Chapter 15
T/N: By the way, if you haven’t guess, a dobok is to taekwondo what a gi is to karate or judo .
The surrounding men and women astutely perceived that there was already a grudge between Li Yundong and the pimpled man . Perhaps, in the near future, there would be a good show to watch .
People of this nation loved hubbub . It was in their nature .
Upon noticing a possible spectacle, even those who had already changed their clothes in preparation to leave were unwilling to depart . Instead, they returned and followed everyone else to the dojo . Whereupon, everyone either sat or stood in the surroundings .
Li Yundong entered the dojo, only to realize that this was actually a large classroom that had been remodeled for its current purpose . In the middle of the wall facing them, there hung the national flags of two countries . Below those flags was a symbolic little gold man performing a taekwondo high side kick . And further down were three banners, black on white: Courtesy and Integrity; Perseverance and Self-Control; Indomitable Spirit!*
This dojo was slightly larger than 200 square meters, making it extremely spacious . The ground was covered with impact mats . White lines were used to mark out distinct area . There were people undergoing contact sparring in those area . In the surroundings, there were quite a few society members in white doboks sitting cross-legged .
The little fox followed Li Yundong . Her curious gaze investigated in all directions without pause . However, when her attention fell upon the students who were competing, an intense disappointment and disdain showed up in her eyes .
‘This is the fighting technique that Li Yundong wanted to learn? It can’t be? Can this kind of flowery fist and fancy footwork even be used to fight?’
The little fox had an urge to immediately drag Li Yundong away then teach him herself . However, when she raise her head and took a look at Li Yundong who was full of motivation with a face full of excitement, she could not bear to dampen his enthusiasm . So she could only pull a long face and follow at his side .
The moment Li Yundong and them entered the dojo, the chaotic crowd that followed them attracted everyone’s attention . Numerous gazes gathered upon them .
Li Yundong had sharp eyes . With a single look he could a male student with a black belt around his waist currently teaching students in the largest area situated in the center . That person was the man who confessed to Zhou Qin earlier, Zhou Yujian .
Zhao Yujian had sweat on his forehead . His graceful body stood like jade . His arms were muscular and dexterous . His waist was slim . His features were masculine yet pretty . Most of the girls in the area were at his side with infatuated eyes, having been captivated by him head over heels . Even Li Yundong could not help secretly sigh to himself feeling slightly sour . ‘It’s definitely a waste that this guy doesn’t star in movies . ’
However, the thing that astonished Li Yundong a lot was what he saw when he swept his gaze to another area . He actually discovered Zhou Qin and Ding Nan also wearing doboks sitting in the dojo looking toward him .
Li Yundong’s eyes met with Zhou Qin’s . Both were somewhat surprised . Li Yundong faintly nodded toward Zhou Qin in order to express his gratitude for her help last time . Zhou Qin remained expressionless . She only glanced at him once more before withdrawing her gaze .
Unexpectedly, it was Ding Nan who sized up Li Yundong full of interest . Unfortunately, Li Yundong vehemently detested this harsh girl in his heart . He only glanced at her once before looking elsewhere .
The pimpled man led Li Yundong to an area . With his hands holding his belt, he spoke disregarding etiquette, “As a newly joined member, today you will be taught by me . Do you have any objections?”
Li Yundong said, “I have an objection . You seem to be biased against me . I don’t want you as my instructor . ”
The pimpled man snorted, “Biased? Then do you have any proof that my opinion of you is wrong? Didn’t you come here to learn taekwondo? Around here, I am number two . The fact I’m teaching you personally is your good fortune . ”
Li Yundong was a proud person . How could he endure someone speaking to him like that . He smiled coldly and turned to leave .
The pimpled man loudly jeered at him from behind, “Hmph, I knew you would run . As expected, it is your specialty! Don’t think that a bit of talent in escaping is anything impressive . That kind of thing, if you want to make it sound cool, you can call it parkour, otherwise, if you want to make it sound less cool, it’s called fleeing . ”
These words caused a stir in the surrounding students . They looked at the pimpled man with even more disdain and contempt .
Moreover, not only was Li Yundong explosively angry inside, even Su Chan was mad .
“If you don’t teach him a lesson, then I’ll do it!” Su Chan said to Li Yundong while revealing a rarely seen angry expression .
Li Yundong pulled Su Chan to a stop . Su Chan turned her head and glared . “What are you doing? Let go . How can you endure this kind of humiliation? I’ll look down on you!”
