I Am No Longer Half-Finished
“If you want to challenge the Pavilion Master, you'll have to get through me first!”
So Ryong declared, his eyes burning with resolve.
Gang Hwi scoffed, and blood-red killing intent flared up across his entire body.
“Heh. Fools who can't read their own place need to be taught a lesson.”
The Remnant Blood Wolf. True to that moniker, crimson energy gathered at the tips of his ten fingers, forming razor-sharp blades of qi.
“You want to die this time, So Ryong?!”
At Gang Hwi's roar, So Ryong gritted his teeth. It felt as though the memory of his skin being mercilessly torn apart by those red claws three years ago was rising from the dead.
In the past, So Ryong had never managed to build his inner energy, and despite external arts on the verge of first-rate, he had been utterly helpless before the piercing internal power of Gang Hwi, torn apart at will.
External arts alone have a clear limit.
A shell without inner energy to back it up would inevitably crack against a finely honed edge. That was common knowledge, as far as Gang Hwi knew.
“I see the wounds from back then have already healed. Well then — this time I'll tear that Black Dragon Rigid Body of yours open in the exact same places!”
BOOM—!
Gang Hwi kicked off the ground and came charging in. A blood aura shaped like a snarling crimson wolf shot straight toward So Ryong's heart.
His signature technique, steeped in the stench of blood — the Blood Wolf Claw.
Worthy of the name Remnant Blood Wolf, five streaks of scarlet light carved themselves vividly across the empty air.
That's it!
The memory of that single strike — the one that had split open his Black Dragon Rigid Body and left him vomiting blood — flashed through his mind, and a chill of primal fear ran down So Ryong's spine.
His body began to shrink back on pure instinct. And in that instant, his gaze caught sight of Yun Cheon, sitting with careless ease atop the dais, weighed down by his Black Steel Cold Iron rings.
The eyes of a lord who had acknowledged him as a true martial artist — and given him the chance to prove that worth.
Yun Cheon's cold, still pupils were calmly dissecting Gang Hwi's technique.
The So Ryong of the past would have been torn open. But not the So Ryong of today.
There was not a flicker of doubt in the eyes So Ryong had seen.
The Pavilion Master... believes in me!
Fear vanished, and So Ryong's eyes blazed.
I am... no longer half-finished!
Yun Cheon raised his teacup to his lips and murmured.
Yes, that's it. Have confidence, So Ryong.
As Gang Hwi's blood-red killing intent dyed the training grounds crimson, the profound energy of the Black Dragon Moving Art surged through every inch of So Ryong's body.
“It'll be different from that day!”
CRACK!
So Ryong's skin began to gleam like a mass of jet-black, dark-red iron. This was no mere outward swelling of muscle.
External arts honed to their absolute extreme, with inner energy finally added on top — the true Black Dragon Rigid Body.
The Blood Wolf Claw and the Black Dragon Rigid Body collided.
This was the moment where flesh should have been shredded and fountains of blood should have erupted. Instead, what burst out was a spine-chilling shriek of metal that shattered every expectation.
KAANG—!
“...?!”
The Blood Wolf Claw failed to pierce So Ryong's Black Dragon Rigid Body and rebounded away, empty and useless.
“GRAAAH!”
Gang Hwi clutched his own hand and staggered backward, his pupils shaking violently as if an earthquake had struck them.
What his fingertips had touched was not a human body. It was like raking his claws across a colossal pillar of raw iron — the recoil came rushing back as if his own nails might snap.
“What... what in the world is that energy flowing through your body?! You mastered the Black Dragon Rigid Body as its Grandmaster — you were never able to use inner energy!”
Panicked, Gang Hwi scrambled to put distance between them, snarling in disbelief.
“Hah! That's because I could never find an inner cultivation method that suited the Black Dragon Rigid Body!”
“What?! Don't tell me... you actually restored the lost inner art that was meant to pair with it?!”
So Ryong shook his head at Gang Hwi's words and looked down at his own chest.
What's already been lost is beyond saving. But with the Pavilion Master's Black Dragon Moving Art, the glory of the past can be reclaimed!
