raising a fox spirit in my home
Everyone in the dojo, boys and girls alike, could sense that Li Yundong and pimple dude were about to butt heads.
Yo, guys! Check this out! Looks like there's going to be a show. Grab the popcorn!
The people of this country loved a good show. They just couldn't help it; it was innate.
Even those who had changed out of their gis and were about to leave the dojo changed their minds about leaving; they, too, had sensed that a show was about to happen and, like everyone else, they didn't want to miss it. So, they rejoined the crowd at the sparring mats. Some of them sat down while others preferred to stand.
On the way to the sparring mats, Li Yundong took in his surroundings. He soon realized that this place was originally a huge lecture hall that had later been renovated into a dojo. At the center of the dojo, the flags of two countries hung overhead. Beneath the flags was a banner with a tiny, golden figure printed on top. The golden figure depicted one of Taekwondo's signature kicks, the high side kick. Further below hung three more white banners, each of which contained a line of Chinese characters written in impeccable calligraphy: Courtesy and integrity, perseverance and self-control, indomitable spirit! The three calligraphical banners presented the five tenets of Taekwondo.
The dojo had an area of roughly 200 square meters; it was very wide and spacious. Shock-absorbent rubber mats were used as the flooring. On the mats, several white lines were drawn to divide the dojo into sections. Within these sections, club members were sparring with each other in pairs. Students dressed in white gis could be seen sitting cross-legged on the floor to watch the sparring sessions.
Su Chan followed closely behind Li Yundong. Her eyes, filled with curiosity, darted around the dojo as she took everything in. The curious glint in her eyes vanished the moment she laid eyes on the students who were sparring on the mat; it was replaced by a look of intense disappointment and contempt.
So this is the martial art that Yundong is interested in learning? Su Chan thought. That's a joke, right? Can you actually strike anyone with these showy kicks?
All of a sudden, Su Chan felt a strong impulse to drag Li Yundong away and teach him herself. But when she raised her head and saw the look of excitement on Li Yundong's face, she suddenly didn't have the heart to ruin his fun. Instead of dragging him away, Su Chan remained by Li Yundong's side with a long face.
When Li Yundong walked in with a noisy crowd in tow, everyone in the dojo stopped what they were doing and glanced towards the source of the commotion.
Li Yundong's eyes were sharp. It didn't take him more than a quick glance to locate Zhao Yujian giving out guided lessons in the largest section of the dojo. Zhao Yujian, the same guy who had confessed to Zhou Qin (and got his ass totally rejected) before, was now dressed in his full Taekwondo uniform with a black belt tied around his waist.
Dots of perspiration lined Zhao Yujian's forehead. With his tall and lean figure, muscular arms, narrow waist, and handsome face, Zhao Yujian was no doubt the paragon of masculinity. Most of the girls in the dojo were gathered around him like a bunch of star-struck fangirls. And judging from the utterly besotted looks in their eyes, it was doubtful that these girls could even remember their own names if asked. Heck, not even Li Yundong could smother the feelings of envy rising inside him when he saw Zhao Yujian who, for all intents and purposes, looked like a frigging Adonis right then. What a waste of talent if this guy doesn't become a movie star one day, Li Yundong thought.
Turning his eyes towards another section of the dojo, Li Yundong saw something even more surprising: Zhou Qin and Ding Nan, both dressed in Taekwondo uniforms, were sitting on the mat, staring right back at him.
When Li Yundong met Zhou Qin's gaze, he was thrown into a daze. But he quickly recovered and gave Zhou Qin a brief nod as a gesture of gratitude for the help she had given him last time. Zhou Qin's countenance, on the other hand, was devoid of expression. Her eyes lingered on Li Yundong's face for a moment longer, but that was it. After that, she looked away and never looked at him again.
Ding Nan was staring at Li Yundong with interest even after Zhou Qin had turned away. Ding Nan was sizing him up, he was sure of it. Then again, Li Yundong hated that mean woman's guts, so his eyes didn't linger on her for long.
