Naked Sword Art

"Real father? Who was he?"

The mother smiled, she always imagined having this conversation when he was older, but she couldn’t control fate.

"He was a great General. Powerful and brilliant beyond your imagination," she replied. "I had heard that he had survived the war, but he disappeared with your sister. I had never heard from him again."

"I have a sister?"

The mother frowned at the thought of it. Back then, she had hoped to have a son, someone who might live up to her husband’s name. But not only did she have a daughter, she was sickly at birth, and didn’t have much of a future in cultivation growing up. For that reason she often neglected her, even forgetting her name.

"Yes, but she was... a useless person—"

Although she couldn’t recall her face, she remembered the way the little girl always clung onto her husband’s robes all the time. Always getting carried by him. She never understood why he loved her so much. Anytime she saw her she felt regret.

"What was her name?" the boy asked curiously.

This was the first he was hearing about her. Her mother had always told him that she would eventually tell him about her past someday. Now that he was finally hearing about it, he had so many questions.

She wanted to tell him everything, but was already getting stumped by such a simple question.

"Her name..." she paused in thought.

However, before she could recall it, she suddenly stopped as she felt something dangerous quickly approaching.

Her body reacted before her mind did.

In a single fluid motion, she tore the hairpin from her hair and spun around, metal ringing sharply as it met steel.

Clang.

The force jolted up her arm, nearly numbing it.

A blade hovered inches from her throat, stopped only by the hairpin locked against its edge.

"Mom!" The boy screamed.

Standing before them was a woman wreathed in killing intent so dense it felt like the forest itself recoiled from her presence.

Grey eyes.

Cold. Empty. Bottomless.

Xun Wei.

The mother staggered back half a step.

’Those eyes,’ she thought.

Her breath trembling as recognition finally struck her.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Xun Wei’s gaze flicked briefly to the boy clutching the woman’s sleeve—then returned, sharp and merciless.

"I am what remains of my clan."

The mother scanned her surroundings, but from the look of it, Xun Wei was alone.

’She’s young,’ the mother thought.

But she was wise enough to not underestimate someone capable of such cruelty.

Suddenly, Xun Wei moved.

Seeing that, the mother quickly pushed the boy away.

Xun Wei dashed forward, blade flashing toward the mother’s throat—but the strike was deflected at the last instant. Sparks flew as metal rang through the trees.

They locked eyes.

’She’s strong,’ both of them realized at the same time.

Then they vanished.

Sparks erupted again and again as the two women exchanged blows faster than sight could follow. Their figures blurred, reappearing at impossible angles, blades colliding in rapid succession.

The boy couldn’t track them at all.

’They’re too fast...’ he thought in panic. ’I can’t even see them!’

Suddenly, something rushed past him.

Before he could turn, the deafening screech of metal clashing exploded right beside his head. The shockwave alone knocked him to the ground.

For a heartbeat, the boy tasted death.

Cold, sharp, suffocating.

Even with his mother between him and the danger, he could feel it—the weight of Xun Wei’s gaze pressing down on him like a blade poised above his neck.

’Am I... going to die?’ he thought, trembling.

He had never been this afraid in his life.

They clashed again.

And again.

Xun Wei’s strikes carved shallow wounds, precise and relentless. With every exchange, she gained ground, her advantage growing clearer by the second.

’She’s so young,’ the mother thought desperately as she parried another blow. ’How can someone this young be this strong...?’

Xun Wei moved with an eerie fluidity—Illusory Body footwork layered with a Spirit Attribute that twisted distance and warped perception. Each step felt unreal, as if space itself hesitated before letting her pass.

Worse still was her swordsmanship.

It was familiar.

Painfully so.

The realization clenched around the mother’s heart like a vice.

"That style..." she said between labored breaths. "It resembles my first husband’s. He practiced the Divine Sword method when he was young." Her eyes sharpened. "Tell me—are you a Divine Swordsman?"

Silence answered her.

Just a fraction of a breath too long.

That pause was enough.

"You are," the mother said quietly, certainty settling into her voice. "Aren’t you?"

"A Divine Swordsman..." the boy whispered, eyes wide with disbelief.

