Not long after Blood Lion died, a host of rumors sprang up without warning on Northsky Island, alleging that many aristocratic clans and elders on the island had colluded with pirates and supported the Black Market.
The accusations implicated so many respected figures of the righteous path and prominent clans that even the Council of Elders erupted into arguments. Those individuals and lineages named outright had no choice but to step forward and prove their innocence.
Their displays of sincerity, as though they wished they could cut open their chests to lay their hearts bare, showed that none of them wanted any connection with pirates. Some even proposed using special techniques to trace the rumors to their source, insisting that the matter must not be allowed to rest.
Whatever happened in private was another matter, but in public, no one would ever admit to having dealings with pirates. Would that not amount to taking to the seas themselves, abandoning everything they had built up on shore over the years?
After returning home, Elder Shang was equally baffled. "They actually claim our Shang Family has colluded with pirates for years and served as Blood Lion's shoreland households. Isn't that complete nonsense?"
The Shang Family had been dragged into the affair as well. There might have been individual scoundrels among its members who colluded with pirates, but the Shang Family itself was absolutely innocent.
Of that, Elder Shang was utterly certain.
Shang Yuxian said, "Old Ancestor, have you noticed that several other island clans with close ties to the General Association have also been implicated? They should all be innocent. Then there's the Incense Accumulation Sect. Rumors actually claim it had dealings with the Blood Shark Bandits, along with absurd nonsense about Blood Lion admiring Fellow Daoist Li and offering him a