"Grimoire, hurry and take out the Soulweaver's Pendant!"

  Ryan shouted urgently in his mind. Even though he maintained an absent minded state on the surface, his heart was pounding wildly under Evelyn's sword intent. Saying he was not afraid would be a lie.

  【No need to rush me. It has already been silently pressed against your chest.】

  Grimoire's voice sounded in his mind.

  Ryan's consciousness tightly grasped the Card of Supreme Luck inside the storage space, his fingertips resting on the activation pattern of the card.

  The moment Evelyn's sword pierced his body, he would immediately activate the Card of Supreme Luck and, with the defensive power of the Soulweaver's Pendant, force his way out.

  Evelyn stared at Ryan, who still looked lifeless. The ice elemental magic around her grew ever more chilling, and her voice was cold, devoid of any warmth.

  She began counting down, as if trying to force Ryan to reveal a flaw this way, even if it was just the twitch of a finger.

  "Master, hurry up and kill him! Why are you counting at all! This kid is definitely pretending!" the sword spirit of the ultimate ice sword shouted anxiously.

  But Evelyn seemed not to hear the sword spirit's urging. She looked at Ryan with a complicated gaze and continued counting in a low voice.

  The magic around Evelyn suddenly surged to its peak, and the ultimate ice sword gleamed with a dazzling cold light.

  "Die!" the sword spirit cried out in ecstatic joy.

  Evelyn flipped her wrist, and the ultimate ice sword shot straight toward Ryan's forehead!

  Ryan's pupils shrank uncontrollably. Why are you not following the usual pattern! Shouldn't you normally stab the heart! What kind of move is stabbing the forehead!

  As the sword tip drew closer and closer, the Card of Supreme Luck clenched in Ryan's hand was fully primed. As long as the tip went even a fraction deeper, he would activate the scroll at once.

  After a long moment, a drop of blood seeped from Ryan's forehead, slowly falling and splashing onto the stark white snow, blooming into a glaring blood flower.

  Ryan held tightly onto the Card of Supreme Luck, not daring to relax in the slightest.

  The blood on his forehead flowed down his cheek, soaking his eyelashes. His vision became blurry and warm, yet he still stood rigidly in place like a statue.

  That was because the ultimate ice sword in Evelyn's hand stopped after piercing less than one centimeter into the skin and did not advance any further.

  He had gambled correctly! A storm of emotions surged in his heart.

  If the sword had gone in just one centimeter more, the last trace of subtle feeling between him and Evelyn would have completely turned into irreconcilable hatred, with no room left for redemption.

  "It seems he truly has lost his soul." Evelyn's voice carried an unmistakable hint of loneliness as she slowly withdrew the ultimate ice sword.

  She raised her pale left hand, gentle healing magic gathering around her fingertips, and lightly touched Ryan's bleeding brow, beginning to heal his wound.

  As the magic flowed, the wound on his forehead healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

  "Master! Why did you not kill him! He is a liar! A bad person! How can you let him go!" the sword spirit of the ultimate ice sword shouted unwillingly, its voice filled with grievance and anger.

  Evelyn remained silent. With a thought, she recalled the endlessly chattering ultimate ice sword into her spiritual domain space. Out of sight, out of mind.

  "My heart is in turmoil as well," Evelyn murmured softly in self mockery as she continued healing him.

  Having lived for tens of thousands of years, this was the first time she had felt so troubled and unsettled.

  In the past, whenever she encountered someone with malicious intent, she would always cut them down with a single strike, clean and decisive, never hesitating like this.

  But this time, looking at Ryan standing there foolishly like a puppet, she simply could not bring herself to strike.

  "This sword…" Evelyn spoke halfway, then her voice abruptly stopped, a trace of confusion flashing in her eyes.

  Even Ryan could not guess what thoughts were hidden in the words she left unfinished.

  However, Ryan still let out a long, heavy breath in his heart. The Card of Supreme Luck clenched in his hand gradually relaxed, and his tightly wound nerves finally eased.

  Evelyn looked at the wound on his forehead, now completely healed, and her gaze softened slightly.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  She bent down a little, lifted Ryan into her arms, turned around, and slowly walked toward the house.

  As soon as their figures entered the room, the door slowly closed. Not long after, the snowflakes in the sky outside the house seemed to be drawn by some invisible force and gradually grew larger.

  They drifted down gently, falling in front of the tightly shut door, quickly piling up into a thin layer.

  The areas around Glacial Arcana Academy, however, were completely different from this quiet scene.

  "Where did that bastard run off to!!" a female apprentice holding an enchanted staff shouted angrily, her voice full of resentment.

  "That's right! He clearly said before that he would accept challenges from all the apprentices in the academy to prove his qualifications! If he doesn't come out, how are we supposed to challenge him!" another female apprentice echoed.

  "Exactly! I specially prepared thorn ropes that bind magical power, and a senior even lent me more than thirty immobilization talismans, yet I didn't even see his shadow!" a younger female apprentice stamped her foot, her face full of frustration.

  Countless female apprentices searched everywhere within the academy, almost turning Glacial Arcana Academy upside down.

  They searched from morning until nightfall. Aside from a few areas marked as Headmistress exclusive zones where entry was strictly forbidden, they checked every other corner, yet still found no trace of Ryan.

  "Wait!" a senior female apprentice suddenly lit up."That guy is the Headmistress's apprentice. Could he be living in the Headmistress's area as well?"

