"Eek!"
At the sight of the bathtub behind Xu Taiping, which gave off a strong medicinal smell, Little Monkey Ping'an shrank back in fright and retreated several steps.
"Just toss me the letter."
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Xu Taiping held out a hand to Little Monkey Ping'an.
A few days earlier, after pouring the Acupoint-Clearing and Aperture-Opening Decoction into the bathtub, he had gone out to attend to something. Little Monkey had slipped in just then and, out of curiosity, actually jumped in for a soak. The pain had left him collapsed helplessly inside, and he had needed several days of recuperation in the Gourd before recovering.
Ever since then, he had given the bathtub a wide berth whenever he saw it.
"It, it was delivered by the Seventh Peak Lord's messenger."
Little Monkey stretched his arm out as far as he could and handed the letter to Xu Taiping.
Since Xu Taiping had no intention of deliberately hiding Ping'an's existence, Ping'an usually watched the courtyard when he was away. These days, whenever a letter arrived, he would take a few Merit Coins and collect it himself.
"Another letter from the Peak Lord? Could it have something to do with Elder Sansan? Come to think of it, I've been practicing the sword for eight or nine days, but I don't think I've even seen Elder Sansan. Could he be dissatisfied with my performance?"
Xu Taiping speculated with some concern.
When he opened the letter, what met his eyes was once again a line of large, extremely sloppy characters.
It took him another good while to finally decipher them-
"Fourth got slashed. All of you who aren't in seclusion, get to Hundred Herbs Hall on the peak!"
Compared with the sloppy handwriting, the wording was much more straightforward.