Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Severed Threads
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The Hui Faith had fallen into decline.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the Semu people received preferential treatment, leading to a massive influx of Hui folk. The faith they followed, the Hui Faith, spread rapidly across the Central Plains.
But when the Yuan collapsed and the Ming rose in its place, the Hui Faith's influence began to wane.
Emperor Hongwu, determined to prevent the Hui from colluding with the Mongols once more, banned intermarriage among them.
He forced them to convert their surnames into Han characters and compelled them to adopt Central Plains customs in their language, cuisine, clothing, hairstyles, and more.
Even their religion transformed.
Mosques took on the form of Central Plains architecture, Arabic and Persian faded into oblivion, and Han speech and script became the norm.
Thus, the Hui Faith faced a choice.
Disappear from the Central Plains as they were, or assimilate and survive?
Most chose the latter.
They migrated inland from the northwest, where the Hui Faith had been the dominant religion, translated their scriptures into Han characters, embraced Confucian teachings, and elevated Confucius to the rank of Eastern Sage alongside their prophet Muhammad.
In this way, the Hui Faith was accepted into the Central Plains.
Freed from persecution, the Hui Faith revived the teaching of Arabic and Persian, formed scripture halls and teaching quarters, and built a religious society.
With immediate survival secured, some among the Hui began to reflect on their past.
Inferiority from their history of oppression, contempt for their ancestors.
A desire to return to the pure teachings of the Hui Faith, lost amid fusion with Confucianism.
Self-justification and denial of reality, insisting that even after blending into the Central Plains, they hadn't abandoned their pure faith.
From this tangled mess, an extreme heresy was born within the Hui Faith.
They called themselves the Holy Dedication Cult.
Deluded into believing they performed holy jihad for their faith, they sought to plunge the world into chaos.
The world, however, called them something else.
"The Mad Zealot Cult."
A faith of madmen who craved strife.
"The Mad Zealot Cult seeks a Great Ming where only the Hui teachings hold sway, ruled solely by their laws."
Heretics.
Openly branded as heretics, they were designated a public enemy of the martial world.
The ten fingers that clawed at the rivers and lakes.
The Outer Path Ten Overlords.
One of them was the Holy Dedication Cult, the Mad Zealot Cult.
"My little sister... she was forcibly circumcised by them. And then she vanished forever."
Ma Yu Seung had been forced to witness that horrific tragedy right before his eyes.
They held him captive and made him watch his sister writhe in agony during the circumcision, all while smirking that he was next.
"Not everyone dies from circumcision. Those who perform it properly see eight or nine out of ten survive unscathed. But theirs was butchery. Most couldn't endure the torment and perished."
It was less a rite than a form of execution.
A sacred religious custom twisted into something Ma Yu Seung could boldly call torture without hesitation.
"Only one survived. Even if severed, it's just the body's extremities. People don't die from losing a finger or a crushed toe. They survive without ears or noses. So why did so many die from that torment?"
"Because they were ignorant of medicine."
"Exactly."
The Hui were traditionally versed in medicine.
Even the King of Medicine acknowledged their excellence, using Hui prescriptions from the Hui Pharmacy as primary references.
Familiar with Western tongues and resembling them in appearance, the Hui had settled along the Silk Road, amassing knowledge bridging East and West.
The Hui who migrated to the central and southern Central Plains earned respect for their literary and technical prowess, easing oppression on their kin—a testament to their erudition.
But to the Mad Zealot Cult, such medical knowledge was irrelevant.
They used force to subjugate their kin who had betrayed the pure faith, enforcing coercive circumcisions and executions in the name of repentance.
If only the knowledge Ma Yu Seung now possessed had been his as a child.
If he'd known that applying plasters externally could prevent suppuration.
If he'd known how to expel malign qi with internal energy.
If he'd known skin grafting to protect wounds, or suturing to mend torn flesh.
Every moment of learning medicine reminded Ma Yu Seung of his sister.
Even after studying at the world's foremost medical academy, his choice of the fringe path of surgery was perhaps inevitable.
For surgical arts encompassed even the circumcision that killed her.
