Fruitless endeavour

Despite everyone's unbelieving, shocked looks. There was someone else who was more unbelieving that them all.

"No, this is not real" 

The voice started faint, and then it became louder. It was Si Niang.

How could he accept this outcome. Their attempt at rescuing Mu Bai and curing the poison had been pointless from the start.

He clearly remembered what Chi Huo had said to them earlier

"This friend of yours, Mu Bai, was it? He can still be saved"

The rage, which had been dormant for a while, rose again. He couldn't care how this fellow had accompanied them on this journey because, ultimately, he had his own selfish reasons for doing so.

Si Niang took a step towards Chi Huo and grabbed his clothes he was wearing by the neck. Bai Ming immediately stepped forward, realizing that Si Niang had completely lost it. Someone had to hold him.

However, before he could reach them, Si Niang growled without even looking at him.

"Step back, this is between us"

Bai Ming's footsteps halted. He frowned as he saw Si Niang bleeding by the nose. He could not remember if he had somehow been injured when they ran from the serpents, but Si Niang ignored this.

It seemed as if time had slowed. A moment passed slowly; Bai Ming's tense body relaxed when he saw Si Niang had not done anything else after. Chi Huo remained still looking down at Si Niang, who clung to him like a puppet whose strings were cut. The hands gripping Chi Huo's clothes did not seem to loosen.

A ragged voice escaped Si Niang's lips.

"Find the source of the poison and examine it?"

Si Niang tilted his head and looked at the serpents, which still eyed them from afar. No one could see his eyes. His hair seemed to have formed a shadow which hid his expression.

"That is what you said, is it not?"

Chi Huo heard this and calmly replied, "Yes"

There in the moment, a brief silence ensued, and Si Niang continued.

"You've seen the source now; can you still say the same thing again?"

Chi Huo heard this but did not say anything and could only maintain his silence.

Everyone heard this, and Bai Ming tried to quell the situation but was met with a firm command from Si Niang.

"Brother…"

"SHUT UP!!!" Si Niang roared.

Bai Ming's next words, which were about to come out, were stuck in his throat.

"You don't get to call me that…The only brother I have is sleeping in those ropes" Si Niang added.

At this moment, the silent Cui Rong spoke coldly.

"So, do you think throwing a tantrum here will resolve the issue? More importantly, Chi Huo said before we started moving that there is a slight possibility of curing this poison if it was contracted from a plant species. Him being wrong is not an excuse for you let out your anger on him…"

She kept throwing these truths without a care for how Si Niang felt. Her mouth only stopped moving when Si Niang withdrew his hands from Chi Huo. He turned and looked at this lady from the Cui family.

If others were to look at her like this, Cui Rong would have made quick work of them, but in this instance, she stood still, completely unfazed by Si Niang's gaze.

Si Niang's lips slowly parted, and a bit of sound was transmitted.

"Easy for you to say, lady of the Cui family…"

"Does your Cui family know it's about to lose a potential successor?"

She did not give a reply to this, but Si Niang continued.

"You people from the big families are all the same. You all think you're better than us, but you are not. You live off of our hard work and get to live the easy way."

"What do you know about life?"

"What do you know of brotherhood?"

"Do you even have friends?"

"You can fool them, but you can't fool me. I see you clearly. How are you any different from that Cui Bei who's responsible for getting Mu Bai poisoned…"

"I see the same look from his eyes in you…"

"The same look which belittles us and only sees us as nothing but expendables"

"You don't care about all this, or any of them…"

Si Niang did not stop and kept throwing spiteful words at her. To him, this woman was just trying to crack an unfunny joke. How can she be the one to talk here?

Cui Rong remained still, and her expression did not even change in the slightest.

On the side, seeing all this unfolded. Zi Yan didn't know how to feel. At this moment, he felt as if he had found someone who could understand him. That's right, he was not some emotionless machine.

"Do you think you'll be able to go back to the village alive?" 

Reaching this point, Si Niang had already started laughing.

What a joke!

What examining poison source?

Did they think they could kill those serpents?

It was just simply courting death. This whole journey was a waste of time. Perhaps it would have been better if they had dug their graves and laid there in advance.

All these thoughts flashed through Si Niang in a moment.

He seemed to have more to say but stopped when he heard Wu Zhengyi and Li Tian shouting in distress.

Looking over, he saw Mu Bai's body spasm with foam at the mouth. Without another word, he moved towards him and knelt down beside him.

"Come on, brother, open your eyes. You can't die here"

Hopeless, he looked to Chi Huo, who stood in his spot. He did not say anything, but Chi Huo knew this look was a plea for help, but what could he do?

He was already confused as to why the poison had erupted so quickly. By his calculations, the poison should have acted an hour later, but its activity seemed to have had been sped up by something unknown.

Time was of the essence, and he had to quickly find the cause. He looked around and found that Bai Ming and Cui Rong were bleeding from their noses too.

Seeing this he frowned.