Back then, the Black Dragon Rigid Body had been shredded without mercy. But the skin revealed through his now-torn clothing was unblemished — not a single wound.
A body at the absolute pinnacle of external arts, layered with the heavy, profound energy of the Black Dragon Moving Art. The result was far more than a simple sum of two parts.
So this is... the harmony of internal and external!
Even with only a shallow reserve of inner energy, it was a world apart from when he had known nothing but external arts. An explosive synergistic effect. Overwhelming joy bloomed across So Ryong's face.
The Pavilion Master's teachings... are real!
The shoulders that had unconsciously hunched inward finally straightened.
“I-is that really So Ryong?”
“The Black Dragon Rigid Body was that hard?!”
“So Ryong, pushed off the rankings entirely... withstood the Remnant Blood Wolf's Blood Wolf Claw?”
“No — he didn't withstand it. He deflected it!”
Gasps and stunned murmuring erupted even among the ronin in the stands.
Once he confirmed that his Black Dragon Rigid Body could fully turn aside the Blood Wolf Claw, So Ryong's tension loosened considerably.
“Well, well. You're not a wolf at all, are you? Just a well-trained little dog.”
Gang Hwi's face flushed crimson with humiliation.
“Don't get cocky over blocking one strike, you half-finished mongrel!”
Losing his composure, Gang Hwi began to forcibly drive his inner energy beyond its limits.
So he's learned inner energy, has he? But it's only been a short time! His total reserves will never come close to mine!
Gang Hwi's guess was accurate. No matter how unified So Ryong's internal and external arts had become, he had only just begun building his inner energy. Measured purely in hours of cultivation, the gap in total capacity was unmistakable.
CRASH! BOOM! SLAM!
Enraged, Gang Hwi unleashed a storm of assaults. Unable to withstand the wave of overwhelming inner power, So Ryong began to be driven back step by step.
A cruel smile spread across Gang Hwi's lips.
“Die! Just die already!”
Sensing the crisis, So Ryong's gaze turned once more toward Yun Cheon on the dais. The moment their eyes met, Yun Cheon's lips moved ever so slightly.
[Full-body armor is nothing but dead weight. Gather your scattered energy — collect it into a single point.]
“...!”
So Ryong's eyes snapped wide open. He released the strength he had been forcing across his entire body.
A duel between a man who had only just learned inner energy and one who possessed more than double his reserves. As long as that gap remained, protecting his whole body with the Black Dragon Rigid Body had been impossible from the start.
But what if he condensed all of his inner strength into one single point?
One chance. Everything rides on the right fist!
Just as his master had taught, So Ryong drew in the Black Dragon Moving Art energy that had covered his entire body, gathering it in a heartbeat.
Abandoning full-body defense — a decision to literally surrender flesh to seize bone.
But to Gang Hwi's eyes, So Ryong's withdrawal of energy looked entirely different.
“Ha! There it is. Run dry already, did you? Then die!”
The taut aura of the Black Dragon Rigid Body that had stretched out from So Ryong's body drained away all at once, like an ebbing tide. Gang Hwi saw his opening and seized it without hesitation.
The blood-red aura erupting from his ten fingers came howling toward So Ryong. His Blood Wolf Claw rained down in a torrent, shredding So Ryong's shoulders and thighs, now stripped of their protective energy.
“Ugh...!”
Blood sprayed everywhere, but So Ryong did not retreat. The more wounds accumulated on his body, the more violently — paradoxically — the energy compressing into his right fist exploded inward.
The profound energy of the Black Dragon Moving Art converged on that single point, his right fist, radiating a luster black as the deepest night.
That's it!
Seeing his strikes land, Gang Hwi's eyes flashed.
“You fought well, but... now it ends! You half-finished mongrel!”
Gang Hwi launched himself into the air, wringing out the last of his inner energy. In the instant his killing blow came plunging down toward the crown of So Ryong's head—
KRA-BOOM—!
So Ryong's right foot stamped down with crushing weight. The stone slabs of the dueling platform shattered and scattered like leaves.
