That night, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling did not rush to look for the Dongming Faction and Shan Wanjing. After receiving an invitation delivered on behalf of Wang Shichong, they instead decided to attend a banquet at a place in Luoyang City called the "Manqing Courtyard."
The "Manqing Courtyard" was Luoyang's foremost pleasure district. That night, Wang Bo of Changbai Mountain had rented out the entire place and sent invitations far and wide to host the martial artists who had gathered in Luoyang. At the same time, the famed beauty and talented singer Shang Xiufang was supposedly going to perform a dance there—a sight that was normally impossible to witness.
Originally, two great masters from the Western Regions—Qu Ao and Fu Qian—were also scheduled to have an exciting duel at the Manqing Courtyard that night. Unfortunately, a few days ago, "Flying Eagle" Qu Ao had brought disaster upon himself and been slapped into the Luo River by Annie, one of the four great grandmasters under Heaven. He had since vanished without a trace, so the duel had naturally been canceled.
However, because of the theft of the "He Clan Jade" at Jingnian Monastery the previous night, the various martial artists and powerful clans who wanted more information or harbored ulterior motives still chose, like Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, to accept the invitation and come here.
In Luoyang, the Manqing Courtyard was enormous. It was far more than a simple brothel. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a vast manor or garden estate.
Since so many people were attending, Wang Bo and the Manqing Courtyard's owner, Shangguan Long, had arranged the grand gathering in a huge quadrangle behind the main buildings of the Manqing Courtyard, inside the "Listening to the Willow Pavilion."
The Listening to the Willow