Open Class, an Extremely Difficult Lesson

Over the next two days, Li Yuan picked up quite a few Light Points whenever he taught the two classes.

Driven by Class Nine and Class Fourteen, the other classes also began diligently practicing the Sinking Mountain Fist.

Whenever Li Yuan passed by other classes, he picked up some Light Points.

It seemed that listening to the students' pointers had brought him some modest gains as well.

During those two days of classes, Li Yuan saw Director Ma and the principal coming to inspect more than once.

It looked like they wanted to catch him making mistakes while teaching.

Unfortunately for them, Li Yuan had always taken teaching seriously.

It would not be so easy to find fault with him.

After inspecting for two days, they stopped coming.

Thursday was the Open Class.

It was not until Wednesday evening that Li Yuan received the official notice.

The content of the Open Class had been assigned by the school.

Li Yuan looked at the lesson he had been assigned. It was on Flickering Shadow Steps.

Movement Arts had always been difficult in martial arts training.

Much of the time, they could only be conveyed through mental imagery and could not be put into words.

If he wanted to explain it clearly to the students, he had to understand it extremely thoroughly himself.

Assigning him this lesson was probably meant to earn him a low evaluation in the Open Class.

Li Yuan did not complain. He simply took out Flickering Shadow Steps and studied it again.

After his comprehension had improved, rereading it really did reveal much more.

Li Yuan had always understood the key points and difficulties of this Movement Technique.

But this rereading made him understand why the key points mattered and where exactly the difficulties lay.

The Enlightenment to Perfection talent allowed him to thoroughly comprehend techniques from their very foundation.

This Open Class would have a total of twenty teachers giving lessons.

That evening, Li Yuan received a message from Chen Yong saying that he had been scheduled as the eighth teacher.

The seven teachers before him were all outstanding teachers from Lingshan No.1 High School.

They wanted to compare him with those before and after him, making his performance stand out as poor.

After a night passed, Li Yuan arrived at school early just after dawn.

Over these two days, twenty teachers would be giving lessons, so the schedule would be very tight.

The Open Class began at nine in the morning, and each teacher had forty-five minutes.

Li Yuan was eighth in line, so he would probably not begin until the afternoon.

The First High School students would mainly study on their own that day.

Whichever class was selected for the Open Class, the teacher would go to that class to teach.

At eight thirty, seven Education Department Leaders arrived.

Principal Yin and Director Ma accompanied them personally, along with five senior teachers from First High School who would participate in the Open Class evaluations.

At nine, the first teacher officially began his lesson.

The lesson assigned to him was a breakdown of a heavy saber technique.

Aside from something like the Sinking Mountain Fist, teaching specific martial skills was generally not too difficult.

Heavy sabers were especially convenient for demonstration and practice, so this topic would not receive a poor evaluation.

After thirty minutes of explanation and demonstration, it was time for student questions.

The students' questions were simple and few.

After the students' questions, the questions from the other teachers were the hardest part of the Open Class.

The questioning portion was divided into two parts.

First came questions from the senior teachers of Lingshan No.1 High School. As colleagues from the same school, they would not make things too difficult.

Their questions usually sounded difficult, but in reality, the questions themselves contained guidance.

But the questions from the Education Department Leaders that followed were genuinely difficult.

Every year at the Open Class, quite a few teachers were left speechless by their questions.

For example, at that very moment, this teacher had already begun facing questions from the Education Department Leaders.

"Teacher Zheng, you just said during your lesson that the core of this saber technique lies in its 'momentum,' using intent to drive the saber's momentum and break the enemy.

"If the saber's momentum moves according to intent, shouldn't the core lie in 'intent' instead?"

As soon as the Education Department Leader asked the question, Teacher Zheng visibly grew flustered and nervous.

Seeing that Teacher Zheng could not respond for quite some time, the Education Department Leader waved his hand and had the students go to the field to exercise and rest first.

That gesture showed that they were about to offer criticism.

To preserve the teacher's dignity, they had the students leave before saying it.

Li Yuan stood at the back with the other teachers, listening to the Education Department Leader's criticism.

They said Teacher Zheng's teaching was overly rigid.

Even his own understanding of the Basic Techniques lacked sufficient depth.

With that kind of teaching guidance, the students could only imitate what they saw and would never learn the profound core of it.

Li Yuan saw the other teachers around him frowning deeply, worried that they would be scolded later as well.

Li Yuan, on the other hand, listened attentively.

The Education Department Leaders were highly knowledgeable.

The points they raised were also the shortcomings Li Yuan had noticed in Teacher Zheng.

Of course, Li Yuan had noticed more problems than just those.

After forty-five minutes, that Open Class lesson was completely over.

Director Ma combined the opinions of the First High School teachers and the department leaders, giving the lesson a B Grade evaluation.

The evaluation result was not the final term rating, but it carried important weight in the final term rating!

Immediately afterward, the second teacher began her Open Class.

She performed much better than Teacher Zheng. Though she hesitated and stumbled when facing the department leaders' questions, she still managed to answer them.

In the end, she received an A Minus.

The Open Class continued, and overall, the teachers performed fairly well.

They had received their lesson topics several days before Li Yuan.

They had made considerable preparations in advance, which was why they performed as they did.

At noon, everyone ate simple boxed lunches together, then the Open Class continued in the afternoon.

At four ten, it was Li Yuan's turn to teach.

Li Yuan's lesson that day was Flickering Shadow Steps, a Movement Art that was somewhat difficult both to understand and to put into practice.

Many teachers even believed that this technique chose its practitioners.

In other words, many people were destined to never learn Flickering Shadow Steps.

If it had not chosen them, they could not learn it. No matter how they listened, they would never understand it.

But after rereading it, Li Yuan had clarified its most fundamental principles and was confident that he could explain it completely.

As they watched Li Yuan walk onto the podium, the teachers standing at the back were full of sympathy.

"Other than special requirements, Teacher Li Yuan is the first one assigned to teach a Movement Art class, isn't he...?"

"The leaders still remember what he said last Friday..."

"So many senior teachers can't explain it thoroughly. There'll be questions afterward too. How is he supposed to get through this...?"

Several teachers discussed it in low voices.

Li Yuan got along fairly well with others. Since his character was not a problem, people actually found him quite pleasant to be around.

"I heard the leaders intend to give Teacher Li a C Grade for his final term evaluation.

"For today's Open Class, he'll most likely receive a C Grade first..."

The Education Department Leaders were also surprised.

When they normally went out to evaluate martial arts teachers, unless they were forcibly assigned a topic, no one chose to teach Movement Arts.

Sometimes, even when the topic was requested in advance, teachers would find excuses to evade it.

Yet today, a teacher had actually chosen it voluntarily.

And he was teaching Flickering Shadow Steps, a relatively difficult technique even among Movement Arts.

They could be somewhat lenient when someone explained a more difficult topic.

But if he made mistakes in many places and could not answer the questions, they could not possibly give him a good evaluation just because he chose a difficult subject.

Under everyone's gaze, Li Yuan began the lesson.

Step by step, Li Yuan began with the most fundamental needs behind Movement Arts.

The uses of Movement Arts could broadly be summarized into three categories: basic movement, combat offense and defense, and tactical maneuvering.

When studying Movement Arts, one should return to those three uses and understand the technique through what it was used for.

When Li Yuan reached that point, the eyes of the Education Department Leaders lit up.

This method of understanding was novel, and it seemed highly practical!