Chapter 52: Bringing the Whole Family Along
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Yun Yingzhi walked into the Starshine Competition arena wearing three layers of winter clothes. After the preliminaries, another large batch of contestants had been eliminated. What hadn’t changed was that he was still assigned to Arena One, surrounded by students from the Ten Great Military Academies. Right now, all of them were staring at him with blazing eyes.
He hesitated for a moment, subconsciously checking that his mask was still in place. Ever since the livestream of his water-element source weapon had gone viral, more and more people were trying to uncover his true identity.
Some students whispered while glancing at him, saying things like, “Every source weapon that guy builds is more brutal than the last.”
One cadet said, “That water-based source weapon he made before was insane—both offensive and defensive. If this round’s test is for a pure offensive-type weapon, even he might not be able to build one stronger than that.” The student didn’t say his name, but everyone knew who “he” meant—Yun Yingzhi. As the discussion spread, more and more people turned their burning gazes on him.
“I think it’s nearly impossible,” someone else said. “I’ve researched a lot lately. To surpass the output of that water-type weapon on the same level? It’s basically not doable.”
“Even for him,” another said, “even for the powerhouse himself, he probably can’t do it.”
“If he can, then he’s the strongest of all the powerhouses. No contest.” Everyone around nodded in full agreement.
Listening to their chatter, Yun Yingzhi’s first thought was of Elvis’s massive spatial-cutting ability. That would definitely… If all went as planned, this next source weapon’s destructive power would easily surpass the water-based one from the prelims. In his design drafts, it was meant to be a purely offensive source weapon—absolutely nothing else. To guarantee maximum output, Yun Yingzhi didn’t even plan to include any auxiliary or passive engravings. It was going to be a pure killing machine.
He didn’t particularly care for everyone’s wild misunderstandings about him, but coincidences seemed to pile up, making those misunderstandings even worse. That wouldn’t do. He thought seriously about whether there was any way to clear up the image people had of him. And then—maybe it was just his imagination—but suddenly he felt even more eyes on him. Yun Yingzhi could only sigh inwardly. Walking here was like moving through a minefield.
At eight fifty, the proctors entered the arena. For the semifinals, there were now two of them—Master Tang, and another highly renowned source weapon master from the Empire. The two began explaining the rules, followed by the day’s test topic. Master Tang announced, “This round’s subject is an offensive-type source weapon.”
Almost the instant he said it, every single contestant—and that meant everyone—turned their heads toward Yun Yingzhi in perfect synchronization. Even the two proctors and several staff members in uniform had their eyes fixed right on him.
The round hadn’t even begun, and Yun Yingzhi had already become the center of everyone’s attention. The tracking drone captured the whole scene, and the livestream chat instantly exploded.
“Hahahahahahahaha!”
“Our legendary fighter jet, forever the shining spotlight!”
“Even though Red Peony has his hat and mask on, I can feel the confusion radiating off him!”
…
…
Yun Yingzhi silently pressed a hand over his face. He was starting to realize that his disguise persona was basically beyond saving. Scratch that—his alter ego now had a personality that was nothing like him, and it was completely out of his control. He tugged his cap a little lower and looked away from the cameras.
Master Tang went on, “The only requirement for this round is that it must be a purely offensive source weapon. Beyond that, contestants are free to create however they wish.”
Yun Yingzhi thought for a moment, then raised his hand. After the prelims and earlier rounds, his assigned station was now right up front—so close that he was practically working under the two masters’ noses. Even so, the arena’s massive projection screens instantly zoomed in, giving him a full close-up visible from every direction.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yun Yingzhi could see his own face—masked and magnified dozens of times—circling the arena.
Master Tang looked over at him, unable to help recalling the preliminaries, when Yun Yingzhi had asked all those “wool-gathering” questions just to squeeze out extra resources. Surely, he wouldn’t waste time like that again now that they were in the semifinals… right? What he didn’t know was that everyone watching the livestream had the exact same thought.
“Here it comes! Red Peony’s trademark wool-gathering question!’
“We’re in the semifinals now; he wouldn’t dare pull that again… right?’
“Is it just me, or do Master Tang, Master Ted, and the staff all look nervous?”
Master Tang forced a genial smile, addressing Yun Yingzhi. “Go ahead,” he said warmly—though his eyelid gave an uneasy twitch. He had a bad feeling about this. Probably just nerves, he told himself.
Yun Yingzhi asked, “As long as I create an offensive-type source weapon, that counts, right?”
“Of course,” Master Tang replied.
Just to be sure, Yun Yingzhi added, “Even if the control method is… a little unconventional?”
Master Tang’s eyelid twitched violently. He could already tell that Yun Yingzhi had something brewing in that head of his—something clever, and possibly dangerous. Whatever idea it was, it probably danced right on the edge of the rulebook. But since he couldn’t pry open the boy’s skull to see what kind of trickery was brewing inside, all he could do was repeat firmly, “As the rules state—so long as it’s an offensive-type source weapon, it’s allowed.”
Yun Yingzhi nodded thoughtfully. “So, as long as it’s a complete, self-contained offensive skill—no matter how… unconventional the control method is,” he paused, then added, “say, something unique—like one that requires multiple operators—it still counts, right?”
