Ryan lay on the ground, feeling the healing magic radiating from Evelyn's palm. In his mind, he quickly calculated what to do next.

  To make his"injury" convincing, he needed to deliberately disrupt the flow of mana within his body.

  For most mages, tampering with the energy circulation of their own mana core was no different from courting death.

  A single mistake could cause mana backlash, leading to serious injury or, in the worst case, an explosive death.

  But for Ryan, who had once reached the level of a Grand Magus through eight lifetimes of reincarnation, such control was nothing more than a basic exercise.

  He subtly disturbed his mana flow, causing faint signs of chaotic energy to appear on his skin. Even Evelyn's healing magic could sense the unstable fluctuations in his body.

  "Is he going to be alright?" Darlene asked, her voice trembling slightly as she stared at Ryan's pained expression.

  "Mentor!" Dangling in midair by Andrew's grip, Derrick's eyes instantly turned red at the sight.

  He struggled harder, his eyes bloodshot, his voice breaking with emotion.

  That desperate cry sounded so heartfelt that even Ryan felt like giving him a silent round of applause. This kid's acting instincts are wasted on magic training, he should be on stage instead.

  In that moment, Derrick fully understood the meaning of"disaster comes from the mouth." Yet he also knew that his mentor had taken the punishment meant for him.

  Guilt and anger tangled in his chest. He glared at Andrew and shouted,"Let me go!"

  The instant the words left his mouth, the air around him grew sharp and tense. A surge of energy burst out from within his body.

  Andrew's eyes widened. His grip instinctively loosened as he felt that powerful aura.

  He had only ever sensed such intensity from the most gifted students at the Sword Mage Academy, and even then, Derrick's presence seemed stronger than any of them.

  After a brief hesitation, Andrew released him completely. If this boy truly was a future prodigy of the Academy, offending him could spell ruin not just for Andrew, but for his entire family.

  "Mentor!"

  Once his feet hit the ground, Derrick stumbled forward toward Ryan. Just as he crouched down to check on him, he felt a sharp pinch at the back of his thigh.

  Immediately, Ryan coughed violently, as if the pain had flared up again."Cough, cough!"

  After months of being Ryan's apprentice, Derrick froze for half a second, then realized what was happening. So you and the Mentor's Lady are putting on a show for me, huh? Had me panicking for nothing!

  But he caught on quickly and switched into his role with perfect timing, putting on a furious, tearful expression as he shouted at Evelyn,"Mentor's Lady! How could you strike Mentor so harshly? He was only trying to protect me!"

  Still lying on the ground, Ryan almost laughed out loud. Good lad, you learn fast. Quick thinking, perfect delivery. You're turning out even better than I expected.

  He quietly placed his hands over Evelyn's, his expression still twisted in pain, making it seem as though he was clutching his chest, but in truth, his fingers brushed against hers.

  Evelyn flinched at the sudden warmth of his touch and instinctively tried to pull her hand back. She had always been sensitive about physical contact.

  Ryan reacted immediately, letting out a sharp groan and tightening his grip slightly, not too much, just enough to seem accidental while preventing her from moving away.

  With his other hand still pressed to his chest, he maintained the illusion of agony, making sure Andrew and Darlene would notice nothing suspicious.

  Evelyn looked at the sweat beading on Ryan's forehead and felt a pang of guilt. She could clearly sense the chaotic mana swirling inside him.

  She had suppressed her strike to the strength of a third-tier adept mage, yet somehow she had still injured him this badly.

  She had only meant to teach him a small lesson, to make him stop letting Derrick call her"Mentor's Lady." She never expected things to spiral this way.

  The healing magic flowing from Evelyn's fingertips continued to probe into Ryan's body, allowing her to sense clearly that the chaotic energy within him was not an illusion.

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  The fluctuations of mana were wild yet strangely resilient. Such intricate control over energy could only be achieved by one who had reached the realm of a Grand Magus, or by someone wielding a legendary artifact capable of stabilizing mana flow.

  "If you don't want your mentor to get hurt, step back and stop interfering with the magic flow," Evelyn said coldly when she saw Derrick crouched nearby, craning his neck to watch.

  Healing required complete concentration; even the slightest distraction could disrupt the delicate balance of energy circulation.

  Derrick pouted but obediently retreated a few steps.

  Evelyn refocused on guiding the energy, but the longer she worked, the more uneasy she felt.

  Ryan's mana appeared chaotic on the surface, yet every strand of it followed a subtle, deliberate rhythm, as though it were meant to move that way.

  What truly startled her was the familiar aura pulsing through it, it was exactly the same as the Grand Magus she had slain ten thousand years ago.

  Her fingertips trembled slightly. She had sensed a faint echo of this presence the first time she met Ryan on the Misty Forest Road, but she had dismissed it as her imagination.

  Now, at such close range, there could be no mistake: his mana signature, and even the way he cultivated both body and magic simultaneously, were identical to that Grand Magus.

  Could he be that Grand Magus's descendant?