Li Yundong’s eyes were unwavering fixed on the pimpled man . His face was gloomy . Putting Su Chan behind his back, he said, “This is an issue between men . Women shouldn’t get involved . ”
These words caused the surrounding men to erupt in cheers . The pimpled man mockingly clapped his hands and said, “Well spoken . Well spoken indeed . Come . Let the two of us men have a spar . ”
Li Yundong walked over . He sneered and said, “How do you want to spar . I’ll accompany you . ”
At this time, if you were human, then you would realize that a conflict was about to erupt . The surrounding students who had been practicing, stopped their practice . All of them looked over, even Zhao Yujian ended his activity and turned his gaze over here .
Zhou Yujian originally was somewhat intent to go up and stop the fight . However, when he saw Su Chan by Li Yundong’s side, he was shocked . This girl was not inferior to Zhou Qin in good looks . Her seemingly angry seemingly happy appearance when compared to the stern and cold Zhou Qin possess a additional difficult-to-describe charm .
How did a beauty like this end up following a guy like that?
Zhao Yujian felt upset inside . He subconsciously looked toward Zhou Qin . And with a glance, he saw Zhou Qin observing Li Yundong with curiosity and interest .
Flames of jealousy ignited fiercely within Zhao Yujian . He sneered internally . Crossing his arms across his chest . He prepared to sit and watch the pimpled man shame Li Yundong .
He had an excellent understanding of the pimpled man’s strength . Even though this man was a red belt, but that was last years test results . This year, his strength had already reached junior black belt**, which was not that far off from his own black belt .
That fellow was born with naturally high strength . Even empty handed, he could defeat quite a few hoodlums and gangsters, let alone a slightly chubby geek*** .
The pimpled man waved at one of the students on the side, requesting a cushioned guard meant for chest protection, which he then threw to Li Yundong . He said, “Since you want to learn taekwondo, then I’ll let you first experience the true might of the spinning side kick**** . ”
The students on the side were secretly alarmed . They were starting to worry for Li Yundong .
The spinning side kick was the pimpled man’s trump card . Its power was an incredible one thousand plus pounds . A normal person holding a cushioned guard would be sent flying by a single kick .
The pimpled man evidently did not possess any good intentions in giving Li Yundong the cushioned guard right away .
Li Yundong put the cushioned guard across his chest with a sneer on his face . In his opinion, even if he got sent flying with a kick, it was better than being a coward . Other than that, he had no other plans .
Little did Li Yundong imagine that his current condition just happened to conform to the realm of “heart and will as one, will and spirit as one, spirit and qi as one, qi and strength as one; heart, will, spirit, qi, and strength, all five were united” . This just happened to be the best state for manifesting the body’s complete strength .
On the other side, the pimpled man stretched his neck and kneaded his wrists, hopping with small steps repeatedly . Once his body was warmed up, he made a beckoning gesture with his finger at Li Yundong and said, “Hey, aren’t you ready yet?”
Li Yundong grit his teeth and said “I’m ready . ”
“Okay!” the pimpled man took a deep breath . He spun his body . His weight came together with the force of his muscles to explode with power . Then the torque and speed of his spin was added on . The spinning side kick burst forth and struck the cushioned guard on Li Yundong’s chest in an instant with a a loud bang .
Li Yundong held the cushioned guard with both hands . There was some distance between it and his chest . The pimpled man’s kick landed on the cushion and caused it to cave inward .
However, when his foot followed through and made contact with Li Yundong’s body, Li Yundong’s entire body retaliated with a flow of formidable power . With a fierce jolt, the pimpled man was instantly sent flying just like that .
The little fox who was at the side laughed out loud . In the past when Li Yundong had just consumed the Human Origin Gold Pill, wasn’t she also sent flying?
The surrounding crowd gaped without exception . They all watched flabbergasted at what just happened . They absolutely never imagined that the one to fly out would be the pimpled man .
“Zeng Qing, what are you doing?” Zhao Yujian who was watching the match from the side loudly reprimanded as he frowned .
Zeng Qing climbed up from the ground . The current him already could not stop halfway . Once your ride a tiger, it’s hard to get off . His entire face reddened and he glared at Zhao Yujian and said, “My foot just happened to slip!”
Zhao Yujian merely sneered, choosing not to expose Zeng Qing .
Zeng Qing walked until he was in front of Li Yundong . He spoke furious from the shame, “Why are you holding the cushioned guard like that?”
Li Yundong coldly rebuted, “Then how should I hold it?”
Zeng Qing snatched the cushioned guard and held it across his chest, loudly stating, “You hold it like this . The body should not resist forcefully, otherwise it’s easy to get hurt!”
Feng Nuo***** said in a peculiar voice, “But it seems the one getting injured isn’t the person holding the cushioned guard ne!”
