The phrase “crowded around like stars cupping the moon” can function as a nominal component in a sentence or be used as a verb phrase. But in Mortalis Junior Class 1, it was a phenomenon.
The homeroom teacher had trouble arranging Li Ao’s seat. In the first class, placing him in the front row earned a group of students slanting their eyes at the lesson. In the second class, putting him in the back row stopped the slanting eyes, but because the cat was short, he had to stand up and crane his neck to see the blackboard, which made the lecturing teacher unable to continue.
After the dean’s patrol, the academic director arrived. Teachers paced by with hands behind their backs, looking serious as if just passing through, but actually shrinking into the corners behind the windows, peering at the cat with bright, sneaky eyes.
“Can he even write like that…” An unnamed Teacher No. 1 held a water cup, watching Li Ao curiously as he stepped on the chair and tiptoed to see the blackboard. “Oh wow, these desks and chairs must be well-made—did the director personally oversee them?”
Many of Li Ao’s school supplies were custom-made based on data sent from Delphi, with desks and chairs that could sense the user’s form and automatically adjust height.
The teacher on the podium would glance at the cat after every sentence. She spoke slowly, which made Li Ao feel a bit strange—he thought Dawn Middle School’s lessons seemed easier than what the Machine assigned? Li Ao hugged his pen, scratched his head, then lowered it to scribble something on the paper.
“What’s he writing?” Teacher No. 2, hiding behind Teacher No. 1, asked full of curiosity. “Taking notes? Can cat paws really hold a pen?”
What else? Not only could he hold it, he wielded it quite skillfully.
Li Ao was treated like a national treasure from another country all morning, with this attention lasting until the final class of the morning: physical training.
“Welcome to Mortalis. I’m your junior combat instructor, surname He.” The speaker was a tall woman with a buzz cut, dark skin, and smooth muscle lines. Her speech was crisp and straightforward, without a hint of smiling. “Before this class starts, I want to ask everyone a question: why did you choose Mortalis?”
She scanned the students sitting around the training ground and randomly pointed at an average-sized boy. “You, speak.”
The boy was clearly stunned, not expecting to be called on. Sitting on the ground, he hesitated before saying, “Because Mortalis has excellent teaching quality and practical resources. I want to hone real abilities here and become someone useful to The Federation.”
“Ha—” Instructor He let out an exaggerated laugh, then cursed, “Bullshit! You came to Mortalis because you wanted to? Almost everyone here—you’re only here because you had no other choice. You couldn’t reach the Spiritual Power thresholds for Caelum or Terra, so you ended up here.”
The boy’s face flushed white then green, and he angrily retorted, “Mortalis is also under Dawn Middle School—we all got in with the same cultural score line…” But he trailed off, unable to continue… because everyone knew the instructor was right. No matter how glamorous the status of Federation Dawn students was outside, internally, they were here precisely because they couldn’t get into the other two academies.
Instructor He swept her eagle-like gaze over the listless newbies, her lips curving when it landed on the one who stood out—sitting upright with chest puffed out. “Don’t say it’s just you all. This academy has been full of people like you for decades. But there’s one exception. His Spiritual Power exceeds the observable human range, yet he chose Mortalis. Leo Regalis, may I ask why?”
Hearing his name called, the little cat who had been sitting primly stood up and said, “Because Mortalis suits me better. No matter how high one’s Spiritual Power, without a strong enough body, you can’t become a true powerhouse.” It was something he’d experienced since childhood—his frail body unable to bear his vast Spiritual Power, even now relying on bloodline seals.
“Of course, that’s not the only reason I chose here.” The little cat paused, scanning around, finally noticing the crowd crammed at the windows, doors, and even stairs. Treating them as mere observers, he continued, “I observed during the division ceremony—the students assigned to Mortalis all seemed pretty good to me…” He scratched his head, unable to articulate why; it was an intuition. “Anyway, don’t sell yourselves short. They say high Spiritual Power means you’re smart, so they’re more outstanding. But you all with ordinary Spiritual Power still got into this school—which means you’re even more hardworking. Hardworking people are always cute, and I think it’s great to study with cute people, so I picked here.”
The air went still for a beat.
“…He says we’re cute?”
“The cat called me cute?”
“He actually thinks we’re cute…”
The entire training ground fell into a bizarre collective silence amid a surge of emotions. Some students who had been slouched and listless now straightened up one by one, expressions solemn and… flushed?
Even Instructor He fell silent for a few rare seconds before calmly saying, “Please return to your seat. Li Ao said it well—that’s my first lesson for you: never underestimate yourselves. High Spiritual Power is talent, of course. That doesn’t mean their excellence is a given or that they didn’t work hard. But you entered this school with such low Spiritual Power—how much effort that took, you know in your hearts.”
“Caelum is the sky, Terra is the earth. So what is Mortalis? It’s the mortal realm. ‘With mortal flesh, rival heaven and earth’—that’s Mortalis’s motto. I hope you engrave it in your minds.” Instructor He’s voice sharpened. “One more thing: I don’t know the rules in other teachers’ classes, but in mine, stand up when answering questions! Don’t give me lazy slouched replies!”
The boy who had just answered had red-rimmed eyes, but Instructor He had no time for his fragile heart. “Now, warm up with five laps around the training ground! Begin training!”
Li Ao shifted to human form as training started—after all, just warming up, he ran at a steady pace.
