Nobody moved.
The scout stood at the tree line, that thin smile still on their face, eyes fixed on Chen Wei like they'd just found something they'd been searching a long time for.
I didn't breathe.
Then Chen Wei spoke.
"Take off the emblem."
Her voice was different. Not loud. Not angry. Just completely, utterly flat — the kind of flat that has nothing underneath it except cold. I'd heard her calm before. I'd heard her firm. This was neither. This was something older and harder than both.
The scout's smile didn't move. "I don't think I will."
"That wasn't a request."
"I know." The scout's eyes finally shifted — just slightly, just for a second — scanning the clearing. Counting. Liu Hao on the left. Me in the center. Old Man Shen at the door. Back to Chen Wei on the right. "There are four of you. One of me." The smile came back. "So I'm curious what you think happens next."
What happened next was Liu Hao.
She moved so fast I almost missed it. One second she was on the left side of the clearing, blade at her side. The next she was behind the scout, the edge of her sword resting against their throat, not pressing — just there. Present. Definitive.
The scout went very still.
"Hello," Liu Hao said pleasantly.
I let out a breath.
Chen Wei walked forward. Slow. Steady. She stopped in front of the scout and looked at them the way you look at something you're trying to understand before you decide what to do with it.
"You're alone," she said.
"For now," the scout said.
"How did you find this place?"
The scout said nothing. Their eyes were calm — too calm for someone with a blade at their throat. That bothered me more than the symbol on their chest.
"How many are with you," Chen Wei said.
Still nothing.
Liu Hao's wrist moved slightly. The blade pressed just a fraction closer.
The scout exhaled through their nose. Not fear. More like someone making a calculation. "Enough," they said finally. "There are enough of us."
"Enough for what," I said.
Everyone glanced at me. I hadn't really planned to speak. It just came out.
The scout looked at me for the first time. Really looked — taking me in, the school uniform, the complete lack of cultivation robes, the fact that I was clearly the most out-of-place person in this entire clearing. Something shifted in their expression. Not the smile this time. Something more like genuine confusion.
"Who are you?" they said.
"Nobody," I said. "Answer the question."
The confusion stayed for a second longer. Then the scout looked back at Chen Wei. "Enough to finish what we started."
The clearing went quiet.
Finish what we started.
I looked at Chen Wei. Her face hadn't moved. But her hands — at her sides, completely still — had gone tight. Just slightly. Just enough.
"You were there," she said. Very quiet. "The night of the attack."
The scout didn't confirm it. Didn't deny it. Just held her gaze.
"Who gave the order," Chen Wei said.
"Someone above my rank." The scout's voice was flat. Honest in a way that felt almost worse than a lie. "I don't ask questions about orders."
"No," Chen Wei said. "You just follow them."
"Same as everyone."
Chen Wei looked at them for a long moment. Then she turned slightly toward Liu Hao. Something passed between them — one of those glances that had a whole conversation inside it.
Liu Hao reached out with her free hand and grabbed the front of the scout's robes, pulling them forward. The scout stumbled slightly, off balance. In one smooth motion Liu Hao had them turned around and pushed down onto their knees at the center of the clearing, sword still present, position controlled.
"We're going to talk," Chen Wei said, crouching down to eye level. "And you're going to answer me. Not because of the blade." She tilted her head slightly. "Because you came here alone, and you're still alive, and I think you know that means something."
The scout looked at her. Something moved behind their eyes that hadn't been there before.
I drifted slightly to the side, watching the tree line. Something felt off. Had felt off since the scout stepped out — something about the timing, the way they'd walked out without hesitating, without checking.
Like they weren't worried about what was behind them.
Because they already knew.
"Hey," I said quietly.
Nobody heard me. Chen Wei was focused on the scout. Liu Hao's attention was split between the scout and Chen Wei.
"Hey," I said again, louder.
Liu Hao glanced at me.
I was looking at the trees.
The forest had gone quiet again. Not the natural quiet of early morning. The held-breath quiet of things trying not to make sound.
I'd felt this before. Standing on the broken stone road with the birds all gone silent.
"Chen Wei," I said.
She looked up.
I nodded toward the tree line.
For one second — just one — nobody moved.
Then the forest erupted.
They came from three sides at once. Not running. Moving fast and controlled, the way cultivators moved when they didn't need to hurry because they already had the numbers. Robes with the same symbol. Blades out. Qi rising in the air like pressure before a storm.
Six. Seven. I stopped counting.
Old Man Shen shouted something from the cabin door. Inside, someone screamed — short, cut off, controlled. The survivors knew to stay down.
Liu Hao was already moving. She released the scout and turned, sword up, hand signs blurring fast. The air around her crackled.
Chen Wei rose from her crouch. Something shifted in her — the cold that had been in her voice moved into her whole body, and she didn't look like someone caught off guard. She looked like someone who had been waiting for exactly this.
I had no weapon.
I had my hands, my feet, and whatever weird speed showed up sometimes when I stopped thinking about it.
The first one reached me.
I moved before I decided to — ducked under the blade, shoved them sideways, kept moving. Not elegant. Not precise. Just fast enough to not die, which was the only standard I was currently working with.
The scout, still on their knees in the center of the clearing, watched all of it.
Didn't move to help their own people.
Didn't move to help us either.
Just watched.
I didn't have time to think about what that meant.
Two more were coming at me from the left and I had a feeling this was about to get significantly worse.
I was right.