"Did you probe his Spiritual Sea?" Evelyn's eyes were filled with iciness, her gaze locking onto them. Her tone left no room for concealment, full of accusation.

  "Yes."

  "Why!" Evelyn's voice suddenly rose, sharp and cutting.

  The three Grand Elders were all taken aback. This was the first time Evelyn had lost her temper since becoming Headmistress.

  Even during the crisis the Academy faced ten thousand years ago, she had never shown such anger.

  "This matter was not meant as an offense. There is another reason behind it." Elara stepped forward, softening her tone as she explained.

  "Do you remember the Divine Maiden who became emotionally involved ten thousand years ago?"

  "What does that have to do with him?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow, her expression still cold.

  "After your seclusion ended, the version we informed you of was only what was publicly announced." Elara sighed, her tone heavy.

  "The person the Divine Maiden fell for appeared to be gifted, but in truth, he was a Dark Magician."

  As the three Grand Elders elaborated, Evelyn finally learned the hidden truths from ten thousand years ago, a trace of gravity appearing in her eyes.

  "Do you know that forcibly probing a Spiritual Sea can, in severe cases, shatter the soul and reduce one to a fool, and in milder cases, cause unconsciousness for two to three days and loss of self-care ability?"

  Evelyn's tone remained cold, yet a hint of anger was replaced by helplessness.

  "We are aware, but he possesses the potential of a Grand Magus. If he cannot even withstand this minor mental shock, then he is nothing more than a delicate flower in a greenhouse, unfit to be an apprentice of Glacial Arcana Academy."

  From their perspective, the action was not improper.

  Glacial Arcana Academy never nurtures the weak. This probe was both a safety check and a test for Ryan.

  Fortunately, the results showed no abnormalities, which reassured them completely and confirmed that Ryan was worth cultivating.

  They had no doubt that with their Elder Mage abilities, they would not misjudge.

  Evelyn remained silent for a moment, then gently raised her pale arm. A trace of soft magic flickered from her fingertips as she touched Ryan's shoulder and lightly shook it.

  But Ryan, as if his soul had been extracted, remained with vacant eyes, motionless, as though truly injured.

  At this moment, although Ryan seemed dazed and staring blankly ahead, he secretly rejoiced in his heart:

  I'm still clever! Fortunately, I pretended to act foolish in advance. Otherwise, even if I had avoided the three Grand Elders' questioning, Evelyn would have followed up on the whereabouts of the items in my storage ring, making it even harder to cover up.

  "You need not worry. Leave him to me. I will personally take care of him and ensure his safe recovery."

  Elara spoke again, her tone tinged with hope, clearly still wanting to take Ryan away to supervise him.

  "No need. You may go back." Evelyn's refusal was crisp and decisive.

  Her gaze fell on the motionless Ryan, a faint trace of suspicion flashing in her eyes. From what she knew of Ryan, he did not seem so fragile.

  "Headmistress~!" Elara wanted to continue persuading.

  Evelyn frowned in displeasure, a light hum laced with icy magic issuing from her, instantly silencing Elara.

  "Since your mind is made up, I only ask that you do not let emotion sway you." Helpless, Elara could only offer this final warning.

  "You must understand that the greatest taboo of Glacial Arcana Academy is repeating the mistakes of the Divine Maiden."

  "You may return." Evelyn's tone was filled with discontent.

  Seeing this, the three Grand Elders dared not speak further. They turned and transformed into three streaks of light, leaving in silent resentment.

  Only after the three Grand Elders had completely disappeared from view did Evelyn turn around, without a backward glance, and speak:"Stop pretending. They are gone."

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  Evelyn took a few steps forward, yet there was still no movement from behind her.

  A chill rose in her eyes, mixed with a barely perceptible trace of killing intent.

  "I want to see just how long you can keep up this act." Her voice carried a restrained anger, clearly showing her impatience with Ryan's pretended demeanor.

  With that, she turned and walked straight into the room, not once glancing back at Ryan, who remained standing in place.

  Ryan felt a heavy weight settle in his chest, instantly realizing that Evelyn must know his true identity!

  If she didn't, her attitude would never have changed so drastically. Yet seeing that she hadn't acted to kill him, only two possibilities remained.

  Either the information she possessed was incomplete, perhaps she only noticed something unusual about his identity but had not discovered the deeper connection to the hidden events from ten thousand years ago.

  Or she still retained some lingering feelings for him. After all, Evelyn had countless opportunities to kill him along the way, yet she had never struck.

  At this moment, he felt pinned to the spot, standing stiffly in the raging blizzard, not daring even to twitch a fingertip.

  He was one hundred percent certain that if he showed the slightest weakness or tried to flee, the three Grand Elders would immediately sense it and rush from all corners of the Academy to seize him.

