Regarding the Youth Martial Tournament

Tuesday.

Two days had passed since the competition for the Youth Martial Tournament qualification.

News had spread; even outside the school, everyone knew.

The Youth Martial Tournament results were measured by city.

Cities ranking higher were proving their vitality to the outside world.

The more outstanding young people there were, the more vibrant the city naturally became.

Of course, if it were merely this kind of empty prestige, the Youth Martial Tournament wouldn't draw such high attention.

The reason so many people paid attention to the tournament was that behind it lay another important factor.

The tournament rankings would affect the development support each city could receive over the next two years.

Cities ranking higher demonstrated a greater ability to attract outstanding young people.

If they could attract outstanding young talent, then the decision-making bodies would naturally give those cities more support.

This support benefited everyone in Lingshan City.

Better employment environments, better living conditions, better educational opportunities.

With such stakes behind it, how could the tournament's attention ever be low?

Countless organizations without a single martial artist participant still followed the final rankings in real time.

The Southeast Region spanned three provinces, with sixty-two cities in total.

Each city typically sent more than ten participants.

But that number was usually just twelve or thirteen.

When calculating each city's contribution score, only the top ten from each city were counted.

Sending too many people was pointless.

The merit points needed to qualify for the Youth Martial Tournament weren't easy to earn.

So if there were extra people, organizations usually informed each other, and the city government would mediate.

For the biennial tournament, sending twelve or thirteen participants was standard.

Generally speaking, the public didn't pay much attention to the submission of participant lists.

But this time, Lingnan No.1 High School had spread word early on that Jin Fan would be sent to the tournament.

Swapping participants in the tournament was a normal occurrence.

Yet with over twenty days still to go, replacing Jin Fan drew a lot of attention.

Jin Fan frequently attended seminars organized by the Education Bureau, so many departments in the city knew him.

They were aware of his strength, and for this year's tournament, they had even regarded him as a core member.

No one expected the core member to be replaced...

Starting Tuesday, all kinds of rumors began to multiply.

People said that Jin Fan's absence from the tournament would affect the entire city of Lingshan.

Li Yuan simply ignored it. This tournament qualification was something he had earned himself.

The school leaders had already been unfair to him by setting up a competition.

Now that he had won, trying to snatch it away with such tactics was impossible.

Over the past few days, Chen Yong had been helping gather information everywhere.

He had foreseen this too—knowing that even if Li Yuan secured the tournament spot, things wouldn't go smoothly.

"Over at the city bureau, quite a few organizations are opposing you participating in the tournament.

Probably the school leaders said something during the meetings.

Jin Fan has quite a reputation in Lingshan City.

I heard that tactical arrangements for this tournament were even built around Jin Fan..."

Hearing Chen Yong's words, Li Yuan let out a light snort and smiled.

"If those organizations have their own slots and think they can't manage without Jin Fan, then they can just give their qualifications to him."

In terms of the rules, this was entirely feasible.

Lingnan No.1 High School could re-report Jin Fan, and other organizations with merit points could choose to exchange their qualifications.

But those merit points weren't easy to come by—which organization would willingly give them away?

Chen Yong naturally understood these rules too.

That wasn't what worried him. The current statements from various organizations were merely the prelude to more underhanded tactics.

"In the last two tournaments, Lingshan City didn't even make the top thirty—it's in the bottom half of cities.

Many people are saying that Jin Fan could push the ranking into the top fifteen this year."

Once you break into the top ten, the Southeast Region Decision Department will send an Economic Inspection Team.

Lingshan City hasn't secured any development policies in years, and a lot of people have their eyes on that..."

Chen Yong's brow furrowed even deeper as he spoke.

"Brother, look at the public opinion they're stirring up—how unfavorable it is for you.

Lingshan City's ranking was the result of over a dozen contestants working together.

By spinning it this way, they're pinning all the blame for the city's poor performance squarely on you!"

The more he talked, the angrier Chen Yong seemed to get.

He had watched Li Yuan's journey from the start and knew how much hardship and suffering he had endured.

For three years, every moment of rest was spent working to earn merit points.

Even if Lingshan City's results were bad, the responsibility should have been shared by everyone.

There was no reason to lay it all on Li Yuan alone.

Seeing Chen Yong breathing heavily with rage, Li Yuan quickly tried to calm him down.

He didn't want the one person who wasn't upset to end up choking on his own anger.

"After I turned thirty, I came to understand a lot of things.

One of them is that worrying too much about things that haven't happened yet isn't the path to a long life.

It's fine to plan ahead for how to deal with them, but making yourself miserable, unable to eat or sleep over it—that's absolutely not acceptable."

Li Yuan looked at Chen Yong and spoke seriously.

Once Chen Yong had calmed down, Li Yuan continued, addressing the troubles at hand.

"Compared to not being able to participate in the Youth Martial Tournament, the trouble they're stirring up is all minor stuff.

My primary goal in joining the tournament is to use this opportunity to advance to Fifth Grade and secure the rank of Intermediate Teacher.

As for them giving me a bad reputation—let them."

Prioritize—distinguish the main conflict from the secondary one.

Li Yuan used to care a lot about what others thought of him.

But what did all that caring ever get him?

The moment he fought for even a sliver of his own interests, all those good opinions crumbled instantly.

Compared to real strength, the so-called judgment of others is a completely useless thing.

Chen Yong nodded at this, acknowledging the logic.

After a moment's thought, he added a word of caution: "Still, you need to think about how to handle this. If the tournament ruins your reputation, you might never get another training opportunity."

What Chen Yong said was true.

If Lingshan City failed to achieve results in the Youth Martial Tournament and dumped all the blame on him, he'd be stained with a foul name, his reputation ruined, and he'd have offended the school leadership to boot.

From then on, any training opportunities would have nothing to do with him.

So in this tournament, the best course was to fight for an outstanding result, leaving no room for anyone to criticize.

With three talents in hand, even though the tournament would bring together geniuses from every city, there was no reason he couldn't snatch a good result!

Returning home from work, Li Yuan closed his eyes and looked at the light screen.

At the very bottom of the screen, his current experience points were recorded.

[Experience: 49/400]

In two days, he had picked up a little over forty experience points.

The fourth Talent Point would require four hundred experience points.

Li Yuan did the math carefully and felt that the rate at which he was acquiring Talent Points was actually pretty fast.

When he taught the kids at school, as long as they were attentive, there were always some insights to gain.

Especially during this period, since he was covering new material.

Teaching new content always yielded more insights.

In fact, Li Yuan had been a bit puzzled lately.

The light orbs dropping from other classes were now far fewer than those from Class Nine and Class Fourteen.

Even the advanced classes couldn't compare.

Was it because his teaching was better, or did guiding others to improve make it easier for light orbs to drop?