Tuesday.
Two days had passed since the martial match for the Youth Martial Tournament qualification.
The news had spread, and even people outside the school knew about it.
The Youth Martial Tournament results were assessed by city.
A highly ranked city proved its vitality to the outside world.
The more numerous and outstanding its young people were, the more vibrant the city naturally became.
Of course, if it were merely for that kind of empty prestige, the Youth Martial Tournament would not have drawn such widespread attention.
The reason so many people followed the Youth Martial Tournament was that there was another important factor behind it.
The tournament rankings would affect the development support each city could receive over the following two years.
Higher-ranked cities showed that they were better able to attract exceptional young people.
If they could attract exceptional young people, the decision-makers would naturally grant those cities more support.
That support benefited everyone in Lingshan City.
Better job opportunities, better living conditions, better educational environments.
With such reasons behind it, how could the Youth Martial Tournament possibly receive little attention?
Many organizations did not have a single martial artist participating, yet they still followed the final rankings in real time.
There were three provinces and a total of sixty-two cities in the Southeast Region.
Each city generally sent more than ten people.
But the number was usually just twelve or thirteen.
When calculating each city's contribution score, only its top ten participants were counted.
Sending too many people was meaningless.
The Grade Points required to qualify for the Youth Martial Tournament were not easy to earn.
So when there were too many candidates, organizations would usually coordinate with one another, while the city government mediated matters.
For the biennial Youth Martial Tournament, sending twelve or thirteen participants was enough.
Generally speaking, the public did not pay much attention when participant lists were submitted.
But this time, Lingnan No.1 High School had spread word early on that Jin Fan would be sent to the Youth Martial Tournament.
Replacing someone for the Youth Martial Tournament was perfectly normal.
But with more than twenty days still remaining, replacing Jin Fan had drawn considerable attention.
Jin Fan often participated in seminars organized by the Education Bureau, and many city departments knew him.
They knew Jin Fan's strength, and for this year's Youth Martial Tournament, they had even regarded him as a core member.
No one had expected the core member to be replaced...
From Tuesday onward, all sorts of rumors began circulating again.
They said that Jin Fan not participating in the Youth Martial Tournament would affect all of Lingshan City.
Li Yuan ignored it completely. He had earned this Youth Martial Tournament qualification himself.
The school leadership had already been deeply unfair to him by arranging a martial match.
Now that he had won it, they still wanted to use such methods to steal it from him? Impossible.
Over the past few days, Chen Yong had been helping gather information everywhere.
He had anticipated this long ago. He knew that even after Li Yuan obtained the Youth Martial Tournament qualification, things could not possibly go smoothly.
"Over at the Municipal Bureau, many organizations have voiced opposition to you participating in the Youth Martial Tournament.
The school leadership must have said something when they attended their meetings.
Jin Fan has quite a reputation in Lingshan City.
I heard that tactical arrangements for this Youth Martial Tournament were even built around Jin Fan..."
Upon hearing Chen Yong's words, Li Yuan gave a cold snort and smiled.
"Those organizations have participant slots too. If they think they can't manage without Jin Fan, then they can give their qualifications to him."
By the rules, this was entirely possible.
Lingnan No.1 High School could submit Jin Fan's name again, and another organization with Grade Points could choose to exchange them for a participation slot.
It was just that Grade Points were hard-earned. What organization would be willing to hand them over so easily?
Chen Yong naturally knew those rules as well.
That was not what worried him. The current statements from those organizations were merely the prelude to further maneuvers.
"In the last two Youth Martial Tournaments, Lingshan City didn't even make the top thirty. It's been a city in the lower half of the rankings.
A lot of people have been saying Jin Fan can raise its ranking into the top fifteen this year.
If it gets into the top ten, the Southeast Region Decision Department will send an Economic Inspection Team.
Lingshan City hasn't received any development policies for years. A lot of people have their eyes on this..."
As Chen Yong spoke, his brow furrowed even more tightly.
"Brother, look at the public opinion environment these people have created. It's terribly unfavorable for you.
Lingshan City's ranking is the result of the combined efforts of more than a dozen participants.
But after stirring all this up, if Lingshan City performs badly, all the blame will fall on you!"
The more Chen Yong spoke, the angrier he seemed to become.
He had watched Li Yuan's journey all along and knew how much Li Yuan had suffered and endured.
For three years, whenever he had time off, he went to work to earn Grade Points.
Even if Lingshan City performed poorly, it should have been everyone's responsibility.
No matter what, the blame should not have been placed on Li Yuan alone.
Seeing Chen Yong breathing so heavily with anger, Li Yuan hurriedly tried to calm him down.
He could not let himself, the person involved, remain unangered while Chen Yong got so furious he could barely breathe.
"After turning thirty, I came to understand many things.
One of them is that worrying too much about things that haven't happened is not the way to live a long life.
You can consider ways to handle them in advance, but making yourself miserable and unable to eat or sleep is absolutely unacceptable."
Li Yuan looked at Chen Yong and spoke seriously.
Once Chen Yong had calmed down, Li Yuan continued, addressing the troubles before them.
"Compared to being unable to participate in the Youth Martial Tournament, the troubles they're creating are all minor matters.
My primary purpose in joining the Youth Martial Tournament is to use the opportunity to advance to Fifth Grade. I want to obtain the rank of Intermediate Teacher.
As for giving me a terrible reputation, let them do as they please."
When handling matters, one had to distinguish between priorities—what was the principal contradiction, and what was secondary.
Li Yuan used to care deeply about other people's opinions.
But what had all that concern gotten him?
The moment he tried to fight for even a little benefit for himself, the good reputation he had once enjoyed instantly collapsed.
Compared to strength, other people's so-called opinions were utterly useless.
Chen Yong nodded after hearing this. He agreed with the reasoning.
After thinking for a moment, he offered a reminder. "You should still consider how to deal with this. If your reputation gets ruined during the Youth Martial Tournament, you might not get any training opportunities in the future."
What Chen Yong said was true.
If Lingshan City failed to achieve results in the Youth Martial Tournament, then they threw all the responsibility onto him.
With disgrace clinging to him, an awful reputation, and the school leadership offended as well,
no future training opportunity would have anything to do with him.
So in this Youth Martial Tournament, it would be best to achieve a strong result and leave others with nothing to criticize.
With three Talents in hand, although the Youth Martial Tournament gathered geniuses from every city, it was not impossible for him to claim a good result!
After getting off work and returning home, Li Yuan closed his eyes and looked at the Light Screen.
At the bottom of the Light Screen was a record of his current Experience Points.
[Experience Points: 49/400]
In two days, he had picked up more than forty Experience Points.
The fourth Talent Point required four hundred Experience Points.
After calculating carefully, Li Yuan felt that the rate at which he acquired Talent Points was actually quite fast.
When he taught the children at school, as long as they paid attention, they would always gain some insights.
Especially during this period, when he was teaching new material.
Teaching new content always brought more insights.
In fact, Li Yuan had recently been somewhat puzzled.
The Light Points dropped by the other classes were now far fewer than those from Class Nine and Class Fourteen.
Even the Advanced Class could not compare.
Was his teaching simply better, or did guiding others to improve make Light Points more likely to drop?
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