Naked Sword Art

"Do you know her?"

The captain didn’t answer.

His eyes never left Xun Wei.

"...You’re Xun Wei," he said at last. Not a question. A statement.

Silence followed.

Xun Wei neither denied nor confirmed it—but her body stilled for the briefest instant.

That was answer enough.

The mother’s breath hitched.

"Xun... Wei," she murmured, the name stirring something long buried. Her fingers trembled before tightening around her husband’s sleeve.

Realization struck her like a blade to the chest.

’That name... could she be—?’

The captain felt it too. He had always known his wife’s past—known she had once belonged to the Xun Clan. Like her, he had also believed there to be no other survivors.

He let out a slow, weary breath.

"So," he said quietly, almost sadly, "it seems the past has finally caught up to the present."

He stepped forward.

His wife’s grip tightened. "Wait—"

"It’s alright," he said softly, not looking back. "I’ve been waiting for this moment for longer than you realize."

Xun Wei’s blade shifted, its edge humming faintly as she dashed forward.

Time seemed to slow.

"I fought for the Song Clan. I followed their banners. I closed my eyes when villages burned."

His voice lowered.

"I told myself it was for my clan."

The mother prepared to counter Xun Wei’s attack out of instinct, but unexpectedly, her husband threw her aside as he drew his own blade.

In the next moment, Xun Wei’s sword flashed. Blocking his blade that had no weight behind it, then driving hers cleanly through his chest.

The boy screamed.

The mother froze, eyes wide, breath caught in her throat.

The captain sagged forward, blood spilling from his body as his sword that had been knocked out of his hands finally landed some distance away.

He smiled faintly, blood staining his lips as he held onto Xun Wei.

In one smooth motion, he leaned forward.

"I’ve repaid my sins," he whispered. "But my son," he rasped, voice barely sound now, "is innocent."

Xun Wei’s gaze did not waver.

"The innocent," she replied coldly, "carry the weight of the guilty."

He looked back at his wife, then back at Xun Wei.

"Fate... is truly cruel," he spoke, as if he understood something Xun Wei couldn’t.

His hand trembled as he reached up—not to strike, but to press two fingers briefly against her wrist.

Then he leaned closer, lips near her ear, and spoke one final sentence—so softly that only she could hear it.

"Xun Wei, daughter of General Xun Conglin..."

As he continued speaking, Xun Wei’s eyes slowly softened before her pupils shrank. For the first time since she arrived, her expression cracked.

The captain exhaled once more, before falling to his knees. His grip on Xun Wei loosening till he slumped to his side.

Xun Wei had withdrawn her blade as he fell, still taken aback by the things she had just heard.

The forest was silent.

The mother clutched her robes, shaking, staring at the woman who had just killed her husband—but not for the reason anyone would expect.

Xun Wei stood there, blood dripping from her sword, grey eyes unfocused.

The captain’s words echoed again and again in her mind. And for the first time since the massacre of her clan—

A crack in Xun Wei’s cold exterior finally appeared.

"Xun Wei," the mother’s tone had changed.

Xun Wei didn’t turn to look at the woman, but a tear streaked down her face at how familiar that voice sounded now.

However, the boy was experiencing something entirely different.

"Father!" he shouted painfully.

His eyes turned a deathly grey just like Xun Wei’s as he picked up his father’s sword and charged towards her.

"I will kill you!" the boy declared.

Surprised, Xun Wei kicked the boy in the stomach, making him crash into the trunk of a tree. Even though she held back, for someone as weak as him, it still knocked the air out of his lungs.

"Gah!" the boy coughed.

With a hand on his stomach, he wanted to move, but before he could, Xun Wei was already in front of him staring down at him with her hauntingly grey eyes. A single ruthless thought going through her mind.

’The innocent, carry the weight of the guilty.’

Blade slowly raised as if preparing to either pierce his heart. Her sword moved.

The boy closed his eyes as her sword flashed towards him.

Then he felt it, the blade cut deep across his cheek before piercing the tree. Unexpectedly, he was alive.

Confused, he opened his eyes, then he understood why.

"Mom."

