Aesthetics
Since the three cubs strongly demanded to conquer the sea of stars, Shen Mian added combat lessons for the three cubs.
Lieutenant General Yan Zhou paid for the latest version of the battlefield simulation out of his own pocket, 650 000 star coins, with full features and excellent quality. The order arrived the same day as it was placed and came with a mock battle arena for the dragons to assemble on two sections of a suspension vehicle.
In the Dragon Empire, even the battle arena used by dragon cubs must be of good quality. After all, cubs who can’t control their instincts can demolish their homes at any time and mock battles in any open space are likely to cause economic losses, which in turn can lead to casualties (mainly referring to the anger from their parents after demolishing their homes).
Dean Shen looked at Yan Zhou, who was paying and joined He Xing to watch the installation of the mock battle arena.
He Xing stared at Yan Zhou for a while, his heart was in turmoil, circling around Shen Mian.
Shen Mian, “What are you doing?”
He Xing paused, “I feel like you are too cold towards me.”
“Look,” He Xing instructed Shen Mian to look over at Yan Zhou, who was signing the order, “I bought a 90 000 star coin robot and you have to pay me back. He bought a 300 000 star coin battlefield simulation but you didn’t say anything.”
Shen Mian though that the dragon started to be intellectually disabled again, “How can these two be considered the same? The battlefield simulation was bought by Yan Zhou for Yan Tan. When Yan Tan goes back, I’ll disassemble the simulation and let him take it back, just shove it into the spacial device.”
In any case, raising Yan Tan is Yan Zhou’s obligation. Since Yan Zhou had the idea of making it up to Yan Tan, why should he refuse the father’s substantial apology?
Of course, forgiving or not is another matter.
He Xing, “Then my robot was bought for my kid, so why do you separate me from him so clearly?”
Shen Mian’s first instinct was that this dragon wanted to steal a cub from him and slowly turned to look at He Xing, “Say that again, whose cub?”
He Xing’s desire to survive broke out, “It’s mainly for your cubs, I’m their… dad fan, the same as those mum fans1. Who wouldn’t like such cute dragon cubs?”
Why would he want to take the dean’s cubs, he just wanted to raise them with him.
As one man and one dragon spoke, the mock battle arena had been installed and the entirety of the enclosed mock battle arena was made of heat and impact resistant materials that could be disassembled and assembled. Since the centre was small and there were only three cubs, they chose a small battle arena, taking up the open space right in front of the two small buildings.
He Xing, “I thought you would refuse to let Yan Zhou pay for the battle arena.”
Shen Mian glanced at Yan Zhou and casually said, “Of course not, after all, he only has money now, doesn’t he?”
Yan Zhou, who heard that sentence, footstep’s stopped, and instantly squeezed the quantum computer in his hands.
Shen Mian sent a message to Yan Huan and soon Yan Huan came downstairs with the three dragon cubs. The cross-section of the simulated battle arena was an oval, the surface coating is black and reflective material had been carefully added to give the wonderful appearance of a starry river flowing in the sunlight.
Gian had never seen a building like this before, and his tail swayed for a bit before lifting up. When Lu Yuan sailed the stars with his grandfather as a child, the starship had a small mock battle arena, but it wasn’t nearly as pretty as this one.
The two dragon cubs walked to the front of the battle arena and carefully touched the exterior.
Gian, “It looks really expensive.”
Lu Yuan clenched his claws, “I’m going to have one of these mock battle arenas on my starship in the future, it’s so cool!”
Yan Tan’s entire body was stuck on the surface of the mock battle arena, “So shiny and beautiful! What kind of coating is this? Did you add glitter? If only my scales were like that, I want to be a shiny little dragon cub too.”
Shen Mian looked around and felt that these three cubs were actually not thinking about combat. To Lu Yuan, conquering the sea of stars, this kind of thing, might be an obsession, but Gian and Yan Tan were purely fooled by Lu Yuan.
An excellent student like Gian is suitable for advanced studies, Lu Yuan is more reliable in business and diplomacy than driving a starship and as for Yan Tan… this kid is more sensitive to colours, so he might be suitable for the fashion industry.
Shen Mian opened the simulated battlefield arena and let all three cubs go in. The simulated battle arena came with an “arsenal” full of non-lethal simulated weapons and a cleanup robot worth 20 000 star coins.
The wall material of the simulated battle arena was hard but generally thin, so there was plenty of room inside and didn’t feel crowded with three dragon form cubs standing and four human form adults.
