A’Zi—Zhaixingzi

A’Zi—Zhaixingzi is a relationship of rivalry shaped by the Xingxiu Sect’s rule that martial strength, not seniority of service, determines who commands the disciples. Their contest begins over the sect’s stolen precious cauldron and ends with A’Zi taking Zhaixingzi’s position and killing him. The succession is at once her rise in the sect and a demonstration of the violent logic that governs it.

Rank and the stolen cauldron

When Zhaixingzi asks A’Zi who her brother-in-law is, she warns that naming him might frighten the senior disciple. The exchange establishes the leverage she hopes to use: the cauldron has been handed to someone outside the sect, and she presents its recovery as a reason to let her leave. A’Zi acknowledges that she has broken their master’s rules and asks whether Zhaixingzi wants the cauldron back. He insists that it is one of the sect’s three treasures and cannot be allowed to remain with an outsider.

A’Zi proposes that she be released to go alone through Yanmen Gate and retrieve the cauldron from her brother-in-law. In return, she asks that her punishment be waived if she brings it back. Zhaixingzi recognizes the proposal as a threat to his standing: if he lets her go, he may lose both the treasure and his authority. He instead makes the sect’s customary challenge the condition of her advancement. If she can defeat him, she will become the senior disciple, and he will have to obey her.

A contest governed by violence

Zhaixingzi’s challenge reflects a broader sect rule: rank is settled through martial combat. A junior disciple who defeats the senior disciple immediately takes his position; the defeated leader can then be killed or punished, while the master does not intervene. This system gives disciples a powerful incentive to improve, but it also makes advancement inseparable from the threat of being overthrown. In Zhaixingzi’s case, Chuchenzi’s formidable strength had already made him an object of the senior disciple’s jealousy, and that rivalry had been used as grounds to destroy him.

When A’Zi gains the upper hand, the other disciples rapidly change sides. They had just praised Zhaixingzi as a peerless hero; once he is in danger, they accuse him of stealing the cauldron and turn their insults against him. Xiao Feng sees their opportunism and recognizes the sect’s corrupting influence on A’Zi, who has associated with its disciples since childhood. He withdraws his internal force rather than punish Zhaixingzi harshly, leaving the contest and its consequences to unfold.

A’Zi takes the position

Zhaixingzi’s knees give way, and he admits defeat, calling A’Zi the new senior sister rather than his junior. The assembled disciples cheer her victory and praise the prestige she will bring the Xingxiu Sect. But recognition of the new leader does not end the contest’s violence. A’Zi asks what the sect’s rules require of the former senior disciple. Zhaixingzi begs her to spare him; she says she would like to, but cannot break the rules, and orders him to make his move.

Zhaixingzi tries to summon enough internal strength to attack, but he can barely disturb the nearby bonfire. A’Zi advances and sends a stream of green flame toward him. Though the flame is weak and slow, he has no strength left to resist: his hair and clothes catch fire, and he dies amid his cries. The disciples immediately recast his death as a service to the sect, praising A’Zi’s skill and claiming that she has rid them of a longstanding scourge while obeying their master’s decree. Their approval makes plain how readily the sect’s rule converts a victorious challenger’s private gain into public righteousness.

Xiao Feng’s judgment and the relationship’s significance

Xiao Feng’s view of A’Zi darkens as he witnesses the killing. He had earlier been inclined to rescue Chuchenzi, but Chuchenzi’s fawning behavior had turned him against the man; now, after seeing A’Zi kill a helpless opponent, Xiao Feng feels intense disgust. His reaction contrasts with the disciples’ applause: where they treat the outcome as proof of the new leader’s power, he sees a young woman’s capacity for cruelty and the moral damage fostered by her sect.

The relationship therefore changes from a negotiation over the cauldron into a decisive transfer of authority. A’Zi gets the position by accepting the very rule that makes every leader vulnerable to the next challenger, while Zhaixingzi’s defeat strips him of rank and leaves him at her mercy. Their encounter does not resolve the cauldron’s recovery; instead, it reveals how a sect secret, a contested treasure, and a system of succession meet in one violent exchange. The episode’s central irony is that A’Zi’s victory counts as legitimate because the sect recognizes force as its measure of legitimacy, even as Xiao Feng’s response exposes the human cost concealed by the disciples’ celebration.