Stirring under Lillie's gentle touch, the girl weakly and shakily lifted her hand in search for the thing that momentarily cooled her abnormally warm forehead.

Her action in trying to reach out for Lillie signified that she's still conscious. ​​

Lillie can feel the girl's scorching temperature as her palm made contact with her skin. Labored breath and rapid pulses were noted and observed, as well as the girl's whole lower body part being paralyzed.

"Can you hear me?" Lillie received no reply, not even a twitch or a grunt.

The girl's inability to utter a word must've been because the venom made her tongue go numb.

Pretty fortunate how her last call for help had been the one that drew Lillie and her group towards her vulnerable state.

Lillie gently pried the girl's eyelids open. "Follow where my finger is going." The girl's mind was disoriented. She can perceive the blurry figure moving left and right, but cannot comprehend what it means.

Lillie hummed, satisfied of the girl's pupils followed the movement of her finger smoothly.

Good news was that the girl's awareness was still functioning, she knew that Lillie's group was currently around her.

"Well, I'm no doctor, but it looks like the snake bite was six hours old." Death carefully placed the girl's right foot back on the ground after scanning the bite and the black tendrils climbing through her knee.

"Six hours?" Han Taiyi gaped, shellshocked. "Why is no one coming up to her at this moment? I thought the teachers would've intervened by now."

Lillie stood up from her crouched position. "She'll stop breathing exactly after eighteen hours. We have enough time for us to reach the Academy to get her properly treated."

Though, it 'would've' been eighteen hours if the venom spread at its normal state.

Approaching Ethan, who was carrying her duffle bag for her, Lillie withdraw a flask bottle filled with fresh water and a clean towel.

Lillie's eyes drifted around the towering trees, landing on the shadows that went undetected by those who lacks the heightened senses of the someone like her's calibre.

"Also, the proctors wouldn't give her the white flag unless she finally losses consciousness."

She came back to the girl and started cleaning her wound before covering it with bandaid to not let any dirt or dust infect it.

"You know what's really odd? Red Whiskers [1] are considered the most gentle snakes. They wouldn't bite or attack anyone unless provoked." Death thoughtfully said, sowing the seeds of suspicion in their minds.

"Maybe because youngsters these days sometimes have no sense of self-preservation?" Han Taiyi offered an unsure answer.

"But, she doesn't look like the kind of person who would poke venomous snakes for fun." Chu Lizheng frowned, rubbing his chin with his index finger.

Indeed, the teenage girl before them looks to be on the meek and shy side.

Han Taiyi's eyes widen when her mind brewed a more critical, yet apparently, the most logical answer. She turned to Death and slowly asked, "Are you suggesting...she was sabotaged?"

"Most likely." Death straightforwardly replied.

"That's awful! Who would do such a thing?"

"Whoever did this to her probably thought they're one rival less."

Their distance from the Academy's gate couldn't be anymore than an hour walk.

Lillie's group had a head start with the enrollees. The distance they covered was considered pretty far already.

And if you count the "hindrances" they encountered along the way, no one should've went ahead of them.

But this girl did.

If that didn't spoke of her capabilities, Death wasn't sure what else. This girl is, without a doubt, the special one among the other enrollees.

Unfortunately for her, it looks like the skills she exuded didn't settled well for whoever put her in this predicament.

"But this isn't a competition."

Shrugging, Death replied passively, "Who knows what's going through a malicious person's mind."

Pot calling the kettle black, huh. Lillie mused to herself.

"We'll have our answers once we bring her to the gates. Senior brother, if you don't mind?"

Death nodded, understanding Lillie's indication, and securely placed the girl on his back; careful on not shuffling her too much as they trotted out of the dark forest.

Pacing just behind her Senior Brother and the girl he's carrying, Lillie's mind couldn't help but probe through the girl's situation.

The Academy only let one breed of venomous snakes roam free in the forest, and that's the Red Whiskers. The venom they produce was deadly yet slow acting.

Red Whiskers venom was neurotoxic, which targeted the body's brain and nervous system; paralyze the muscle and eventually make the victim stop breathing then die after twenty fours.

But, like any venom or poison, it would spread and react faster if the victim moves or runs around vigorously; generally anything that would make the heart pump rapidly.

Death stated that the girl's snake bite was six hours old. If she had been simply walking around without straining herself, the venom wouldn't have reacted the way it is now in her body.

She could've continued to walk—limp—towards the end goal with just a slight headache and profuse sweating for at least seven hours before she finds herself gasping for air.

Certainly not the condition she is in right now in just six hours.

The girl must've fought someone—maybe one of those teachers...or the person behind her snake bite.

Lillie doesn't know why, but when her sight landed on the girl, she felt a strange connection with her.