Baozhu was on tenterhooks, afraid Wei Xun would fall unconscious for days as he had during his last attack of cold sickness. This time, however, Zhou Qingyang was there. After acupuncture and a few bowls of hot broth, he clambered up and bounced about as though nothing had happened.
The medical instructions were the same, yet the results were as far apart as clouds and mud compared with Qiu Ren's treatment. Baozhu admired Daoist Qingyang's medical skills all the more.
Although Wei Xun said he could leave at once, travel was exhausting, and Baozhu remained uneasy. She decided to stay at the inn another day to observe him. Besides, their next stop was Zhaoyi Circuit. Crossing the border meant answering sentries' questions, and every member of their party had to give matching accounts. They needed to prepare carefully.
Unlike the Heshuo Three Towns, which lay outside central control, Zhaoyi was a defensive circuit the Tang court used to contain Heshuo. Their opposing allegiances made the border as heavily guarded as one between two countries. Every traveler's identity had to be verified individually before they were allowed through.
Zhou Qingyang's travel document was a Daoist Ordination Certificate issued fifty years earlier. The yellow hemp paper was so tattered that, without the silk backing it had been pasted onto, it would have fallen to pieces.
The sentry found this deeply puzzling. But seeing the Daoist Priestess's crane-like figure and snow-white hair, he hesitated, then let her through out of respect for Buddhism and Daoism.
As they traveled onward, the checkpoint inspections grew increasingly strict. Fortunately, Yang Fangxie's status helped Baozhu clear those hurdles. Who could have expected that, seven or eight days later, their party would reach Xingzhou and encounter difficulties unlike any before?
Zhaoyi Circuit had fallen out with Chengde Circuit,