"Snow, King Kong!" Nick called two beasts over after some time, "As rank six beasts you have abundance of Qi. Do you know how to manipulate it and infuse into other being's Qi pathways?"
This was their last hope. He and YunYun were running out of Qi more and more often and as soon as there was a prolonged period when both of them had to rest at the same time, Bambi most likely would die. To everyone's great regret beasts shook their heads in embarrassment and YunYun's eyes started to tear up again. She understood very well what Nick meant. She saw how for the last hour he was holding rank five beast core in his left hand and absorbing Qi just to keep himself going. To neither of them mattered the cost of the treasure, but it indicated the actual deep despair their were in. This was already the last resort and they had nowhere to fall back to.
"Can't we think of something?" YunYun asked, holding back sobs.
"Sigh, no idea." Nick shook his head, "We can clearly see that my theory is correct and the Qi is panacea of this world, but the amount we have only is sufficient to prolong her agony. Even the surroundings that have abundance of Qi can't support this. For over an hour I'm directly transferring Qi from the snake's core, but it feels like it's flowing into a huge hole – I just can't fill it up."
The two beasts beside them growled in despair again – they have been doing that with increased frequency for two days straight. With their natural instincts they felt Bambi's death approaching already yesterday and it was a miracle for her to survive this long.
YunYun caressed the doe's cheek and her tears fell on the golden fur. She had no idea how to comfort the beautiful animal and Bambi looked back with despair in her eyes as well.
"F*ck, we can't continue like this!" Nick cursed, "Time for 'brainstorming'! Come on, help me."
"What?" YunYun was confused. She was in deep pain looking at the helpless animal and felt exactly the same.
"If we continue like this, we all know Bambi will die! Thus, if we want to find a way out, we have to think of something and I can't do it alone. Help me, let's 'brainstorm' for a bit!" Nick urged her. He was also desperate, but he knew that even the stupidest idea or sentence could pave a road to a solution.
It took some time for YunYun to realize what Nick meant. She remembered how they 'brainstormed' in "Sunshine", but this was a whole different situation – a being was dying in front of them!
"You two! You have been living for centuries, help us as well – we need some ideas!" Nick called the two beast kings over.
This time they didn't linger and directly came and sat nearby. They were not clear what exactly the male human wanted, but he was right, both of them were centuries old and had seen a lot. In addition, they were confident that Nick had the magical mind-reading ability, thus it was enough for them to sit nearby and offer ideas in their heads.
"How … how do we do this?" YunYun was shocked seeing Snow and King Kong joining with serious expressions.
"Just like always. First, we formulate the problem and then we'll find the solution." Nick opened the discussion.
"So, we have the following situation – our friend is badly injured and we are trying to save her. She has multiple injuries on her body and several already start to fester. There is a high chance her organs are poisoned and function only because we continue infusing her with Qi. Her leg is broken, but will heal if we manage to save her, so we can ignore it for now." Nick tried to list all the problems as calmly as he could, but even he had difficulty to speak at the end as he felt something in his throat impeding his speech.
'Sob' was the only sound that YunYun managed to make.
"Alright, I agree." Nick tried to keep the 'discussion' alive, "We will change the bandages regularly and continue to feed antidotes. So the actual problem is Qi! Any ideas?"
"U!" King Kong whimpered and gently put his finger on Bambi's head. Snow also touched her with his paw, having sad look in his eyes while trying to comfort her.
"But why can't they help?" YunYun was desperate and pointed at ape and tiger, "Is that because they are different species? Or their Qi is different? Snow has so much Qi! He ran on his highest speed through the day and night and still was not tired!"
"No idea." Nick sighed. He didn't bring up the concept of understanding the Qi pathways because he didn't believe both rank sixes will get it and, even if they did, it was unlikely Bambi would survive anyway.
"Is it because of the color? Remember, Scarlet had red Qi, Snow has white, King Kong – silver, or at least I think so because his hair on the back turned silver when he fought with you." YunYun actually tried to think of something. Even if it didn't help, trying to find a way out helped to calm down her emotions.
"And … mine is blue." Nick brought up his palm and a thin swirl of dark blue Qi formed.
"Exactly. After we practiced the same techniques, trained together and even did the dual cultivation, my Qi became very similar to yours. Can it be that the different colors imply that different species have different Qi systems?" YunYun felt as if she was on to something.
"I don't think so, because our Qi color differs from the other people, but we still have the same Dantian." Nick shook his head, "King Kong, can I inspect your Qi pathways? I want to check if YunYun's thoughts might give us a lead."
