To Be a Sycophant, One Must Firmly Stick to This Path

Hearing this, Zeng Chang frowned.

As a leader in the education department, he was naturally very familiar with the relevant management procedures.

This trip to Qijia Town for the training counted as a personal tempering exercise for the teacher.

If personal affairs caused a delay in class time, it would naturally require approval from Lingshan No.1 High School.

Over at Principal Yin's side, he could just find some high-sounding excuse to brush it off.

After a moment's hesitation, Zeng Chang thought of a solution: "How about this—you go using the municipal education bureau's group identity.

It's just one training session; it won't cause any problems.

Keep a low profile, and don't tell anyone."

The so-called group identity was related to the computer record system used by Lingshan City.

This record system had some flaws when it was designed years ago.

To do a group ranking, you had to create a new identity.

For example, in Lingshan City's annual martial arts friendly competition, each unit had a virtual character identity.

The municipal education bureau's was called "Wuling Education."

It meant the Lingshan City Education Bureau's fictional group identity.

Similarly, "Wuling Water" belonged to the Water Resources Bureau.

"Wuling Transport" was the fictional identity of the Transport Bureau.

In recent years, various cities had been replacing their systems.

Lingshan City couldn't secure any development policies, so its replacement was naturally pushed to the back of the line.

Li Yuan would use the "Wuling Education" identity for his training in Qijia Town.

As a staff member under the education bureau, Li Yuan using this identity wasn't a problem.

Everything was settled, and Li Yuan walked out carrying a box of nutrient fluid.

He had already taken leave for the day, and carrying so much nutrient fluid was inconvenient anyway.

Li Yuan went straight home by car, then took out a bottle of nutrient fluid and carefully read the instructions on it.

The four grades of nutrient fluid didn't entirely point to their quality.

The nutrient fluid used in cultivation wasn't something you could just drink casually.

At the beginning of the martial path, one could at most drink D-grade nutrient fluid.

C-grade nutrient fluid and above, besides recovery, also had obvious boosting and tempering effects.

These nutrient fluids would hone and polish the body.

From the three dimensions of cells, bone marrow, and fascia, they brought changes to a martial artist's physique.

This was exactly why Li Yuan needed B-grade nutrient fluid.

Using the effect of the nutrient fluid to break through realm barriers was the most convenient path.

After carefully reading the instructions and confirming he understood everything correctly, Li Yuan began attempting to use the nutrient fluid to advance in this small room.

As the B-grade nutrient fluid went into his stomach, a strong burning sensation arose.

It felt similar to high-proof liquor.

The burning sensation came quickly and left just as fast.

Soon, a kind of pain began to emerge all over his body.

This pain was very scattered, so scattered that it was hard to pinpoint exactly where it was.

The pain lasted for about an hour.

Then, pain appeared in his bone marrow and fascia one after another.

The pain was very noticeable, but Li Yuan felt a hint of anticipation in his heart.

This was a sign of his martial realm advancing another step.

Because of that anticipation, the pain on his body instead gave him a sense of relief.

The pain lasted for two hours, then faded away.

The effect of the nutrient fluid was exhausted.

Li Yuan understood his own physique. Under the tempering of the Zhou Tian Dao Yin Technique, his current constitution far surpassed other martial artists at the Fourth Grade Perfection.

His tolerance for B-grade nutrient fluid was also something others couldn't compare to.

The pain in his body dissipated extremely quickly, which also indicated that his tolerance was still very high.

Thinking this, Li Yuan drank another bottle of nutrient fluid.

He had been rationing the nutrient fluid before, not because his body couldn't handle it, but because the supply was insufficient.

Over the course of today, Li Yuan had consumed three bottles in total.

He could clearly feel his body cells swelling, a surge of energy pushing outward.

This was a distinct signal of a breakthrough in martial realm.

The sky had gone completely dark. Li Yuan did not continue training and instead lay down to rest.

He needed to recover his physical strength, energy, and especially his mental focus.

After two or three more rounds like this, his martial realm should advance.

Barring any accidents, he would be able to step into the Fifth Grade before heading to Qijia Town for the training expedition.

Tuesday arrived, and Li Yuan attended classes as usual.

Today's schedule was packed; the school had moved many of the later lessons to this day.

Li Yuan had already arranged for Class Nine and Class Fourteen to preview the material in advance.

After the lessons were done, once he returned from the Youth Martial Tournament, he would reinforce the content for them.

Compared to other teachers, Li Yuan genuinely cared about his students' academic progress.

He got off work at six o'clock and finally had a moment to speak with Chen Yong.

Li Yuan mentioned that he would be taking an extended leave starting tomorrow and asked Chen Yong to keep an eye on Class Nine and Class Fourteen.

"By the way, your bonus wasn't docked for this long leave.

I checked—Director Ma had already approved it last Friday."

Chen Yong brought up the matter of his salary.

Teachers at Lingshan No.1 High School generally had very low wages.

Without the bonus and subsidies, after paying rent, even making ends meet was a struggle.

"I'm taking such a long leave, and my bonus wasn't cut?

That really surprises me..."

Li Yuan had already braced himself for losing the bonus.

Hearing today that it would be paid normally felt like finding money on the ground.

Chen Yong looked at him, hesitating for a long moment.

"I heard that this leave was specially approved by Director Ma on your behalf.

This Monday, the sector Director Ma was in charge of suddenly got restructured.

A lot of his authority was stripped away and handed over to Director Liu.

I don't know if these two things are connected..."

Chen Yong frowned, unable to judge the correlation between the two events.

Hearing this, Li Yuan fell silent for a moment as well.

"I'll go talk to Director Ma. He helped push through this special approval—I at least need to go over and thank him."

With that, Li Yuan stood up and walked toward Director Ma's office.

The door to Director Ma's office was open.

He was packing up his things inside, apparently also getting ready to leave for the day.

Li Yuan knocked on the door.

Hearing the sound, Director Ma looked up toward the doorway.

He wasn't surprised to see Li Yuan.

"Rare to have so little on my plate—I can actually go home early and get some good rest."

Director Ma said with a smile, looking quite at ease.

"In all these years, I've never clocked out this early."

Li Yuan took two steps forward, his brow slightly furrowed.

"Director, I don't understand..."

He only said half the sentence, but Director Ma knew what the second half would be.

"What's there not to understand? I just think you deserve that bonus.

You teach diligently, your work attitude is solid—why should you have your bonus docked just for participating in a Youth Martial Tournament?

When have others ever had their bonuses cut for going on training expeditions?"

Li Yuan was even more surprised. He hadn't expected Director Ma to say this, to speak up for him.

Director Ma gestured for Li Yuan to sit down and handed him a cup of black tea.

"To be honest, I do regret approving that leave request a little.

After all those years of sucking up to the principal, I've been knocked back to square one in an instant.

If you're going to be a bootlicker, you should stick to that path all the way..."

Li Yuan looked at the director and couldn't help pressing further: "Then why did you help me, Director?"