“I am no longer — half-finished!”
The energy of his dantian surged up through his waist and erupted through his right fist in a violent burst.
A single strike fusing the Black Dragon Rigid Body and the Black Dragon Moving Art into one point. That fist rose like a dragon surging from the deep.
“A toothless cur of a wolf — how dare you!”
Hidden Dragon Ascends the Heavens.
Thanks to the inner energy that now followed it, the ultimate technique So Ryong had learned long ago but never once been able to use took form in his hand.
CRUNCH—!
With the sound of facial bones shattering, Gang Hwi's body was launched into the air. The smile frozen on his face grotesquely collapsed inward.
His body sailed clean past the front of the Black Dragon Inn and crashed, wretched and graceless, into the ground where the ronin stood.
CRASH!
After rolling several times, Gang Hwi lay sprawled, foaming at the mouth, his limbs splayed limp. A perfect knockout.
Gang Hwi, the Remnant Blood Wolf, ranked ninetieth on the Wind Cloud Board. And so his hunt ended in pathetic ruin at the hands of So Ryong — the man who had been cast out beyond the hundredth rank.
“Haa... haa...”
White steam rose in slow curls from the right fist of So Ryong, drenched in blood and heaving for breath. An utter, perfect silence fell over the dueling platform — so complete that not a single breath could be heard.
I won... I actually won.
So Ryong looked down at his own two hands. With his own strength, he had shattered the strongman who had once taught him, bone-deep, the limits of a man who possessed nothing but external arts.
Slowly, So Ryong turned around.
All of this... is thanks to the Pavilion Master!
Thump.
Leaving the fallen Gang Hwi behind him, So Ryong dropped to one knee before Yun Cheon, who sat upon the dais. And with a voice burning hot, he cried out as if taking a vow:
“The Pavilion Master's teachings — I, So Ryong, have proven them true!”
At that overwhelming cry, Yun Cheon lowered the hand that had been resting idly against his chin and gave a small nod.
“Well fought.”
In that instant—
The Pavilion Master didn't even have to step in...! Gang Hwi was destroyed at So Ryong's level?! So Ryong was clearly a full step below that man. How long has he even been studying under the Pavilion Master? How did he get this strong?!'
Every pupil among the countless ronin rose in unison toward one place — Yun Cheon atop the dais.
“So Ryong, who was pushed off the rankings entirely... just beat a man ranked ninetieth!”
Someone screamed it in a trembling voice. And then, in every mind at once, a single chilling truth surfaced.
“If So Ryong is that strong... then just how powerful is the Black Dragon Pavilion Master, who sent that monster flying with a single kick?!”
“There's no way the Black Dragon Pavilion Master is merely rank one hundred on the Wind Cloud Board!”
The fog of misconception lifted, and the moment the abyss of that gap became something they could feel against their own skin, lightning struck the ronin's brains.
The number one hundred on the Wind Cloud Board had never been the Black Dragon Pavilion Master's true strength. It was nothing more than a starting line — the first time his name had ever been spoken to the world.
“I-I want to join the Black Dragon Sect too! Please, take me in!”
“Please accept me! Teach me!”
A wild spectacle unfolded as the ronin, parched for guidance, fell over one another to their knees and pressed their foreheads to the threshold of the Black Dragon Sect.
From a vantage point that overlooked the Black Dragon Sect's dueling platform at a glance — the topmost floor of the Black Dragon Inn, which the Sun Moon Merchant Guild had purchased and expanded on a grand scale.
A figure lounged back in a cushioned chair atop luxurious felt carpet, leisurely tipping back his wine cup.
Yu Ha — the Smiling-Face Fox.
Standing at his side, Geum Bu-dong, the Guild's Qinghai Branch Manager, clicked his tongue as he peered out the window.
“Your eye for talent was exact, Young Pavilion Master. And yet... this Yun Cheon of the Black Dragon Sect does not strike me as a man who belongs at rank one hundred on the Wind Cloud Board. Why, then...?”
