The Guhua Clan is a martial arts school that was once known across Liyue for their chivalrous deeds. Back then, they were known as the Guhua Brotherhood and their fighting style was established after the adeptus Guhua by one of his close associates with a heavy emphasis on swords and polearms.
The Guhua three secret arts are "Light Piercer", "Rain Cutter", and "Life Ender"; three different combat arts revolving around polearm, sword, and a combination of the two after a Guhua disciple had mastered both.
"You are the clan's last hope, Xun," the elderly man, the current leader of the Guhua Clan, would often state with a wispy sigh as he watched his youngest disciple practise the Guhua arts. There's no denying that the Guhua Clan is on a slippery slope of decline, nobody in their clan had managed to learn Life Ender for nearly two centuries now, until Xun appeared.
The elder could still remember how he first met Xun. He picked the injured and unconscious young man from the depths of Huaguang Stone Forest and brought him back to the clan. The man woke up confused, clutching onto the area over his heart and continuously whispering to himself how he is not dead from having a hole speared through his heart. The elder would reply that there's no hole in his body. He might have been getting on in his years but his eyes are still working fine.
The boy asked if there's anyone else beside him, someone who went by the name of Junjou. The elder shook his head in denial. The boy was alone when he found him at Huaguang Stone Forest. The boy wasn't at Sumeru like he claimed and the elder could not understand why he insisted he was at Sumeru before he lost consciousness.
What made the boy silent was when the elder revealed the year and date to the boy.
"T-Two hundred years pre-canon…?"
The boy was seemingly shocked when he heard the current date from the elder. According to the boy, he had somehow travelled approximately two hundred years backwards into the past. The elder simply found it preposterous and at the same time, a little concerning. It seems that the boy had hit his head harder than he initially thought. Would he be okay on his own?
Seeing that the boy had nowhere to go, the elder took him into the clan as his disciple. He gave his disciple the name of "Xun", a homophone for "Never Ending Continuity", signifying a new beginning for his newest and youngest disciple.
Xun took up the Guhua arts like a fish to water, mastering Light Piercer in a year and Rain Cutter in two. He proceeded to become the first disciple within the clan to learn the Life Ender in the last two centuries. He made the elder proud, knowing that he could pass away in peace because he is able to hand over the Guhua Clan over to Xun, the promising prodigy that would be able to bring the clan back to its former glory.
Strangely enough, Xun was able to resonate with elemental energies despite not possessing a Vision. It was strange enough to see him being able to control the power of Anemo to a certain extent and it was even weirder when he somehow managed to figure out how to resonate with the power of Hydro through his own experimentation.
Xun's incorporation of elemental power into the Guhua arts opened a new door of thought to the Guhua Clan. Everyone who was present at the clan's once in a decade Martial Arts Tournament, a tournament held within the clan to decide on the members' rankings, were witnesses to how beautifully deadly the Guhua arts can be when elemental powers were incorporated into it. The Vision wielders within the clan were immediately inspired by Xun's showing at the tournament that day and proceeded to emulate him, hoping to create their own unique branch of Guhua arts as well just like Xun did.
"Master is old. Now, my only hope is to see the clan rise back to its former glory, to bask in its former splendour."
"You are still young, master," Xun would say as he helped the elder to his reclining seat on his porch outside his home where he would be able to hear the birds sing and view the yellow-orange leaves of the sandbearer trees.
"What a fine apprentice you have there!" Yun Jun, an old acquaintance of the elder, would often compliment when he visits the elder. The descendent of the Yun family, a renowned family of weaponsmithing which had gradually turned their focus from weaponsmithing to the performing arts ever since the Cataclysm three hundred years ago.
"Here, a gift from me to you– Now, don't you dare refuse this gift. If you do, I will take it as you are not giving me any face!" The Yun elder put on a stern expression as he gifted Xun one of his family's prized treasures, the Blackcliff Longsword. It was a renowned sword made by Han Wu of the Han family in the aftermath of the Cataclysm who was also a good friend of the head of the Yun family back then, Yun Hui. Xun wasn't surprised that the Yun family ended up possessing one of Han Wu's best masterpieces, the Blackcliff Longsword.
But there's no reason for Yun Jun to give the sword to him.
