After listening to YunYun's story, King Kong and Snow started to respect them even more. They could imagine themselves in that situation as young rank two or three beasts, trying to escape and run away from the enemies for more than half a year with danger looming at each side every day. How mentally strong these youths were?
And now they sat with their eyes closed, holding Bambi's legs, trying to save a dying beast in a hopeless situation. They didn't know the value of the hill of herbs Nick used during this time, but they understood how rare it was for someone to have a rank five beast's core and how much energy it contained. Even they had almost irresistible urge to steal it from his hands and just swallow, but this human didn't bat an eye and simply used it up to save a doe that he saw for the first time.
Both kings watched Bambi and the duo meditating in front of them with complicated looks for several hours when they suddenly felt a strange ripple going out with the humans in the center. They furrowed their brows and soundlessly crawled a bit closer to understand what was going on. This was too strange and as beasts they clearly felt the that the ripple was formed from a pure natural Qi.
But what happened next made them freeze in their tracks. Snow and King Kong felt a strange force pulling them towards the humans, but this force was in some ways flowing through them as well. As beasts they mostly relied on their instincts and even if it felt somewhat bizarre, they knew they were still safe.
Both looked at each other and sniffed the air, but didn't notice anything unusual. The woods were still the same and the rays of the setting sun behind the mountains were as beautiful as always.
"Uuu." Ape wanted to say something when he saw an angry gaze from his old buddy.
Right, they had to keep silent. The humans were obviously trying to concentrate by closing their eyes and they shouldn't bother them. King Kong and Snow looked at each other in understanding and silently positioned themselves between the woods and the humans as if guarding them from two sides. They were not too far, just fifteen meters away, and looked like two large piles of rocks in the middle of the meadow.
While they periodically glanced around, the main point of attention was the trio between them. But for some reason the three didn't react at all even after the nightfall. The beasts were used to these small humans getting tired, but now they managed to keep going and the weird gravitational force gradually became stronger, even if it was just by a little.
On the third they after the sunrise both guardians noticed a thin mist in the valley and took it for a regular natural phenomenon, but when it concentrated and started slowly revolve around the two humans and the doe, King Kong and Snow got anxious. They had never seen anything like that before and, even if it felt safe, they grew cautious.
But a pleasant surprise awaited them after they came closer to the trio. Bambi was deep asleep, breathing regularly and she even looked somewhat healthier. The two humans sat in the same positions, unmoving and looked nice and rosy as well. Thus the both kings decided to let the 'professionals' continue their work, fell back and proceeded with the guard duties.
On the fifth day the revolving mist started to become darker and the gravitational force, stronger. There were even some curious birds who tried to land near the trio, but as soon as they noticed the murderous gazes from the two kings, they immediately left.
During the following days the mist slowly continued to change its colors and became white, almost transparent. Just when ape and tiger thought that the healing process was coming to the end, it turned yellow and soon transformed into a golden color. Its radius increased as well and now it was almost at the noses of the two guardians.
During the next days they had to reluctantly fall back further and further, but both were happy at the same time. This was definitely a good thing for Bambi and if it continued like this, probably soon she would run around their meadow.
The only concerning thing was the increasing gravitational force that made them feel like it was almost tangible.
More and more birds and small animals gathered around and watched the barely discernible figures in the thick mist during the day and night, but didn't dare to approach with King Kong and Snow being present. At some point even larger predators like wolves and tigers started to arrive, but they didn't pay any attention to the nearby critters and birds. Most just lie there in the lush grass and watched the show. Those more capable soon realized that from higher up the view was even better and climbed the trees and occupied some thicker branches.
All this time the main actors sat unmoving and had no idea what transpired around them. They had similar experience to their previous tries and the inability to feel the flow of time allowed them to fully enjoy this unique world. Indeed, this time the world was more unique as it was fully golden and together with the surrounding warmth both YunYun and Nick felt as if they were in the arms of a caring Sun goddess. Each of them felt the presence of the other albeit not being able to directly see, but it didn't matter since they simply knew the other party was enjoying the same bliss.
On one early morning the mist, that was already so thick that only two rank six beasts could slightly see through it, started to revolve faster and faster at the same time getting thicker. But its size kept shrinking and soon King Kong and Snow noticed that it was getting absorbed by the three bodies inside and mostly Bambi.
The whole process continued almost till midday, when after many days of wait, the surrounding beasts could finally see the cause of their curiosity. Together with the mist the gravitational force started to disappear as well.
