Naked Sword Art

Chapter 546: The Bastard Son

The forest blurred past her.

Branches snapped beneath her steps, leaves scattering in her wake as the young veiled girl shot through the woods like a streak of wind. Her figure flickered between the trees, barely touching the ground, her speed so great that even the air behind her lagged a heartbeat too slow.

Her breathing was steady, but her thoughts were not.

‘That damn beast…’ she thought, thinking of Xiao Hei.

Her expression darkened beneath the veil as she recalled the moment Xiao Hei’s technique had taken hold of her senses, distorting her perception and forcing her into a retreat she hadn’t planned.

“If I see you again,” she muttered under her breath, her voice low and cold, “I’ll tear you apart!”

Eventually, she reached a clearing, her momentum carrying her to the edge of a quiet pond. The sudden openness contrasted sharply with the dense forest behind her, and standing there, as if he had been waiting all along, was a man.

What caught her attention immediately wasn’t his lack of presence—but the blindfold covering his eyes.

“You’re quite fast,” the man said calmly, his voice steady and unhurried. “Can you tell me your name?”

The young veiled girl scoffed, not even bothering to respond. Without breaking stride, she shifted her direction slightly and continued forward, intending to pass him and make her way back to the Song Army. However, the moment she moved past him, her instincts flared violently, screaming a warning deep within her chest.

But it was too late.

In the next instant, the world seemed to blur, and before she could react, the blindfolded man was already in front of her. His hand closed tightly around her throat, lifting her cleanly off the ground as if she weighed nothing.

‘He’s fast!’ the girl thought in panic, shock flashing through her mind.

Among the younger generation, she could only think of one person that could move that fast.

Her older brother.

Her breath tightened as she struggled against his grip, her voice strained as she forced out her words. “Who… are you…”

“I asked first,” he replied calmly while loosening his grip just a bit.

“I’m Mo Yuli. Now let me go!” she snapped, forcing the name out without hesitation.

“Mo Yuli?” the blindfolded man repeated, his tone thoughtful. “I was right to assume you were a member of the Chaos Sect, but carrying the Mo family name… I didn’t expect to encounter someone from the Chaos Sect’s royal family here.”

For a brief moment, he seemed to fall silent, as if searching through his memory. The name didn’t match any of the names his half-sister told him to kill in exchange for freeing him from their father’s prison. However, his half-sister came from the Chaos sect as well, so he never intended on holding up to his end of the bargain.

What he failed to realize was that the girl he was holding now was someone his half-sister wanted him to kill the most. Lucky for her, it was impossible for him to know whether she was telling the truth about her name while she was in her half-beast form.

“Well then, Mo Yuli,” he said calmly, his grip still firm, “I’ll be taking you with me for a while.”

“No, let me go!” She thrashed violently.

Despite the ferocity of her struggle, the blindfolded man responded with minimal movement, deflecting each strike with a single hand as if it required no effort at all.

For a brief moment, her resistance intensified, and through a sudden shift in her body, she managed to break free from his grip.

Her feet touched the ground, and she regained hope, but it only lasted for a moment.

Before she could create any distance, a series of precise strikes landed against her body in rapid succession, each one targeting a specific pressure point. The force behind them wasn’t overwhelming, but the accuracy was absolute.

Her body froze before she collapsed—muscles unresponsive.

“What… the hell… did you do to me!?” she said through gritted teeth.

“I sealed your meridians,” he replied as he carried her up over his shoulder. “They’ll restore themselves soon, but the process will take longer if you remain in your beast form, or continue to use your Qi.”

To his surprise, the moment those words left his mouth, the young veiled girl immediately stopped circulating her Qi altogether. It wasn’t trust that guided her decision, but instinct. The moment she had attempted to force her energy through her body, she felt it—an intense, burning sensation spreading through her meridians, as if her entire body had been set aflame from within.

Her hair and nails returned to their original color and length as well, her breathing steadied slightly as she suppressed her Qi completely, her eyes locked onto him with a mixture of anger and caution.

The man certainly wasn’t ordinary. Not only was he strong, but he restrained her while being blindfolded. She didn’t know anyone that could do that, not even her father.

‘Who the hell is he?’

Anyone strong enough to block all of her attacks with their bare hands couldn’t have a simple background.

‘I can’t see through his cultivation at all. He must be suppressing it, but if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that he’s a swordsman.’

Her beast-like instincts were too sharp. Even though the man hadn’t taken a sword out against her, she could always sniff out a swordsman in an instant.

‘A blindfolded swordsman…’ she thought. ‘How bizarre.’

However, it wasn’t the first time she had heard of such a person.

Within the Chaos Sect, there had long been rumors about the Patriarch of the Divine Sword Sect having a son who was considered a cripple. Unlike the Chaos Sect, whose royal lineage was vast and sprawling, the Divine Sword Sect maintained a far more restrictive bloodline, typically producing only a single heir each generation. Yet that so-called heir had become such a disappointment that he was eventually branded a bastard and cast out by his own father.

‘Could he be…’ she thought in disbelief.

“The bastard son. Are you… Xiao Fang.”