Xiao Feng and A'Zhu Pledge to Journey Beyond the Pass Together is the turning point at which Xiao Feng’s search for the truth about his origins and his bond with A'Zhu become a shared plan for life beyond the Central Plains. In the aftermath of Zhiguang’s death, A'Zhu argues that Han and Khitan identity need not determine a person’s worth; Xiao Feng, weary of the Jianghu’s struggles, accepts her vision of a quieter life. Their pledge is intimate, but it is not an immediate departure: they first intend to seek Madam Ma in Xinyang, the last person Xiao Feng plans to question.

After Zhiguang’s Death

Travelling more than ten li from Zhiguang, Xiao Feng wonders why the monk brought about his own death. He and A'Zhu suspect that their hidden enemy had warned Zhiguang they were coming to avenge themselves, leading the monk to believe that death was unavoidable. They fall silent together before A'Zhu takes up the words Zhiguang had written: Han and Khitan identity could be understood as both reality and illusion, while kindness, enmity, honor, and disgrace were no more than dust.

A'Zhu applies that thought directly to Xiao Feng’s life. Whether he is Han or Khitan, she tells him, does not make him more or less human. Rather than continue to live by the sword amid the Central Plains’ martial conflicts, she proposes that he go beyond Yanmen Pass, hunt, and tend cattle and sheep. The suggestion answers not only his weariness but the isolation imposed on him by his Khitan origin: it imagines belonging as something the two of them can make together, not something granted by the Jianghu.

A Shared Future Chosen

Xiao Feng admits that he is tired of struggling to survive amid violence and imagines riding across the northern grasslands, releasing eagles and dogs and chasing rabbits without further worry. He asks whether A'Zhu will come to see him after he returns north. Her quiet answer goes further: she had spoken of pasturing animals because she intends to live with him there, tending the cattle and sheep while he rides and hunts. She lowers her head as she says it, making clear that this is a personal commitment, not a casual suggestion.

The pledge grows from the journey they have already shared. Xiao Feng had first saved A'Zhu on impulse; afterward, she pursued him beyond Yanmen Pass and accompanied him through Weihui, Tai'an, and Mount Tiantai. Having travelled thousands of li together, he has come to recognize her gentleness and warmth. When she declares her wish to remain with him, he takes her hand and asks whether his Khitan birth makes him unacceptable to her.

A'Zhu rejects the distinction between Han and Khitan as a distinction in human worth. She says she wants to be Khitan of her own free will, not because anyone has compelled her. Xiao Feng responds with unguarded joy: he lifts her and catches her as she comes down, then asks whether she will follow him to ride, hunt, and pasture cattle and sheep without regret. Her answer binds the imagined pastoral future to loyalty through hardship: she says she would remain with him even through suffering and danger.

From Isolation to Companionship

A'Zhu’s decision changes the meaning of Xiao Feng’s future. He declares that he no longer wants the Beggar Society’s leadership and would not care even if offered an emperor’s throne. What matters to him now is that he is not alone or despised: at least one person respects, admires, and appreciates him, and is willing to share misfortune and humiliation at his side. A'Zhu supplies the words he cannot finish, describing her willingness to remain with him through dangers and tribulations.

Xiao Feng laughs, but tears run down his face. The mixed response carries the force of the scene: his joy is inseparable from gratitude that A'Zhu knows their future may bring hardship and chooses it nonetheless. Their affection becomes a spoken promise, not merely an unspoken understanding. When he asks her to stop addressing him by formal titles and call him big brother, she agrees, though shyly; the new form of address marks the closeness they have acknowledged between them.

The Last Inquiry and the Unfinished Departure

The plan to leave does not erase Xiao Feng’s remaining purpose. He proposes that they go to Xinyang to question Madam Ma, whether or not she agrees to tell them what she knows. He calls her the last person they will seek, placing a clear boundary around his pursuit of the unresolved matter: after that inquiry, he and A'Zhu will head north to hunt and pasture animals.

The pledge therefore holds two directions at once. Xiao Feng and A'Zhu look toward a life beyond the pass, away from Jianghu enmities and the imposed burden of identity, while still carrying out one final search in the Central Plains. The future they name is pastoral and shared, but at this point it remains a promise rather than an accomplished departure. Its significance lies in Xiao Feng’s choice to imagine belonging and peace with A'Zhu, and in her willingness to choose that life alongside him.