The Rattan Chair

Nie Zeng's wish was to become a lone assassin, with no steady partner and no deadweight. Everyone said it was impossible, but he persevered, because one day he would betray the man who had trained him and challenge the Dragon King.

A trace of pride still lingered in the young man's heart. He was unwilling to grow attached to anyone at a time like this, believing that being alone would spare him a great deal of trouble.

The Dragon King and Hu Shining, the instructor who taught him martial arts, knew full well what Nie Zeng was after, yet they had still accepted him as an assassin-in-training and even assigned him as the Dragon King's personal guard. The boy couldn't make sense of it, and the realization struck him even harder: he had studied and trained diligently for two years, working more than twice as hard as his fellow students, yet in the eyes of his enemy, he wasn't even considered a threat.

So he treasured his chance to guard the Dragon King all the more, studying his every move with greater care than the most devoted admirer, hoping to learn from him and find a weakness.

In just three days, Nie Zeng had learned only one thing: the Dragon King was skilled at hiding himself. If he hadn't once seen the man's saber technique with his own eyes, Nie Zeng would have thought, like many who met him for the first time, that the pale young man was all reputation and no substance, and that his fame was nothing but a lucky streak.

Nie Zeng believed that beneath this artful, unyielding disguise, the Dragon King must have a weakness.

He had longed to keep following the Dragon King, but instead the Dragon King had saddled him with an extremely