Five years had passed since Bai Xiaochun joined the Spirit Stream Sect, and he had changed in ways that surprised even himself. He was no longer the boy who fainted at roosters and planned escape routes from every room. He was a battle-hardened Inner Sect disciple with Silver Skin, multiple survival records, and a reputation that alternated between 'hero' and 'lunatic' depending on who you asked.

He still considered himself a coward. But he had come to understand that cowardice and courage were not opposites — they were roommates in the same apartment, constantly arguing about whose turn it was to do the dishes.

The most surprising change was that Bai Xiaochun had begun to care about the sect beyond his own survival. When bandits raided the villages at the base of the mountain, he volunteered to lead the defense. When a spiritual disease swept through the Outer Sect, he spent three weeks in the infected ward, using his enhanced constitution to tend the sick without catching the disease himself.

'You're becoming reliable,' Du Lingfei said after the disease crisis. It was the closest thing to a compliment she had ever given him.

'Don't tell anyone,' Bai Xiaochun said. 'I have a reputation to maintain.'

It was true. He still complained constantly, still fortified his living quarters against every imaginable threat, still maintained escape plans for every building he entered. But somewhere along the way, the complaints had become a routine rather than a genuine terror, and the escape plans had become a hobby rather than a necessity.

The sect was his home now. The disciples were... he hesitated to use the word 'family,' because that would imply he was responsible for them, and responsibility was terrifying. But something close to family, certainly.