[Divine Wooden King Tripod]

The Divine Wooden King Tripod is one of the Xingxiu Sect’s three treasures and a practical instrument in Ding Chunqiu’s cultivation of the Great Energy Dissolving Skill. Its fragrance, used with incense, attracts poisonous creatures from within ten li, allowing Ding Chunqiu to gather the substances his practice requires. When A'Zi steals it, the object becomes the focus of a pursuit and a point of leverage in the Sect’s internal rivalries.

Identity and Function

Ding Chunqiu uses the tripod to draw poisonous creatures to him. He absorbs their poisonous fluids as part of practicing the Great Energy Dissolving Skill, a method that requires him to replenish his supply regularly. The tripod’s special scent, combined with incense, attracts poisonous insects and other creatures across a radius of ten li. Its value is therefore not merely ceremonial: it makes the gathering of potent poison more efficient and supports the continuing development of Ding Chunqiu’s martial skill.

The tripod’s function also creates a dependency. Ding Chunqiu must absorb poison at least once every seven days; otherwise his internal energy declines and the poison already accumulated in his body can flare up, with deadly consequences. Without the tripod, he can still find ordinary poisonous creatures near his residence, a gloomy, damp ravine rich in snakes and insects. But he can no longer readily attract the rarer and more dangerous kinds. The loss narrows his access to the materials on which his practice depends.

Theft and Pursuit

A'Zi steals the tripod while fleeing Ding Chunqiu. She has learned about the Great Energy Dissolving Skill by secretly eavesdropping, since Ding Chunqiu does not openly teach it to his disciples. After Ding Chunqiu has finished absorbing fresh poison, she takes her leave and travels east with the treasure. By the time he realizes it is missing, seven days have passed and she is already far away.

Ding Chunqiu sends numerous disciples after her, including his head disciple, Zhaixingzi. The pursuit repeatedly disappoints him: A'Zi keeps to remote routes, uses decoys, and outmaneuvers pursuers whose martial abilities exceed hers. Her escape demonstrates that possession of the tripod depends not only on strength but also on concealment and calculation. The news that she has Qiao Feng’s support, and that he and A'Zi have badly injured Zhaixingzi, further alarms and angers Ding Chunqiu. He knows the Beggar Clan is powerful and difficult to confront, while the Deaf Mute Old Man’s activity around Xing Lake is another source of concern. He resolves to recover the tripod and settle these threats together.

A Dangerous Secret

The tripod’s importance is heightened by the secrecy surrounding the skill it serves. Ding Chunqiu once taught the Great Energy Dissolving Skill to a talented disciple. When that disciple became conceited and disrespectful, Ding Chunqiu imprisoned him in a stone house where he could not capture poisonous creatures. The disciple’s accumulated poison eventually became unmanageable, and he died after forty days. Ding Chunqiu was pleased by his rival’s fate, but the incident also frightened him. Afterward, he guarded the method closely and did not teach it to anyone else.

Zhaixingzi and the other disciples consequently do not know the skill. A'Zi’s theft is thus bound up with two forms of secret knowledge: the location and use of the sect treasure, and the technique that Ding Chunqiu has withheld from his followers. The tripod gives her access to the poisonous materials required for the method, but the account does not establish that she has mastered it. Her eavesdropping and theft are the means by which she seeks to overcome the barrier Ding Chunqiu has imposed.

Rival Claims and Narrative Significance

The tripod’s status as one of three Xingxiu treasures makes it a bargaining asset beyond Ding Chunqiu’s personal cultivation. During the confrontation with the Beggar Clan, a trapped Xingxiu disciple offers to help kill his master and reveal the treasures’ hidden location in exchange for release. He claims that only he and Ding Chunqiu know where they are. Another disciple counters that one treasure has already been stolen and urges the heroes to trust him instead. Their competing appeals turn the tripod’s loss into evidence within a wider struggle over loyalty, survival, and control of the Sect’s wealth.

Through the tripod, the narrative connects a physical object to the concealed costs of power. It draws rare poison toward its owner, but that convenience sustains a practice that makes its practitioner dependent on a recurring supply. Its theft weakens Ding Chunqiu’s access to rare ingredients while exposing the secret he has tried to contain. At the same time, the pursuit shows how the treasure’s value shifts with its holder: for Ding Chunqiu it is a tool and a source of security; for A'Zi it is a stolen key to knowledge; for the disciples it is a possible means of bargaining against their master.