Examples of the hero chickening out in wuxia?

[Ken Cheng]

Nobody is brave *all* the time...not even the greatest heroes. In fact, to keep heroes human and make their stories compelling, it's necessary for them to experience some fear and, occasionally, not feel capable of facing up to it.

Can you think of examples in wuxia wherein the hero (not villains) chickens out? I'm not talking about cases in which the hero is clearly overmatched/overwhelmed and not fleeing would be foolish, but cases wherein the hero has a fighting chance, but somehow loses his nerve and chooses to run rather than fight.

[pannonian]

Zhang Wuji does it plenty of times, although he has his justification of not wanting to push enmities any more than necessary. The text does say that he is unpleasantly surprised by the prowess of the enemy though, so that might count.

[PJ]

One of the most interesting characters in Jin Yong wuxia is Hua Tiegan from A Deadly Secret. He was a righteous man and one of the top experts in central plains. He was part of a quartet that fought for justice. However, when faced with great fear one time, he lost his sense of righteousness, and fell to the dark side, and stayed there ever since. It was explained that he was always a little "dark", but he suppressed it throughout his life in order to be a good person. However, when pushed by circumstances, his inner demons took over.

[Candide]

LHC chickened out of taking over the united 5 Swords School - which he was very determined to do after the talk with Shaolin & Wudang - as soon as YBQ and YLS entered.