He had only ever heard legends—of a sect whose blades could split fate itself. To stand before one now... and to see his mother still holding her ground—

Admiration flared in his chest, burning through the fear.

Suddenly, a low, mournful horn split the night.

The sound rolled through the forest and over the city walls, heavy and unmistakable.

Both women froze.

Xun Wei’s blade hovered a finger’s width from the mother’s throat. The mother’s breath hitched, muscles locked mid-stance. Even the boy felt it—the pressure shifting, the night itself holding its breath.

’Reinforcements...’ Xun Wei thought, eyes narrowing. ’They came early.’

—

Far to the south of the city, the source of the horn revealed itself.

A Song Clan response unit—ten cultivators and a captain—had arrived at full speed, weapons already drawn.

The horn was a bluff, to make it seem like their army had arrived, but the truth was that they still had some ways to go.

The team slowed the moment they reached the first dead body.

"This—"

Then the next body, then the next.

Before long, they discovered everyone from a different team’s corpses. All 10 including their captain, but not even a single Li Clansman.

They finally reached the gate to the city and stopped.

The guards.

All of them lay dead.

Necks slit cleanly. No signs of struggle. Again, no Li Clan corpses. No beast marks.

Silence pressed in.

The captain crouched, fingers brushing the cooling blood, his expression darkening.

"...Stay alert," he ordered quietly. "Whoever did this was strong. Very strong."

Even if he didn’t say it, his team was already on high alert. However, what came next was beyond any of their expectations.

The words had barely left his mouth when the air changed.

A pressure crashed over them—sharp, predatory, suffocating.

"Captain—!" one subordinate gasped.

Too late.

Two figures tore past them in a blur.

The first was a young girl. Clothes torn, and her veil loosely covering her face.

Impossibly fast.

The captain’s eyes widened just enough to catch a glimpse beneath the motion—the young girl, veiled, her aura warped and violent.

He recognized her. She was one of the 3 veiled figures who always stood behind the Patriarch.

The second—her pursuer—was much larger.

It was a massive shadow—sleek, powerful, feline—its movement so fast it bent the grass flat in its wake.

"Th-that was—" a team member stammered.

"Should we help?" another asked, voice tight.

The captain exhaled sharply, forcing himself steady.

"No," he said. "At that speed... we’d be dead before we took three steps." He straightened. "We check for survivors."

Not only that, but the large black panther gave off Divine Realm strength. It would take all 11 of them just to suppress her.

—

Continuing past the gate, the scent of dirt and blood filled their lungs.

The city lay deathly quiet.

No screams. No movement. Just blood-soaked streets and bodies cooling where they fell.

It seemed the horn had done its job—whoever was responsible had withdrawn.

The men’s gazes flickered toward familiar streets, toward homes, toward places they desperately wanted to run to.

But none of them moved.

Not without orders.

The captain’s jaw clenched. His own chest ached with the same fear—but protocol came first. There was a chance the people who did this could still be here. So if they scattered now, they’d be picked off one by one.

Then—

A sharp, piercing whistle cut through the night.

North of the city.

The captain’s head snapped up.

"That’s..." His pupils shrank.

Without another word, he turned and bolted northward at full speed.

"Captain!" his team shouted behind him.

But he didn’t slow, not even for a heartbeat.

Branches cracked as the captain burst through the treeline, breath ragged, Qi flaring instinctively.

He skidded to a halt— as he saw his wife getting struck, her body flying through the air.

He immediately caught her before she could sustain any more injuries. Seeing that she was still alive and well, relief slammed into him so hard his knees nearly buckled.

Not only that, but also his son was alive.

For a heartbeat, the world narrowed to just them.

"Dad!" the boy cried.

The captain helped his wife to her feet, before he felt it—

Killing intent.

Then he saw her.

Grey eyes. Still as winter water. Killing intent coiled so tightly around her that the forest itself seemed to recoil.

Xun Wei.

The relief in his chest turned to ice.

The mother noticed the change instantly. Her gaze flicked from her husband... to the woman before them.

"You know her?" she asked quietly.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!