Why did 1 Deng's four disciples sort of abandon him during ROCH?

[Ken Cheng]

When Deun Chi Hing was still the King of Dali, his four ministers attended to him very closely, as was their duty.

After Deun Chi Hing became the monk 1 Deng, the four ministers became his disciples and continued to live with and attend to their master. This is how we first meet them during LOCH.

By the time of ROCH, however, Chu Tze Lau, Mo 3 Tung, and the Fisherman largely did their own things independently of 1 Deng. We don't see any of the former ministers/disciples in the company of 1 Deng until near the end of ROCH. For most of ROCH, those former ministers/disciples were helping and fighting alongside Gwok Jing, Wong Yung, and Yeung Gor at Seung Yeung City and elsewhere...without 1 Deng.

Was it because 1 Deng had acquired Chi Yan (the former Kau Cheen Yan) as his disciple near the end of LOCH and didn't need those other guys so much anymore?

[Ian Liew]

Yideng probably ordered them to leave and go out and serve the people, rather than waste their lives following him around. Or maybe they were sent by Yideng to help out during the heroes conference? We don't see the scholar and fisherman after that until the Indian Monk appears, at which point the scholar was probably appointed by Yideng as security for the Monk.

The Farmer Wu Santong was the only one who acted independently from the others.. but he had a lot of personal problems which he probably needed to attend to, even issues predating ROCH.

Given what we know of the descendants of the Wu and Zhu families, they quite likely settled down and had their families even while serving Yideng, and Yideng wasn't the sort to keep people away from their families. If he needed them he'd call and they'd arrive, I guess.