"Evelyn, can you not wear that veil?" Ryan looked at her with pitiful eyes, his tone carrying a hint of pleading.

  But this time, Evelyn seemed to revert to her usual cool and distant self. She ignored his request completely and turned to walk toward Darlene, leaving Ryan standing there in silent confusion.

  Ryan let out a helpless sigh, emptied the water from the basin, put it back into his storage pouch, and quickly followed after her.

  …

  Inside the guest room of the Sword Mage Academy, Evelyn took out the Sword Intention Crystal.

  Ryan stood to the side, filled with questions. Why would Evelyn go through the trouble of joining the academy's competition just for a Sword Intention Crystal?

  As he pondered, Evelyn raised her hand, and the Ultimate Ice Sword appeared out of thin air.

  Seeing the sword, Ryan instinctively took two steps back, widening the distance between them.

  "What are you afraid of?" Evelyn raised a brow, looking at him with puzzlement.

  "Every time I take out the Ultimate Ice Sword, you look like this. Do you really think I would hurt you?"

  "Evelyn, I'm not afraid of you," Ryan waved his hands quickly."I'm afraid of the sword in your hand."

  Evelyn let out a soft hum of confusion, her eyes filled with doubt.

  This sword had never harmed an innocent person. Why was Ryan so wary of it?

  "It's fine. It won't hurt anyone without reason," Evelyn said.

  Before Ryan could respond, she had already lifted the Ultimate Ice Sword. The tip of the blade pointed at the Sword Intention Crystal, and with a firm flick of her wrist, she pierced straight into it.

  In an instant, the pure sword-element magic stored within the Crystal surged out violently.

  Just as this wild sword intent was about to burst outward, the Ultimate Ice Sword suddenly unleashed a powerful suction force.

  The sword, like a ravenous beast, devoured all that rampant sword-element energy in an instant.

  "She's unsealing it?" Ryan's pupils contracted sharply. In that moment, he understood Evelyn's true purpose.

  She hadn't entered the competition for the Sword Intention Crystal itself, but to use its energy to unseal the power within the Ultimate Ice Sword.

  In his heart, Ryan chanted desperately: Goddess of Magic, please! Let this sword not start talking after it wakes! Please don't let it talk!

  If this sword, which already had hostility toward him, awakened full intelligence, he would probably be the first one it wanted to kill.

  Once the Sword Intention Crystal was fully drained, it lost all structural support and shattered into dust. No trace of sword-element energy remained.

  Evelyn held the Ultimate Ice Sword, closed her eyes, and carefully sensed the changes within the blade.

  After a moment, she frowned slightly, opened her eyes, and said with a hint of regret,"It still can't speak fully, but it can now transmit clear intentions."

  The very first intent transmitted by the Ultimate Ice Sword after its unsealing made Evelyn's brows knit tightly.

  That intent was sharp and urgent: Kill him. Kill him now. He is a vile man who deserves death.

  Impossible. Evelyn's heart trembled, and she instinctively looked toward Ryan not far away.

  She could not deny that Ryan was trouble-prone and occasionally behaved frivolously with her, but to say he was wicked enough to deserve death? Hardly.

  So why was the Ultimate Ice Sword reacting with such intense hostility?

  What kind of grudge lay hidden between it and Ryan?

  Kill him. Kill him. The Ultimate Ice Sword trembled violently in her grasp.

  The intent it conveyed grew stronger and sharper, filled with uncompromising determination, as though Ryan were its mortal enemy.

  No! Evelyn finally raised her voice, anger flashing in her usually calm eyes.

  "Are you ignoring my words now? He is one of us. Stop this nonsense!"

  This repeated obsession left her filled with confusion.

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  This sword, her life-bound weapon, had never once defied her like this.

  The Ultimate Ice Sword:…

  The violent trembling gradually faded.

  Even the chilling aura around the blade weakened, no longer as sharp and hostile as before.

  It now resembled a child who had been wronged but could not defend itself, radiating a silent sense of grievance.

  Seeing this, Evelyn's anger dissolved, replaced by a gentle softness.

  She caressed the cold blade lightly and spoke in a softer tone:

  "Don't be like this. If he truly has a problem, if there's something you cannot say for now, then wait. When you can speak properly, tell me everything slowly. All right?"

  But in the next second, the Ultimate Ice Sword suddenly tilted upward, its tip once again pointing straight at Ryan.

  Ryan jumped in shock, hands raised in surrender as he staggered backward with exaggerated fear.

  He wailed internally: This sword really does hold a grudge!

  Suddenly, memories flickered through his mind—he had died to this sword more than once.

  Across his fragmented memories of past lives, he had been killed by the Ultimate Ice Sword at least five times.

  But thinking again, Evelyn had slain hundreds, if not thousands, with this sword.

  How could it possibly remember him, an insignificant figure?

  It was more likely that the sword's newly awakened consciousness was still unstable and simply disliked him at first sight.

  What Ryan did not know was this:

  How could the Ultimate Ice Sword not remember him?

  Across endless years of dull silence, this man had died beneath its blade five different times.