  As soon as she said this, everyone suddenly realized it, and looks of understanding appeared on their faces.

  "But we can't get in. If he doesn't come out, how are we supposed to challenge him?" someone said dejectedly.

  "What's there to be afraid of! I don't believe he can hide in there forever!" a hot tempered female apprentice clenched her fist, her eyes full of stubborn determination.

  "Starting tomorrow, we take turns guarding the entrance! I refuse to believe we won't catch him eventually!"

  From that day on, a new task was quietly added to the daily routine of the female apprentices at Glacial Arcana Academy.

  Taking turns squatting at the entrance of the Headmistress exclusive area, waiting for a chance to challenge Ryan.

  …

  The night grew deeper, the snow in the sky fell heavier and heavier, and the cold wind howled as it battered the window frames, producing a rattling sound.

  Yet within a courtyard deep inside Glacial Arcana Academy, a few soft lights were lit, bringing a trace of warmth and brightness to the cold, dark night.

  Ryan's eyes had long since been gently closed by Evelyn, for which Ryan silently gave Evelyn a thumbs up in his heart.

  Otherwise, keeping his eyes open while pretending to be soulless would have made them unbearably sore.

  With his eyes closed, he lay on the bed Evelyn had once slept on, his nose filled with the faint, delicate fragrance in the room.

  This was not the scent of any calming magical potion, but a unique fragrance that the bed had gradually taken on from long term use by Evelyn.

  Evelyn sat upright on a chair in the room, ice elemental magic lingering around her as she meditated with her eyes closed.

  Ryan, on the other hand, could only maintain his soulless posture, lying quietly on the bed, not daring to make the slightest movement.

  This could be considered a roundabout way of staying in Evelyn's room, though the price paid was truly a narrow escape from danger.

  Ryan sighed softly in his heart. Evelyn, when will you stop being so cold toward me? Pretending like this every day is truly exhausting.

  He even suddenly felt a trace of weariness, a little unwilling to continue this kind of careful maneuvering. For the sake of staying alive, did it really have to be this humiliating?

  He felt like an adventurer moving through dungeon instances, cautiously trying to clear Evelyn, the most troublesome stage of all, not daring to make a single mistake.

  In the end, Grimoire had once granted him eight chances at rebirth. After passing through eight different lives, he still had not managed to clear Evelyn, this stage before him.

  【Host, please do not be so negative and despondent! As long as you successfully clear Evelyn, you can break through the shackles of magical levels, and the peak of life will be within reach!】

  Grimoire's voice sounded in his mind, carrying a rare hint of encouragement.

  "So you can actually comfort people too. Grimoire, I am living too tiredly. I really do not feel like living anymore."

  Ryan poured out his grievances to Grimoire in his heart, his tone full of exhaustion.

  "Do you think I should just get up and launch a sudden attack on Evelyn, let her kill me with one sword, and end it all?"

  【Host, you must never harbor such suicidal thoughts! If you want to die, I do not want to be buried with you!】

  【Pull yourself together immediately! I hereby specially reward you with one hundred thousand Origin Value. Adjust your state at once!】

  With a shift of thought, Ryan looked at the attribute panel in his mind and indeed found that the Origin Value entry had increased by one hundred thousand.

  He secretly curled the corner of his mouth in his heart. On the surface, however, he still maintained a completely calm, soulless expression. His title as a master of facial expression management across nine lives was not undeserved.

  As for the origin of this title? Naturally, it was self bestowed, though it had received Grimoire's tacit approval.

  【You were deliberately pretending to be pitiful just to trick me out of one hundred thousand Origin Value, weren't you?】

  Grimoire reacted instantly, roaring angrily in his mind, so furious that it nearly threw its own magical energy into disarray.

  Ryan openly admitted it in his heart without the slightest concealment, which sent Grimoire into another fit of rage, yet there was nothing it could do.

  "Why did you deceive me?"

  A cold, clear voice suddenly sounded by his ear. Ryan's heart tightened, and he instantly came back to his senses.

  At some point, Evelyn had already stopped meditating and was standing quietly by the bed, her eyes fixed on him.

  "If you had admitted it earlier, I would not have been so angry." Evelyn's tone was calm, betraying little emotion.

  Ryan smiled bitterly in his heart. Admitted earlier? Back then you indeed would not have been angry. You probably would have casually stabbed a sword through my heart and left me completely dead!

  The two of them seemed to be speaking on different wavelengths. Ryan's response was hidden deep in his heart, while Evelyn's words fell into reality, strangely forming a subtle standoff.

  "My mother, like you, liked to deceive people," Evelyn suddenly said, her gaze drifting toward the wind and snow outside the window.

  "She clearly said she was only going out to take care of some matters and would come back to find me after a short while. But she never came back."

  She seemed to be recounting a memory. Clearly, these dust covered past events had long been wrapped layer upon layer in ice by her, appearing unable to affect her anymore.

  Yet when she spoke of never coming back, her voice still paused ever so slightly.

  Perhaps those wounds had never truly faded, only been buried deep in her heart, never revealed to others.

  Even Evelyn herself did not realize that this was the first time in tens of thousands of years that she had confided these deeply buried memories to someone else.

  Perhaps it was precisely because of Ryan's soulless state at this moment that she let down all her defenses and was willing to reveal this vulnerability.