Chapter 81: Dragon-clawed Hartebeest's Breakthrough

                                    

                                          
  ‘Swoosh!’
  I swooshed down from the tree branch I'd just had lunch on, landing firmly on both feet, just between the wounded trio and the confused Dragon-clawed Hartebeest.
  I turned around and looked at the girls, chuckling out loud.
  “You!” Amanda screamed, but wasn't strong enough to get up. “I knew it my senses could never be wrong!”
  “Genius... so you really did sense someone?” asked Rosie, observing my aura with eyes that could kill.
  Lily just feebly stuttered, “Just... just who are you?”
  I smiled. I wasn't going to give a clumsy superhero opening speech like I did in the Ethereal Hall's Acorn Forest. I simply turned around and let out a mad and vivacious aura (I was imitating Old Sage Muyu's).
  All girls gasped at the fierceness that burnt around me.
  I used my true essence to dry the moistness on my eyeballs so as to make tears spring down my eyes. I began to fake crying before the Dragon-clawed Hartebeest. It looked at me somewhat surprised.
  I advanced towards it and cried out, “Did these fools hurt you?”
  It didn't say anything, but was unsure if I was making up an act. I stopped on my track and changed my gloomy and angry aura into a warm one. I could even feel the animal's rapidly beating heart, slow down a little.
  “Don't be afraid, Dragon-clawed Hartebeest. My name's Stephanie, and I'm a beast tamer. See, here's my badge,” I said, flicking out my quasi 2-star emblem. The girls behind me gasped on seeing the shiny two stars on the badge. They were 1-star students, so they probably had never heard anything like a “quasi” emblem which meant it was temporal. All they knew was, this girl who wasn't any older than them, was already a 2-star beast tamer.
  The Dragon-clawed Hartebeest furrowed its brows as though in thoughts. I took the advantage immediately. Streaks of insight flowed around my eyes.
  ‘Eye of Insight!’
  “I see your meridian by your abdomen has been injured, let me help you with it.”
  I began walking one step at a time towards it. It immediately let out a terrifying aura, but I pretended not to feel it... meanwhile, the moment I felt the harsh savage aura, I almost jumped out of my skin. I had to apply all the willpower in me, and my pure true essence, to bid the aura from slipping into my body. The aura alone was enough to kill a weaker beast or human.
  I kept exuding my warm aura. Let it be understood that, in the world of cultivators, auras were the hardest things to control. Teacher Kira once told me that, those at the peak of the Spiritual realm were the only ones who could exude false auras. Due to my bloodline's pure true essence, I could feel extreme hate, and still exude an aura of friendliness. I could be so happy, and still make you feel I'm angry. Thus, when the beast saw my aura was still exuding warmth, it began to lighten up. It didn't feel I could harm it. Also, when it tried sensing my cultivation level, astonishment crossed its visage. It could tell I was weaker than it, but it couldn't sense my cultivation base.
  Normally, for us cultivators, the only instance when one couldn't sense another's cultivation base was when the person had a cultivation level far above one. Yet, it couldn't sense mine. It observed me (probably my age range?) and roared as I was just an inch closer to its injured meridian channel.
  It screamed for me to stop (in the beast tongue). I smiled and said to it, still in the human tongue, “But if I stop, how would you keep up with this?”
  Its eyes dilated. It took two steps backwards in fear. When it did this, I felt the girls exchanging surprised gazes behind me. One of them even whispered, “Why's the beast shuddering at her words?”
  “You can understand me?!” it grunted at me in pain.
  Without saying a word, I nodded with a big smile... trying to use true essence to normalise the pace my heart was beating at.
  Its surprised eyes couldn't help but look at me in a different light. It gave out a cry of delight to the sky.
  “Calm down, calm down, you'll worsen the pain,” I said, finally arriving before its injured side.
  Placing my palm on its abdomen, I calmed my flustered mind. True essence shone around my hand as I closed my eyes, sending in my pure true essence to its body. With several nights of cultivation, I now had a powerful control over my true essence. It charged into the Dragon-clawed Hartebeest's dantian and replenished its depleted true essence by one-third. It was an Ethereal Opening savage beast, I'd be a fool to think I could replenish all of its true essence.
  The true essence I'd sent in gradually purified the little left in its dantian. I then directed it towards its injured meridian channel by its abdomen. On getting there, it began to heal the injured meridian very quickly, at a pace visible to the eyes.
  Above me, the Dragon-clawed Hartebeest looked down at me in amazement. It could not for the life of itself believe how pure my true essence was. It began to wonder just where I'd come from. Unknowingly to me, I'd now become its helper who it'd be forever grateful towards. Also, some menial injuries it had sustained from some fights in the past with some powerful savage beasts and humans, gradually healed.
  I still had enough true essence, since I'd just eaten and had transformed the nutrients into true essence. I slowly retracted my hand and opened my eyes.
  On seeing me, the Dragon-clawed Hartebeest covered my face with slime using its tongue.
  ‘Gross!’
  “Take it easy girl, take it easy girl,” I laughed, trying to protect my face. However, I was still a weak human before this animal. It used its tongue to push my head to and fro in ecstacy.
  “Gruuuunt!” the animal suddenly roared out into the sky... then it paused. Its brows seemed to have furrowed as though in thoughts.
  ‘Gugugu!’
  A boiling sound suddenly began to ring out from its stomach. I smiled, I wasn't surprised at all.
  When I'd sent my true essence into it, I could feel that it was already on the verge of a breakthrough. My true essence was simply a facilitator.
  ‘Gugu-gugu!’
  All these while, I hadn't even spared the trio a glance, apart from when I'd laughed at their sorry states. They were typically naked at the moment. Through my peripheral vision, I could feel them staring at me with wide mouths that could be filled with eggs.
  Amanda stuttered, “Is... is that... is that beast making a br-breakthrough?!”
  “Is that even possible?” Lily asked.
  “But that was just plain true essence... I could swear it wasn't a healing-type ability. She definitely did not use her Gift!” Rosie said weakly as she covered her... chest.
  The Dragon-clawed Hartebeest was already at the peak of its intermediate stage, so its cultivation aura began to strengthen as the pure essence within it pushed the boulder that'd been stopping it from advancing to its pinnacle.
  ‘Crack!’
  “Ethereal Opening realm pinnacle stage!” the trio cried out in unison.
  ‘Gugugu!’
  “Huhn... did... did it just yet make another breakthrough into...”
  “Ethereal Ascension realm primary stage!”
  A wonderful aura that carried a mountain-like pressure, suddenly exuded from the body of the Dragon-clawed Hartebeest. I myself couldn't help but take two steps backwards.
  “Gruuuunt!” it cried towards the sky, leashing off a terrifying dragon breath. The flames were times two thicker than before. If these girls had faced this flame originally, I wondered if they'd still have been able to save their bras and panties on their bodies.
  Lily, the formation master, fainted. Rosie, the beast tamer, was dazed as though hypnotised. While the Music Guild's genius, Amanda, felt her mind literally on fire.
  There was only one question on Amanda's mind, right now — how?