Central Province, Nine Directions Terrace.
Many unfamiliar faces had appeared at Nine Directions Terrace that day, and this group of strangers could not help watching its most renowned establishment, the Worthy Gathering Pavilion, some openly and others in secret.
Even the genuine diners found this strange gathering unusual. No matter how much they loved the Worthy Gathering Pavilion's food, they needed to stay alive to keep enjoying it.
And so, an interesting sight had emerged over the past few days.
The enormous Worthy Gathering Pavilion stood with its doors wide open, yet there was not a soul inside, while quite a few people watched from far outside.
The waiters inside the Worthy Gathering Pavilion all looked rather pale, their expressions betraying involuntary unease.
Chu Xingchen and Bai Xuanling sat in a fragrant tea room in a tall building to the left of the Worthy Gathering Pavilion, gazing quietly out the window at it.
Bai Xuanling calmly sipped his tea while listening to three reasonably pretty women softly play a gentle tune.
These days, however elegantly tea was sold, it was difficult to sustain a business in such a prosperous district on that alone. Besides fragrant tea, there naturally had to be fragrant company of another kind.
The music was originally meant to be accompanied by dancing, but everyone could plainly see that Chu Xingchen and Bai Xuanling had also come for the great affair spoken of in the rumors.
The righteous and evil paths were slowly gathering. It was now difficult to tell whether these unfamiliar faces belonged to the light or the dark. The only thing to do was cautiously attend to one's own duties and avoid doing anything unnecessary or useless.
Perhaps because she knew Chu Xingchen and Bai Xuanling were cultivators, one of the musicians' fingers trembled