Wuxi is significant in Xiao Feng’s story as the setting of his drinking contest with Duan Yu: an encounter whose consequences become clear much later, when Xiao Feng weighs the strength of his enemies against his desire for revenge. The city thus returns not through a new visit but through memory, turning a convivial meeting into a measure of the martial power and hidden identity that Xiao Feng had failed to recognize.

The drinking contest remembered

At an inn in Xinyang, Xiao Feng ordered ten jin of wine and tried to drink away his thoughts of revenge. Recalling Duan Yu, his newly sworn brother, he raised his bowl but hesitated; when he finally drank, he choked and coughed, an unusual lapse for a man renowned for his capacity and internal energy. A'Zhu noticed his distress, though she did not know its cause.

The recollection was of the contest in Wuxi, where Duan Yu had used the extraordinary internal energy associated with the Six Meridians Divine Sword to force wine out through his fingers. Xiao Feng understood that he could not match such a feat. What had seemed a remarkable performance by a companion now became evidence of a power that made Xiao Feng doubt whether he could avenge his parents against Duan Zhengchun.

A clue to Duan Yu’s concealed identity

Xiao Feng’s fear rested on a mistaken estimate of the family relationship. He reasoned that Duan Zhengchun, as leader of the Duan clan in Dali, must be many times more formidable than Duan Yu. The narration clarifies the irony: Duan Yu’s internal energy was already far greater than his father’s, and at that time he alone could use all six forms of the Six Meridians Divine Sword.

Neither Xiao Feng nor A'Zhu understood why Duan Yu possessed such unusual abilities. They knew him well, but the surname Duan was common in Dali, and Duan Yu had never told them he was a prince or a descendant of the emperor. Wuxi’s drinking contest therefore acquired a double significance in retrospect: it disclosed Duan Yu’s exceptional martial capacity while leaving his royal status hidden.

From fellowship to foreboding

The memory complicates Xiao Feng’s feelings about revenge. Duan Yu was not merely an unknown opponent but a sworn brother, and the recollection of their contest brought that bond into the same thought as the deaths Xiao Feng sought to avenge. Faced with Duan Yu’s unexplained strength, Xiao Feng felt fear and uncertainty rather than confidence in a direct confrontation.

Wuxi consequently marks a contrast between what Xiao Feng experienced at the time and what he later inferred from it. The contest had been an encounter with a companion; in Xinyang, it returned as a warning about the formidable power of the Duan family. A'Zhu could only advise patience and planning, unaware of the precise memory that had unsettled him.