"You have just arrived, so I assume you are not yet familiar with the layout of Glacial Arcana Academy. Would you like me to show you around?"

  Sally stepped forward and asked. She did not inquire whether Ryan was a transmigrator.

  "At a first meeting, there should be a greeting gift, right?" Ryan rubbed his fingers together, his meaning unmistakably clear.

  She clenched her teeth inwardly, but there was nothing she could do. She took out a storage pouch, tapped the opening lightly with her finger, and infused a trace of magic into it.

  She handed the pouch to Ryan."Will this do?"

  "Much appreciated." Ryan took the pouch without hesitation, then turned and left at once. His movements were clean and decisive, without the slightest pause.

  This was a deliberate tactic of advancing by retreating. The more active one appeared, the more passive one became. Only by seizing the initiative could one gain the upper hand in conversation.

  "Hey! How can you just take the thing and leave?" Seeing this, Sally hurried a step forward and grabbed Ryan's sleeve, forcibly pulling him to a stop.

  "What else do you want?" Ryan drew his arm back lightly and flicked away the hand gripping his sleeve.

  Is this guy made of wood? Faced with a beauty like me, both cool and alluring, he does not feel the slightest stir of attraction?

  Sally watched Ryan's unmoved back and could not help complaining inwardly.

  As a Divine Maiden, her looks and bearing were both top tier. Apprentices always treated her with reverence and flattery. She had never encountered anyone like Ryan.

  "You really are impressive. Fighting everyone alone, and although you were chased all over the place midway, in essence you had already intimidated the entire crowd with your strength and achieved a complete victory."

  Sally shifted the topic, her tone carrying deliberate praise."And you are also the first male disciple in the academy in many years in the truest sense. I truly admire you."

  "If you have something to say, just say it. There is no need to beat around the bush." Ryan complained inwardly. Why does this woman sound so faux polite?

  She praised him openly while subtly mocking the fact that he had been chased around. He almost wanted to slap a paralysis curse mark on her to wake her up.

  Sally glanced around and noticed passersby giving them strange looks. She quickly lowered her voice."Could we speak somewhere else? There are too many people here, not suitable for detailed discussion."

  "Fine." Ryan shot her a glance and replied lazily.

  He followed Sally toward the Divine Maiden palace, the exclusive residence of the academy's Divine Maiden.

  The moment they stepped inside, the doors closed automatically. Sally could no longer hold back and immediately hummed a cross temporal code phrase."Baby, baby, baby, oh."

  The sudden singing made Ryan's mouth twitch violently as an indescribable sense of embarrassment surged up.

  "Could you not use a code phrase that is not so socially disastrous? Do you really not feel awkward?"

  "Baby, baby, baby, oh." Sally completely ignored his complaint and continued humming the code.

  Ryan rolled his eyes but eventually picked up the latter half. With this call and response, his identity as a transmigrator was fully confirmed.

  After finishing the code, Ryan stopped holding back. He found a seat on his own, sat down, picked up a pastry from the table, and stuffed it into his mouth, looking entirely like the owner of the place.

  As for why he dared to reveal his identity as a transmigrator so readily, the core reason was that he had set his sights on Sally's status as the Divine Maiden of Glacial Arcana Academy.

  To reach the position of Divine Maiden required far more than mere talent. It inevitably demanded exceptional intelligence and composure. He believed Sally was a smart person.

  Smart people had their own way of communicating. If he kept hiding and refused to reveal his identity, Sally would most likely lose her patience and simply drive him away.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  If that happened, his plan to extract resources from her would collapse. More importantly, Sally herself was an extremely valuable trump card.

  Used well, she could stir up storms within the academy and even across the entire magic continent. She was a true ace.

  After confirming Ryan's identity, the cool detachment on Sally's face vanished instantly, replaced by barely concealed excitement.

  She stepped forward, her voice trembling."Are you really like me, a transmigrator?"

  "I transmigrated at one, drew magic into my body at two, condensed a magic core at three, swept through mortal Magic Apprentices at four, advanced to Adept Mage at five, Journeyman Mage at six, Grand Magus at seven, handled Evelyn at eight, and at nine…"

  "Stop! Are you ever going to finish?" Sally quickly raised a hand to cut him off, her face full of helplessness.

  She still had a head full of questions, yet the moment this guy opened his mouth, he would not stop boasting.

  "Wait. Did you just say you handled Evelyn?" Sally seized on the key point, her eyes filled with shock.

  "I already said it was a joke. You actually believed it?" Ryan spread his hands, his tone teasing.

  Sally was instantly left speechless, a wave of wordless frustration washing over her.

