It Blew Up! (Thanks to 20221219023952364)

Master must have heard him.

But he had not processed it. The words were so unexpected that the possibility had never crossed his mind.

So he kept talking, carried along by his emotions. Only after another few sentences did he fall silent.

He frowned, came to his senses, and looked at Xu Feng.

"Boy, this isn't the time for jokes. You're saying you've learned it?"

"Yes, Master. I really have learned to stitch the Five Viscera.

"I watched while you stitched that corpse.

"After you fell asleep, I worked through it myself and figured it out.

"See if I've got it right, Master. The Five Viscera correspond to the Five Elements, and the other organs each have their own correspondences. You rebuild the person and supplement the work with Harmonious Qi.

"As for the technique, look..."

As Xu Feng spoke, he demonstrated with his hands for Master to see. To an outsider, the movements might have seemed wildly fanciful.

But Master did not smile. His expression turned solemn; he knew his own craft.

He could see that Xu Feng was reproducing the movements he had made. Absurd as it seemed, neither the explanation nor the demonstration was wrong. Then he thought back to what his disciple had just said.

All the anger he had felt while arguing with Old Owl vanished.

He sat down on the steps and patted the space beside him, motioning for his disciple to sit.

Once Xu Feng had sat down, Master looked at him. After a moment of silence, he said, "So you really are far better than me.

"That Old Owl wasn't wrong. I have held you back—"

He motioned for Xu Feng to let him finish.

"And I won't pretend otherwise. Disciple, do you know how long it took me to reach the