Reincarnated as a Tabby Cat: Daily Life with the School Beauty Empress

Chapter 57 Dragon Cave 1

The opening was larger than it appeared from a distance.

The Azure Dragon landed on the rocky ground outside the cave entrance, and the three of them jumped off its back. The moment Su Qianxue landed, she glanced into the cave. It was pitch black, and she couldn't see anything. Only the remaining dragon runes on the cave walls emitted a faint blue light, flickering like breathing.

A breeze blew out of the cave. It was dry, warm, and carried an ancient, dusty scent.

"I'll go in first." Murong Qingfeng put the Azure Dragon into his contract space and walked ahead, holding a fist-sized illumination spirit stone in his hand. The white light illuminated an area of ​​more than ten meters ahead.

Su Qianxue and Murong Hui followed behind.

The cave slopes downwards, not steeply, but it gets deeper and deeper. The material of the cave walls gradually changes from natural rock to artificial—no, it's stone processed by dragon craftsmen. The surface is polished smooth and flat, and the stone's texture is arranged in a regular pattern, which is intentional.

Every twenty steps, there is a pair of stone pillars on both sides of the cave wall. The stone pillars are carved with dragon totems of various shapes, some with bared teeth and claws, and some with coiling and flying. The carving is so exquisite that the texture of the scales can be clearly seen.

In ancient times, this place was an important habitat for the dragon race.

After walking for about 15 minutes, the cave passage suddenly opened up.

A huge underground space appeared before the three of them.

The dome is hundreds of meters high and is inlaid with veins of glowing spirit stones. Light shines down from the top, illuminating the space.

The ground was paved with solid, gray-white stone slabs, with no gaps between them.

At the very center of the space is a circular platform, about thirty meters in diameter, its surface covered with intricate array patterns. These patterns radiate outwards from the center, forming dense, concentric rings.

However, all the array patterns were dark.

There was no flow of spiritual energy, no active energy reaction. Dead.

Su Qianxue walked to the edge of the platform, squatted down, and examined the array patterns. In her previous life, she had studied many magic arrays. Although the magic array system of the dragon race was very different from that of humans, the basic principles were the same.

"The array patterns are severely worn." She reached out and touched the engravings on the ground, her fingertips covered in a layer of fine dust. "The spiritual energy nodes of the core array eye have been depleted. This array—has been abandoned for at least tens of thousands of years."

Murong Qingfeng was also inspecting the area. She walked around the platform, using her spiritual power to probe the residual energy at each of the array's key points.

"It is indeed the configuration of a teleportation array." She stood up. "But this array is already ruined. The core of the array's eye is completely shattered, and the energy conductors are broken in more than a dozen places. Repairing it—theoretically possible, but the workload is no less than rebuilding a city."

"That's what the dragon's secret language says,"

"The secret message records the dragons' plan, but it doesn't mean the plan has been implemented," Murong Qingfeng said. "This teleportation array might be the target the dragons intend to repair. But judging from the state of the array's patterns, they haven't started repairing it yet. Or rather, they haven't had time."

Murong Hui breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. As long as it's not repaired."

"What's so great about it?" Murong Qingfeng glanced at her. "Just because they didn't repair this doesn't mean it's not there elsewhere. Dragon Valley is so big, who knows what else is hidden there."

That's the logic.

But there was really nothing to be found in this cave.

The three of them searched carefully again.

In addition to the central teleportation platform, the underground space also has some small niches on the surrounding cave walls, which contain stone carvings and fragments of artifacts from the dragon race.

Su Qianxue picked up a few fragments with dragon script on them, intending to take them back to the Academy for further interpretation.

Apart from that, it was completely empty.

There were no strange beasts, no guards, and no traps.

It was eerily quiet.

Yichen perched on Su Qianxue's shoulder, his bright green cat eyes darting around.

He didn't speak, of course he couldn't speak, but his intuition was sharper than Su Qianxue's.

Not right.

An important relic of an ancient dragon race, the cave where the teleportation array is located, where there isn't a single strange beast within a radius of several hundred meters.

On the way here, eighth and ninth-tier dragon beasts were everywhere. But this core area is completely clean?

Or perhaps something drove all the strange beasts away.

Or perhaps there's something you don't want to get in the way of here.

His ears twitched twice and stood straight up.

Cats have a much wider range of hearing than humans.

In the silence of this underground space, he detected a frequency inaudible to humans: an extremely low, continuous, rhythmic vibration.

It came from underground.

It's very deep. Deeper than this underground space.

That wasn't natural geological activity. That was the heartbeat of some kind of organism.

Yichen's cat fur stood on end for a moment, then pressed back down.

He chose to remain silent.

[I see through it but won't say anything. There's something down there, but it hasn't come out yet. That's good. I'm currently at the eighth level of the Emperor rank. If that thing down there were a tenth-rank or higher being, shouting at the top of my lungs wouldn't do any good; it would only alert them.]

[Teacher Qingfeng's Azure Dragon is at the peak of the tenth rank. That thing can suppress all the strange beasts within a radius of several hundred meters, causing them all to retreat. This thing should be able to easily defeat Teacher Qingfeng's contracted beast.]

His tail was pressed tightly against Su Qianxue's neck.

Let's go, hurry up. Don't linger here.

Fortunately, Murong Qingfeng came to the same conclusion.

"The teleportation array is abandoned and shows no signs of repair." She reviewed the findings in her mind. "No other valuable clues were found inside the cave. The mission objective has been achieved: confirming the teleportation array's location and assessing the current state. That's enough."

Walk."

The three of them walked back along the cave passage they had come from.

Footsteps echoed in the narrow tunnel.

Yi Chen glanced back at the direction of the underground space.

In the darkness, the extremely low-frequency heartbeat continued. Steady, unhurried, like someone asleep.

But just as the three were about to step out of the cave, their heartbeats changed.

Half a beat too fast.

It was only half a beat faster, and then it returned to normal.

Yichen's pupils shrank to a vertical line.

In that instant, he felt something, some kind of consciousness, sweep over the three of them.

No, it wasn't three people.

It was a glance at him.

Only him.

Extremely light and fast, like a needle skimming across the water, no one noticed except Yichen.

It's watching me.

Yichen's blood sank a little deeper.

Don't panic. It didn't make a move. It just glanced at me. And then looked away. This means it's interested in Cat Master, but not malicious. At least not yet.

He forced himself to relax and smoothed out the bristling cat hairs one by one.

[Let's go, let's go quickly.]

As they emerged from the cave, sunlight shone on their faces, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Murong Qingfeng summoned the Azure Dragon from the contract space.

"Get on, it's time to head back."

The three of them leaped onto the dragon's back.

The Azure Dragon rose from the ground, its wings spread, and flew back in the direction it had come from.

Yichen nestled in Su Qianxue's arms, his head resting on her forearm, his emerald green eyes half-closed.

It looks like it's taking a nap.

In reality, he was on the verge of a breakdown.

Because he knew that on that gray hill behind them, a pair of eyes were watching them leave.

He didn't know what those eyes belonged to. He only knew that their level was far above Murong Qingfeng's Azure Dragon.

Hmm, that golden kitten seems a little different.

Some ancient consciousness murmured something deep within the Demon Dragon Cave.

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