If Li Shen wasn’t pressed for time he would have liked to stroll to the Conclave Academy as usual but he opted to take the newest convenience for disciples, teleportation circles.
And no it wasn’t pressed for time because he was supposedly going on a mission, he just said that to sell his story more.
Even though he wasn’t using coercion methods to convert disciples to his family’s side, he was still using them to infiltrate the other factions.
After everything he said in the hall, calling out Lin Dong and the others, does that make him a hypocrite?
The answer to that would be yes, yes he was. But anything was fair game in the world of schemers and con-artists.
However, it wasn’t like there weren't some truth mixed in. He indeed respected the Celestial Academy, and as a disciple under it's legacy, he held the responsibility to uphold its teachings and that heavy legacy.