Bai Xiaochun's fear of death was legendary in the Outer Sect. Within his first month, he had already set a sect record for the most defensive techniques a single disciple could learn simultaneously. His combat style was not 'offensive' or even 'balanced' — it was, in his own words, 'run away.' Specifically, he had mastered the Sect Evasion Steps to a level that even Inner Sect disciples couldn't match, simply because he practiced running more than he practiced anything else.

'You can't run from every fight,' Elder Sun told him after their seventh argument on the subject.

'I can run from most of them,' Bai Xiaochun countered. 'The ones I can't run from, I can hide from. The ones I can't hide from, I can surrender to. Surrendering is very underrated as a survival strategy.'

Elder Sun assigned him to the Beast Subjugation Squad as punishment.

The Beast Subjugation Squad was responsible for clearing dangerous spiritual beasts from the sect's territory — a job that involved, as the name implied, confronting dangerous spiritual beasts. Bai Xiaochun hated it immediately and profoundly.

His first assignment was a pack of Shadow Claw Wolves that had been terrorizing a village at the base of the mountain. The squad leader, a stern young woman named Du Lingfei, assigned Bai Xiaochun to 'rear guard' — which was the position furthest from the actual fighting.

'You'll be our lookout,' she said, her tone suggesting she knew exactly why he'd been assigned to the squad and found it deeply embarrassing for everyone involved.

Bai Xiaochun took 'lookout' very seriously. He found a tree. He climbed the tree. He watched the battle from a safe distance, ready to run at the first sign of danger. But as he watched, something unexpected happened. His fellow disciples started getting hurt. The Shadow Claw Wolves were more numerous than expected, and their alpha was a Level Four beast — far above the squad's projected capability.

Du Lingfei took a claw strike to the shoulder and went down. Two other disciples were already injured. The remaining three were backing away, formation breaking.

And Bai Xiaochun, the coward, the boy who had mastered running away, found himself jumping down from the tree. The Undying Live Forever Technique had been doing its work. His body, though still terrified, was no longer as helpless as it had been a month ago.

He wasn't brave. He was still afraid. But he discovered, in that moment, that being afraid didn't mean you had to run.