"A good sword should be paired with a good swordsman and vice versa. The sword would just be collecting dust in my home anyway, so just take it and do the sword justice. I'm sure Master Han would agree with me as well."
Xun swore to use the sword well and he made good on his promise. For the next decade that followed monsters and evildoers alike fell under his blade. Liyuens came to know of the prodigy of the Guhua Clan and the clan started to rise in fame as more and more of their disciples embarked on what their seniors used to do back in the clan's heydays. Acts of chivalry became widespread under their lead, the presence of the Guhua Clan became a deterrence in itself as monsters with sentient thoughts would think twice before attacking a human settlement if they believed a member of Guhua were nearby.
Yet, for all the feats he achieved and for all that he sacrificed to help those in need, Xun of the Guhua Clan never once received the gaze of a god. He's fine with it. He doesn't need a god for he was already capable of harnessing the power of Anemo and Hydro even without a Vision.
There were nights where he lay awake on his bed, wondering if Junjou was doing well after his "death". He still has no idea what's going on, how he came to be in Teyvat, how he suddenly travelled through time and space after his death back into the past, but he will try to live his life to the fullest. There's no telling if he will experience something similar again once he lives to the end of his current life.
The end came sooner than he imagined. An outbreak of monsters was sighted near the Chasm and the Guhua Clan volunteered themselves to be a part of the defending force to defend their homeland from ruin. As the current leader of Guhua, naturally, Xun was there.
"Hold the line! The Qixing will be here with the reinforcements soon!"
"Where are the adepti?! We are about to be overrun!"
"Rex Lapis, we need Rex Lapis! There's too many of them! Please, Rex Lapis, save us!"
Xun had no idea if the gods of Liyue could hear their plea, but he does know that everyone's going to die if nobody steps up to do something.
And so, he stood at the front at the entrance of The Chasm, the Blackcliff Sword held in his right hand and the Prototype Starglitter held in his left.
"Go, I will hold them off here."
"But–"
"It's an order."
"Leader–!"
"All members of the Guhua Clan, listen up! This is your final order from your leader! Assist the millelith to evacuate the area!"
The Descender charged into the fray alone with those final words. The powerful burst of Hydro was his last gift to those present as their wounds gradually healed under the influence of his power. Xun's master always did comment that Xun's Hydro powers seemed to hold the power to "revert" rather than "heal", but Xun had never managed to make any headway into investigation of the mystery of his own powers.
That day, the fighters at The Chasm saw how one man stood guard at the narrow passage linking the Chasm and the mainland of Liyue, the only obstacle between their homeland and the monsters.
That day, they bore witness to the true power of Guhua Clan's Light Ender, the pinnacle of their combat art. They saw how one man did the impossible and bought the millelith enough time to get their reinforcements over to assist with the situation and eventually quell it.
The battlefield was a scarred mess when all was said and done and search parties were deployed to search for the Hero of Liyue. Nobody had any idea if he lived or died as everything was too chaotic back then but even if he had indeed sacrificed himself, they wished to at least be able to recover his corpse.
In the end, they could only recover his shattered weapons, the Blackcliff Sword and the Prototype Starglitter. His body was never found. However, his deeds were being immortalised by word of mouth as those present sang praises of his bravery and scribes recorded his chivalric act into the historical records of Liyue. Xun of Guhua became a phenomenal figure akin to the likes of the adepti that it was founded upon and the surviving members took the teachings of Guhua to heart, spreading themselves across Liyue and never hesitating to help those in need.
Some say that Xun had caught the gaze of the gods for his bravery and had ascended just like Guhua did, some say that Xun had unfortunately perished. Nobody had any idea what truly happened to him, but the one thing that everyone could agree upon was that he's an indisputable hero of Liyue that everyone should look up to.
Two hundred years later the Guhua Clan would see the rise of another prodigy within their clan, the second son of the Feiyun Commerce Guild, and many would gossip and wonder if he would be able to fill in the large shoes that Xun had left behind two hundred years ago that nobody was able to fill.
To Xingqiu, Xun is another chivalrous hero out of the many he looks up to, a figure that he strives to be.
"Light Ender, the epitome of the Guhua arts…" Xingqiu would often gaze upon his sword under the dim light of the moon when he was alone.
Perhaps, once he mastered the "Rain Cutter", he should start learning the "Light Piercer" as well.
– Tales of a Hundred Cycles, Vol II