Zheng Tonghe

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Zheng first meets Qin Geng when Qin brings an apparent paper figure to Hundred Herb Hall. Zheng stops Qin from striking it and reveals that his junior martial brother, Lu Xingmin, is alive inside a Paper Effigy Skin. He directs Qin through its delicate removal, then sets Lu’s broken leg and treats his other injuries 11.

When Qin later seeks medicine for martial training, Zheng recommends ox-bone Bone-Strengthening Powder rather than the more expensive tiger-bone version, judging it sufficient for Qin’s condition. He also lets Qin brew it and train in the hall’s courtyard, partly because Qin helped save Lu 15. As Qin’s training advances, Zheng examines his pulse, approves stronger medicine, and begins supervising his practice of Xingyi Dragon and Tiger forms 36 37 38.

Zheng later advises Qin when the Carriage Driver trade reaches its fortieth level and offers a choice between Way Cultivator and Still Cultivator. Zheng describes movement as a path of escape and survival, while stillness promises rooted strength and the ability to overcome techniques through force. Qin’s distinction between movement and steadfastness also gives Zheng insight into his own stagnant cultivation 59 60 61.

After Qin chooses Way Cultivator, Zheng reflects on the same opposition within medicine. He abandons the breadth of a traveling physician and devotes himself to stillness, remaining at Hundred Herb Hall until he breaks through to the seventh level and becomes a Grand Physician 61 122.

Zheng is formally revealed to be Ye Lanzen’s second senior disciple when Ye accepts Qin as his tenth indoor disciple. Ye identifies Zheng as both a perfected Xingyi practitioner and a physician whom Qin should consult for injuries and difficult cultivation problems 80. Zheng thereafter becomes Qin’s senior brother rather than merely an acquaintance or informal mentor.

As Qin’s training becomes more demanding, Zheng prepares increasingly potent remedies. He provides Tiger Bone Marrow-Penetrating Soup and Dragonhide Tonic Soup for the Ye School’s advanced body-tempering regimen, charging Qin for the ingredients and labor despite his willingness to help 84. He also accompanies the Ye School on dangerous operations, carrying a medicine chest and an ironwood staff while treating injured companions 85.

Zheng receives an official medical appointment connected to the Dragon-Guard Office. Ye Lanzen observes that the position is respected but carries little authority compared with the posts held by some of their other senior brothers 99. During later investigations, Zheng treats survivors, examines supernatural corpses, and identifies the shared foul scent of the Black-Furred Monsters encountered at Wild Fox Ridge and the Huang residence 105 121 122.

At the Xun River Grand Sacrifice, Zheng continues to act as the Ye School’s physician and senior brother, cautioning Iron Mountain to put away his hammer during the ceremony. After a Black-Furred Monster attacks Qin, Zheng examines its remains and concludes that it belongs to the same dangerous source as the creature from Wild Fox Ridge. He warns that Qin’s strongly yang Dragon-Tiger blood makes him one of the people best equipped to resist such evil 123 124.

Following his breakthrough, Zheng continues treating patients at Hundred Herb Hall and teaching Qin medical identification and preparation. Qin later plans to see patients at the hall each morning under Zheng’s guidance while balancing official duties, martial training, and field work 140 146.

Appearance

Zheng is short and stout, with a seemingly kindly expression that can give way to a keen, assessing gaze 11 15. After his emergence from seclusion, he is described as refined and scholarly, with three long wisps of beard, gentle eyes, and a faint medicinal fragrance about him 121.

• Distinctive bearing — He recognizes Qin despite Qin’s deliberately light footsteps and restrained breathing 15.
• Physician’s appearance — In ordinary dress, he can look more like a benevolent apothecary or schoolteacher than a martial artist 108 146.
• Hidden martial presence — Despite his mild appearance, his mastery and cultivation make even prominent martial figures instinctively defer to him 75.

Abilities & Skills

Medicine and treatment

• Sets Lu Xingmin’s broken leg and treats his severe back injury; Lu is active again less than a month later 11 22.
• Assesses Qin’s training needs through observation and pulse examination, warning that medicine too strong for his foundation could harm him 15 36.
• Instructs Qin in preparing Bone-Strengthening Powder and timing Dragon-Tiger Decoction baths after strenuous practice 15 37 38.
• Diagnoses the effects of esoteric and corpse-related techniques, identifying methods that combine gu arts, beast control, corpse arts, and human vessels 36.
• Prescribes advanced body-tempering remedies, including Tiger Bone Marrow-Penetrating Soup and Dragonhide Tonic Soup, for Qin’s progression beyond ordinary Blood Fare 84.
• Treats injured martial artists and survivors during Ye School operations, including those affected by foreign and supernatural methods 85 105.
• Examines supernatural corpses through their scent, vital condition, and remaining aura. He identifies the Black-Furred Monster at the Huang residence as related to the creature from Wild Fox Ridge, while acknowledging that a shared source does not prove a single perpetrator 121 122.
• Recognizes that Qin’s unusually powerful body consumes vital blood at an abnormal rate and prescribes Origin-Restoring Nourishing Decoction and a full-strength body-tempering bath 122.
• Teaches Qin medicinal identification and preparation, eventually helping him combine medical practice with his official and martial responsibilities 140 146.

