Meeting Deputy Director Zeng Chang

From the martial arts techniques Chen Yong had chosen, Li Yuan could see his personality.

The techniques Chen Yong studied were all easy to pick up and master, but had low ceilings.

Li Yuan had felt this especially clearly when he spent time studying them the previous night.

The Jade Stone Palm and Straw Raincoat Blade Chen Yong was currently practicing were both like that.

They did not require too much effort or time, and once mastered, they might not hold an advantage against opponents at the same realm.

But against those with lower martial arts realms, they could generally still win.

These two sets of techniques were typical examples of having low ceilings.

Li Yuan possessed the Enlightenment to Perfection Talent, yet after looking over these two sets of techniques last night, he had gained very little.

They simply lacked the depth for Li Yuan to delve further into.

After studying them, Li Yuan had only found a few application techniques.

These techniques merely gave the two sets of martial arts a few more variations and improved them slightly.

Over the course of the morning, Li Yuan explained them to Chen Yong twice, and Chen Yong had managed to grasp them fairly proficiently.

As noon approached, Chen Yong said he was hungry.

At most, only half his mind was devoted to cultivation.

Before going to eat, Li Yuan picked up the Light Points that had dropped nearby.

There were four Light Points in total, giving him thirteen Experience Points.

Two of those Light Points had even come from his own insights.

His friend's mind truly was not on martial arts.

Just guiding him through cultivation had caused two Light Points to drop in one morning...

At lunch, Chen Yong had barely taken a few bites before he began complaining about how exhausting the cultivation session had been.

"Can you really call that tiring...

The entire morning was only four hours. Didn't you spend nearly an hour and a half resting?" Li Yuan asked helplessly.

"Of course it was tiring. Everyone has different constitutions.

Take the Youth Martial Tournament. Even if you handed me a qualification spot, I wouldn't participate."

Chen Yong snapped back, then looked at Li Yuan with unusual seriousness.

"Brother, I remember you hadn't practiced the Jade Stone Palm or Straw Raincoat Blade before, right?

You only looked at them for one night. How are you more proficient than me, when I've studied them for ten years?"

Chen Yong was not wrong.

He had been practicing those two sets of martial arts ever since college.

By now, it had already been ten years.

Li Yuan could immediately give him an answer to that question.

"Brother, you've practiced those two sets of martial arts for over ten years. How many total hours have you actually spent cultivating?

On average, did you even put in one hour a day?"

One hour a day was practically retirement-level training for a martial artist.

After martial artists began working, they still set aside at least two hours a day for cultivation.

People like Yin Yi and Jin Fan were mostly perfunctory with their teaching duties and cultivated even longer each day.

But Chen Yong was genuinely stumped.

Whenever he had free time, he spent it resting and relaxing...

"There's still a day and a half left this weekend. I'll go through all the techniques and martial arts that might be randomly inspected with you.

You must remember the difficult points. If you can't remember them, record them and listen to them several times after you get home."

Li Yuan laid out the upcoming schedule.

Just hearing the lesson plan made Chen Yong feel tired already.

After taking a couple more bites, Chen Yong simply stopped talking about it.

Instead, he began discussing Monday's matter with Li Yuan.

At that Weekly Meeting, Deputy Director Zeng Chang had asked Li Yuan to see him on Monday.

"I'm guessing it's about the Youth Martial Tournament. If nothing unexpected happens, it'll be more threats and inducements."

Chen Yong gave his guess, and Li Yuan felt it was possible as well.

But at this stage, was there any point in talking to him about it again?

"Registration has already closed, so they probably can't replace anyone now.

Anyway, I'm going over on Monday. We'll see then."

Li Yuan did not dwell on the matter.

But as he said that, he suddenly remembered the issue of taking leave.

"Help me request leave on Monday. While you're at it, check whether the schedule adjustment I applied for has passed review.

The leave for the Youth Martial Tournament is rather long. I'm afraid they'll use it as an excuse to deduct my bonus."

Li Yuan had already prepared himself mentally.

Bonuses were originally rewards for teachers with outstanding performance.

Taking leave did not count as absenteeism, but during that period, an individual was not creating value.

There was sound reasoning behind withholding the bonus.

Principal Yin had been frustrated at being unable to find any weakness to exploit. Now that he had an opportunity, he would definitely seize it.

After lunch, Li Yuan began coaching Chen Yong on material that might be assessed during the Open Class.

Chen Yong was fine when he was only listening.

He strongly resisted practical drills, perhaps because he thought they were too tiring.

Over the two days of the weekend, Li Yuan picked up more than forty Experience Points in total.

On Sunday night, Li Yuan lay on his bed.

He closed his eyes and looked at the Light Screen, checking his current Experience Points.

[Experience Points: 185/400]

He was still more than two hundred Experience Points short. He should be able to reach it before the Youth Martial Tournament.

He still had two days of classes next week. He could help his students catch up with their progress, then take leave starting Thursday to prepare for the Youth Martial Tournament.

If he taught new material ahead of schedule, he could still pick up quite a few Experience Points from the students.

If he was still short, he would think of something then and see where he could find more.

The Youth Martial Tournament had a special format, so he had to set aside time to prepare.

All these years, he had been working at the school.

He had barely taken part in any real-world training and had very little external combat experience.

Li Yuan did not want to enter the Youth Martial Tournament in a muddle.

After resting for the night, it was Monday again.

He was not going to Lingshan No.1 High School today. Li Yuan got on a bus and headed for the Municipal Education Bureau.

The Municipal Education Bureau was not far from Lingshan No.1 High School.

The trip took only a little over ten minutes.

This stretch of road was the same route he took by bus to work.

At eight thirty in the morning, Li Yuan arrived at the entrance to the Municipal Education Bureau.

Work started at nine, but quite a few people at the Education Bureau had arrived early.

These agencies were actually rather exhausting these days, not as relaxed as outsiders claimed.

They still had to work overtime, and their workloads were quite heavy.

The most obvious benefit was probably stability.

A little after eight forty, Deputy Director Zeng Chang arrived carrying a folder.

He seemed to be lost in thought and did not notice Li Yuan at first. Only after hearing someone call him did he come back to himself.

"Oh, Teacher Li from First High School."

Zeng Chang smiled and shook hands with Li Yuan, appearing very polite.

But Li Yuan no longer usually judged people by their attitude or tone of voice.

Many people spoke pleasantly while doing nothing but things that harmed your interests.

"Let's go upstairs and talk. There are some things I really want to ask you about."

Deputy Director Zeng Chang was very friendly and seemed easy to talk to.

But Li Yuan knew he could not take that at face value.

Leaders usually only lost their tempers with their direct subordinates.

Toward subordinates further down the chain, they would always seem very easygoing.

When punishments or dismissals were necessary, those leaders would privately arrange for their direct subordinates to carry them out.

On the surface, they would always keep playing the good guy.

The two entered a small meeting room, and Zeng Chang began by mentioning the previous Open Class.

"The Flickering Shadow Steps you taught were excellent.

I've worked in education for so many years, and honestly, you were the best instructor I've seen.

You left a deep impression on me, but I hadn't matched the name to the person.

It was only at that Weekly Meeting that I learned you were the teacher competing for a tournament qualification spot."