  Each death had been delivered under a different brand of idiocy, becoming one of the sword's few amusements during its long, lonely existence.

  It had secretly memorized Ryan's aura, curious whether he would someday appear to get himself killed a sixth time.

  And the sixth time, it did see him again,only to watch him get kicked to death by Evelyn, rather than slain by itself.

  It had been disappointed for centuries because of that.

  Even after ten thousand years, even though Ryan's appearance had changed, the moment it saw him in the Misty Forest, the Ultimate Ice Sword recognized him instantly.

  This persistent nuisance had returned!

  This was why the sword hated him so much:

  he had repeatedly provoked its master, been killed, resurrected, then resurrected again and after ten thousand years, he had come back yet again.

  Worst of all, Evelyn was now entirely fooled by his sweet talk!

  It was furious,furious that it could only transmit vague intent and could not reveal the truth to its master.

  Furious that its unsealed state was still incomplete, leaving it unable to eliminate this threat on the spot.

  The Ultimate Ice Sword would never know that Ryan actually did not want to be entangled with Evelyn.

  Yet they seemed to be tightly bound by the threads of fate. No matter how he tried to avoid her, they would always meet again in the end, unless Evelyn truly died.

  So he could only choose another path: to win her over, to turn this Frost Magus into one of his own.

  This way, he would no longer have to fear her or that grudge-holding sword of hers, and he could even rely on her power to search for the fragments of the Ultimate Ice Sword. It was the perfect plan.

  "Are you hiding something from me?" Evelyn stored the Ultimate Ice Sword back into her domain space.

  Suspicion filled her eyes as she stared at Ryan."Why does my sword hate you so much?"

  After this unsealing, her compatibility with the Ultimate Ice Sword had surged. She now had full confidence in defeating any opponent below a Ninth-tier Journeyman Mage.

  "Evelyn, you have to believe me!" Ryan looked utterly sincere, his tone urgent."I swear, I never did anything that would harm your sword!"

  That was indeed the truth. From beginning to end, it was always the Ultimate Ice Sword harming him. He had never even touched the sword, so how could he possibly have harmed it?

  "If you still don't believe me, then I swear on my life. How about that?" His gaze was firm, as if he were willing to risk everything just to prove his innocence.

  Evelyn hesitated for a moment, a hint of curiosity flashing through her mind."Then make your oath."

  She wanted to see if he truly dared to stake his life on it.

  "I, Ryan, swear in the name of magic," Ryan took a deep breath, his tone solemn."If I have ever done anything malicious to the Ultimate Ice Sword, or deliberately concealed any act that harmed it, then let me suffer magical backlash…"

  "Enough. Do not mention this again."

  Just as Ryan was about to finish his vow, Evelyn suddenly interrupted him. Her doubts inexplicably faded away.

  For some reason, when she looked into his steady eyes, she instinctively did not want to push him any further.

  Inside the domain space, the Ultimate Ice Sword trembled violently, urgently transmitting the message that he was lying, yet Evelyn seemed totally unaware.

  It had never felt so wronged. Its master had been deceived, while it held the truth but could not speak. All it could do was watch helplessly as its enemy wandered freely beside its master, and even gained her trust.

  ...

  The next day at noon.

  At the central teleportation plaza of the Sword Mage Academy, a massive teleportation array glowed with magical light.

  There were two slots at each of its eight directional points, sixteen energy nodes in total. This was the core structure of a cross-continent teleportation formation, requiring immense magical power to activate.

  Ryan, Evelyn, Darlene, and Derrick stood at the edge of the array.

  "Is everyone ready?" the Headmaster of the Sword Mage Academy asked.

  "Ready!" the seven answered simultaneously.

  Ryan's gaze fell upon the other three who were joining them. They were not the only ones traveling this time. Three additional people stood with them, exactly seven in total.

  They were Giles, Charlie, and Lydia, all gifted individuals who would travel with Ryan and the others to the Sanctum of the Sacred Sword.

  The Headmaster nodded and took out sixteen top-grade magic crystals radiating dense energy. With a flick of his hand, he tossed them toward the sixteen slots of the array.

  The crystals drew arcs through the air and landed precisely into the grooves, automatically linking with the formation's energy circuits.

  The next moment, a translucent magical screen rose around the teleportation array. Accompanied by the sound of energy surging, the sixteen top-grade crystals released brilliant light as the slots began to rotate.

  The rotation grew faster and faster. Magic gathered within the formation, converging into a stream of power until a column of light shot straight into the sky.

  A strong surge of magical wind swept through the plaza. The seven figures blurred within the glow of the formation and eventually vanished completely.

  The Headmaster stared at the now-empty array and the sixteen drained slots, sighing with heartache.

  Top-grade magic crystals were incredibly precious sources of energy.

  But he had no choice. The distance from the South Territory to the Central Continent was far too great. No normal teleportation array could bridge it. Only this fixed cross-continent array could be used, despite its massive cost.

  Fortunately, the Sanctum of the Sacred Sword would compensate him for the resources used. With that thought, a hopeful smile appeared on the Headmaster's face.