Between chasing horses and rescuing people, it was only when the fog over the market cleared that everyone noticed... Master Tiger, who had been lying on the ground, was gone.
As for how the County Yamen sent people to reassure the townsfolk after they woke, and how it controlled the various rumors and scraps of gossip, that need not be told here.
Meanwhile, Cui Jiuyang was carrying Master Tiger on his back, running desperately along the mountain path east from Yangshan.
"What I wrote in my letter wasn't 'save me,' but 'get out,' wasn't it?" Master Tiger said weakly from Cui Jiuyang's back.
Cui Jiuyang gritted his teeth and put all his strength into his legs, not wanting to bother with him at all. "Captain, times have changed. A blade can't beat a gun, can it?"
Master Tiger managed a strained smile. "I know how to use a rifle too. I was the one who drilled the Apprehension Squad's three teams in rotating volleys."
He coughed several times. "I never thought they'd end up using it against me."
Cui Jiuyang curled his lip. "Not too bad. Those boys of yours still had some conscience. They didn't aim at your vitals. Good thing you've got those tiger-and-leopard sinews and bones, too. If it were me, I could drink a pot of water and water the flowers with it by now."
Even with every spell buff he could muster, Cui Jiuyang was still panting under the weight of this towering, burly man of over two hundred jin.
It wasn't as though he hadn't thought of finding a mule, horse, donkey, or some other beast of burden.
When they passed a carters' inn earlier, he had untied a donkey's reins and tried to put Master Tiger on its back.
But the moment the