyed behind the instructors' backs — let the night sparring begin!"
In an instant, the scattered gazes of every cadet converged on him. His quick wit and glib delivery set the atmosphere ablaze.
"Woooo!"
Yayul Hui's eyes went round. What is with him? I thought he was just a sly little weasel, but he's a full-on fox, isn't he?
Yun Cheon had already suspected Yu Ha was no ordinary cadet. A night sparring ring… so this wasn't staged merely to multiply tokens.
If cadets sparred of their own volition, one could estimate their approximate strength before the comprehensive evaluation. What he's after isn't just the tokens — it's information on the cadets themselves.
A single stroke to seize both the intelligence and the wealth of Hidden Demon Cave. Yu Ha had been running just such a scheme in secret.
"The first bout to shatter the silence of this night is…"
"Who is it?"
"Now this I have to see…."
Having expertly stoked their anticipation, Yu Ha drew out the suspense before unveiling the first pairing. "First up — our first fighter is none other than a fist master from the Iron Blood Boundless Sect, one of the Ten Demonic Sects! Behold those heavy fists of his! Jang Dae-san!"
A notably large boy with fine bones and muscle strode confidently to the center, adjusting the gloves wrapped around his knuckles.
"And facing him — a master of claw arts from the Ghost-Slaying Gate! They say his nails are sharper than a viper's fangs! Jo Gyeom!"
From the opposite side, a scrawny boy walked out with visibly nervous steps. The difference in their builds was obvious at a glance.
The moment Yu Ha finished his introduction, the chatter swelled. "No need to even watch — this is the Iron Blood Boundless Sect's victory. You think that twig of a boy can take even one of those fists?"
"Obviously! All three of my tokens go on Jang Dae-san!"
"Tsk tsk, poor Jo Gyeom. What rotten luck, drawing a Ten Demonic Sect brat as his opponent."
Yayul Hui deliberated carefully, but she too judged Jang Dae-san the favorite. "…The Iron Blood Boundless Sect's fist arts carry a real reputation. The Ghost-Slaying Gate's martial arts, on the other hand… at best, they're mid-tier branch-sect level."
The odds tilted toward Jang Dae-san at a rate that swiftly exceeded eight to one. Yu Ha himself made the rounds collecting the wagers, and the stakes — all in horn tokens — were stacked in plain sight in a corner of the clearing where everyone could see.
"Come on, come on! All bets are final! Once it's down, there's no taking it back!"
Yayul Hui confidently staked two tokens on Jang Dae-san. At last, Yu Ha approached Yun Cheon.
"And you, my friend? Where does your coin fall?"
"Ten on the skinny one."
Without a moment's hesitation, Yun Cheon flung all ten of the tokens he possessed onto Jo Gyeom. At the sight, Yu Ha's eyes gleamed with something meaningful. Just as I thought… this one….
Yayul Hui shouted as if the sight defied belief. "Are you an idiot?! That fist fighter's from a Ten Demonic Sect! Anyone can see he's got the advantage!"
She wasn't wrong. Yun Cheon nodded along obligingly. "On the surface… I suppose it looks that way."
"Then why—!"
"Ah-ah! No use regretting it now! All bets are final!" Yu Ha cut Yayul Hui off with an infuriating crow and strolled back to the center. Still unable to accept it, Yayul Hui grumbled at Yun Cheon. "You… ten tokens is a full month's allowance! And you're about to toss every last one of them away in a single bet!"
Yun Cheon spoke quietly to her. "A fight isn't decided by what the eye can see. Especially under rules like these, where only technique is permitted…."
At that moment, Yu Ha, standing at the center with the two cadets facing each other, shouted, "Begin!"
"…Hah. Say no more. You reap what you sow. And don't bother clinging to me afterward — I won't be lending you a single token."
"…."
The bout unfolded more or less as the majority had predicted. Jang Dae-san, with his fist arts, pressed Jo Gyeom and his claw arts one-sidedly.
"Idiot. How much threat can claws carry when they don't even have an edge…!"
