Master Tiger burst out laughing at his joke, revealing white teeth against his dark face. "If some little ghosts block your way, the sight of this talisman will scare them off. But if you run into someone uncompromising, they might knock you flat first."
Cui Jiuyang waved his fist in a show of bravado and said fiercely, "As if I'd be afraid! I'll send you word, and you can bring a whole procession of Ghost Constables to 'pay him a friendly visit.' We'll knock on his door in the dead of night and scare him to death!"
With that, Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger looked at each other and roared with laughter.
Their hearty laughter echoed beneath the Eternal Lamp, easing the sadness of parting.
The two brothers solemnly saluted each other with clasped hands. Then Cui Jiuyang turned and walked straight out of the Prefect of Mount Tai’s Daoist Grounds without looking back.
After descending Mount Tai, Cui Jiuyang gently touched his chest-the last trace He Feixu had left in this world, that scorched crane feather, lay heavy against it.
White Crane Manor was far from here, on Crane-Cry Peak Beyond the Pass. If he walked there, who knew how many months or years it would take?
But there were trains now.
He could at least take a train to Tianjin, then head out through Shanhai Pass. Traveling these several hundred kilometers by train would save him nearly a month at the very least.
Cui Jiuyang first went to the inn in Tai’an City to retrieve the gear he had left there—his banner and bell.
He changed into his fortune-teller's outfit and entered the railway station in Taian Prefecture.
As luck would have it, Zhang Qi, the supervisor of Taian Prefecture Station, was on duty on the platform.
He