A’Zi—Ding Chunqiu

A’Zi’s relationship with Ding Chunqiu is defined by rebellion against a master whose authority she refuses to accept as binding. She leaves his control with the Divine Wood King Cauldron, evades his attempts to summon her back, and uses Xiao Feng’s presence to keep the coveted object out of her senior fellow disciples’ hands.

A Master’s Refusal and A’Zi’s Defiance

A’Zi’s estrangement is visible in her blunt account of Ding Chunqiu’s refusal to let her have a martial arts manual. Xiao Feng suggests that she ask her master to let her study it and receive his guidance, but she insists that pleading would achieve nothing: Ding has already decided not to give it to her. The exchange presents their bond not as one of trust or instruction, but as a relationship in which the master controls access to knowledge and the disciple expects denial.

Xiao Feng thinks poorly of A’Zi’s arrogant and spoiled behavior, yet he also sees no reason for her to remain entangled with Ding Chunqiu, whom he calls the notorious Old Freak of Xingxiuhai. His decision not to interfere leaves her to choose her own course, but the surrounding conflict soon shows that Ding does not regard her departure as a settled break.

The Summons and the Cauldron

When a senior disciple confronts A’Zi, he says Ding Chunqiu has commanded him to take her back. A’Zi replies that her master dotes on her and asks the messenger to report that she is traveling to Jiangnan with her brother-in-law, Xiao Feng, promising to buy Ding some entertaining antique jewels before returning. Her breezy excuse turns the summons into something she can postpone on her own terms. The disciple, however, warns that Ding is furious and wants her back quickly; he begins to mention what she took, then stops when he notices Xiao Feng, as though wary of disclosing the matter in front of him.

The object at the center of the dispute is the Divine Wood King Cauldron. Later, when A’Zi is in shackles, the Great Senior Martial Brother makes handing over the cauldron the condition for freeing her. She says it is with Xiao Feng and points out that several other senior disciples had been unwilling to demand it from him. Their reluctance, and their visible fear when the Great Senior Martial Brother turns his attention toward them, suggest how risky the contest over the cauldron has become. A’Zi’s answer also makes clear that Ding’s demand reaches her through the sect’s hierarchy, even when the cauldron itself is beyond her possession.

Evasion and Unequal Power

A’Zi does not meet Ding’s authority with a direct confrontation. At an inn, she manipulates a Xingxiu Sect disciple by serving him wine left by the bartender and arguing that the bartender had drunk it without dying. The disciple says Ding ordered him to bring her back, but she answers with a plausible story about visiting Jiangnan and buying gifts for her master. Her performance delays the summons without resolving the underlying conflict: Ding remains angry, and his followers continue to pursue her.

The relationship is therefore marked by an unresolved imbalance. Ding controls the manual she wants and can send disciples to retrieve her; A’Zi, in turn, has taken the cauldron he wants and repeatedly slips out of his reach. Xiao Feng’s protection gives her a way to resist the immediate demands of the sect, but the evidence does not show a reconciliation or a final settlement. Instead, the master-disciple tie persists as a struggle over obedience, possession, and the power to decide when A’Zi must return.