Ding!
Taekwondo — even though the word "fist" is in its name — in competitive taekwondo, only straight punches are allowed.
Hooks, uppercuts, jabs from the side? None of that exists.
Use one, and sorry, that's a foul.
Sure, some schools teach regular form-based fist techniques mixed in here and there.
But at the end of the day, the core of taekwondo has always been in the legs.
Over at the boxing club, it's all fists. Use a leg, and that's a foul.
The two rule sets couldn't clash more violently.
If this exhibition match followed either side's rules, the other side would be crippled — half their skills gone.
So the rules had to be modified.
The supervising teacher, acting as referee, walked to the center of the gym with a microphone and cleared his throat.
"To let both sides fully use their techniques, this match will follow freestyle combat rules. No ground pursuit after a knockdown, but normal attacks and ground strikes are allowed. Any objections?"
Li Yongkang and Chen Yixuan exchanged looks and both shook their heads.
"No."
"Good. Each match has three rounds, each round three minutes. If there's no KO by the end of three rounds, victory is decided by score."
Neither had any objections.
The teacher stepped back, swung his arm down sharply, and shouted:
"Begin!"
The sidelines went quiet at once. Everyone's eyes locked onto the center.
Interestingly enough, neither fighter rushed forward after the bell.
Both wore gloves and protective gear.
Li Yongkang stood on his side, hands raised in front of his chest, breathing steady. He stared at Chen Yixuan across from him, running through his strategy quickly in his mind.
Black belt, third dan. He'd trained for years, and he had absolute confidence in his kicks.
Boxing club? They only posed a threat up close. Keep the distance under control, and the match would stay on his terms.
Chen Yixuan started moving.
His feet danced lightly and rapidly, body leaning slightly forward, center of gravity low.
It was the standard footwork of a boxer — shifting position constantly to create angles while avoiding the opponent's attacks.
But there was a problem.
He seemed to have forgotten that today's rules allowed kicks.
Li Yongkang shuffled closer, feinting a couple of times.
Chen Yixuan's attention was focused entirely on the other guy's fists. He covered both sides of his head, ready to close in and brawl.
Seeing that defensive posture, Li Yongkang's mouth twitched.
Right now.
He lunged forward, swung his right leg in a low arc — not high, just striking the outside of the thigh.
Smack!
The surface of his leg landed cleanly on Chen Yixuan's left leg.
Chen Yixuan took the low kick and stumbled a step to the right, nearly losing his balance.
He reacted quickly. The first thing he did after steadying himself was to throw punches in return.
A boxer's instinct — get hit, then push forward.
But before he could get his fists out, Li Yongkang had already closed in and hammered two quick punches to his chest.
Thud! Thud!
The fists slammed against the protective gear with a dull sound.
A few people from the taekwondo club cheered, but Lin Mo sat there, his brow slightly furrowed.
Something wasn't right.
Logically, at that distance and angle, Li Yongkang could have gone straight for the head.
When Chen Yixuan lost his balance, his head was wide open.
But Li Yongkang aimed for the chest.
Simple reason: in competitive taekwondo, the scoring area for punches is the torso.
After all those years competing, Li Yongkang's body reacted faster than his brain. He subconsciously went for the torso.
Both punches hit the armor. The effect was just about zero.
Chen Yixuan used the gap to take two steps back, reestablishing distance and catching his breath.
Sweat had broken out on his forehead. That kick had rattled him. When he trained boxing, he never had to defend against kicks.
Plus his legs had no armor. That one strike from Li Yongkang still left his thigh throbbing.
Lin Mo stood up.
"Li Yongkang!"
His voice cut through the noisy cheers and reached the gym floor clearly.
"This isn't a taekwondo match. Don't box yourself in with competitive rules. Aim for the head too. Nothing in the rules stops you — use whatever you've got."
The boxing club people's faces darkened.
A spectator coaching from the sidelines?
But the supervising teacher didn't say anything. Sideline coaching wasn't against the rules.
And it wasn't just Li Yongkang who could hear it — Chen Yixuan could too. It benefited both of them, really.
Li Yongkang paused for a second, then snapped out of it.
Right.
If those two punches had landed on the face, Chen Yixuan might not even be standing right now.
He was too used to competitive mode. His body had automatically avoided head strikes.
This mindset needed to change.
Chen Yixuan wasn't stupid either.
After eating that kick, he realized the biggest threat wasn't the fists — it was the leg.
What does a boxer fear? Getting suppressed at mid-to-long range by kicks, unable to even get close.
So his strategy was crystal clear.
Close the distance!
As long as he got in tight, the leg couldn't come up.
Chen Yixuan's footwork suddenly sped up. He slid into the inside line with a quick step, throwing three straight jabs — all aimed at Li Yongkang's face.
Not testing the waters. All-out attacks.
Li Yongkang blocked two punches with his arms, and the third grazed past his ear, still catching the headgear.
A boxer's punches definitely hit harder than a taekwondo fighter's. No debate there — that's all they train day in and day out.
Chen Yixuan held the distance, throwing punch after punch, refusing to let Li Yongkang pull back.
Close combat is a boxer's home turf.
People from the boxing club started shouting: "Hit him! Aim for the face!"
The taekwondo members grew tense, yelling at the ring: "Get away! Don't get tangled up!"
Chen Yixuan suppressed Li Yongkang with four or five punches. The protective gear absorbed most of the force, but two hits landed on his cheeks. His left cheekbone started to burn.
If this kept up, he'd lose the round.
But just as Chen Yixuan threw another punch, Li Yongkang shoved both hands forward hard, pushing him back half a step.
Just half a step.
That was enough.
Li Yongkang seemed to have suddenly figured something out. His punching style completely changed.
No more of those stiff, competitive-taekwondo straight punches. He cut loose.
Half a step was too tight for a kick, but he could still use his fists!
Straight punch to open, hook punch to follow, and a right uppercut to finish it off.
Left punch for damage, right punch for power.
Three punches strung together, fast and vicious.
That last one, the uppercut, landed square on Chen Yixuan's headguard.
Chen Yixuan's head snapped to the right, his vision blurred, his legs stopped obeying commands, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
He never expected Li Yongkang's fists to pack that much power.
The gym fell dead silent.
Standing on the sidelines, Lin Mo couldn't help but smile.
An Yuexin looked up at him.
"Master Mo, what's so funny?"
"The truth is, Li Yongkang's punches have always been pretty strong. Everyone just assumes he's only good at kicking."
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
