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

Chapter 42 The Way of the Elements

The next day, at 5:58 a.m.

Su Qianxue and Murong Hui stood at the entrance of the training ground on time. Yi Chen was leaning on Su Qianxue's shoulder, his eyelids still sticking shut and his ears drooping.

Murong Qingfeng was already standing in the center of the training field.

Today I changed into a black, tight-fitting training outfit, and my long hair was tied up high, revealing a slender neck.

"Good, you're not late." She glanced at the two of them. "Warm up for ten minutes, then each of you demonstrate one of your most proficient fighting techniques."

After the warm-up, Murong Hui went first.

Her movements were graceful, yet possessed a fiery intensity that erupted from within her suppleness. Each punch and kick was enveloped in a faint red aura of spiritual energy, demonstrating exceptional control over both release and retraction. After completing a set of punches, a trail of charred footprints remained on the training ground.

Murong Qingfeng didn't comment, but looked at Su Qianxue.

Su Qianxue walked to the center of the field, clasped her hands together, and then opened them.

ice.

Extremely cold, ethereal spiritual energy emanated from her fingertips, instantly freezing water molecules in the air. She took her first step, ice crystals shattering beneath her feet, her figure already three meters away. Seven consecutive strikes followed, the palm winds carrying sharp, piercing sounds, each strike leaving a thick layer of frost where it landed.

With a final strike, the ice crystals shattered into dust mid-air, scattering across the sky.

She is beautiful.

Murong Qingfeng nodded, but did not praise him.

"Sit down, both of you sit down."

There were several stone benches at the edge of the training field, and the two of them each found one to sit on. Yi Chen jumped off Su Qianxue's shoulder, squatted on the ground, and listened intently.

"Your basic skills are both quite good." Murong Qingfeng walked back and forth in front of the two with his hands behind his back. "But today I won't talk about contracted beasts; I'll talk about humans first."

She stopped in her tracks.

"A common misconception is that many beast tamers become overly reliant on their contracted beasts in the mid-to-late stages. The stronger the contracted beast, the weaker they become. Among eighth and ninth-tier martial artists, half of them cannot even defeat a martial artist of the same level without their contracted beast. Why? Because they have misunderstood their cultivation direction from the very beginning."

Murong Hui raised her hand: "Teacher Qingfeng, what does it mean to have your cultivation direction wrong?"

"Elemental attributes." Murong Qingfeng held up one finger. "The elemental attribute a martial artist cultivates must match their contracted beast. This is not a suggestion, it's an ironclad rule."

She flipped her palm, and nine different colored orbs of spiritual energy floated above her palm, lined up in a row.

Red, fire. Blue, water. Brown, earth. Green, wood. Silver, wind. Ice blue, ice. Purple, lightning. Gold, light. Black, darkness.

"The nine elemental systems each have their own unique approach. Fire has the strongest burst damage and the highest single-target output ceiling, but it lacks endurance and can't handle attrition warfare. Water is agile, adaptable, and quick in switching between offense and defense. Earth has unparalleled defense and top-notch tanking ability, but its slow speed makes it unsuitable for agile opponents. Wood has strong recovery capabilities, making it unmatched in prolonged battles, but it lacks burst damage. Wind boasts maximum speed and cutting-type attacks, making it excellent for mobile warfare. As for Ice..."

She glanced at Su Qianxue.

"Ice-type is very strong in the mid-game. It has strong crowd control, and its slowing, freezing, and area-of-effect suppression are all top-notch. However, in the late game, the ceiling of ice-type is not as high as that of fire-type and wind-type, and its defense cannot compete with earth-type. To put it bluntly, it is strong in the mid-game but weak in the late game."

Su Qianxue's expression remained unchanged, but her brow twitched slightly.

Murong Qingfeng continued, "Lightning-type attacks have extremely high burst damage and a disgusting paralyzing effect, but their spiritual energy consumption is ridiculously high, and their defense is weak. Light and dark types..."

She emphasized her words.

"These two are very rare."

"The Light element is an all-around enhancement element. It excels in attack, defense, speed, and healing. It has no obvious weaknesses and its potential is extremely high. At the Immortal Realm level, Light element warriors, after fusing with their contracted beasts, possess the most terrifying combat power among those of the same level."

"The dark style leans towards control and corruption, taking a different approach, which we won't discuss today."

She walked up to Su Qianxue, squatted down, and looked her in the eye.

"Su Qianxue, what attribute does your contracted beast have?"

Su Qianxue glanced at Yichen, who was squatting beside her licking his paws.

"Earth element?"

Her guess made sense. The tabby cat, a feline, and most feline mythical creatures belong to the earth element.

Moreover, Yichen's gravity space skills, gravity, attraction, and earth power, all seem to be earth-based.

Murong Qingfeng shook his head.

"I've tested its aura. It's not earth-based."

Su Qianxue was stunned.

