Martial Uncle

The "Feng Gaofeng" mentioned by Xia Yunjie was none other than Professor Feng's father, who was also one of Wu Ze's disciples. Wu Ze had five disciples in total, and among them, Xia Yunjie was the most talented, being Wu Ze's final and most accomplished apprentice, inheriting the entirety of his teachings. The other four disciples were each trained in specialized areas. Feng Gaofeng, the third disciple, primarily studied Wu Clan medical arts, with only cursory exposure to other Wu techniques.

However, Feng Gaofeng had passed away during the tumultuous years of war. At the time, he was merely a wandering physician. His death, apart from leaving a deep sorrow in his family and the then-young Professor Feng, left no significant mark on the era. Now, decades later, only a handful of close relatives like Professor Feng remembered his name.

Professor Feng was utterly shocked when this long-buried name suddenly resurfaced, spoken by a young stranger. Startled, he blurted out, "That's my father! How do you know his name?"

Realizing that Professor Feng was indeed the son of his senior brother, Xia Yunjie couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion. Instead of answering directly, he asked, "Where is Senior Brother Feng now?"

"Senior Brother?" Professor Feng was dumbfounded. His father had been dead for nearly sixty years—how could someone refer to him as "Senior Brother" now? His heart was filled with both disbelief and a deep pang of sorrow.

In ancient times, the arts of healing and witchcraft were intertwined; healers were often witches, giving rise to the saying, "Medicine originates from witchcraft." Wu practices encompassed techniques that connected humans to the divine. On a grand scale, they could summon storms, shift mountains, or command armies with magical formations. On a smaller scale, they could avert misfortune, dispel evil, and heal ailments. Medicine, however, focused on human physiology, pathology, and pharmacology—effectively a branch of Wu practices. Other branches included divination, the study of yin-yang and the Eight Trigrams, and geomancy.

Yet the history of the Wu Clan was so ancient and its decline so profound that people eventually stopped delving into its once-glorious legacy. Mentioning "witchcraft" today often conjured images of rural shamans engaging in superstitious rituals, oblivious to the fact that many pillars of Chinese culture had their roots in Wu practices.

Professor Feng, however, deeply understood the wonders of Wu practices—at least in medicine. Even though he had learned only a fraction of his father's medical skills, it had laid the foundation for his later achievements. Though his subsequent hard work played a role, Professor Feng was acutely aware that everything he accomplished stemmed from that small portion of inherited knowledge. Some of his father's methods, even in retrospect, still seemed miraculous. He vividly remembered a case where a patient, on the brink of death and unresponsive to any medicine, recovered after his father chanted an incantation and applied a talisman infused with herbs to the patient's back. Only later did he learn that this was part of the ancient "Zhuyou Division" of medicine.

The Zhuyou Division was a branch of medicine that used talismans and incantations to treat illnesses, sometimes supplemented with herbal remedies. Unfortunately, the modern remnants of these practices had been reduced to superstitions and scams, tarnishing the Zhuyou name. Yet, having witnessed it firsthand, Professor Feng knew that true Zhuyou medicine was a remarkable and legitimate healing art. Sadly, his father's early death had led to the loss of these extraordinary Wu Clan medical techniques and many others.

This loss had long been a source of profound regret for Professor Feng. Hearing news of his father's teacher, Wu Ze, stirred a glimmer of hope. As his father's master, Wu Ze's knowledge would undoubtedly surpass his father's. Perhaps Wu Ze still lived, and Professor Feng might have the chance to learn these lost arts, including the wondrous Zhuyou Division—a priceless treasure of Chinese medicine.

But that last glimmer of hope was extinguished when he learned Wu Ze had passed away, missing the opportunity by a mere year. The thought of what had been lost filled Professor Feng with immeasurable sorrow.

"Life and death are part of the natural order. Master lived for 124 years and passed away peacefully, without illness or pain. There's no need to grieve," Xia Yunjie said gently, trying to comfort Professor Feng, who seemed unable to recover from the shock and sadness of the news.

Hearing this, Professor Feng suddenly remembered that the young Xia before him, though youthful, was Wu Ze's final disciple. By seniority, Xia Yunjie was his Martial Uncle. Startled, Professor Feng quickly bowed to pay his respects.

But Xia Yunjie's sharp reflexes caught him in time. He supported the professor, saying, "Professor Feng, please, there's no need for this."

Professor Feng, held firmly by Xia Yunjie's strong grip, couldn't complete the bow. With a wry smile, he said, "Martial Uncle, from now on, please don't call me Professor Feng. Call me Wenbo. In my youth, I knelt before my master and swore an oath: once I joined the Wuxian Sect, I would remain part of it for life. Most of my medical knowledge is rooted in the teachings of the Sect. You are my elder, and I am unworthy of such a title from you."