Ding Chongchou and Su Xinghe's clan enemy relationship

Ding Chunqiu and Su Xinghe are former fellow disciples whose hostility grows out of Ding’s betrayal of their master and persists through their opposing claims on the loyalty of Su Xinghe’s students. The feud is not merely a private quarrel: Ding’s threats force the former disciples to choose between protecting their master and complying with his demands.

Shared Master and Betrayal

Ding Chunqiu’s attack on the bond between Su Xinghe and his disciples is made explicit when Xue Muhua calls him a betrayer who deceived and destroyed their master. The accusation places the feud within a history of violated teacher-student loyalty, rather than presenting the two men as ordinary rivals. Kang Guangling, Fan BaiLing, and Li KuiLei support Xue Muhua, showing that the grievance is shared among the former disciples.

Ding answers that Su Xinghe had expelled the eight disciples and challenges their continued allegiance. Fan BaiLing acknowledges that Su Xinghe did expel them and that they had not seen him for years, but insists that their respect remained unchanged. He describes the group as left without a sect to rely on because of Ding. The dispute therefore turns on the difference between formal status and enduring obligation: Su Xinghe ended their recognized discipleship, but his former students do not consider that bond erased.

Su Xinghe’s Protective Exile

Ding offers his own account of the expulsion. He says Su Xinghe feared that Ding would kill the eight, and expelled them to preserve their lives. He further presents Su Xinghe’s refusal to silence or otherwise harm them as evidence of the master’s attachment to his students, while dismissing that restraint as indecision. The explanation frames the expulsion as a protective act, though the former disciples have had to live with its cost: separation from their master and the loss of a sect affiliation.

When Ding presses them to say whether they still consider Su Xinghe their master, the group understands that an answer affirming the relationship may bring immediate danger. Even so, seven of the eight present declare that expulsion has not changed their teacher-student bond. Shi QingFeng is seriously injured and remains behind in a cave; the others’ united response makes their loyalty a direct challenge to Ding’s power over them.

Threats Against the Disciples and Their Master

Ding turns the feud into leverage against Xue Muhua, demanding that he treat HuiJing. He lays out a sequence of threats: if Xue refuses, Ding will kill the fellow disciples one by one, and ultimately Su Xinghe himself. The threatened order makes the conflict personal and immediate, converting the old dispute over betrayal and allegiance into a test with the lives of the group at stake.

Ding also invokes his pact with Su Xinghe: as long as Su remains silent, Ding says, he will not kill him. But he claims that Xue’s defiance gives him cause to break that protection, arguing that a disciple’s offense can be made the master’s responsibility. Faced with the prospect that refusal will cost his companions and master their lives, Xue agrees to treat HuiJing, asking Ding to leave them unharmed. Ding readily promises to spare them. The episode shows the practical force of the feud: Su Xinghe’s former disciples remain loyal, but that loyalty gives Ding a means to coerce them.