The battle arena is called Cosmic Star and there are three environmental simulations: Mountain forests, plains, and oceans, factors such as gravity and others can be adjusted. When the environmental simulation isn’t on, you can go into target mode to train the accuracy of breathing fire and dragons like the spotted dragon, who rely on body impacts, can also participate in the training.
The three cubs crowded in front of Shen Mian. He originally intended to start the shooting range mode, but in the face of the three cubs expectant eyes, he paused and asked, “What do you want to do?”
The three cubs said in unison, “Mountain forest!”
It just sounds so cool, especially like a combat zone!
Given that these dragon cubs just wanted to have a little fun and Shen Mian didn’t have time to prepare for combat lessons today. He thought about it, turned on mountain forest mode and put holographic sensors on the dragon cubs so that they could touch the scene inside the simulated battle arena.
Shen Mian took some imitation military spikes from the “arsenal”, “These are the rules. After starting the environmental simulation, everyone will separate and go into the forest to see who can find the exit. If you encounter each other again while searching for the exit, you can fight but if you get hit by a spike, you are eliminated.”
The “military spikes” are of course fake. They are made of wood, with the sharp ends smoothed out and coloured in washable paint. The tips of these spikes are all different colours. There were other weapons in the cabinet, non-lethal training devices made to mimic proper weapons, but the dragon pups were unlikely to use them.
Shen Mian wouldn’t use it either, so he pretended not to see it. To learn how to use them, it’s faster to either wait until he studies it once or just let He Xing and Yan Huan teach him.
Gian pulled on Shen Mian’s sleeve, “The dean and uncles are coming with us, right?”
Shen Mian looked at the reflective dragon cub, “Are you sure?”
Counting the time it will take to find them, he could probably throw all of these little dragon cubs out in three minutes.
Gian’s eyes shone brightly, “Yes!”
Shen Mian: “All right then, you guys go hide first, we’ll go in after two minutes.”
The three dragon cubs picked up their military spikes, split up and entered the forest. Lu Yuan had never learned to sneak. The spotted dragon was so high in defence points that his agility was relatively low, causing leaves to rustle as he entered the forest, clearly revealing his direction.
As for Gian… The little dragon cub was really too reflective, like a moving golden-green light source. Shen Mian and the three adult dragons watched as the shiny little Gian hid behind a rock, the crystal spines on the tip of his tail sticking out so much that they could be seen from a distance.
A row of three officers outside, “…”
Admiral Yan Huan pondered, “Was my first exposure to simulated combat like this?”
He Xing look at it for a while and couldn’t hold back. He used Shen Mian’s shoulders as support, turned his face around and laughed quietly.
Yan Zhou stood coldly to the side, focusing only on his own little dragon cub.
Not to be outdone by the other little dragon cubs who had learned to fight for a while, Yan Tan also did a good job of sneaking. Being black himself, instead of wandering around the mountains, he chose to enter the dense forest and directly disappeared in the dim environment. However, although it is difficult to capture him visually, his footsteps were clear and audible-
Yan Tan circled around a place four times and finally chose the only direction that wasn’t towards the exit to walk to, right in front of Lu Yuan, who was running around everywhere.
Shen Mianm “…”
He Xing slowly asked, “Is this kid… a pedestrian idiot2?”
Unlike Gian or Lu Yuan, before entering the simulation map, Yan Tan observed the direction of the exit, so it is reasonable to say that this will not happen.
It can only be said that this child is a pedestrian idiot.
Yan Zhou slowly spoke, “He just has no sense of direction.”
He Xing: “…”
Isn’t that just being a pedestrian idiot?
Shen Mian looked at the time and casually pulled out a military knife from the cupboard and walked into the mountain forest.
Behind them, He Xing and the other two also each took a cold weapon and entered the mountain forest from different directions. Shen Mian and the others didn’t directly go to find the three dragon cubs – it was too easy to find them and it was a bit shameless to just go in and pull out the cubs, so they just pretended they couldn’t find them. Not only did they have to pretend they can’t find them, but they also had to amplify their movements so that the dragon cubs knew ahead of time.
However, they had to be wary of their companions that went in with them.
Shen Mian took a few steps, and the military knife suddenly struck backwards, touching another short blade.
Shen Mian immediately withdrew his knife back after a failed strike, He Xing took a few steps back, “It’s me.”
Shen Ming hadn’t exercised in a long time and his hands were a bit itchy, he didn’t care who it was. He used his military knife extremely well, using tricky angles and dexterity and attacked crisply. Failure never hindered him and he added the next attack without waiting for the opponent to react.