At Geum Bu-dong's awed remark, Yu Ha smiled slyly and swirled his cup.
“Of course he isn't. But starting from one hundred is far more entertaining, don't you think?”
“I beg your pardon? Surely... not for a reason like that...?”
“Branch Manager Geum. Why do you think I went to all the trouble of creating the Wind Cloud Board and posting it in every corner of the realm?”
Geum Bu-dong found himself struck silent by the cold edge in Yu Ha's counter-question.
If the goal were simply an objective assessment of young martial artists' abilities... there'd be no need to attach rankings at all. If anything, he could have monopolized the information. But the Young Master attached them. Why...?
The answer did not come easily.
“The Wind Cloud Board was never meant to rank people objectively in the first place. That list exists separately, right here in my head.”
Tak — Yu Ha snapped his fan open and curled his lips upward.
“The Wind Cloud Board exists, above all, to move people exactly as I please. And on top of that, it's entertaining, it turns a profit, and it makes gathering information convenient. Shall we call it one stone, three birds?”
“You said at the start that you needed the rankings to be reasonably accurate in order to establish credibility...!”
“Exactly that. But circumstances have changed. Every young martial artist in the Cult now dreams of seeing their name on the Wind Cloud Board.”
Only then did Geum Bu-dong slap his knee in realization.
“By artfully arranging the rankings alone, you can stoke conflict and competition between the Cult's entrenched powers and its rising young blood!”
“That's right. No one petitions against the Wind Cloud Board's rankings. If they have the strength, they simply step up and prove it themselves.”
“The strong rule — the law of Survival of the Fittest!”
Inwardly, Geum Bu-dong shuddered at the depth of Yu Ha's scheming.
A masterstroke built on the Cult's own doctrine! And with this, no one inside the Cult can be held accountable.
With a single ranking board, Yu Ha set the young martial artists in motion while shouldering almost none of the attendant risk. The side benefits were considerable as well — he had circulated the Wind Cloud Board exclusively through inns and taverns quietly managed by the Sun Moon Merchant Guild.
As patronage of those establishments swelled, revenue doubled and intelligence-gathering grew easier besides.
...Truly the Young Master Yu Ha! It's like watching a young Grand Guildmaster Yu Baek-cheon all over again!
It was a gambit calculated several moves ahead of the game.
Yu Ha gazed down at Yun Cheon through the window and murmured, sounding thoroughly pleased with himself.
“Don't look at me like that when it's nothing much. That guy's probably already pieced together the truth about the Wind Cloud Board himself. He knew — and still climbed willingly onto my chessboard. But more importantly...”
The smile vanished from Yu Ha's face in an instant, and he issued his order with frost in his voice.
“The one who commands you is not the Elder — it is me. Do not dare doubt my orders again. Accept every term of the deal exactly as Yun Cheon proposed it.”
The playfulness drained from his face, and something cold and glacial took its place.
He knew... everything!
Geum Bu-dong's face went rigid. It was the same overwhelming pressure as the Guild's Grand Guildmaster, Yu Baek-cheon himself.
...Elder Ssangno. Forgive me, but the Young Pavilion Master is already a vessel far beyond anything I can contain...!
It was hard even to breathe.
“...As... you command.”
Only then did Yu Ha let the taut pressure ease, and the smile returned to his face. Geum Bu-dong wiped the cold sweat from his brow and swore to himself: he would never again cross Yu Ha's mood.
“Now then — the new Wind Cloud Board rankings. We distribute them tonight.”
The board Yu Ha produced had its rankings reshuffled.
Yun Cheon — ninetieth.
So Ryong — ninety-first.
Gang Hwi — ninety-second.
Despite the roar of opinion surrounding the dueling platform, it was the most minimal of promotions.
He still refused to raise the Black Dragon Pavilion Master's rank by any meaningful margin...! Is the Young Pavilion Master... nursing a storm?!
Geum Bu-dong hurried off at once, new rankings in hand, toward the messenger pigeons. A short while later, dozens of them soared up into the sky in unison from behind the Black Dragon Inn.
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. — Dream Books
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