The three bodies slightly trembled at the same time and then opened their eyes. YunYun's first reaction after this practice always was to jump in Nick's arms for a simple hug and his – trying to resist this impulse. But that was when they woke up in front of each other. Now the first thing they saw was the large doe who, in fact, raised her head and looked at them in confusion.
In contrast to the both humans, Bambi fell in a dreamless sleep. It took some time for her to realize what happened, where exactly she was and who these two humans were and why they still held her legs in their hands. She shuddered remembering the nightmare she went through, but to her great surprise she now felt really good, even energetic.
"Ah! Bambi!" YunYun shouted when she saw doe shudder, "How do you feel? Are you still in pain?"
Nick didn't ask anything and started to check her injuries under the thick layer of bandages. But as soon as he carefully lifted the first bandage below he could see only a shiny, golden fur. Nick furrowed his brows in confusion. Did the bandage slid while they were meditating? But the next was the same and the one after that as well.
"Don't tell me … Bambi! Don't tell me you are cured! Do you feel any inner pain? Just don't rush, no need to get up …" Nick wanted doe to carefully inspect herself, but she slowly pulled legs below her and then … got up.
In front of them stood huge, beautiful doe with golden fur and shining eyes. She shook her body vigorously and the bandages fell off just to show her full grace.
"U u uuu!" The trio that was busy with themselves were reminded there were two more friends waiting for them, but when they looked to the side their eyes widened. The whole meadow was filled with birds and animals of different sizes who curiously observed them. There were hundreds and hundreds of them and they probably gathered from the nearby mountains from tens of kilometers away. Some tigers were even lying together with crows and pheasants on the branches of the closest trees. The view was simply too surreal to comprehend.
"Rawr!" Suddenly Snow and King Kong roared to the sky at the same time and the surrounding animals reluctantly left. The birds flew away while the mammals disappeared between the trees. In a couple of minutes in the meadow there were only three beasts and two humans left.
"Hahaha! You're cured!" YunYun shouted and hugged the surprised doe, "It's so good! We were worried all the time, but you are cured!"
YunYun had tears in her eyes and never stopped talking.
"How did you grow through one night so much? I didn't notice you were so tall! And you smell so nice! Why the three of you smell so much better than the other animals?"
"My guess is that rank six beasts smell differently than others. Of course, that is in addition to their increased intelligence that tells them to take better care of themselves and wash more often." Nick smiled.
"Rank six? Don't tell me … Bambi! You managed to reach rank six overnight?" YunYun was surprised and excited before, but from this realization became deeply shocked.
Bambi was confused as well and it looked as if she was inwardly inspecting herself.
"U u u!" King Kong shook his head and stretched his hands with spread out fingers.
"We were out for ten hours … or days? Impossible!" It was hard to believe for YunYun.
But ape shook his head and showed the ten fingers again, then hid his hands and repeated the action once more.
"T … Twenty …" YunYun didn't manage to complete the sentence when King Kong hid his hands again and then showed two fingers.
"Really? We were out for twenty two days?" Nick sat just in case so he wouldn't fall over.
"U u!" Ape nodded and approached Bambi with a large grin. Snow walked over as well and the three of them looked at each other and made some weird sounds as if communicating.
"Sigh, it's over, no need to cry." Nick called out to YunYun.
"Hmpf!" She pouted with tears in her eyes and came over. Then sat next down and hugged him. This time there was no angry aunt to be ashamed of and no one would try to kill Nick for her doing it.
"This is amazing." Nick whispered.
"Mhm." YunYun nodded as they watched the three grand rank six beasts conversing.
"It looks like Qi is the universal panacea after all." Nick scratched his head, "It could bring almost dead being back to life, although it took some time."
"Nick, why there were so many beasts gathered? And no one was hostile to each other!" YunYun looked at him and asked.
"No idea, but my guess is that there could have been some natural phenomena appearing when Bambi was cured. You saw, she even grew in size and during these days we didn't drink, eat or sleep. It means that all the necessities in our bodies were fulfilled or compensated by the natural Qi. Imagine the amount of Qi that was necessary for that! I believe it could've formed some mist in the valley just like we can in our palm." Nick lifted his hand and in his palm formed a swirl of thick mist in … golden color.
From the surprise his jaw dropped and YunYun's eyes widened as well, "How … how did you do that?"
"Try it yourself!" Nick urged and in YunYun's palm a similar mist formed.
"How is this possible? Didn't we have a dark blue Qi?" YunYun was stupefied.
"This definitely has something to do with Bambi. Judging from her fur, her Qi should be golden, right?" Nick tried to guess some answers.
"Oh my God! Nick! Check your Dantian!" YunYun shouted with her eyes closed and Nick soon understood her excitement.