Pimple dude led Li Yundong to an empty section of the dojo. Then, with both hands holding his belt, he spoke in a bold and uninhibited tone: "Since you're a new member of the club, I will handle your lesson for today. You got a problem with that?"
"Yes, I do," Li Yundong said. "You have a prejudice against me. I don't want to be taught by you."
Pimple dude snorted. "Then prove it! Prove to me that my prejudice against you is unfounded! After all, you're here for Taekwondo lessons, aren't you? Well, I'm the second best member in this club. You're lucky to have me as your teacher!"
Yeah, right. As if Li Yundong's pride could stomach that kind of condescension. He released a cold sneer before turning around to walk away.
"Hah! I knew you'd run. After all, isn't that the only thing you're good at? Running away like a coward?" Behind Li Yundong, pimple dude kept mocking him. "Don't think you're some kind of badass just because you know a few escape moves. Let me tell you something, dipshit. That thing you did the other day? It's called parkour, if you put it nicely that is. There's another term for it that doesn't sound as nice. It's called, 'fleeing for your life'!"
The other students in the dojo were appalled by those words. The looks that pimple dude was receiving were now filled with disdain and contempt.
Li Yundong, of course, was angered by those words, though he wasn't the only one; Su Chan was furious as well.
"If you don't go back there and teach him a lesson right now, I swear I'll do it for you!" Su Chan said. On her face was look of fury that was rarely seen on her.
Li Yundong reached out and held her back.
Su Chan turned her head around and shot him a glare. "What the hell are you doing? Let go of me! I can't believe you can tolerate this kind of humiliation without doing anything about it! You're pathetic!"
Li Yundong gave pimple dude a death stare. Then, he yanked Su Chan back and positioned her behind his own body. "This is between men," Li Yundong said. "Women should stay out of it."
A chorus of cheers broke out in the dojo; clearly, the boys loved that line. At this point, there wasn't a single spot on pimple guy's face that wasn't imbued with mockery. He started clapping loudly. "Well said, well said! Come on, then. Let us settle this like men, shall we? Let's go a few rounds as practice," pimple guy challenged.
Li Yundong stepped forward. "Oh yeah? How would you like to practice?" Li Yundong said with a cold sneer. "Whatever it is, I'm game!"
At this point, anyone with a functioning brain could tell that a confrontation was imminent. Everyone, including Zhao Yujian, had stopped their activities and were now looking over towards Li Yundong.
At first, Zhao Yujian had planned to step in and put an end to the confrontation. But when he saw Su Chan, who was standing beside Li Yundong, he literally froze. Dang! This chick's beauty was at least on par with Zhou Qin's if not greater! Besides, this girl actually had emotions. She looked absolutely stunning whether she was angry or happy. This added an extra facet to her appeal compared to Zhou Qin's aloof beauty.
How could a babe of such caliber choose to be with a loser like Li Yundong? It was mind-boggling.
Zhao Yujian was pissed off to the core, and his eyes sought out Zhou Qin subconsciously. If Zhao Yujian thought that the sight of Zhou Qin would make him feel better, then he had another think coming. Zhou Qin's eyes were trained on Li Yundong, and they were neither aloof nor cold; those eyes were sparkling with interest and curiosity.
At that moment, Zhao Yujian's insides turned into a raging inferno of jealousy. He sneered inwardly and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Like hell he was going to step in and stop this confrontation. It was time to watch pimple dude humiliate Li Yundong in front of everyone.
Zhao Yujian had a pretty good idea of pimple dude's current level of skills. Although the guy was a red belt, that was just his qualification from last year. This year, Zhao Yujian was pretty confident that the guy had improved to somewhere between a red and black belt; in fact, Zhao Yujian thought pimple dude was pretty close to his own level.
The guy was born with a lot of raw strength. With just his bare hands, he could take out several guys at once without even breaking a sweat. Pit him against a fat, homebody in a one on one fight? Please. He'd win even with his eyes closed.