Xun Wei had stopped her sword, it was the mother who had pulled it through her stomach.

"His son..." she gestured to her pierced stomach. "Is in here."

Xun Wei finally understood what the captain meant about the cruelty of fate.

"M—" Xun Wei tried to speak, but she couldn’t bring herself to utter the word.

Leaning in, the mother whispered only loud enough for Xun Wei to hear.

"Look after... your brother."

She coughed up blood before resting her hand on Xun Wei’s cheek as her tears continued to fall.

"Your father was right about you," her voice fading. "He’d be so proud."

The mother collapsed moments later.

Dead.

Her body fell forward, lifeless. Blood pooled beneath her, soaking into the leaves.

Xun Wei staggered back as something inside her lurched violently out of rhythm.

The boy as well, their souls fluctuated, and their eyes both changed.

He wanted to scream, but no sound was made.

Then from a distance another voice was heard.

"Over here!"

Shouts tore through the forest.

The captain’s team had arrived.

"Captain!"

"Shit we were too late."

"She killed him!"

"I’ve seen her before—that’s the girl the Patriarch wants!"

"She’s responsible for all of this."

"Don’t let her escape!"

"Capture her alive."

Ten Song Clan soldiers closed in fast, forming a tightening circle around her.

Xun Wei barely registered them.

The boy clutched his mother’s body, shaking, blood smearing his hands as she bled out in his lap. With her final breath, she whispered something only he could hear—words swallowed by the night.

Xun Wei’s vision swam.

Before she could process what had happened—before grief or horror could settle—steel was already crashing toward her.

She was forced to fight.

Again.

Blow after blow rained down on her. Her reopened wounds screamed in protest. Grief weighed down her limbs, exhaustion dulled her reactions.

She began to slip.

Her left arm finally gave out—broken beyond use.

Her right arm trembled, barely able to lift her blade.

Her breathing grew ragged. Then a decisive strike landed.

Her sword was knocked from her grasp, spinning uselessly into the darkness, and her body slammed into the dirt.

Xun Wei coughed, struggling to push herself up.

Her gaze drifted—unwillingly—back to them.

The boy.

The woman.

The truth crashed down on her with merciless clarity.

Xun Wei... had killed her mother.

—

Thinking back, Xun Wei realized she carried surprisingly few memories of her mother.

Most of her childhood had been spent waiting—her mother away on missions, leaving her with her father or a hired caretaker. Even when she was home, their paths rarely crossed. In Xun Wei’s memories, her mother’s face had always been blurred, distant, like an unfinished painting.

But now—now that blur was gone.

Seeing her with clear eyes, there was no doubt left.

It was her.

Fragments resurfaced unbidden—arguments whispered behind closed doors, always about Xun Wei’s future. Her mother had believed she would amount to nothing, that her talent was insufficient. Her father had argued back every time, defending her with quiet, unyielding resolve.

Her mother’s final words echoed relentlessly in her mind, reminding her of what her father used to tell her.

["Little Wei, don’t listen to them. Your body is strong, even stronger than mine. They just can’t see it like I can. They think you’re weak because your Qi is insufficient, but like me, you are stronger without it. Never forget, as long as your will to fight is strong, no one will be able to stand in your way." ]

But Xun Wei had killed her own mother, so her desire to continue fighting was shaking.

However, as long as the Song Clan still stood, her mission was not over.

The ten Song soldiers advanced cautiously, weapons raised, wary of the woman who refused to stay down.

Xun Wei’s grey eyes flared to life once more, haunting and merciless.

’Father,’ she thought. ’I won’t disappoint you.’

The forest groaned as the atmosphere became chilly.

It was pure Sword Qi.

At the same moment, an unimaginable pressure suddenly descended upon them as Xun Wei slowly rose to her feet. It wasn’t merely bloodlust that crushed their spirits—it was something deeper, heavier.

Terror seized their hearts as Xun Wei rose once more, strength surging anew. Her tattered robes snapped violently in the pressure, Qi roaring around her as the mysterious pressure increased without restraint.

Raw fury bled from her very pores as she drew strength from every shred of her being.

Then she vanished.

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