Paper Effigy Skinning

• Identifies Lu’s apparent paper body as a life-preserving skin, not a ghost or demon, and performs the delicate procedure to remove it 11.
• Uses incense ash, talismans, rooster blood, and a silver knife as part of the procedure 11.
• Warns that tearing the skin or delaying treatment can cause the person inside to lose their remaining life force 11.

Martial instruction

• Demonstrates Bright Force by driving a palm print into a wooden cabinet without cracking the surrounding wood 37.
• Corrects Qin’s Coiling Dragon defense and Clawing Strike attack, emphasizing stored force, relaxed joints, and a penetrating strike 37 38.
• Warns Qin not to attempt the Dragon-Tiger Combined Strike before his body and control are ready 37.
• Possesses Xingyi Fist skill described as having reached the realm of perfection 80.
• Recognizes that martial training requires controlled damage followed by food, medicine, and recovery, and reinforces Ye Lanzen’s teaching that medicine and martial arts are inseparable 81.
• Carries an ironwood staff that serves as more than a physician’s walking aid, suggesting that his medical equipment can also function as a weapon 85.

Cultivation theory and mentorship

• Explains that every trade can become a cultivation path and that levels correspond to abilities developed through diligence, experience, and insight 11.
• Distinguishes established martial lineages, which provide manuals and structured methods, from trades such as carriage driving that require practitioners to discover their own path 11.
• Helps Qin evaluate the Way Cultivator and Still Cultivator paths, emphasizing that mobility offers immediate survival value while stillness may eventually produce overwhelming stability and force 59 60 61.
• Realizes that his own medical path also requires a choice between breadth and refinement. By committing to stillness and remaining within Hundred Herb Hall, he breaks through to the seventh level 122.
• Identifies the danger of Qin’s excessive work schedule and warns that even a powerful martial artist cannot treat his body as inexhaustible 146.

Esoteric and investigative knowledge

• Recognizes that the Paper Effigy Skinning technique belongs to the Paper Effigy Maker lineage, a Netherworld Office trade within Great Xin’s martial world 11.
• Interprets the relationship between gu arts, beast control, corpse-related practices, and foreign supernatural methods 36 122.
• Uses medical knowledge to determine that supernatural creatures have been deliberately raised, modified, or cultivated rather than appearing as ordinary monsters 121 124.
• Understands that the Eight Great Lost Arts are not inherently evil, and that their morality depends on the people who use them 122.

Relationships

• Lu Xingmin — Zheng’s junior martial brother and the person he saves through Paper Effigy Skinning. Their relationship later becomes part of the wider Ye School brotherhood 11 80.
• Qin Geng — Helps Zheng save Lu, then becomes a regular customer and receives Zheng’s personal training guidance. Zheng does not formally take him as an apprentice before Qin joins Ye Lanzen’s school, but later becomes his Second Senior Brother and continues to guide his medicine, martial practice, and cultivation choices 11 15 37 38 80 146.
• Ye Lanzen — Zheng’s martial-arts master and senior authority in the Ye School. Ye recognizes Zheng as both a perfected Xingyi practitioner and a physician, while acknowledging that Zheng’s deeper medical cultivation must ultimately be developed through his own understanding 14 80 122.
• Master Zhu Xin — Recommends Zheng for his honest medicine and remembers Zheng’s efforts to treat his gravely ill wife 14.
• Ye School disciples — Zheng serves as the school’s medical specialist and senior brother, treating injuries, preparing remedies, and advising the others during supernatural investigations 80 105 124.
• Iron Mountain — Zheng’s martial brother. He repeatedly reins in Iron Mountain’s rough methods, including warning him not to frighten civilians with his hammer during the Xun River ceremony 123.
• Zhou Yonghe — A fellow martial-world expert whom Zheng treats after the Bell Mountain incident and whose injuries he helps stabilize 105.

Notable Quotes

“Medicine depends on the person and how far he's progressed.” 15

“If you want the moves worked into your marrow until they're as natural as eating and drinking, even a thousand times, ten thousand times would hardly be enough.” 37

“Movement... steadfastness... fast and steady, fast and steady.” 60

“Medicine and martial arts belong together.” 81

“The people are another matter.” 122