Mortalis students roughly fell into two groups. One was physically exceptional, admitted via special recruitment. They made up a significant portion, arguably the academy’s sharpest edge. Their Spiritual Power was ordinary or undeveloped, but their physiques were robust, reactions swift—some trained in combat since childhood.
The other had Spiritual Power hovering at the 25 edge, getting in purely on brains. In other words, bookish weaklings lacking training; many collapsed panting like dead dogs after one lap, unable to move, kicked aside by Instructor He.
“This year’s freshmen are really subpar,” the dean chuckled. “So many little ones can’t even finish one lap.”
The academic director spat out some tea leaves, covered his cup, and said, “It’s just the start of term. Train them a semester, and it’ll be fine. We all went through this phase. That little friend, though… he’s impressive. Doesn’t look sturdy, but five laps and not even breaking a sweat.”
Hands behind his back, the dean couldn’t explain why, but he just liked the look of him. “You haven’t seen his childhood training videos, have they? Probably taken down. Extremely diligent—horse stance for at least half an hour, thousands of sword swings daily. Five laps? Piece of cake for him.”
“Can’t envy that,” the academic director said. “Good seedlings always belong to others.” No proper educator could dislike a hardworking, humble child—especially one with such high status. “Compared to The Federation’s high officials’ kids…”
The dean whipped around with a glare. “What are you saying!”
The academic director sheepishly rubbed his head. “Aw, just envious, envious…”
“Envious of what? Isn’t he in our academy now? Doesn’t matter where he’s from—he’ll graduate from our Mortalis! He’s Mortalis’s cat!”
Unaware the dean and academic director had already claimed ownership of him, Li Ao stood on the field, waiting for his training partner.
“Combat class has been neglected for many years. You know why it’s now emphasized: Xenoid Variants are rampant. They have energy fields that make thermal weapons useless—you can only rely on cold weapons and yourselves. If you want to enlist, learn spear, blade, sword, halberd from combat. If you aim for desk jobs, pass the final exam, and you won’t take it next semester.” Instructor He stood ramrod straight, hands behind her back. “Now, with your partner, drill the blocking stance I just taught! No form restrictions, no style limits—whatever you know, use it all. Just fight!”
“First pair! Leo Regalis and Elnik Hunter!”
Li Ao and his opponent stepped forward. The other was a big guy. At fifteen, already over 1.9 meters tall, somewhat simple-looking, he scratched the back of his head with a palm like a palm-leaf fan. “Heh heh, little cat, you strike first. I’ll give you one move.”
In Elnik’s eyes, the black-haired, blue-eyed boy was a full head shorter, exceedingly handsome, skin flawless and smooth. His own build was twice as broad—fighting him felt unfair.
Li Ao tilted his head up, eyes narrowing slightly, cat-like pupils bright. “You sure?”
“Ah.” Elnik was still nodding foolishly there: “I don’t tell lies. If you go first, you go first.”
“Fine.” The young man flashed a dashing smile, looking incredibly handsome. The big dummy hadn’t even reacted when he felt a gust of wind sweep past. He’d said he’d let him have one move, but instinctively leaped back to block the leg sweep. Before he could recover, the next second, he was slammed heavily to the ground, staring blankly up at the blue sky overhead.
AI Announcement: [Elnik Hunter’s chest button hit. Leo Regalis wins.]
“Beautiful!” Instructor He clapped: “Villains die from talking too much—the worse you are, the more you yap! Remember, don’t chat with your opponent at the start, no matter how cute they seem! Manage that limited brainpower of yours. Analyze their weaknesses before the match. Think one-hit kill, not ‘let ’em have a free move’!”
The big screen replayed the scene. The young man’s moves were lightning-fast: a sweeping kick first, then at the moment his opponent jumped, a reverse elbow strike to the chest button followed by a back throw, ending the fight instantly.
“So handsome…” A student with a build like Leo’s couldn’t stop his cheeks from flushing: “How is he so amazing…?”
Instructor He clearly saw this group of kids’ worship for His Highness and immediately switched up the training: “Leo, keep fighting. Until you lose.”
Li Ao reached out and pulled the dummy on the ground back up. Hearing that, he said “Oh” and returned to the field.
Instructor He prided herself on seeing through people. She figured the way to spark fighting spirit against someone was simple: get trampled. Beat them all once, if that didn’t work twice, if not three times. Eventually, these little punks would lose heart—no more worship, just a burning desire for revenge.
But she watched wide-eyed as this flock of weaklings got kicked down one by one by the cat, their faces not dejected from defeat but flushed with happy bliss, like they were drunk. Especially the frailer ones—He Jiao was afraid they’d pass out.
Separated by a generational gap, how could she understand the thoughts of these newbie cat fans?
Kicked by the handsome cat!
Punched by the handsome cat!
My idol hit me! I’m gonna go tell Mom!
His Highness touched my hand! He likes me!
To Li Ao, these boys—who hadn’t undergone special training—were unbelievably weak. Fierce Cat kicked them off the stage one after another, his eyes shining brighter with each fight. By the end, with no one left, his blood was pumping so hard he itched to charge up and take on Instructor He.
He Jiao saw right through it. With a savage grin, she shrugged off her jacket and stepped onto the stage. The next second, the young man—who’d just been strutting around all majestic with a “who else?” look on his face—ran out of steam and turned into a cat right there…
His short legs made him barely visible. He Jiao squatted down and poked him over.
