The man was reluctant, however, as he didn't want to risk spoiling their years of partnership, he had no choice but to go back to look for his partner.

He grew more alert as he cautiously moved closer to the area where he fought with them. After making sure that there wasn't anyone anymore, he started to survey the whole place.

The man was shaking as he turned his head to every sound he hears. It was evident that he was scared, scared that the people he fought were waiting to ambush him somewhere.

Fear clouded his mind, not remembering that he was better than them in hiding and there's no way for them to find him if he really wanted to hide. He continued to slowly search for any traces of his partner.

The more he looked the more he was surprised. It was because everything that they destroyed in the fight went back to the way it was like nothing happened.

He was weirded out by it, making sure he wasn't dreaming. He was also thinking whether this was really a trap as he had no explanation on how the place got restored this fast to its previous condition.

Couldn't contain his fear anymore, he stopped his search, running at high speed away from the area that he thought was a trap, promising to not go back anywhere near to this area again.

As for his partner, he reasoned to himself that he was probably dead or caught and he was helpless to do anything about it. He'll say that he died, thinking that they aren't that close anyway and their partnership was solely for money.

"What!? You can't say anything?!"

The man remembered where he was, then went on to curse Xiao Ming, not daring to say it out loud. The only thing he can do was refute him in his mind.

'What do you want me to say? Huh? That I killed him? You know that's not possible, he's a lot stronger than me! And I tried finding him! Though I didn't find anything, I still tried!'

"Useless!"

*glass breaking*

Xiao Ming threw a vase to the man but he wasn't successful as it was heavier than he imagined as it only fell a few feet in front of him.

"How could you even lose your partner when I just asked you to scare a few kids!?"

"Boss, you didn't say anything about them being Awakeneds, that's why we failed."

"What!? You're blaming me now?! I said that you should scare them! How would someone die just because you tried to scare them!? What? Tell me! They'll kick you to death?!"

"W-We did scare them, one guy even hid inside their car the whole time. But as they were Awakeneds, they wouldn't let us go!"

The man acted like he was nervous but inside, he was really pissed.

'Hmph, if you didn't have any money, then we wouldn't be here. It was too bad that my partner died.'

'But the good thing is, all the money we have will be all mine. Hahaha! Tsk. You're nothing but an ordinary human, meant to be used by Awakeneds like us.'

'After getting everything I can from you, I will start my life in another place far away. I can't be implicated with this mess.'

The man never considered warning him about the situation, after all, he couldn't care less.

'On second thought, I still couldn't shake this feeling that something bad will happen... Then it's decided. I will leave tonight. I only have one life and it's not worth exchanging it for some money that I can earn elsewhere.'

The man quickly came up with a decision like it wasn't his first time doing it. He would never know that his decision right now saved him from dying pointlessly.

"Do you think I'm stupid? With your skill, you can easily escape! The only way you would get hit like that was when you were facing their way, that means you fought them. Isn't that right?"

Xiao Ming gave out a confident smile, thinking how smart he is for analyzing their fight from only looking at his wound.

As the man decided to leave tonight, he no longer cares about his blabbering and what happened a while ago. But this guy's smile was annoying him so much.

He wanted to beat him up right there but he stopped himself as he remembered the road, lands, plants and trees that easily got restored. He concluded that only someone powerful could do that.

He just wanted to get away from here as fast as possible. So he started his act,

"Yes, yes! We thought they were too weak and wanted to play with them but we got too careless that I became like this and my partner died."

"I'm really sorry boss! This won't happen again!"

The man kneeled down the floor as he pretended to be remorseful. Xiao Ming's eyes shined as his lips twisted into a smile.

Looking like everything was in his control, he flatly responded,

"Hmph! Why am I even paying you a lot of money only for you to fail."

"Get out. There will be no next time for this."

The man hurriedly went straight for the door like it was the door to his freedom which was partly true as he just evaded danger by deciding to move away and never coming back.

Xiao Ming sat down on his chair as he thought about everything that the man said. He was surprised to know that Layla and her sister were an Awakened.

But in the end, he passed it off like it was unimportant as he doesn't care about it one bit. No one could blame him as people like him don't know much about Awakeneds except that they're a little stronger than normal people and they can be used to beat someone up.

Xiao Ming also had no choice but to let the man go since it wasn't easy to find someone like him but thought of getting rid of him when he finds someone stronger.

...

Currently, Max and Yu'er were at home, discussing their plans about what to talk about when Layla and Lydia arrived.

Max made sure to tell his sister every single word that he told them when they asked about him being an Awakened so that their story would match.

Both of them decided not to lie to them too much and instead just avoid topics that they don't want to talk about.

"So that's all?"

Max easily got everything that his sister said as it's not really that complicated and they weren't going to tell them a big lie that he had to remember.

"Yes. If there are others, just answer like you normally do but don't expose too much. I'll add some topics to talk about so that it'll make all of us as comfortable as possible."

"The only goal we have is that we should tell them about us being Awakeneds and make them treat us like how they do in the past. That's all. If all of us can be more closer then that's a plus."

*ding dong*