  "What is your transmigration age?" Sally gathered her emotions and asked a serious question.

  "Transmigration age?" Ryan froze, looking utterly confused. What kind of novel term was that?

  "It means how long it has been since you transmigrated into this magic world," Sally explained patiently.

  Ryan suddenly understood and waved his hand."Not much. Just around a thousand years or so. I do not remember the exact number. When you live too long, the days all blur together."

  "So long!" Sally stared in disbelief, then frowned."Then how are you only a Journeyman Mage now? How could you live for thousands of years?"

  Hearing this, Ryan complained inwardly. Is this woman a bit slow? She believes everything I say?

  He hesitated, then asked,"You did not stay inside Glacial Arcana Academy the whole time after transmigrating, did you?"

  "Otherwise?" Sally sat down in a chair by the table, propped her face in her hands, pouting slightly, her tone carrying a hint of grievance.

  That look was completely different from her usual cool and noble Divine Maiden demeanor, creating a striking contrast.

  Watching her like this, Ryan felt a faint sense of unease. This was no scheming Divine Maiden at all, but rather an innocent girl who had never experienced the ways of the world.

  "Have you ever killed anyone?" Ryan abruptly changed the topic and threw out a sharp question.

  The moment the words left his mouth, Sally's expression changed. A trace of panic and resistance flashed through her eyes.

  "Killed someone? Killing is illegal! Oh right, this is not Earth. There are no such legal restraints here."

  It was as if she suddenly realized something. An unmistakable sense of loss surfaced on her face.

  Clearly, her longing for her homeland had long been etched into her bones, to the point of bordering on obsession.

  Who would willingly step into a magic world where one could be blasted apart by spells or devoured by magical beasts at any moment, if they could survive quietly in a safe place?

  Listening to Sally's dejected words, the sense of unease in Ryan's heart grew stronger, as if some kind of trouble was about to come knocking.

  "How many years have you been in this world?" Ryan asked again.

  "Thirty nine years." Sally answered almost without hesitation. Then her eyes reddened, and she began to ramble about her transmigration experience.

  "I was hit by an out of control car while crossing the street!"

  As she spoke, Sally lost control of her emotions and started crying. Tears slid down her cheeks, her pitiful, rain soaked appearance leaving Ryan at a loss for words.

  This was not the aloof Divine Maiden of Glacial Arcana Academy at all, but clearly a wronged little girl.

  Yet Sally seemed completely unaware of Ryan's helplessness. While wiping her tears with her sleeve, she continued to sob and complain.

  After all, in this unfamiliar magic world, she had endured nearly thirty nine years alone. Having finally encountered someone she could pour her grievances out to, all her pent up emotions burst forth at once.

  "The most infuriating part is that the memories of this original body, aside from some basic common sense about the magic world and the academy's fundamental rules, did not carry over to me at all!"

  "All I knew was that I woke up and was already here, and I had become a pretty girl with magical talent. I was even happy for quite a while, thinking it was God's compensation to me."

  "Until the grand elder discovered that I knew nothing about magic and forcibly probed my sea of consciousness.

  From that moment on, I realized this was not Earth at all, but a cruel world where magic could be used and people could be killed and robbed at the drop of a hat!"

  "Fortunately, the compatibility between my soul and this body was absurdly high, as if it had always belonged here."

  "After the grand elder's probe found nothing abnormal, he assumed I had damaged my sea of consciousness by rushing to use magic, which was why I was muddled. In the end, he only punished me with half a month of confinement."

  Sally talked on and on, from her initial confusion after transmigrating, to the terror of discovering the truth, to the cautious way she had lived in the academy over the years. She poured out every detail.

  Ryan listened silently at the side without interrupting. When she finally stopped crying, he had already reached a conclusion in his mind:

  Sally, a soul transmigrator. She had not fully inherited the original body's memories. The current Divine Maiden of Glacial Arcana Academy.

  One hundred percent compatibility between soul and body. She had never taken a single step outside the academy since transmigrating.

  And the most critical point of all, she was foolish.

  The reason he called her foolish was that this woman had told him everything about her past and present lives without holding anything back.

  From trivial matters of her life on Earth to all her experiences after transmigrating, she had concealed almost nothing, just short of telling him whether she had ever been in a relationship.

  She was almost completely unguarded toward Ryan, yet Ryan could not afford to lower his guard.

  Who could guarantee that she was not deliberately pretending to be innocent, using these secrets to win his trust and then pry into his own background?

  "So your current plan is to stay in Glacial Arcana Academy for your entire life, never taking a single step outside, right?" Ryan asked, looking at Sally, who was still quietly sobbing.