Inconstant Advance and Retreat

Chen Chuan charged forward at top speed. From his previous attempt, a Spiritual Impact of that scale should have been enough to disperse the cover of Spiritual Fire around the ghost.

That would allow him to follow up with a second strike once he reached it. The ghost lying flat on the ground would have nowhere to evade, and if he could heavily injure it, he would gain control over the course of the battle.

But when he was halfway there, he discovered that the Spiritual Impact had somehow failed to disperse its defenses completely. A thin layer still covered the ghost.

He immediately understood why. Because the ghost had rolled across the ground, half its body no longer needed protection. It only had to gather all its Spiritual Fire on the side facing him, doubling the thickness of its defense. Naturally, the previous impact had failed to achieve anything.

That would in turn affect his follow-up offensive. He could still stick to the original plan and charge in, but if that strike failed to produce the intended effect and left him halted there, the ghost's body would immediately press back down on him. He would be placed in a highly passive position, and more importantly, this rare opportunity to attack would be lost.

Before its mutation, this opponent had definitely been a highly experienced Fighter. A simple, unadorned response had effectively checked his attack.

But... that did not necessarily mean there was no opportunity.

His gaze remained fixed ahead, yet he maintained his original momentum. Once he reached the front of the ghost's body, most of the spiritual aura around him flowed into his fist like water, and he threw a heavy punch.

Because he concentrated his burst at a single point and gathered the vast majority of his