Chapter 136: Sparring

Jun Huang’s breath hitched. As someone who had witnessed her fair share of deaths and violence, she was able to recover shortly and apply medicine to Nan Xun’s wound to stop the bleeding. She exhaled slowly, letting tension drain out of her body.

She looked closely at the cut on Nan Xun’s back. She had cleaned the wound to prevent infection with a heated dagger. The newly grown flesh was pink and raw. It should have healed in a couple of days.

However, Nan Xun had sparred with the emperor and hurt his shoulder again. The wound was reopened and his nerves had been damaged.

Jun Huang felt a pang of guilt. If not for her, Nan Xun wouldn’t be suffering so much. If not for her, Nan Xun could have dealt with those villains without such serious injury. She had been the one dragging Nan Xun down. She got him hurt.

Nan Xun looked over at Jun Huang questioningly and saw the guilt in her expression. It was the rare time that the calm mask she was used to wearing broke and revealed her true feelings. He wondered if he should be worried or pleased.

Nan Xun held onto Jun Huang’s icy fingers. “I told you it’s not your fault. I was to blame, not you. They wanted to hurt me. I’m sorry for getting you involved.”

Jun Huang shook her head and took a deep breath to steady herself. “If you haven’t shielded me with your own body, I may have died that night…”

An idea struck her. She looked up at Nan Xun with bright eyes. “I’m not good enough in fighting. You’ve always been the one protecting me. Would you mind training me? I can’t promise that I will become as good as fighting as you are, but at least I won’t be a burden to you anymore.”

Nan Xun was going to say no, but the hopeful look in Jun Huang’s eyes made him swallow down his words.

, Nan Xun thought.

He told Jun Huang to stand upright. He then took Jun Huang’s arm in his hand and pulled at it before telling Jun Huang to break his hold.

Jun Huang tried his grip, but Nan Xun was too strong for her to fight against with brute force. She had to fight smartly.

In the morning Nan Xun had showed her some moves she could use to fight in close quarter. She stepped forward and used her left leg to lock one of Nan Xun’s leg before whirling around to try throwing Nan Xun to the ground.

Nan Xun reacted before she could do so. He seized her shoulder and used her weight to bring her down. Jun Huang hit the ground with a pained grunt, the impact sending dust into the air. She had to clench her teeth to stop herself from crying out.

“Are you hurt?” Nan Xun had tried to use as little force as he could and had lessened the impact with some tricks. He didn’t want it to hurt too much for her. Jun Huang’s reaction made him panic. He was worried that he had still been too forceful.

It took a moment for the pain to fade. Jun Huang took a deep breath and, while Nan Xun was least expecting it, yanked Nan Xun down with all her force. She shot to her feet and pulled her hand away from Nan Xun.

Before Nan Xun could hit the ground, he broke the fall with his elbows and jumped back to his feet.

“I didn’t expect you to make a foul move like that,” Nan Xun said resignedly.

“A fighter has to be cunning.” Jun Huang raised an eyebrow at him.

Nan Xun could tell that Jun Huang had potential. With more training, she would be able to defend herself. He didn’t like seeing her get hurt, but training in martial arts always came with pain. Compared to getting hurt by their enemies, Nan Xun would rather Jun Huang experienced what a real fight would entail by sparring with him. Then she would know what to expect when dangers struck.