Every face in the hall changed.

But one man among them was plainly thinking along quite different lines.

The Chen family's eldest son by the principal wife, holding his ground before the coffin.

"……"

Chen Zilong set his teeth hard, then closed his eyes.

When he opened them again he let out a long breath, moved at last, turned and walked to the chair of office, lifted the hem of his robe, and went down on his knees with a thud.

Under the startled, uncertain gaze of the assembled clansfolk—

he made a full obeisance to the young man in the black shirt, and then worked the secret art of voice transmission. "I report to the exalted immortal. Chen Zilong swears here on his life that the whole Chen family has not the least connection with the water-kin. I beg the exalted immortal to judge clearly."

Chen Zilong knelt up straight again and explained, "In those days I came upon my brother by chance, meeting privately with a woman of some water-kin demon line. I knew in my heart it would come to great trouble, so I reported it to my father, and on some pretext we drove him out of the Chen family."

"I had thought he would go off with that demon woman and be done — that they might live out their lives together, and it would have nothing to do with my Chen family."

"Of the territory he took by leaning on the water-kin, the Chen family has taken not a fraction. We have never dared entertain the thought of being fence-sitters. The Chen family was raised up by the Nanhong Seven's own hands; a single day's kindness earns ten thousand generations' loyalty."

With that Chen Zilong stopped, head down, in the attitude of a man awaiting sentence.

"……"

Shen Yi glanced at him and did not answer.

Ten thousand generations' loyalty, indeed.

If that were true, the man would have denounced his brother the moment the party walked in, instead of waiting until Shen Yi had seen it for himself and then performing this show…