Hearing Yu Tianxin's words, Feng Xiaotian's expression changed again. It was no longer filled with helplessness, but revealed a measure of confusion and doubt, as though there were many aspects of their cooperation with Spirit Hall that he simply could not understand.
"To be honest, we didn't pay much at all. It can't even really be called a cooperation." Seeing that Feng Xiaotian did not know how to respond, Huo Wu stepped forward and interjected.
"Didn't pay much? If I'm not mistaken, you must have been the ones who approached Spirit Hall with some request. In a situation that looks proactive but is actually passive, any faction would demand an exorbitant price, wouldn't they?"
Yu Tianxin's words matched the view of Spirit Hall once held by members of the soul master factions that had once been among the Upper Three Sects. There was nothing particularly wrong with them... if he truly did not know the relationship between Spirit Hall and Grace Hall.
Feng Xiaotian closed his eyes and recalled the scene from back then. The "confusion" on his face not only did not fade, but grew even stronger as he said:
"Actually, even now, we still don't understand it. Back then, we had prepared for the worst and accepted that the academy might be annexed by Spirit Hall. After all, we were the ones asking for help. We thought that if we could preserve even the academy's name in the end, that would already be good enough."
Of course, Feng Xiaotian did not believe Spirit Hall had acted out of goodwill, because the first person of any standing within Spirit Hall whom he had encountered was Salas. That man was practically the greatest example of someone capable of ruining Spirit Hall's reputation.
"Yet what surprised everyone in all our academies