Molin gripped his curved saber and found that his hand was trembling slightly. This had never happened in his more than twenty years of studying martial arts.
He knew he hadn't suffered Qi Deviation, been poisoned, or exhausted himself. He was simply... a little afraid, because he had actually been no match for He Nu.
To ordinary spectators, he hadn't lost badly. You could even say he'd lost narrowly, and that there wasn't much difference between him and He Nu. In Mo Chu's eyes, the Old Khan King's bodyguard had held back and merely pretended to lose.
Only Molin knew that not only had he lost, he'd lost miserably. What had originally been a way to send word to the Dragon King had ended up becoming a means of saving his own life.
Molin had always thought He Nu's martial arts were on a par with the Dragon King's, and very similar. He'd fought the Dragon King before, and though he'd been slightly inferior, he'd already figured out how to counter his moves. He'd been sure he had a seventy or eighty percent chance of defeating He Nu. He hadn't expected her skill to far exceed his imagination. No matter how much of his strength he used, she could easily block his attacks with two steel plates.
In fact, when he leaped into the night sky at the final moment, Molin had already lost confidence.
The assassin Mo Chu had mentioned appeared, dressed in black with his face covered and a long sword in hand.
The two stared at each other for a moment. The assassin probably wanted to make the act more convincing, so he struck at Molin.
Molin met the attack absentmindedly and followed the assassin onto the rooftops with equal distraction. They raced out of the City