I just noticed many readers raising a question in the book reviews: why doesn't Fang Yuan use the Person As Before Immortal Gu to revive the White Rabbit Girl?
Then I saw explanations from quite a few readers, most of which missed the mark. There are still many confused people, so let me explain here.
Person As Before: a butterfly shimmering with five-colored light, gracefully soaring through the air. Wherever it traveled, it scattered five-colored rainbow radiance, and along the butterfly's elegant flight path, a winding, meandering rainbow illusion took shape.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng once used the Fifth Transformation Person As Before Mortal Gu to heal — and even outright revive — many Gu Masters, demonstrating extraordinary capability, especially during the Contest of the Royal Court.
When Tai Bai Yun Sheng ascended to immortality, he upgraded the Person As Before Mortal Gu to the Sixth Transformation Immortal grade.
The Mortal Gu Person As Before could only be used on others.
The Immortal Gu Person As Before, however, could also be used on oneself, though it consumed a great deal of Immortal Essence.
Using this Immortal Gu, Tai Bai Yun Sheng saved many people.
The most classic example was saving the Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal Li Shan Fairy from Hei Cheng's hands.
Original text:
"It's over." Hei Cheng indifferently retracted the sphere-shaped black prison.
Li Shan Fairy had only truly sealed two dark arrows. As early as the moment the two arrows merged, Hei Cheng had secretly fired a third dark arrow. Relying on the black prison to capture Li Shan Fairy's attention, he silently coordinated several Mortal Path killer moves with the dark arrow, quietly dismantling the defenses around Li Shan Fairy.
But in the very next instant.
A beam of radiance shone down. Li Shan Fairy reverted to the moment just before, all injuries vanished, her head intact and whole.
The Immortal Gu — Person As Before!
In the distance, Tai Bai Yun Sheng gasped heavily: "That was close! I almost didn't make it in time!"
Hei Cheng's pupils contracted, and fury immediately surged.
...
Secondly, during the exploration of the Eastern Sea, Tai Bai Yun Sheng also thrived thanks to this Gu.
Original text:
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's expression stiffened, and he sighed: "So Junior Brother never had faith in me all along. You really did call it right. This time, we spent seven days and seven nights conquering the Blessed Land, but in the end we were defeated by the Earth Spirit and suffered devastating losses. A Gu Immortal nearly perished, but I managed to save them with the Person As Before Immortal Gu."
"Oh?" Fang Yuan raised an eyebrow. He knew the value of the Person As Before Immortal Gu — the moment Tai Bai Yun Sheng revealed it, its worth in the eyes of others would skyrocket.
Sure enough, Tai Bai Yun Sheng continued: "After my Person As Before Immortal Gu became known, I received much flattery. Then I got a warm invitation from Sha Mo, asking me to visit the Zombie Alliance in the Eastern Sea as a guest. How could I dare go alone to someone else's stronghold? I politely declined. As a result, Sha Mo and two other Zombie Immortals hosted me at the Sea Market Blessed Land, and over the course of the banquet, let me in on a major piece of information."
...
Afterward, Fang Yuan used the Person As Before Immortal Gu to revive Gu Yue Fang Zheng, deceiving the Immortal Crane Sect.
Original text:
In truth, by leaving the severed arm behind, once He Fengyang killed Fang Zheng, Tai Bai Yun Sheng — whom Fang Yuan had summoned back to this location — used the Person As Before Immortal Gu, expending a rather considerable amount of Immortal Essence on the severed arm to revive Fang Zheng.
He Fengyang harbored no suspicion. He too had his limitations and did not know that a Gu like Person As Before existed in this world.
In his view, Fang Zheng's physical body and soul had been completely destroyed right before his eyes. Fang Zheng was truly and genuinely dead.
...
It must be said that the Person As Before Immortal Gu is tremendously effective, but at the same time, it carries many drawbacks.
Already documented in the original text:
Immortal Path Killer Move — Blood Flesh Flourishing Flame!
This flame used flesh and blood as fuel, burning endlessly. As long as flesh and blood remained, the flame would not cease. Without a targeted countermeasure, it simply could not be extinguished.
Moreover, the more vigorous the flesh and blood, the more fiercely the blood fire burned!
Fang Yuan transformed into an Ancient Sword Flood Dragon, which played right into the Blood Flesh Flourishing Flame's hands.
However, Fang Yuan's reaction was extremely swift.
He immediately revoked the transformation killer move, returning to human form.
Then he activated a Time Path healing Immortal Gu —
Person As Before!
Over twenty Red Date Immortal Essences were consumed at once.
In the next instant, the blood-red flame vanished completely, and Fang Yuan returned to his previous state.
"Sigh!"
"Person As Before only works on human bodies. When I transform into other life forms, I can't directly use Person As Before. This is very inconvenient."
"Moreover, Person As Before has significant limitations. Luckily, I have the Three Breaths of Later Reveal, this reconnaissance killer move!"
...
Hei Lou Lan knew that Fang Yuan possessed the Person As Before Immortal Gu in his hands.
But the Person As Before Immortal Gu had rather strict time requirements. Even Fang Yuan himself could hardly escape them. After being hit, he first had to discover his own state, then cancel his transformation — and there might even be some hesitation in between — before finally activating Person As Before. Activating this Immortal Gu itself also consumed time.