Every day at the Wu Medical Academy felt like lying amid thorns, and during operations, a bitter gall always lingered in his mouth.
Yet the Weird Physician never slacked in pursuing his calling.
"My sister wanted to be a physician."
That had been her wish.
And he was Ma Yu Seung, inheritor of her legacy.
"I resolved to become a physician in her stead. The greatest in the world. To become the physician she wished to be, and avenge her killers. I swore it."
Thus, Ma Yu Seung became the Weird Physician.
A healer whose hands were stained with more blood than anyone.
"I used medicine as a tool. To me, it was a means to fulfill her dream by proxy and gather people for her vengeance."
The man who became the Weird Physician spoke with self-mockery.
Tormented by guilt for tainting her dream with his revenge.
Unable to abandon either, his resentment twisted into a knot.
His treatments were bizarre, his actions eccentric, his heart filled with reproach.
Thus, he was the Weird Physician.
"I'm the same."
And Wi Sowol was the disciple of such a man.
"I, too, use medicine as a means."
The Weird Physician probably wouldn't believe it, even if told.
Who would believe she'd met a being calling itself Heaven, reversed time, and overturned divine punishment?
Or that her dying mother groaned in hell, offering a chance to cleanse her karma?
"Like you, I used medicine as a tool for my own ends."
For the Weird Physician, it was a tool of vengeance.
For Wi Sowol, atonement.
Both learned medicine for family, mastered it for their own peace.
"So I have no regrets taking you as my master, nor will I reproach you."
"...Is that so."
Well then.
A master like that, a disciple to match.
The Weird Physician's laughter carried a lightness, scattering on the wind.
"I'll teach you only until this year."
The bloody clash with the Mad Zealot Cult loomed near.
Warriors with grudges against the Mad Zealot Cult would flock to Shaanxi.
Ronin sensing war and sword-for-hire blades would chase silver here, while unorthodox and evil sects, scenting blood, eyed this righteous holy land.
"Next year, spring brings the Medical Wanderers' Exam."
The provincial exam held every three years.
It was next year.
Distinct from the civil service exams on Confucian and administrative learning—those provincial tests in August autumn were called Autumn Exams—this medical provincial exam in February was dubbed the Spring Exam.
"You're from Gansu, so go take it there."
This meant excluding Wi Sowol from the fight against the Mad Zealot Cult.
"...I'll be of help."
Wi Sowol was exceptional.
Youth limiting training time? An immature body?
Irrelevant.
She had intellect and experience to crush them all.
The Nine Yin Absolute Meridian accumulated qi just by breathing; the fully channeled Great White Light True Qi refined its yin qi into internal energy even in sleep.
Wi Sowol's current skill rivaled a mid-tier peak master.
Risking internal injury to wield the meridian's yin qi fully, she could even trade blows with a mature peak master.
No match for superhuman peaks, but anywhere, she'd be solid combat power.
"I know."
The Weird Physician knew that much.
He himself was a peak master.
"That's why you can't."
On this, he wouldn't yield.
Irrespective of Wi Sowol's motives or resolve in choosing medicine.
Ma Yu Seung wished it so.
"Please."
Her shadow under the moonlight bent and straightened.
§
The four days of preparation flew by.
This time wasn't just for mental prep before surgery.
The Weird Physician and Wi Sowol reviewed techniques, ran mental simulations and mock operations to perfect them.
The King of Medicine, briefed on the procedure, administered drugs to optimize Yujin's condition pre-op, and prepared post-op recovery and rehab meds.
Thus, surgery day arrived.
"Weird Physician... sir. I beg you. Please, somehow..."
Master Yulhan escorted him into the operating room prepared by Mount Hua Sect, repeating his daily plea.
Wi Sowol followed, and the King of Medicine took position in one corner for contingencies.
'This might be the last surgery.'
Whatever else, this would be the final one before descending the mountain.
Confirming Wi Sowol and the King in position, the Weird Physician enveloped his hands in Firm Chastity Heart Method internal energy.
"Beginning."
The autologous bone graft surgery for non-union fracture commenced.