Zeng Qing’s face became red and his neck unsightly . He ferociously gave Feng Nuo a glare . Then he shouted to Yun Dong, “Give me a kick . I’ll demonstrate how to properly hold the cushioned guard . ”
Even though that was what he said, he was actually gnashing his teeth on in the inside, ‘Just wait, a tooth for a tooh . You’ll soon know the taste of being sent flying by recoil . ’
This kind of thing, where the person holding the cushioned guard used the power of the rebound to push back the kick, can easily injure the ankle of the kicker . Zeng Qing was lucky just now that he was not truly injured . However, he was now plotting to savagely injure Li Yundong . On the instant, Li Yundong’s kick strikes, he would tilt the cushioned guard . ‘Hmph! Hmph!’
Li Yundong expressionlessly walked until he was in front of Zeng Qin and said, “Then I can start now?”
Zeng Qin stood in a bow step stance, facing Li Yundong half laterally . He held the cushioned guard in front of his body . The members who understood his intentions by watching secretly held Zeng Qing’s behavior in contempt .
Even those who did not understand Zeng Qing’s intentions know that Zeng Qing’ legs were very strong . When using the bow step stance, even if someone wanted to kick the cushioned guard, without a couple hundred jin of strength, there was no way to budge him in the least .
Li Yundong’s gaze simply focused on the thick cushioned guard in front of Zeng Qin’s chest . Then imitating Zeng Qin’s motions, he spun and, whoosh, performed a spinning side kick . His kick hit the cushioned guard with a bang!
Zeng Qing had not been able to react at all . His entire person once again flew through the air . This time, even though he flew while holding the cushioned guard, he still flew farther than three meters and slid along the ground for quite some distance further, until he finally hit the wall and stopped . He held his arm and moaned nonstop .
Li Yundong was somewhat surprised himself . He finally somewhat understood . It seemed a little something had certainly happened to him . At very least, his strength was greater than before by who know how many folds . Otherwise, how could he send a red belt expert flying with a single kick?
The surrounding students broke into an uproar . They stared at Li Yundong in inexplicable shock . What they saw a moment ago was too frightening . This fellow with the slightly chubby face sent Zeng Qing flying for several meters with a single kick .
“Just now, did that kick have one ton of force?”
“Don’t know . But it’s possible . That’s too scary . Even Zeng Qing with his weight of 160 jin plus his bow step stance was sent flying that far!”
“Heh, Bro Zeng was sent flying two times in a row . Does this count as flying in pairs******?”
“Ha! Brothers, you guy are hilarious . ”
The students whispered in each other’s ears . The little fox on the side saw that Li Yundong managed to repay his resentment . She cleared off her resentment as well due to Li Yundong . She had long since been unsatisfied with these combat techniques heavily inclined toward showmanship . Thus, she grabbed Li Yundong’s arm and said, “Yundong, let’s go . What can you even learn here? It’s all flowery fists and fancy footwork . Impressive to look at but ultimately useless . ”
Su Chan spoke out that undeniable fact . Those students around them who were wholehearted devoted to taekwondo immediately turned their head and glared .
Zhao Yujian who was telling the students to bring Zeng Qing to the school infirmary also turned his head around . A sneer appeared on his face . Even his handsome features gave off a sense of malevolence . “Very good! So you actually came to challenge our dojo!”
~~~
*These are the five tenets of TKD
**In taekwondo, the belt before black belt has various names, but its appearance is always a belt that has both red and black color, though the actual pattern may vary . In Chinese, it is called a red black belt . In English, it can be called a black strip belt, a senior red belt, a junior black belt… etc . You get the idea .
***宅男 zhainan – something like a NEET or a hikikomori, but since this is China, it’s more likely online games than anime or whatnot .
**** 翻身侧踢 You tell me, I don’t know and not even youtube helped (wasted 30 minutes of my time watching TKD and sumo wrestlers and wu shu plus mma though) . I don’t study martial arts in Chinese . The first part means flip and the second part means side kick… so does that mean backwards side kick? Spinning side kick? Turning side kick? Spinning back kick? Someone studying taekwondo from a Chinese instructor could probably tell you .
***** Previously, this was Feng Na . However, this is now Feng Nuo, where Nuo means elegant for a girl . I was reading Overgod Ascension and the MC is currently in a Western continent so a lot of names are western . So the brain processed this name as western too . Nuo and Na are written as the same Chinese character . It’s just in western names like Katrina or Nunnally it’s na and in eastern names like Feng Nuo or Li something Nuo or Wu Nuo something, it’s Nuo . Changes will be made to the previous chapter soon . As a side note, Feng Nuo likes to put useless sounds (for cuteness?) at the end of her sentences .
******双飞 shangfei – lit . flying in pairs: it’s also slang for threesome . Though I’m not sure if I should have translated this . It’s a bit too base . But it’s probably one of the way Chinese youths fight against government censorship .