With a wave of his hand, pimple dude signaled to a student standing on the side. The student came back moments later with a kick pad. Pimple dude took the kick pad and tossed it at Li Yundong. "Since you're interested in Taekwondo, then I shall demonstrate to you one of the most powerful kicks in Taekwondo. The spinning side kick!"
The students expressed their surprise inwardly, though they were starting to fear for Li Yundong's personal safety.
The spinning side kick was pimple dude's killer move. On his best day, he could generate a thousand pounds of force with that move! A normal person would be sent flying by the kick even if they were holding a protective kick pad.
And yet the first thing pimple dude did was asking Li Yundong to hold the kick pad. Clearly, his intentions weren't pure.
Li Yundong grabbed the pad and held it firmly in front of his chest. A bitter smile formed on Li Yundong's face when he thought about the situation he was in. To hell with it, he thought. I'd rather have my ass kicked than be a coward! He repeated that thought in his mind like a mantra. Other than that, he thought of nothing else.
Little did Li Yundong know that his present mindset was synonymous to a particular state of being that was well-known to those adept in the art of Cultivation; namely, the Pentaharmonious State. In the Pentaharmonious state, the five states of one's existence are in simultaneous harmony: one's heart is harmonious with one's will, one's will with one's spirit, one's spirit with one's Qi, and finally, one's Qi with one's strength. It is only in such a state that a person could unleash his or her full strength.
Pimple dude rolled his head around his neck and loosened his wrists. Then, he began bouncing on the balls of his feet. After he was thoroughly warmed up, he curled his fingers at Li Yundong and said, "Hey, are you ready?"
Li Yundong clenched his jaw. "I'm ready!"
"Alright, then!" Pimple dude took a deep breath. A split second later, he spun around and unleashed a vicious side kick. The kick was a powerful one due to the mechanics of its execution. The form of the kick allowed pimple dude's body weight, the force generated by his muscles, and also the added momentum from the quick spin of his body, to be channeled into a single strike.
Li Yundong held the pad with both hands, leaving several inches between the pad and his chest.
BAM!
A loud crash reverberated around the dojo as pimple dude's foot slammed into the pad, creating a dent so deep that the pad actually bent a little.
A split second after the kick landed, something amazing happened. It turned out that pimple dude didn't stop his body's momentum even after his kick had landed on the pad. Instead, he had followed through the kick by throwing the entire weight of his body onto his feet in an attempt to send Li Yundong flying; however, at the exact moment the pad struck Li Yundong's chest, a sudden burst of force radiated from Li Yundong's core. In an instant, pimple dude felt a shockwave travelling from the sole of his feet through his entire body. The next thing he knew, he was airborne.
Su Chan failed to contain her laughter. She remembered the few times when she herself had been thrown away in a similar fashion after Li Yundong had consumed the Jindan.
If the onlookers in the dojo were bespectacled, they would probably be picking up their glasses from the floor right about now. There they were, gaping at whatever the hell it was that they had just witnessed. Never in a million years had they expected that pimple dude would be the one flying away like a rag doll.
Zhao Yujian, who had been watching the fight from the sidelines, frowned. "Hey, Zeng Qing! What the hell are you doing?" he roared.
Zeng Qing climbed to his feet. At this point, he knew that backing away wasn't an option; he was already in too deep. Blushing to the tips of his ears, Zeng Qing glared at Zhao Yujian. "It's nothing," he said. "My foot slipped, that's all!"
Zhao Yujian snorted derisively, clearly not buying the excuse. Still, he didn't call the guy out.
Zeng Qing walked back towards Li Yundong and stood before him. "Do you even know how to hold the pad properly?" Zeng Qing snapped, angry at being humiliated just now.
"How was I supposed to hold it, then?" Li Yundong bit back coldly.
Zeng Qing ripped the pad from Li Yundong's hands and place it squarely against his own chest. "There! That's how you're supposed to hold it," Zeng Qing yelled. "Don't resist the strike with your body, otherwise you'll get hurt!"