"Your cat is of the Light element."

The training ground was silent for two seconds.

Murong Hui was the first to react, and she turned her head to look at the tabby cat.

Yichen was licking his hind legs when he was stared at by three pairs of eyes. He looked up blankly.

"Meow?"

【What's wrong? Is there something on Cat Lord's face?】

"A spirit pet of the Light element." Murong Hui's voice was a little dry. "Teacher Qingfeng, are you sure?"

"I tested it three times." Murong Qingfeng stood up. "The spiritual core inside its body is golden, with very high purity, a standard light-type spiritual core. The Gravity Space skill is indeed earth-type, but a beast's skills and its physical attributes are not necessarily completely consistent. Just like a fire dragon might use physical charges, you can't say it's earth-type just because it charges at people."

Murong Hui swallowed hard. "Light-type contracted beasts—let alone our academy, there are no more than ten registered in the entire Dragon Soaring Empire. And most of them are high-level exotic beasts. A tabby cat that's light-type—how low are the odds?"

"That's why I said this cat is no ordinary creature." Murong Qingfeng glanced at Yi Chen. "King-level aptitude, a light-type spirit core, and an exceptionally rich skill pool. This kind of configuration—"

She didn't finish speaking.

But Su Qianxue had already figured things out.

A Light-type contracted beast. Currently, I cultivate the Ice-type. At the Immortal Realm level, if the attributes don't match when a human and contracted beast fuse, the fusion efficiency will be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the different cultivation attributes of the human and contracted beast will significantly slow down the fusion process.

However, if we switch to the Light Element—

"Teacher," Su Qianxue spoke, her voice calm, "If I switch to the Light Magic discipline now, is it too late?"

Murong Qingfeng raised an eyebrow.

"You are currently at the sixth level of martial artist, with a solid foundation and abundant spiritual energy reserves. Switching to the light element means completely overturning your previous ice-type techniques and building a new elemental system from scratch."

She held up three fingers.

"Three months. With your talent and the resources the academy currently provides, you can cultivate the basic techniques of the Light element to your current Ice element level in three months. However, during these three months, your combat power will temporarily decrease. The old system will be obsolete, and the new system has not yet been established, so there will be a period of vacuum in between."

"However," she changed the subject, "if you don't change and continue down the ice path, you'll know what it means to regret it when you reach the eighth, ninth, or Martial King level and fuse with your contracted beast. Changing your ways then will cost you more than ten times what you're paying now."

Su Qianxue did not hesitate.

"I'll change it."

She stood up, her tone crisp.

It wasn't entirely because of Teacher Qingfeng's analysis. She had another plan in mind: in her previous life, she relied on ice-based techniques to rise to the position of Empress.

Her senior sister knew everything about her, including her ice-type moves, techniques, and weaknesses.

If I use the same methods when I seek revenge in the future, it will be difficult to deal with my senior sister.

change.

It must be changed.

Let's take a completely unfamiliar route.

There was something new in Murong Qingfeng's eyes—admiration, or rather, recognition.

It wasn't the kind of polite praise an elder gives to a younger person; it was a strong person's respectful regard for another promising talent.

"Okay." She took a thin, golden booklet out of her training uniform pocket and handed it to Su Qianxue. "The Bright Dawn Heart Sutra, a basic cultivation technique of the Light element, a museum-level secret manual from the Imperial Capital Royal Academy. Take it and practice it, don't lose it."

"

Su Qianxue took it, and the moment her fingers touched the cover, a warm energy seeped out from the booklet and traveled through her meridians.

It is not an ordinary printed matter.

This manual itself is a magical artifact, containing a portion of the compiler's spiritual imprint, which can help beginners sense the element of light.

"There are nine special training rooms on the east side of the training ground, one of which is exclusively for those with a light attribute. It contains a light-attribute spirit stone array, and the energy concentration is twenty times that of the outside. You will train there for four hours every afternoon, and then consolidate your training on your own in the evening."

Su Qianxue nodded and put away the manual.

Murong Qingfeng then looked at Murong Hui: "Continue to strengthen your fire-type cultivation techniques, focusing on practicing the third level of the Phoenix Burning Heaven Technique. Your bottleneck is insufficient spiritual energy density. Eat more fire-type spiritual fruits, and ask me for spirit stones if you don't have enough."

"Understood, Teacher Qingfeng."

After the distribution was completed, Murong Qingfeng clapped his hands.

"Alright, let's start today's formal lesson. First, run fifty laps around the training track at full speed. We'll talk about other things after that."

Fifty laps. One lap, based on the length of the training field, is approximately four hundred meters. Fifty laps would be twenty thousand meters.

full speed.

Su Qianxue and Murong Hui exchanged a glance, neither of them complained, and they started moving.

Yichen squatted by the field, watching two figures running around the training field.

[Cat Lord doesn't need to run anymore, right? Cat Lord is a contracted beast, not a student.]