Just as Yayul Hui had said, the fist master Jang Dae-san maintained relentless offense throughout. All Jo Gyeom could do was desperately deflect the torrent of blows — and even his guarding forearms began accumulating damage, forcing him steadily backward.
"Look at that! You… I can see you've staked everything you've got, so what exactly are you playing at!"
Yayul Hui stamped her feet in frustration. But Yun Cheon, the one who had actually wagered the tokens, remained perfectly composed. "Just watch a little longer. The fight isn't over yet."
Bang! Kwaaang!
Dae-san's fists were heavy. Each time he swung them, shockwaves split the air with a deep, thunderous crack. Jo Gyeom avoided meeting them head-on, dropping low and slipping like a serpent, letting the attacks slide past him.
"Finish it, Dae-san!"
Heartened by the shout from the crowd, Jang Dae-san drove in for the killing blow. It was the Iron Blood Boundless Sect's Linked Fist — a continuous cascade of strikes. In the storm of attacks, a blow Jo Gyeom could only barely deflect with his forearms crashed into his torso.
His body swayed violently, nearly toppling. With victory within sight, a flicker of arrogance passed through Jang Dae-san's eyes. To finish his opponent completely — and to flaunt himself before the spectators — he extended one last fist in a grand, sweeping motion.
It was exactly that moment.
Dae-san's overcommitted foot, on ground soaked slick by the spray thrown from the waterfall, slipped — just barely, just for an instant.
A single moment's opening.
And Jo Gyeom had been waiting for that one instant alone. His body, in retreat the entire fight, exploded forward like a bolt of lightning.
The next heartbeat, Jo Gyeom's training claw was resting against Dae-san's throat.
"……!"
Anyone could see it — an unmistakable defeat for the fist master.
"What?! You blockhead! You had it won and you slipped?!"
The cadets who had staked their tokens on Jang Dae-san showered him with jeers. Yayul Hui whipped her head toward Yun Cheon, momentarily dumbstruck. "What was that…? Was that luck? Or — don't tell me you predicted even this outcome?"
"Not entirely."
Yun Cheon shook his head, though he had judged Jo Gyeom's victory quite likely — likely enough to wager everything he owned on it without hesitation.
"With internal energy forbidden, fist arts require multiple clean hits to bring an opponent down. Claw arts need only a single opportunity."
In a true battle of internal energy, Jang Dae-san would naturally have held the advantage. But the very fact that his weapon was his fist had become his weakness — a fist without internal force behind it was far less lethal than any bladed weapon, and no referee would call a match lost for merely taking a few punches. Blades were another matter entirely: with a real weapon, he would already have been cut down through a vital point.
"In the end, the longer it drags on, the one forced to grow impatient is the fist master."
As she listened to Yun Cheon's flawless explanation, Yayul Hui's eyes went wide. What on earth is this guy? He didn't just get lucky — he actually worked it out….
Yu Ha's smile, meanwhile, deepened — because he had reached the exact same prediction. After all, Yu Ha was the one who had staged the ring and designed every pairing and every outcome down to the last detail. I deliberately recruited an Iron Blood Boundless Sect fighter a cut above Jo Gyeom, and he still didn't take the bait…. Concealing his thoughts behind a smile, Yu Ha mused, Yun Cheon saw straight through the whole board I set up in one glance. Every single time, he exceeds my expectations!
Yun Cheon, too, had caught on to the true nature of Yu Ha's game. Yu Ha skimmed a fee off every match. The more participants, the more tokens he pocketed for nothing — and the more people who guessed wrong, the more cunningly he could pad that take. …So the harder the match is to call, the more Yu Ha earns. Sly fox. He's got the bears biting each other while he sweeps up the tokens all by himself.
Yu Ha handed over Yun Cheon's swollen winnings. "I knew you'd call it right."
In one stroke, his tokens had roughly tripled. Yun Cheon had multiplied his stake by predicting the winner — but Yu Ha was raking in tokens regardless of who won or lost. A shrewdness unbecoming of a mere cadet.