Lu Yuan, who randomly ran around everywhere, didn’t know when he had run into Gian. The two dragon cubs laid on the rock for a while and Lu Yuan asked, “Aren’t they eliminating us?”
Little Gian was lost, “I don’t understand either.”
Lu Yuan shook his tail, “What is going through the minds of adult (humans) and adult dragons?”
He Xing started parrying a few times at first but found that Shen Mian was serious and began to take it seriously. One person and one dragon soon entered the dense forest, out of the two dragon cubs sight.
No matter how powerful Shen Mian was, in the end, he was a human being and the racial gap is difficult to bridge, not to mention he changed his physical strength to keep up. Ten minutes later, the military knife in Shen Mian’s hand was picked away, Shen Mian turned his hand and restrained He Xing’s wrist, while his body rammed into the trees behind him.
He Xing forcibly freed a hand and placed it on the back of Shen Mian’s head and moved his body sideways to avoid being pressed on top of Shen Mian.
Shen Ming didn’t look away and avoided He Xing’s breath, “A knockout isn’t bad.”
Even if the body was modified by abilities, it still couldn’t be compared to a powerful dragon, but it won’t have any accidents after falling a few times.
“I know,” He Xing lowered his hand, “But the body reacts a little faster than the brain.”
Shen Mian was startled.
He Xing walked a few steps forward, picked up the grid/bucket/knife and raised his head while smiling, “Let’s go.”
The fight had just ended. He Xing had a bit of sweat on his body and had a fierce aura of someone who had seen blood upfront that he diluted with a smile.
He’s actually quite handsome.
Shen Mian took the grid/bucket/knife.
One person and one dragon walked out of the dense forest, He Xing tapped Shen Mian, “What is Yan Zhou doing?”
Shen Mian looked over.
Yan Zhou was standing in front of Yan Tan.
Little Yan Tan only stood up to his father’s waist, fragile and thin in front of the adult dragon. Yan Tan clung onto the tree trunk: W-why was he found by his father QAQ.
Shen Mian was about to walk over, but He Xing suddenly held him back, “Wait a minute.”
Yan Zhou noticed Yan Tan’s nervousness and suddenly remembered that the head of this childcare centre would automatically crouch down to be at the same level as the cub. He slowly crouched down and took out a box from his spacial device.
“I… bought this, I hope you can be happy.”
Yan Tan: “!!!”
Is it various combat classes or military material again?
Yan Zhou opened the box and a set of neatly folded clothes appeared in front of Yan Tan. Yan Zhou shook open his coat.
Yan Huan said that pleasing the child required getting something they liked. Yan Zhou saw the suit when he placed his order for the mock battle arena. He knew that Yan Tan liked shiny colours, so he bought these sets of clothes one after another.
The background of the coat was bright yellow and the chest had red sequins had been used to create a picture of a cub that was breathing fire.
The last time Yan Zhou was this nervous was when he accompanied his wife and held her hand while she was in labour, “You can already use your human form. I specially bought a set of clothes, you probably will like it.”
Shen Mian’s expression gradually became paralyzed, “I couldn’t tell that Lieutenant General Yan Zhou… actually had this kind of aesthetic.”
He Xing’s expression was complicated.
The author has something to say:
It’s coming!
Yan Zhou: Apologies for the old fathers confusion.
Edited by Whistle
- A mum fan is someone or a group who’s main fans are older women. More info here (in chinese). Dad fan is the same except its dads who are the fans.
- 路痴 lù chī is a term for someone who has no sense of direction.
- There is actually no such thing as a grid bucket knife… though it could be imagined that it is a combination of the two knives below:
lmao edit: tis a military knife
Flavourtown 
Surprise early release!… 😤 I am a pedestrian idiot. I understand his pain 👍
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Thanks for the chapter
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Thanks for the chapter! At least that fool dad is trying? Sigh… He needs a remedial class on parenting…
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Thanks for the chapter! ^ ^)/
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Thank you for the update!
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I loved this with my entire soul.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK!!
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Thanks for the translation!
Just want to quickly say that in CN raws, when they separate the characters like grid|bucket|knife, or something else, it’s to avoid censorship. Usually they will use | or • between words of weapons, like knives, guns, bombs, or sexual implications, etc.
In this case, 格桶刀 is probably an intentional homonym to avoid censorship by the author. 格桶刀 > 格斗刀, which means, “combat knife.”
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thanks! will edit soon.
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I love how this novel gave Yan Zhou a reason as to why he acts like that towards his cub but didn’t let it justify his actions. He still did something wrong despite the reason an dhe had to work hard to make his cub accept him again XD
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