Salas watched Madam Liu shift from arrogance to deference. A flicker of contempt crossed his eyes, but he did not dwell on it. He turned to Shui Cang, his voice regaining its calm authority:
"Patriarch Shui, the Great Enshrined is magnanimous and has not pursued your previous mistreatment of Miss Bing'er. Still, he hopes you will take it as a warning. The main purpose of my visit is to discuss the ownership of Skywater Academy."
Shui Cang barely steadied himself, picked up the document from the floor, and drew a deep breath before quickly scanning its terms.
Madam Liu leaned in beside him, her gaze fixed fiercely on the page. Her expression, which had softened slightly at the mention of "headmaster's benefits" and support from Spirit Hall, grew unsettled again at the word "ownership."
"Bishop Salas,"
Shui Cang forced himself to calm down first. An almost imperceptible tremor ran through his voice, and the knuckles of the hand gripping the document turned white.
"The terms you brought... would place Skywater Academy within the Spirit Hall Academy system as a branch dedicated to water and ice attributes, with me serving as headmaster of the Water-Ice Branch?"
Madam Liu had yet to fully shake off the panic she had just suppressed. When she heard the central demand of "incorporation," her face instantly darkened like the bottom of a soot-blackened pot.
She slammed the document onto the table, her delicate makeup twisting with her furious expression, and snapped in a shrill voice:
"Bishop Salas, this is asking far too much! Skywater Academy represents generations of our Shui Family's blood and sweat. How can it simply be incorporated at your word? Spirit Hall is trying to swallow up our very foundation!"
Her tone brimmed with undisguised resistance, while wariness and venom lurked in her