Going through all that, Hei Lou Lan thought, putting herself in his shoes — even she would find it difficult to neutralize the Blood Flesh Flourishing Flame.
Fang Yuan did not know Hei Lou Lan and Bai Ningbing's secrets, just as Hei Lou Lan did not know that Fang Yuan held the Three Breaths of Later Reveal.
This reconnaissance killer move allowed Fang Yuan to perceive his own abnormalities three breaths in advance. It was precisely because of this that he had more time to react and handle the situation.
...
From these two scenarios, we can see: 1) The Person As Before Immortal Gu only works on human bodies. 2) The Person As Before Immortal Gu can only restore one to the state from the instant before. Therefore, even when Fang Yuan heals himself, he sometimes has great difficulty seizing the correct timing in the heat of battle.
The operational difficulty of Person As Before is very high. That is why Fang Yuan used Three Breaths of Later Reveal in conjunction with the Person As Before Immortal Gu.
The limitations of the Person As Before Immortal Gu do not end there.
Original text:
"My defenses are still too thin." Fang Yuan sighed, immediately beginning to heal himself.
He did not use Person As Before.
Person As Before was an Immortal Gu; careless use would drain Immortal Essence. Moreover, Person As Before could only restore the state from one instant prior.
Fang Yuan had been grazed by a Wind Flower petal while midair, sustaining injuries.
At that moment, he could not activate the Person As Before Immortal Gu. Using an Immortal Gu would cause its aura to erupt, exposing his identity.
...
From this, we can see that simply using the Person As Before Immortal Gu often consumes a large amount of Immortal Essence, and once used, its aura cannot be concealed.
Now let us look at how the Person As Before Immortal Gu performed when Fang Yuan and the others were trapped in the Shadow-Grazing Trench.
Original text:
The Drill — Four-Way Passage failed once again.
Bai Ningbing suffered the most severe backlash. However, she quickly regained her composure.
The Person As Before Immortal Gu!
Fang Yuan continuously activated this Time Path Immortal Gu, healing himself and the others.
Once again experiencing the healing effects of Person As Before, a complex flicker of emotion passed through the depths of Hei Lou Lan's eyes.
The Person As Before Immortal Gu was still intact. She herself was once again in the same camp as Fang Yuan. The pity was that Tai Bai Yun Sheng had already perished.
And he had been killed by Fang Yuan's own hand.
The drill was halted.
Fang Yuan used Person As Before on himself, his injuries completely healed, and he began to think over and analyze the reasons for their recent failure.
As for the others, they continued healing.
Although Person As Before had been used on them as well, its effectiveness was far inferior compared to its effect on Fang Yuan.
...
It is clear that the Person As Before Immortal Gu is supremely effective for Fang Yuan, but far less so for other Gu Immortals.
Why is this?
The clever readers will have already guessed it — that's right, it's because the Dao Marks of different paths mutually restrain each other. But Fang Yuan's Sovereign Immortal Body possesses Dao Marks that do not repel one another.
In fact, every path has its own healing Gu Insects. For example, the Vitality Leaf appeared quite early on — a Wood Path healing Gu Insect. In the Star Path, there is the Star Savior Gu, used for healing Star Path Gu Immortals with excellent results. In the Water Path, there is the Spring Rain Gu, which once healed Fang Yuan. In the Wind Path, there is the Breeze Gu, used for healing and also capable of calming the heart. In the Light Path, the Green Radiance Gu excels at treating heat toxins.
During the mortal stage, these healing Gu Insects all had fairly impressive effectiveness. But once one reached the Gu Immortal level, because Gu Immortals all contained abundant Dao Marks, only the corresponding healing Gu Insects from each respective path could deliver good results.
Therefore, the Sixth Transformation Person As Before Immortal Gu was most effective when healing a Sixth Transformation Time Path Gu Immortal. Other Sixth Transformation Gu Immortals came second. For Seventh Transformation Gu Immortals, the efficacy of Person As Before became extremely weak — activation might even fail.
So the question arises: why was Tai Bai Yun Sheng able to use the Sixth Transformation Person As Before Immortal Gu to save Li Shan Fairy?
Let us look at the original text again:
Li Shan Fairy had only truly sealed two dark arrows. As early as the moment the two arrows merged, Hei Cheng had secretly fired a third dark arrow. Relying on the black prison to capture Li Shan Fairy's attention, he silently coordinated several Mortal Path killer moves with the dark arrow, quietly dismantling the defenses around Li Shan Fairy.
But in the very next instant.
A beam of radiance shone down. Li Shan Fairy reverted to the moment just before, all injuries vanished, her head intact and whole.
The Immortal Gu — Person As Before!
In the distance, Tai Bai Yun Sheng gasped heavily: "That was close! I almost didn't make it in time!"
Hei Cheng's pupils contracted, and fury immediately surged.
...
Although Li Shan Fairy received a fatal blow, the extent of her injuries was quite minimal.
The Dark Arrow Immortal Gu itself was only Sixth Transformation. Li Shan Fairy had used three Mortal Path killer moves to barely hold it off.
Hei Cheng's third dark arrow, in coordination with several of his Mortal Path killer moves, only then dismantled Li Shan Fairy's defenses before piercing through her skull.