Chapter 291

One of Fang Yuan’s beast phantoms appears, and the mountain back toad croaks in pain and slams toward him, but it is very heavy and slow. He dodges it easily with horizontal charge Gu and vertical crash Gu, and the audience watches stupefied as the toad cries out. Li Hao, starting to worry, prompts it to jump and fall on himself. Only Wei Yang and a few others see his tactic: he will use position swap Gu to trade places with Fang Yuan, who would be crushed or heavily injured. Fang Yuan sees through it and charges at Li Hao the moment the toad leaves the ground. ^{ch. 291}

Li Hao is very annoyed that his plan was seen through. Swapping now would give Fang Yuan time to dodge, but waiting would let Fang Yuan stay close and be crushed together with him. Helplessly, he swaps, and the toad lands on the ground while Fang Yuan dodges by horizontal charge. Fang Yuan tracks the three breaths between his two movement Gu and the fifty steps of each charge, so one is always ready. His experience from his previous life leaves him no flaws. ^{ch. 291}

He turns on the toad with an all-out offensive and beast phantoms, and it begins croaking in danger. Earlier opponents ignored the toad and attacked Li Hao, but Fang Yuan pays no heed to Li Hao. Li Hao feels like a spectator. When the toad coughs blood, Li Hao swaps Fang Yuan far away and starts healing it. The injuries startle him, and for the first time he feels an intense premonition of defeat. Fang Yuan keeps charging, and Li Hao swaps again and again until he stops healing. ^{ch. 291}

Some spectators explain that position swap Gu has a huge primeval essence cost, higher with distance and a stronger target. Fang Yuan has the strength of two boars, a crocodile and a bear, so the essence cost of swapping with him is definitely a lot, and healing the toad adds to the drain. Li Hao realizes this and has little essence left. Fang Yuan is also rank three and has established superiority in primeval essence over Li Hao’s rank three white silver essence. ^{ch. 291}

Fang Yuan abandons the toad and attacks Li Hao. Several moves later Li Hao cannot endure it. His true core is the toad and position swap Gu, and he had completely removed the beast phantoms hidden in his body to cut the Gu’s cost. He withstands a few moves on his old strength foundation, then swaps places with the toad. Fang Yuan resumes beating the toad, which spurts blood and counterattacks in a frenzy, but his alternating charges make it clumsy. ^{ch. 291}

The audience has never seen Li Hao in such a predicament since he left strength path for support path. Fang Yuan never tries to crack the tactic and keeps to his all-out strategy. A fire path onlooker who wants to imitate him is mocked, because strength cultivators spend little primeval essence and a fire path attack on the toad is what Li Hao wants. The spectators agree that every path has its own advantages and disadvantages. All-out effort Gu costs very little, and the beast phantoms spend none, so Fang Yuan grows fiercer the longer he fights. ^{ch. 291}

He feels more pleasant with every blow. The feelings pent up by his extreme caution since rebirth all pour out. Obtaining all-out effort Gu is a turning point, since he can now settle things with his fists. He declares that from today he walks the path of supremacy, stepping on grass now and on mountains and rivers later. ^{ch. 291}

A punch collapses the hill on the toad’s back and beats it to death. Horizontal charge and vertical crash send Li Hao flying, and he falls in the mud, no longer moving. He has paid with his life for his contempt. The battle ends abruptly and no one speaks. ^{ch. 291}