A'Zi Claims the Xingxiu Sect's Senior Disciple Position centers on a contest in which A'Zi replaces Zhaixingzi as the sect's senior disciple. The result appears to establish her through the Xingxiu Sect's rule of succession by combat, yet it is shaped by Xiao Feng's hidden assistance: he supplies the internal energy that lets her turn Zhaixingzi's own attack against him. Her victory brings a change of rank, but not a clean break from the sect's harsh customs; A'Zi invokes those customs herself when she decides what should happen to the defeated disciple.

The Challenge and Its Stakes

Xiao Feng is preparing to leave when he overhears Zhaixingzi confronting A'Zi. She has taken her master's precious cauldron and passed it to someone else, and Zhaixingzi asks what punishment she deserves. A'Zi acknowledges that she has broken the master's rules and offers to return the cauldron. The dispute is therefore about both a stolen object and the standing of the sect's senior disciple: Zhaixingzi wants to recover the cauldron, but also fears the loss of his position and authority.

Zhaixingzi explains that he cannot simply let A'Zi go. If she escapes with the cauldron's secret still concealed, he may be unable to find her, and he could lose his place as senior disciple. He proposes a contest instead: if A'Zi defeats him, she will take the senior position and he will be bound to obey her. The offer makes the succession rule explicit. Rank is not secured by a peaceful transfer or an appeal to the master; it can be claimed by defeating the current holder.

Xiao Feng's Hidden Assistance

Zhaixingzi first releases A'Zi from her iron shackles by directing a strand of green fire toward them. The gesture frees her to fight, but it also leaves her facing the danger of the fire. Xiao Feng remains concealed behind a large rock. When the flame draws close to her, he reaches her from behind, puts his hands against her back, and tells her to circulate her energy and strike at it.

The internal energy Xiao Feng pours into A'Zi is far beyond what she can safely contain. She has to discharge it, and strikes toward the green flame. Her attack extinguishes the thin strand, but she is too alarmed to use the moment to hurt Zhaixingzi. The decisive advantage comes not from her own strength, which is described as mediocre, but from Xiao Feng's power passing through her and from Zhaixingzi's response to the unexpected counterattack.

The flame's course turns against Zhaixingzi. He is startled and tries to evade it, but the stream reaches him while he is in the air. Xiao Feng senses that Zhaixingzi's internal energy is weakening and tells A'Zi to ask him to concede rather than continue the fight. He then withdraws his assistance. The moment exposes a tension at the heart of the succession: A'Zi has gained the upper hand, but the contest has not been an independent test of her abilities.

Succession and Its Cost

With Xiao Feng's energy withdrawn, A'Zi's sleeves fall, and Zhaixingzi sinks to the ground. He admits defeat and recognizes her as the new senior disciple. The reversal is complete in the formal terms Zhaixingzi himself set: the defeated incumbent must now accept A'Zi's authority. His concession turns a contest over the cauldron and the sect's rules into a transfer of rank.

A'Zi immediately asks what should be done with the former senior disciple under the sect's rules. Zhaixingzi pleads with her, but she says she cannot break the rules and calls on him to make a move. She then uses the green fire against him. Unable to resist, he is engulfed by the flames and dies. The episode thus makes succession more than a change of title: A'Zi treats the sect's rule as requiring a consequence for the defeated holder, carrying the violence of the contest into the aftermath of victory.

Xiao Feng's Judgment and Departure

Xiao Feng regards the Xingxiu Sect's disciples as morally corrupt and thinks that A'Zi's upbringing among them has shaped her conduct. Seeing Zhaixingzi in distress, however, he refrains from imposing further punishment and pulls back his internal energy. His response distinguishes his intervention from A'Zi's later choice: he helps her survive the contest, but does not endorse the sect's punitive logic or stay to direct what follows.

After Zhaixingzi's death, A'Zi calls after Xiao Feng as he starts to leave, addressing him as her brother-in-law and asking him to wait. The sect's disciples recognize him, and the two younger disciples who identify him react with alarm. His concealed role is no longer hidden from the people present, and A'Zi's new standing has been secured in a scene that also marks his separation from her and the sect.

Narrative Significance

The contest compresses the Xingxiu Sect's rule of succession by combat into a sharply reversed encounter: the incumbent offers rank to whoever defeats him, then becomes subject to the new holder's authority. A'Zi's victory depends on outside assistance, while her enforcement of the rule is her own decision. That contrast leaves the succession both formally clear and morally uneasy.

The precious cauldron provides the immediate cause of the confrontation, but the outcome turns on power, rank, and who has the right to define the punishment of a defeated opponent. Xiao Feng's intervention changes who wins; his withdrawal leaves A'Zi to decide what her victory means. The event establishes her as senior disciple while showing how the sect's customs can make succession inseparable from coercive authority and lethal consequences.