  Evelyn immediately dismissed the thought. During their final battle ten millennia ago, the Grand Magus had been utterly alone. There was no possibility he had left behind any offspring.

  And even if he had, a descendant living today would have long reached the rank of High Mage, not remained at the level of an Adept Mage.

  There was only one explanation left: Ryan possessed the same rare magical constitution as the Grand Magus, one that had not yet awakened, which was why his mana level seemed to have stagnated.

  To confirm her suspicion, Evelyn's healing magic subtly deepened.

  Suddenly, the energy inside Ryan's body surged violently. Hey, don't guide it that way! he screamed inwardly.

  He could clearly feel Evelyn's healing magic veering off its path, a stream of warmth sliding downward across his abdomen, brushing repeatedly against sensitive areas.

  He clenched his jaw, fighting to suppress his body's involuntary reaction, but the tingling sensation only grew stronger.

  Evelyn, meanwhile, was still half-absorbed in thought, channeling mana while recalling the battle of ten thousand years ago.

  The corpse of the Grand Magus still rested within her spiritual domain, his soul long erased by her forbidden ice magic.

  There was no chance of resurrection. Yet how could Ryan's energy and constitution be so eerily alike?

  It wasn't until she heard Ryan's muffled groan that she snapped out of her thoughts. Following the tense lines of his body downward, her gaze fell to his abdomen.

  Her pupils contracted sharply. In an instant, she withdrew her magic, the light at her fingertips fading away.

  "Could you please stop letting your mana run wild? I can barely… hold it back…" Ryan's voice trembled, his face flushed deep red. This time, the pain and strain were not an act.

  A rosy hue spread rapidly across Evelyn's cheeks, reaching all the way to her ears. She realized, to her mortification, that in her distraction she had guided the healing spell somewhere it was never meant to go.

  She jerked her hand back and took a half-step away, fingers tightening around the hem of her dress. Her voice quivered slightly as she stammered,"I'm sorry. I… lost focus for a moment."

  Evelyn had already been puzzled a moment ago. When her healing magic swept across Ryan's abdomen, she distinctly felt that beneath the even flow of mana, there was an area that seemed unusually raised.

  Having grown up in the Glacial Arcana Academy, surrounded entirely by female mentors and female apprentices, she had never once needed to regulate a man's mana flow, nor even been in such close contact with one.

  Somewhere in her subconscious, she had simply assumed Ryan's body was built the same as a woman's. It never even occurred to her to think otherwise, not until she saw his reaction just now, and suddenly realized what a mortifying mistake she had made.

  "Don't move." Evelyn's voice came out colder than she intended, meant to conceal the panic flickering behind her eyes.

  The glow of her healing spell reignited at her fingertips as she pretended to focus on smoothing out the last traces of turbulence in Ryan's mana flow. In truth, his energy had already stabilized long ago; she was only stalling for time, trying to ease the suffocating awkwardness.

  Ryan hunched slightly, his voice low and strained with embarrassment."Evelyn, I… I can't hold it down…" He hesitated for a beat, then added weakly,"What should I do…"

  At that, Evelyn's head snapped up. Their gazes met in the air, Ryan's eyes full of helplessness, hers wide with shock and confusion.

  The noise from the alley, Darlene's suppressed giggles, Andrew's deliberate cough, all of it seemed to fade away, leaving only the tense silence between the two of them.

  "What should you do? Are you expecting me to… help you release it and then take responsibility for you?" Evelyn forced her tone to stay level, but the faint trembling of her fingers betrayed her agitation.

  "Well… that wouldn't be the worst idea…" Ryan muttered awkwardly. He had meant it as a joke, never expecting her to respond so bluntly.

  Evelyn's expression instantly frosted over, her eyes sharpening like shards of ice. This fool actually dared to answer?

  Ryan's heart skipped a beat. That look… she's not about to use her ultimate ice sword, is she?

  As long as she didn't draw that ultimate ice sword, he could handle the situation. And even if she did, he was confident he could escape before she managed to fully summon it. After all, his true magic level now surpassed hers by five whole tiers.

  "Get up." Evelyn abruptly withdrew her hand and straightened, her cold voice cutting through the tension.

  Ryan's mana had been perfectly stable for some time now; she simply couldn't bear to stay in such an awkward position with him any longer.

  The idiot was clearly doing it on purpose, his head filled with all the wrong thoughts, yet he was still too timid to even look her in the eye.

  The warmth of his skin still lingered faintly on her palm, leaving her both irritated and flustered. She told herself the heat rising in her cheeks was only anger, definitely not anything else.

  But the next moment, she pulled out her veil and quickly put it back on, as though only by covering her face could she hide the faint blush and the turmoil within.

  Lying on the ground, Ryan silently chanted the calming incantation of mental purification over and over.

  If he didn't get up soon, the situation would only grow more awkward. He took a deep breath and, while Evelyn was turned away adjusting her veil, he forced the restless energy in his body back under control.