Max slowly pulled off his mask and revealed his face. Even though Max felt like cursing right now, he still maintained a pleasant smile on his face.

Ethena suddenly smiled as she recalled Max's face, "Isn't it you boy?"

She remembered meeting Max on the city gate a day before.

"Yes, It's me. I came because you invited me and got into trouble. Won't you help me a bit?" Max said as he put on his best charming smile.

"Pfft! You believe it's gonna work?"

Max's brows flinched at her laughter and he could even hear a tiny squeak escape from Derek's mouth.

That b*stard was clearly conscious!

"My lady!"

Venus's shocked voice attracted Ethena's attention.

"It's him…" Venus said as she pointed towards Max.

"What are you talking about?" Ethena asked with a frown.

"My lady, the messag-"

Venus was interrupted as Ethena berated her, "I said I will look at it later. Why do I need to help that guy?"

"No...my lady...it's just that it's him. The person whom we were asked to find is him."

She said as she took out the message and showed it to Ethena.

Max on the other hand couldn't understand what was going on.

'What the hell? I just came out? Who the hell is looking to kill me? I only caused trouble today….'

Ethena looked at the message and then turned her head to look at Max. The surprise in her expression was evident.

"You know the Dwarf?" Ethena asked in surprise.

Her words were enough to let Max know who was looking for him.

"Kind of…He is my Master…" Max said with a smile, his gaze turning a bit nostalgic as he remembered the past events..

'The Dwarf….its been a while since I heard that….'

"I see...its going to be a bit troublesome now." Ethena replied.

Max felt the pressure released by the lady decreasing before it vanished completely.

Lear and the girl collapsed on their butts in sweat clearly exhausted both mentally and physically.

Ethena looked surprised when she saw Max remain unfazed. It was as if he wasn't even affected by her aura at all.

"Follow her instructions….your Master will be arriving soon…we will talk in a bit… and take your friend...he kept screaming all the time saying that he would defend you and won't let me follow you above.." She said with a smile as she threw Derek towards Max.

'F*ck! He was the one who told her I went above!!'

Max caught Derek and at the same time, quietly elbowed him before smashing him onto the floor.

A grunt escaped Derek's mouth and he slowly got up while glaring at Max.

Max ignored the guy and went towards Lear and the girl to check on them.

Ethena too turned around to leave.

"Wait!" Derek said as he raised his hand towards Ethena.

Everyone's gaze landed on Derek and Ethena halted her steps too and turned around to look at him.

"I am here with my Master's message. If I didn't hear it wrong, you are the sin of lust, right?" Derek said as he took out a slip of paper.

Ethena looked at Derek and waved her hand. A small green thread like vine extended from the tips of her finger and took the piece of paper from Derek's hand bringing it back to her.

The moment Ethena looked at the slip, her pupils contacted and a fierce glim flashed past in them.

"I see….I didn't expect him to have taken a disciple…. I hope you will share everything that you know with us…" Ethena said with a sigh.

"You guys can rest a bit..I have got something important to do….we will talk in a while…"

She left in a hurry with those words as if she had something very urgent to do.

….

The chaos finally subsided and everything was over.

Max and others were given VIP treatments and their own rooms.

"Damn! Finally a bit of rest…" Max muttered as he entered the bathtub.

"Splash!"

Water splashed all around and Max grumbled, "Stop that twice…"

The black colored creatures immediately stopped and quietly laid his head on the corner of the bathtub as it enjoyed the bath.

Max had taken them out since they were annoying him for not letting them out for a whole day...in the end, this one refused to go back after seeing the bath…

...

Max closed his eyes, and began to revolve the 4th layer of the Ancient Manual. After coming at this stage, he felt that his growth had slowed down by a lot.

Within a few minutes, Max could feel a familiar sensation as the flow energy began to revolve following the direction of the Ancient Manual. The pain from the injuries slowly subsided and Max entered the state of concentration.

…

Max finally opened his eyes and sighed. He could feel the gains that he had today were greater than ever. But it wasn't every day he would fight a battle like this. If he continued at this rate, he would turn into a slowpoke. Besides, he still didn't seem to have understood this layer's essence.

"It seems, I will have to find some way out…"

Max mumbled before taking out a core from his spirit world.

Twice immediately began to growl the moment, the core was taken out. It could sense the vicious aura around the core.

"Calm down..it's dead…" Max said as he patted the little guy which was not so little anymore.

'I have been stuck at this level of spirit energy for too long….I haven't even found any way to use my spirit energy except for heightening my senses. Let's hope today I will have a good fortune.….' Max thought as he looked at the core of the Water Cobra.

He closed his eyes and the spirit energy soon began to flow. The core which was in Max's hand began to glow and melt away. The energy in Max's body began to surge and Max felt the barrier to the next level crumbling.

The tattoo on Max's chest began to glow and the segment of the tattoo near the blue part began to shine with a violet gleam.

At this moment, an odd phenomenon occurred, a spark seemed to have originated from the core and a figure of a Python formed. The figure's eyes seemed to be burning with hatred and it immediately lunged at Max.