After the Martial Competition, Attitudes of All Sides

Sunday was another day of rest.

Even though he had already secured his spot in the Youth Martial Tournament, Li Yuan didn't slack off.

The Youth Martial Tournament was at the end of this month.

There were still over twenty days left, which wasn't exactly short.

But during those twenty-plus days, classes and teaching would still demand time and energy.

The time he could fully dedicate to his own cultivation was actually not much.

Now, he had already obtained three Talent Points.

These three Talents could bring tremendous help.

But having Talents alone, while being too lazy to cultivate, would yield no improvement.

Li Yuan's current training was focused on making final preparations for advancing to Fifth Grade.

At the same time, he also had to invest effort into finding a cultivation technique more suited to him.

On Sunday, Li Yuan spent the entire day tempering his physique again.

Monday, he still arrived at school early.

Even with the competition over and his Youth Martial Tournament spot confirmed, Li Yuan didn't slip up or give the school administration any openings.

Trying to make things difficult for him, to nitpick at such trivial details—it was useless.

Ten minutes before class started, Principal Yin and Director Ma actually came to the staff office to check.

When they saw Li Yuan's figure, disappointment flickered across their faces.

"Pride" is usually followed by "a fall."

But Li Yuan didn't follow that pattern. Even though he had already secured his Youth Martial Tournament spot, he still didn't give them even a minor issue like tardiness.

Other teachers in the office now took the initiative to greet Li Yuan.

Li Yuan had never had bad relationships at Lingshan No.1 High School.

During the fight for the Youth Martial Tournament spot, most teachers just watched with a spectator's mindset.

And within that spectator mindset, their subconscious was still on Li Yuan's side.

He wasn't the only one who wanted the school administration to take a loss.

It was just that many people were still thinking about the bigger picture, looking at the long term, and had to keep their heads down on the surface.

After getting an A+ rating in the Open Class, Li Yuan had secured his job.

Back then, the attitudes of the teachers around him had already started to shift.

After winning the match on Saturday, many teachers even felt a bit of admiration for Li Yuan.

Standing up to fight like that, and winning—it truly earned respect.

In response to the goodwill from other teachers, Li Yuan returned the same courtesy.

He didn't let getting the Youth Martial Tournament spot go to his head.

The clock-in time passed; anyone coming after that would be marked late.

Li Yuan glanced over and saw Yin Yi's seat—empty.

"He took leave. If it were me, I definitely wouldn't be able to show up today either."

Before Li Yuan could ask, a nearby teacher explained with a smile.

Everyone had watched Saturday's match. The one who lost the most face wasn't Gu Yu—it was Yin Yi.

Before the match, he was full of confidence, saying all those arrogant things.

In the end, Gu Yu, who was far inferior to him, lost to Li Yuan. That was a huge embarrassment.

He'd definitely need a few more days before he could muster the nerve to come to school.

In the morning, Li Yuan handled some miscellaneous tasks. In the afternoon, he continued teaching as usual.

Doing one's duty in one's position—being a teacher was still a very special role.

No matter how uncomfortable Li Yuan felt inside, he took his teaching seriously.

For Li Yuan, this teaching assignment wasn't just a job anymore.

In the process of teaching, he could pick up light points and gain experience.

To condense one Talent Point later on, the required experience would only increase.

Relying on himself alone to accumulate experience would be far too slow.

At school, there were so many students.

If each one dropped a light point, the experience gained would be considerable.

But there was one thing that puzzled Li Yuan: he had been picking up light points for a while now.

It seemed that many students had never dropped a light point around them at all.

The ninth and fourteenth classes that Li Yuan taught were fine—after each lesson, quite a few light points would fall.

As for the other parallel classes, when Li Yuan passed by their training rooms, he often saw just a handful of light points.

With so many students, did they really have no insights at all?

Li Yuan knew his own abilities were limited; he didn't have the energy to teach more students.

Besides, now Li Yuan wanted to avoid stirring up trouble. He only wanted to steady himself and prepare for this Youth Martial Tournament.

Today was the ninth class's lesson. Li Yuan walked into the training room.

He saw the ninth-class students standing unusually straight, greeting him with a "Good morning, teacher."

Seeing them like this, Li Yuan was first startled, then smiled and told them to sit down.

Whether a teacher is respected by middle school students depends very little on teaching ability.

The teacher's own honors and his personal strength are both very important factors.

When Jin Fan gave lectures, he was actually quite casual.

He just explained things however he understood them, glossing over the details.

He carried a kind of contemptuous arrogance toward middle school knowledge.

Yet with this kind of teaching attitude, quite a few students said he taught well.

Even the students' parents spread word outside about how high his teaching quality was.

In essence, it was the fame of Jin Fan's own strength that blinded people to the real quality of his teaching.

If students didn't understand in Jin Fan's class, they could only blame their own lack of ability.

In the class of a teacher like Li Yuan, who lacked such renown, students only dared to speak up when they didn't understand.

At that point, most parents wouldn't blame themselves.

Only when facing an ordinary teacher would they dare to say that the teaching quality wasn't high enough, causing the students to fail to learn.

The two lessons went smoothly. The ninth-class students listened very attentively.

In the parallel classes, the ones with the worst grades were usually just coasting through.

In the past, the teachers had only one requirement for them: don't disturb the others.

Ever since teaching Sinking Mountain Fist, many students with average grades had started paying attention in Li Yuan's class.

After the sparring match this Saturday, it was no longer just paying attention—they were listening seriously.

Teacher sparring matches were not uncommon in various schools.

But when schools held such matches, they banned students from watching.

No matter which teacher lost, it wasn't good.

The sparring match on Saturday was a special case.

The school's leadership had used this opportunity to make Li Yuan look bad.

They wanted Li Yuan to lose the match in front of the students, humiliated and disgraced, unable to hold his head up.

They never expected that this arrangement would instead benefit Li Yuan.

Without needing others to spread the word, most students had witnessed Li Yuan's performance with their own eyes.

Although the one he defeated wasn't Jin Fan, Gu Yu still had a reputation.

The best top scholar in fifty years, a master's disciple.

With these two titles on him, being defeated by Li Yuan in a sparring match naturally boosted Li Yuan's reputation.

Of course, there were those who didn't accept this result.

Some said that Li Yuan and Gu Yu had too great an age gap—a full nine years.

Li Yuan had nine more years of cultivation than Gu Yu!

Secondly, their sparring match had suppressed martial realm to the fourth grade.

In real combat, or in the practical experience of the Youth Martial Tournament, martial realms wouldn't be suppressed.

This kind of argument had been circulating since the sparring match ended on Saturday.

But no matter how much they brought it up, they couldn't deny that Li Yuan had won the match.

The Cloud Extreme Fist that Li Yuan used had left Gu Yu unable to withstand it.

This was the complete opposite of what they had expected—that Gu Yu would easily win the match.