The Heavenly Manifestation in the form of a white crane wailed before Fang Yuan.
It was in tremendous pain, its body twisting and curling in on itself at times.
Fang Yuan's ten fingers bloomed like flowers as a refining-path killer move surged forth, forming wisps of green fragrant wind that coiled around the white crane like chains, gently stabilizing its form.
The Heavenly Manifestation's condition had been deteriorating rapidly, but after Fang Yuan's intervention, the decline was dramatically slowed.
Still, it was far from enough.
The white crane continued to wail.
"Don't worry. I'm here, and I will protect you," Fang Yuan soothed.
This technique had originally been an information-path Gu Immortal's killer move with a refining-path effect. Because of its peculiar nature, the Langya land spirit had collected it.
After Fang Yuan refined and improved it, he discarded its original name and renamed it Loving Comfort. It appeared to be an information-path technique, but in truth it was a refining-path method — a return to origins that vastly amplified its power.
This technique allowed a Gu Immortal to exercise a remarkable comforting effect on an Immortal Gu prototype during the refinement process.
For example, when failure was imminent, Fang Yuan would continuously persuade:
"I know you can do it!"
"Keep going!"
"You absolutely can do it. Believe in yourself."
The Immortal Gu prototype on the verge of collapse would, under this stream of encouragement and comfort, cease deteriorating and even begin recovering, greatly increasing the chances of ultimate success.
The technique had several limitations.
First, its effect was cumulative. Each individual utterance had only a minor impact; only through continuous, sustained comforting would the effects build up to provide meaningful help. In some refinements, deterioration could be sudden and violent — too quick to deploy this technique, or the accumulated effect might simply fail to keep pace with the severity of the decline, making it unable to salvage a doomed refinement.
Second, the technique required a specific target: an Immortal Gu prototype. This meant it could only be employed after the refinement of an Immortal Gu had progressed to a certain stage. Without a prototype formed, the technique would have no effect even if activated. Many Gu recipes involved a final, instantaneous completion in the later stages without ever producing an intermediate prototype, rendering this technique unusable.
But in Fang Yuan's current situation, it was perfectly viable.
Because the circumstances were special.
The Heavenly Manifestation killer move had originally been flawless and complete, but under the fusion of the Black Heaven and White Heaven, it had been continuously collapsing and sustaining damage — making it functionally equivalent to an Immortal Gu prototype.
Of course, this was only possible because Fang Yuan was a Refinement Path Venerable, possessing the realm and means to treat a Ninth Transformation Heavenly Manifestation killer move as though it were a Gu Insect to be refined.
"It's alright. I'm here, so you needn't worry," Fang Yuan said gently.
The Heavenly Manifestation's wailing only grew louder.
Suddenly, the snow-white feathers of the crane began burning of their own accord. At first the flames were no more than sparks, but they rapidly expanded, and within a few breaths had grown to the size of an adult's palm.
Fang Yuan immediately sprang into action. He took a deep breath, a killer move brewing within him, and exhaled two plumes of energy from his nostrils — one white, one blue.
The two plumes landed on the burning feathers in succession, smothering the sparks, then condensed into a layer of frost that halted the flames from reigniting.
"Fortunately, I've used this refining-path killer move before during Gu refinement, so I'm quite practiced with it," Fang Yuan thought with quiet relief.
Had it not been for that, he wouldn't have been able to respond in time.
The larger the fire grew, the greater the price Fang Yuan would have to pay to contain it. If the flames spread across the entirety of the Heavenly Manifestation, the killer move would be utterly destroyed — and once that threshold was crossed, even Fang Yuan himself would be powerless to stop it.
"You can make it through this. I believe in you, master!" Fang Yuan said tenderly.
The white crane's wailing, however, grew ever more piercing.
"What's going on?" A sharp light blazed in Fang Yuan's eyes.
In moments, he had discerned the cause.
A jet-black venom had formed within the white crane's body and was spreading rapidly, corroding everything around it and pushing the killer move's interior to the brink of collapse.
The white crane retched violently, spewing out mouthful after mouthful of pitch-black venom.
Fang Yuan gave a soft shout, knowing he could not use a fire-based refinement method at this moment — it would inevitably rekindle the earlier self-igniting flames. Instead, he pointed a finger.
In an instant, over a hundred points of emerald light, like swarms of fireflies, pierced into the white crane's open beak.
The green lights scattered throughout the venom and grew rapidly.
Blades of green grass sprouted from tiny seedlings in the blink of an eye, growing luxuriant and dense, absorbing all the venom within the crane's body.
Fang Yuan then flicked his finger. Golden light flowed like water into the white crane, shredding every last blade of grass into fine powder.
Countless particles of dust merged back into the white crane's body, helping it heal its wounds.
"After the storm, you'll surely see a rainbow. Don't give up!" Fang Yuan encouraged once more.
The white crane, however, let out its most ear-splitting shriek, its body convulsing as though struck by lightning.
Then its long, elegant frame swelled violently, like an inflated balloon, growing larger and larger — approaching the point of no return, on the verge of self-detonation.
Fang Yuan swiftly reached out, his five fingers clenching, and from his palm an enormous iron rod materialized out of thin air.
"A single refining-path killer move isn't enough!"
Thoughts crackled through Fang Yuan's mind like lightning as he rapidly commanded the Gu Insects within his immortal aperture to brew yet another killer move.
And so, in the next instant, rows of sharp ice spikes erupted along the surface of the enormous iron rod.
Crack.
Fang Yuan swung his arm and smashed the massive iron rod down onto the white crane. The crane screamed in agony, fixing its master with a look of utter disbelief.
Fang Yuan, however, wore a gentle smile. "You have to trust your master, and even more, trust yourself."
Crack.
Fang Yuan struck again. The crane's swollen body was brutally beaten back down to size, while the ice spikes pierced through both inside and out, blasting powerful jets of air from the wounds.
Crack.