King Kong scratched his but, agreed and Nick placed his hand on top of the ape's. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated for a while.
"Sigh, sorry about that. I understand that might felt too invasive." Nick apologized and shared his findings, "Apart from heaving a beast core in the back of his skull and no Dantian, our Qi systems are almost identical. I have no idea where can we go with this."
"I also have no idea. It's just that you taught me to share all the ideas during 'brainstorming', even the silly ones." YunYun weakly smiled.
"True. And your thought at least gives us some direction. Let's think more. What do we know about the Qi colors?" Nick smiled back.
Beasts didn't understand why this procedure was necessary, but they noticed how both Nick and YunYun continuously kept infusing Qi in Bambi's body, so they had not lost hope and that, in turn, gave further hope to the ape and tiger as well.
"We know that my Qi changed when we started to practice." YunYun kept going.
"Hmm, I think it changed when we performed the dual cultivation technique on the ship." Nick added.
"Right, my pathways strengthened at the time as well." YunYun nodded while in thought, but then suddenly her eyes lit up, "Remember, when my aunt beat you up you had multiple fractures, but they all healed after we practiced for one night?"
"And that was the final confirmation for me that the Qi is the universal panacea! How could I miss the main point in all of this!" Nick's eyes lit up as well.
"But how do we perform the dual technique while healing Bambi?" YunYun's excitement died down a notch.
"Let's think. First of all, our technique is special because you and I resonate in a particular way. It means that the key for this technique lies within us." Nick pondered, "We have to circulate the Qi according to the regular pathways, except this time we both infuse and receive it back from Bambi at the same time. But the problem is that currently she's too weak to manipulate Qi in any way, thus we will have to do it for her."
"So there is a chance?" YunYun got excited again.
"Indeed, it's not guaranteed, but we are out of ideas anyway. Let me map out the flow in her pathways so we can include her in our cycle." Nick took out writing accessories, "Continue infusing Qi in her, I need a bit of time because her pathways are different than ours."
"Did you hear that, Bambi? There is a chance!" YunYun excitedly spoke, "Our technique is really special and, if it works, you'll be back on your legs in no time!"
King Kong and Snow got excited as well. Did this weird dialog really give a result? And did they really have such a magical technique?
All this time with a complicated look Bambi watched the two humans who were trying to desperately save her life. She didn't give up for the first four days after the attack, but she felt the poison creeping deeper and deeper in her body and finally fell in despair. After Snow led these two to her on the fifth day, her hopes lit up once again, but the incredible pain she experienced every single moment even made her wish for them to let her die peacefully.
Now when they suddenly became excited again, she wasn't sure if she had to hope along with everyone or just fall in eternal sleep. But suddenly she had the realization – now when she was clearly dying and everyone saw that, these two humans were still not giving up. Bambi felt how the Qi of these two was depleting, but they still continued to persist and now the male was drawing something at the side while murmuring to himself. Can that drawing really save her?
It took longer than expected to complete the mapping and Nick passed the snake's core to YunYun for her to be able to continue supporting Bambi. When he was finally done, she was already spent, but they still went through the plan and discussed it a bit. Nick made the final adjustments and then they prepared by freshening up and drinking some water.
The position they had to take was a bit unusual – YunYun sat to the left from Nick, while Bambi lied in front of them and they each held Bambi's respective front and hind legs. Nick would infuse his Qi from his right hand through Bambi's left front leg, guide it though her and YunYun would receive it thought Bambi's right hind leg.
Then YunYun would guide Qi in through Bambi's right front leg and Nick would receive it through the left hind leg.
And it was even more complicated than what it sounded like. Since Bambi was a foreign body to their intimate technique and they couldn't directly 'work' with each other, each of them had to cycle their Qi through this foreign body thus making it take an extra loop inside it before they could let it flow through themselves as per usual.
King Kong and Snow felt their heads hurt at the explanation Nick gave, but YunYun quickly grasped the whole system. She was the genius from the Li family after all and soon they gave it a try.
At first it didn't go well at all. This was not only a foreign body in front of them, it also had a different structure of the pathways. Luckily they both already 'worked' with it for the past days and were a bit familiar.
Ape and tiger retreated further to the side and silently observed them. These humans were too much for them to understand and already day or two ago they stopped trying. Even though normally these humans were like ants to the two kings, they could explode with a surprising power and make even rank six beast feel threatened. In addition, they were very smart and knowledgeable and managed to think of different useful things time and time again.