"Yeah? It isn't the one holding the pad who got hurt from what I see," Feng Na said in a strange tone.
Zeng Qing blushed and glared daggers at Feng Na. Then, he turned back to Li Yundong. "You do the kicking this time," he yelled. "Let me show you how you're supposed to hold the pad!"
Despite his previous words, Zeng Qing was secretly grinding his teeth. Payback time, you son of a bitch! Let me give you a taste of your own medicine!
In kicking demonstrations like this where a person holds a pad while the other person kicks, it is easy for the kicking person to sprain his or her ankle if the pad holder pushes back against the kick instead of holding the pad still. Zeng Qing had been extremely lucky just now to have avoided any injuries. But now, he was dead set on f*cking up Li Yundong's leg. All he had to do was tilt the pad a little at the right moment...
Hehehe!
Li Yundong took a few steps forward and stopped in front of Zeng Qing.
"Can I start now?" Li Yundong asked with an impassive look on his face.
Zeng Qing held the pad in front of him and got into a forward lunge position with half of his body facing Li Yundong. Of course, several students had already figured out what Zeng Qing was planning. Deep down, they all scorned Zeng Qing's despicable behavior.
Even those students who hadn't seen through Zeng Qing's intention were skeptical about Li Yundong's chances of toppling Zeng Qing; they knew how much leg strength Zeng Qing had, not to mention his outstanding core strength. Those two aspects combined would make his stance immovable. The kick would have to generate at least several hundred kilos of force to budge Zeng Qing from his stance.
Li Yundong eyes were focused on the thick pad in front of Zeng Qing's chest. Moments later, he copied Zeng Qing's earlier movement by spinning around and delivering a side kick.
BAM!
Li Yundong's foot slammed into the pad.
Before Zeng Qing even knew what had hit him, he was flying across the dojo. The pad never even left his hands; he was still hugging it when he flew. Zeng Qing's body crashed into the floor about three meters away from Li Yundong and slid along the mat until it hit the wall at the far end of the dojo. When it was all over, Zeng Qing was cradling his arms, moaning and groaning.
Li Yundong himself was a little bit taken aback by what he just did. He was finally convinced that something major had happened to his body. Something inside his body had changed. Now, he was pretty sure he was God knows how many times stronger that he used to be. How else could he have sent a frigging Taekwondo red belt flying away with just a kick?
The entire dojo was in an uproar. Everyone was looking at Li Yundong with strange looks on their faces. What in the ever loving f*ck just happened? Did Mr. Chubby Face just send Zeng Qing flying several meters away with just a kick? What a terrifying sight!
"How much strength do you reckon that kick packed? A ton?"
"Beats the hell out of me, pal. But I think it's pretty close. I mean, holy shit, dude, did you see that? That's f*cking insane! Zeng Qing weighs like, what, eighty kilos? He was even in a lunge position with his quads fully engaged. And yet he was still kicked that far away!"
"Hey, this is the second time, right? The second time that Brother Zeng was sent flying? Does this count as a double flight?" (T/N: in Mandarin, 'double flight' is a term for having a threesome')
"Hah! Can't believe you came up with that, bro. You're a genius!"
While the students were whispering with their heads together, Su Chan was watching Li Yundong on the sidelines. Moments later, she saw him blowing out a breath of frustration, which compelled her to do the same. Martial arts like this, which placed more emphasis on aesthetics rather than function, annoyed her. She walked across the sparring ring and grabbed Li Yundong's arm.
"Let's go, Yundong," Su Chan said, tugging his arm. "What's there to learn here, anyway? All these fancy kicks are just for show, not practical use!"
Su Chan's blunt statement angered the Taekwondo aficionados there, who were now casting angry glances towards them.
Zhao Yujian, who had just finished ordering a few students to carry Zeng Qing to the university's health center, turned around as well. A snide smile adorned his handsome face. Behind the smile, however, was a bloodthirsty look. "Oh, so you're here to challenge the dojo, I see!"