Toph faced Korra in a sparring match, during which she easily sidestepped three of Korra's airbending attacks and a water strike, before knocking the Avatar down with a mud pillar. As Korra was gathering her bearings, Toph asked her to reflect on what she did wrong and pointed out that the young woman should not think during battle. Turning her back to Korra, she ordered her to go again. She easily avoided Korra's elemental barrage and defeated her with one mud pillar once again. Walking up to Korra lying in a shallow water pool, the earthbender berated her for her "pathetic" performance, declaring her to be by far the worst of the two Avatars she worked with. As Korra defended herself by pointing out that it merely looked like Toph was enjoying to have someone around to beat up, the elderly woman agreed with her, since the local swampbenders could not take a punch in her opinion. She took offense to Korra's insinuation that she was disconnected from the world by having retreated into the swamp, declaring that she was more connected than Korra had ever been as she could tap in to the swamp's vines to see all that went on in distant cities, like Zaofu and Republic City. As Korra attempted to test that statement by attacking her from behind, Toph knocked her down with a mud stream, stating Korra to be the blind one compared to her.

Walking through the swamp, Toph giddily talked about how much fun she had had tormenting the Avatar again, although she wished the girl had put up more of a fight. As Korra dejectedly noted that Toph had tossed her around like a ragdoll the entire time, the elderly woman laughed heartily at it, urging the Avatar to imagine how it would have been if she would still have been in her prime, saying she would have destroyed Korra. As Korra lamented about her inability to recover her old form, Toph told her there were still traces of mercury in her body. Realizing Korra had been oblivious to those remnants, she berated the young woman for "truly" being the worst Avatar ever. When the Avatar revealed to have been under the impression that Suyin had extracted all the poison, Toph stated that she believed neither of her daughters had picked up metalbending well. As Korra excitedly latched onto her, asking if Toph would be able to remove what Suyin could not, the elderly earthbender pushed her away, peeved about the fact that Korra even needed to ask about her abilities.