  If that happened, he would not face a simple interrogation. Instead, the soul-probing tortures of the cold prison would follow, and he would truly be finished.

  Now, he could only muster every ounce of strength to maintain his disguise. His acting was his only talisman for survival.

  And his fate rested entirely in Evelyn's hands; whether he lived or died depended solely on her final decision.

  Of course, after living nine lifetimes, there was no way he would surrender his life completely to someone else.

  He could use the two trump cards in Grimoire's storage space, the Card of Supreme Luck and the Random Magic Weapon Borrowing Card.

  Combined with his Chaotic Overbody, breaking through to escape should be possible, though it would inevitably come at a considerable cost.

  Time passed slowly, the cold deepened, and day was gradually swallowed by night.

  Ryan remained stiffly standing in the snowy wasteland, his entire body already buried under thick layers of snow. His hair, shoulders, and clothes were coated in white, and his feet were buried so deeply in snow that they had frozen into the ground.

  Yet this cold and discomfort were nothing compared to the tortures he had endured in previous lives.

  From a distance, he now looked like a snowman standing in the darkness, the wind and snow lending him an eerie sense of menace.

  Inside, Evelyn stood silently by the window, a thread of her consciousness extending from the room, locking onto that unmoving figure in the night.

  She had been watching like this for a whole day. The figure outside had shown no change, as if it had long frozen solid, devoid of any sign of life.

  Eventually, Evelyn could no longer resist. She raised her hand and pushed open the door. A cold wind swept in, carrying snowflakes, yet she paid it no mind and walked straight toward the snowman.

  Standing before Ryan, Evelyn extended her slender fingers and gently wiped the snowflakes from his eyelashes, her eyes locking onto his vacant gaze.

  Even after the snow was removed from around his eyes, tiny ice crystals still lingered in his pupils, making them appear like eyes coated in frost.

  This only made him seem even more like a man whose soul had been struck, lost and wandering.

  If it were not the case, an ordinary person could never withstand such prolonged exposure to extreme cold day and night.

  Evelyn moved her fingertips slightly, a strand of gentle magic brushing across Ryan's eyes, instantly melting away the tiny frost patterns that had lingered in his pupils.

  She leaned over, staring into his still vacant eyes, as if trying to find even a trace of his disguise within that emptiness.

  But Ryan had hidden it too well.

  She gazed for a long while, yet found nothing.

  Still, Evelyn could not bring herself to believe that Ryan had truly been left soul-shattered by the probe into his Astral Sea. After all, this man's methods were endlessly unpredictable. Even back in the Sanctum of the Sacred Sword, she had no idea where he had obtained the Wind-type Swift Magic Scroll capable of instantly increasing movement speed.

  Time and again, he had toyed with her. According to the Ultimate Ice Sword, he had even once considered killing her.

  This deceiver's acting was so exquisite that it seemed as if everything were under his control, and she was nothing more than a pawn in his hands.

  Evelyn prided herself on having faced countless battles, capable of handling even Grand Magus-level opponents with composure. Yet against someone like Ryan, so cunning and adept at disguise, she found herself genuinely at a loss.

  She could even feel the icebound lake of her heart, long frozen, ripple quietly and change because of this man.

  "I have slain you six times. This life, do you still wish to die by my hand?"

  Amid the snow-swept night, Evelyn stood before Ryan. The moment her words fell, a clear chime rang through the night, and an ultimate ice sword, its entire blade shimmering with cold light, suddenly appeared in her hand.

  Immediately, a powerful aura erupted from her, an invisible wave of magical force spreading outward, instantly blasting away the snow that had piled on Ryan's body.

  The strands of hair frozen stiff flew back, and the ice clinging to them shattered and scattered.

  Ryan's eyes remained hollow and vacant, yet he could clearly feel the bone-chilling cold and the cutting force of the sword, silently wincing in his heart.

  This woman really intended to strike? Yet he remained unmoved, standing rigidly as if he were a soulless shell.

  "It's him! This man! Kill him now! Finally, it's time to finish him completely!"

  A melodious yet venomous female voice emanated from the ultimate ice sword, sounding like that of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl.

  Ryan knew it well, that was the sword spirit of the ultimate ice sword.

  No wonder.

  It became clear to Ryan that after returning to Glacial Arcana Academy, Evelyn had unsealed the ultimate ice sword. The sword spirit could now speak, which was the highest level Evelyn could currently control.

  Only six lives?

  Ryan's heart stirred. Indeed, Evelyn only knew of the six lives in which she had slain him; she had no knowledge that he had reached Grand Magus in his eighth life.

  As for the seventh life, she likely had no idea either.

  When he ascended to Grand Magus back then, an elemental storm had been triggered, inadvertently striking and killing the Ryan who had been studying magic in an underground passage.