With this many participants, the fees alone would let him sweep the table without lifting a finger. So the real winner of this ring is him, is it.
The night sparring continued after that. Let's try staking the maximum. In the next match, Yun Cheon moved to wager everything he'd just won — and Yu Ha stepped in to stop him. "Ha ha… planning to sweep the whole pot yourself? Sorry, friend, but the stake cap is ten tokens."
Yun Cheon's eyes narrowed. Just as I thought… a safeguard, exactly as expected. Even a correct prediction has a ceiling on winnings. Cunning bastard.
Yun Cheon wagered only ten with an air of disappointment, but his prediction proved correct once again. Bout after bout, he picked out the winner without fail — until Yayul Hui, listening to his calls and watching the results unfold beside him, could barely keep her jaw off the floor.
His eye is a level above mine? Mine, honed by martial arts since childhood and countless real battles?
The other cadets, meanwhile, had never heard his reasoning, and suspicion began to gnaw at them. "What is with that guy…? He nails it every single time he points."
"That's not luck… does he know something?"
"Damn it, should we just follow his bets?"
Before Yun Cheon knew it, a heap of tokens had piled up at his feet. The murmuring shifted gradually into awe — and then into naked envy.
As it happened, the final match of the night featured one of the factions of the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Family. And Yun Cheon, without hesitation once more, tossed ten tokens on the Mo Family's opponents.
The result was, again, exactly as he foresaw.
"The winner — Hyeok Ryeon-cheong!"
It was a board Yu Ha had engineered with painstaking precision to make the outcome as hard to read as possible. Yet Yun Cheon had not missed once, calling an incredible five matches in a row.
…His insight is exceptional too. At the very least my equal — or better.
Yu Ha approached, handed over the tokens, and spoke in a peculiar tone. "Well then… that's every bout we prepared for tonight. Calling every single match correctly — quite something, aren't you?"
Yun Cheon's tokens had already multiplied several times over. At that moment, the defeated Mo Family faction closed in around him.
"I saw it with my own eyes! This beggar had the gall to bet against our Serpent-Scorpion Mo Family!"
"Look at him — dozens of tokens pocketed just sitting on his ass!"
Then Yu Ha intervened. "Now, now! Hold on — robbing a man outside of an official match is against the rules!"
One of the faction shouted back at him, "Robbing? Then set up a match on the spot! The Serpent-Scorpion Mo Family will take him on! That settles it, doesn't it?"
Yu Ha shrugged with a look of feigned helplessness, then turned to ask Yun Cheon's intentions. "What can you do, friend? They want it that badly. Will you accept?"
Yun Cheon nodded without hesitation. He swept his gaze over the Mo Family faction circling him — and then cast his final words. Not at the Mo Family, but at the master of the ring itself, Yu Ha.
"Yu Ha. Was this whole board of yours the scheme, all along?"
Yun Cheon's gaze pierced straight through him — a chilling look that said he knew every twist of this farce had been dancing in the palm of the man's hand. Holding that stare, Yu Ha showed his true face for the first time.
"So? Do you like it?"
Their eyes crossed in the empty air, each measuring the other. "…Heh. It's fairly entertaining, I'll give you that. But tell me — does the ten-token limit apply to the fighters themselves? Because I intend to wager every token I've won tonight on myself."
At his words, the whole arena erupted into an uproar. Yu Ha turned to the Serpent-Scorpion Mo Family. "You heard him. What say the Mo Family?"
The faction, seething with fury, answered without a beat of hesitation. "It's exactly what we wanted! We'll make you spit back up every token you swindled out of us with your luck!"
The smile on Yu Ha's lips deepened, colder than it had been all night. "…Good. It's settled. Then — just this once, as a special exception — the fighters themselves shall have no cap on their wagers."
Return of the Cloud Dragon
Author | Chu Sang (Autumn Frost)
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks
Address | 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Gwangseong Building, 7th Floor
UCI | G720:N+A063-20260306113
Blog | blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) | @dreambookss
Submissions | [email protected]
No part of this book may be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks.