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

Chapter 73 Training Center

The next day, at exactly nine o'clock in the morning.

Su Qianxue arrived at the principal's office on time.

She wore a clean white training uniform, her hair was braided into a single braid and hung down her back, and her moon crown staff was stored in the contract space.

Yichen perched on her shoulder as usual. His golden fur was very smooth, thanks to the hot spring bath last night, which worked better than any grooming product.

Murong Qingfeng has arrived.

Today she was wearing an all-black combat outfit, similar to what she wore in the training field before, but made of better material, with faint spiritual patterns flowing on the fabric.

Her silver-gray hair was tied into a high ponytail, and she looked as capable as a freshly sharpened knife.

Li Kaishan sat behind his desk, with another person sitting opposite him.

A person I've never met before.

The man appeared to be around fifty years old and had a neatly trimmed goatee.

He was wearing a dark red robe with a golden dragon embroidered on the chest. It wasn't the academy's dragon pattern; it was more complex and exquisite, with each scale on the dragon's body embroidered individually.

The royal emblem.

This person's aura was tightly controlled, so tightly that Su Qianxue couldn't discern its depth with the naked eye. But after Yi Chen's cat-like eyes swept over the area, his ears involuntarily folded back slightly.

[At the same level as Murong Qingfeng, or even a step above. Peak of the tenth rank, the stage of transitioning towards the Immortal Realm level.]

"Student Su," Li Kaishan stood up and introduced, "this is Xu Changqing, the vice principal of the Royal Genius Training Center."

Xu Changqing stood up and nodded to Su Qianxue.

"Su Qianxue." His voice wasn't loud, carrying the tone of an old-fashioned scholar, "Your name has been making waves in the capital lately. The champion of one group in the Four Great Empires Tournament, the eighth-rank Emperor-level tabby cat, and that sheep-turning magic—the storytellers in the teahouses are all making up stories about you."

Su Qianxue: "Hello, Director Xu."

Xu Changqing glanced at her twice, then looked at Yichen on his shoulder.

Yichen looked back at him.

Two pairs of eyes met, one a cat and the other a human.

Xu Changqing suddenly laughed: "This cat's eyes don't look like those of a beast."

The sentence was said lightly and without context, but no one present took it seriously.

Once a contracted beast reaches the Emperor level or above, its intelligence is not much different from that of a human, and it is not surprising that its eyes resemble those of a human.

"Alright, let's not waste any more time." Xu Changqing took out a golden token from his sleeve and placed it on the table. The front of the token was engraved with a dragon pattern, and the back was engraved with "Heavenly Number 119".

"This is your number. From today onwards, you are the 119th member of the Dragon Royal Genius Training Center."

He pushed the token.

Su Qianxue took it; it felt slightly heavy in her hand, and the metal was cool to the touch.

"There are a few things I need to make clear to you in person about the training center." Xu Changqing sat down again, placing his hands on his knees.

"First, your status has changed. From today onward, you are no longer just a student of the Imperial Academy in the capital, but also a member of the royal family. This status means power, but also obligations. The training center will provide you with resources far exceeding those of the academy, but when the empire needs you, you must be there."

"Second, confidentiality. Nothing about the training center—its address, personnel, training content, mission details—is to be revealed to anyone outside the organization, including your family."

Su Qianxue nodded. She understood.

"Third," Xu Changqing's tone changed slightly, "the training center is different from the academy. The academy emphasizes gradual progress, while the training center emphasizes efficiency. The intensity of the training and the level of danger of the missions are unmatched by the academy. None of the people who come here are weak. But every year, some people are still seriously injured or even killed in training or missions."

He didn't use this to scare Su Qianxue; his tone was calm, and he was simply stating a fact.

"You can leave at any time, but you can't come back after you leave. The decision is yours."

Su Qianxue did not hesitate: "I will not back out."

Xu Changqing looked at her for three seconds and nodded.

"Furthermore," he turned to Murong Qingfeng, "Teacher Murong, your transfer order has been issued. Starting today, your position will be transferred from the Imperial Academy to the Training Center, where you will serve as Su Qianxue's personal training tutor. Your compensation will be in accordance with the Training Center's standards."

Murong Qingfeng: "Received."

Xu Changqing stood up and pushed the chair back.

"Let's go. Let's see where you'll be training from now on."

The three followed Xu Changqing out of the complex and into a black flying car without any markings. After ascending to an altitude of 500 meters, the car did not fly towards the city center, but instead headed towards the mountains northwest of the capital.

After flying for about twenty minutes, the car landed in a valley shrouded in clouds and mist.

At the entrance to the valley was a psionic light barrier. Xu Changqing took out his token and swiped it; the barrier flashed, cracked open, and he flew...

The car drove through.

Behind the light screen lies another world.

The valley is ten times larger than it appears from the outside, clearly indicating that spatial expansion has been done.

The valley floor was flat, with a cluster of buildings in the center. These weren't the kind of teaching buildings typical of an academy; instead, they were low-rise concrete buildings resembling a military base, with numbers painted on their gray walls. The buildings were connected by enclosed passageways, the glass walls of which were adorned with flowing psionic patterns.

To the north of the complex is an open-air training ground, at least twenty times the size of the Imperial Academy's training ground.

There were people training on the field. Two figures were fighting at high speed, each followed by a contracted beast. The aftershocks of the energy collision made the guardrails at the edge of the training field vibrate.

A row of cave entrances opened on the south-facing mountain wall, sealed with spiritual energy seals, and one could vaguely sense extremely dense spiritual energy fluctuations inside.

The entrance to the secret realm.

Su Qianxue recognized it at a glance. And there was more than one; she counted at least seven openings.

The Imperial Capital Royal Academy has five secret realms, the most of any academy in the Dragon Empire. This training center alone has more than seven in one valley.

"The buildings on the left are dormitories and living quarters, and the buildings on the right are the armory and research institute," Xu Changqing said as he walked ahead.

Pointing along, he said, "The training grounds are communal, and the entrances to the secret realms are assigned according to the missions. Your and Teacher Murong's dormitories have already been arranged; they're next to each other."

He stopped and turned to look at Su Qianxue.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing."

"Currently, the training center has thirty-one members, not counting those who have left or sacrificed their lives. You are the thirty-second. Among these thirty-one people, the youngest is two years older than you, and the oldest is sixty-seven. Everyone has their own training plan and mission line, but joint missions are occasionally arranged."

He glanced at Yichen on Su Qianxue's shoulder.

"The other members of the center have all seen the recording of the competition. Your cat has attracted a lot of attention. Some are curious, some are skeptical. I suggest you be prepared; someone might come to challenge you to a 'sparring match'."

Su Qianxue: "A friendly spar is fine."

Yichen yawned on her shoulder.

[A spar? Sure, a girl would be best. Cat Lord needs more people to interact with to boost his warmth points... wait, sparring has nothing to do with warmth points. But if a fight leads to a friendship, and that friend hugs the cat, then it makes sense, right?]

[A roundabout way to achieve one's goals; those who know, know.]

Xu Changqing led them on a tour, finally stopping in front of the dormitory building.

"Settle in today, and formal training will begin tomorrow. Su Qianxue, your training plan will be entirely overseen by Teacher Murong Qingfeng; the center will not interfere with the specifics. However, you must complete at least one task assigned by the center each month, and the assessment criteria will be adjusted based on the difficulty of the task."

He handed over two room keys.

Welcome to the team.

After saying that, he turned and left. After taking a few steps, he stopped and looked back.

"Su Qianxue".

"Um?"

"There's a saying in the training center, passed down from generation to generation," Xu Changqing said, "Don't let down the Empire's nurturing of you."

His figure disappeared around the corner of the passage.

Murong Qingfeng looked at the room card in his hand, then at Su Qianxue.

"A new beginning."

Su Qianxue held the room key in her hand without saying anything.

She pushed open the dormitory door.

The room wasn't big, but it had everything: a bed, a desk, a training platform, a separate psionic bathroom, and a window facing the training grounds to the south of the valley.

On the windowsill sat a pot of some kind of magical herb, its leaves emerald green and its flowers the size of a fingernail.

Yi Chen jumped onto the windowsill, squatted next to the spirit herb, and looked down at the training ground.

The two people sparring in the distance were still fighting. One of them summoned a huge rock bear, while the other's contracted beast was unclear, moving too fast; only a silver afterimage could be seen weaving back and forth across the bear.

The sound of the energy collision could be heard clearly even hundreds of meters away.

The people here are all tough nut to crack.

Yi Chen withdrew his gaze and looked down at his own paws.

The cat's golden fur shimmered slightly in the sunlight.

Eighth-tier Emperor level would be considered the pinnacle of achievement in the outside world. But in this training center, Emperor level is just the starting point.

Outside the window, sunlight streamed into the valley.

New training grounds, new battlefields.

Meanwhile, deep within Dragon Valley, thousands of miles away, the light on the six-pointed star array pattern was gradually brightening.

The countdown has begun.