Because of industrialized collective labor and the flourishing market economy, communication among the people of Profound Candle Prefecture was extremely frequent. Bragging, gossiping, and boasting were practically the prefecture's defining characteristics.
Although the Silver Blood Society stood high above everyone else, its news was often the gossip most eagerly discussed by the common people. For example, the Jing family's four sons fighting over the inheritance, the eldest son of the Ting family inheriting his father's concubine, the Luo family's only son frequenting the Red Jade Sea... Even if a great family tried to seal off its news, all the work was done by servants. How could anything be kept secret? Naturally, rumors would leak out to one degree or another.
However, gossip about family inheritance disputes and grudges among the wealthy could only remain popular for a time. Within a few months, people would forget them completely and turn to discussing other topics. Only one subject had been hotly debated by the people of Profound Candle Prefecture for a century, without ever reaching a conclusion. Any child picked at random could explain it with perfect confidence.
That was the Silver Blood Society's "headquarters."
Some said the Silver Blood Society's headquarters was the Ting family, and that when the Silver Blood Council held a meeting, the Ting family simply called in the five major merchant guilds to discuss matters, turning its own will into the will of the Eighty-Eight Merchant Guilds.
Others said the Silver Blood Society's headquarters was actually in the Prefectural Governor's Mansion. The Silver Blood Society ultimately had to accept the mansion's jurisdiction, so its meetings had to be held inside the government offices.
There were even plenty of people who believed the Silver Blood Society's headquarters was an underground armed chamber beneath the Inner City, a ghost