Master Tang gave the question serious consideration. “Of course. That’s within the rules.”
Yun Yingzhi nodded again, satisfied. He’d asked only to make sure. The semifinals lasted fifteen days total, and developing an entirely new source weapon from scratch—no matter that he already had a basic concept—was uncertain at best. It was even more unrealistic to complete two fully offensive source weapons in that window. If he couldn’t finish the second one in time, he’d have to rely on this design alone. He needed at least one weapon he could submit with full confidence of passing the round. At precisely nine o’clock, the semifinals began.
There were no material restrictions this time. No matter how much a contestant consumed during construction, all source materials could be restocked at a heavily discounted price.
Yun Yingzhi’s eyes lit up like twin stars. It had been so long—so long—since he’d been able to burn through materials without restraint. Ever since childhood, aside from his early years when he’d been too innocent to understand cost, he’d always had to conserve resources while experimenting. But that had always held him back. Now, after all these years, he could finally unleash himself. He moved in a blur—so fast that he left an afterimage—as he sprinted toward the material vending machines.
The entire arena fell into a stunned silence. Contestants who had just opened their terminals or begun selecting materials froze, staring at him with wide eyes and dropped jaws.
Even the livestream chat went dead for a moment. Then, one lone message appeared: “Holy hell.”
“Too fast to even see—just a shadow moving!”
“Even if that guy wasn’t in the source weapon department, he could totally thrive in combat training!”
“If I didn’t know how insanely hard weapon-crafting was, I’d swear this guy’s a combat major in disguise.”
Both the audience in the stands and those watching online were awestruck, their gazes locked on Yun Yingzhi. Then… they saw him empty an entire vending machine of materials.
Everyone: “…” Speechless didn’t even begin to cover it.
And it didn’t stop there—he blurred across the floor again, raiding another vending machine.
“Wait, so the reason he’s so fast… is just to hoard more resources faster?”
“I’m starting to think Red Peony could singlehandedly rewrite the competition’s economy.”
“I swear I just saw Masters Tang and Master Ted gulp nervously.”
“I mean… yeah, that’s all money flying out the window.”
Under the collective gaze of the room, Yun Yingzhi efficiently cleared three vending machines in record time. When he finally stopped short of a fourth, both proctors exhaled with visible relief. They watched him pull up his personal terminal—hidden interface, rapid input. They couldn’t tell what he was doing, but both masters had the same uneasy thought at once:
If they could somehow limit how long he handled materials… the competition could save a lot of money. The idea was ridiculous—and yet both found themselves quietly amused by it. After all, Yun Yingzhi was only one person. No matter how talented he was, how much could one contestant really cost them? Well… that’s what they thought.
Yun Yingzhi wasted no time. Just as he’d blitzed through gathering resources, he now flew through his data on the terminal—barely twenty seconds of review—before diving into material processing. Bulk processing. All at once. In a single burst of motion, he refined every piece of raw material he had collected.
Master Tang leaned toward Master Ted and whispered, “His talent’s extraordinary. He’s even processing materials faster now.”
Master Ted shook his head. “No, think about it. There were material-loss limits in the prelims and qualifiers—but not anymore. It’s not that he’s faster… he’s just completely unrestrained now.”
Master Tang’s eyelid twitched again. That same uneasy feeling returned, heavier this time. And judging by the live chat scrolling by, the viewers had the exact same feeling.
The entire morning passed, and Yun Yingzhi spent it all refining raw materials. By midday, he headed to grab lunch—only for a communication request from Yun Yinghui to pop up. He found a quiet corner and accepted the call.
The moment the screen flickered on, Yun Yinghui’s face appeared—along with little kit, huddled in his coat, eyes swollen red from crying. The sight made Yun Yingzhi’s heart twist painfully.
When little kit saw him, his tears started falling even faster, streaming down his cheeks. “Da-da-da—QAQ!” he wailed. Not a single word made sense.
Yun Yingzhi blinked helplessly and turned to Yun Yinghui for translation, his expression clearly pleading: Help.
Yun Yinghui exhaled silently. “Yesterday, you were stern with Jiaojiao. This morning, when you left, Jiaojiao thought you were abandoning him. Ever since you walked away, he’s been crying on and off. No matter how I tried to comfort him… nothing worked.” He paused for a moment, then added, “He won’t even drink his milk.”
Yun Yingzhi: “…”
Little kit was tiny, but he had a huge appetite. For a newborn like him, going several hours without eating had to be extremely uncomfortable.
Yun Yingzhi’s heart ached even more. He looked at little kit. “Jiaojiao, Daddy isn’t abandoning you.”
Tears still fell from little kit’s eyes as he reached out both tiny paws, begging for a hug. Separated by the projection screen, Yun Yingzhi couldn’t hold little kit and could only look at him anxiously.
Yun Yinghui said, “Jiaojiao can’t be like this. I’m bringing him to the arena now.”
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelids twitched heavily. He didn’t want anyone else to see him interacting with Yun Yinghui—it could easily lead others to trace back and uncover his real identity. He told Yun Yinghui a quick word, then dashed toward the arena parking lot at a speed fast enough to leave an afterimage.
Once inside the floating car, the little kit immediately pounced into Yun Yingzhi’s arms. Yun Yingzhi held him close and kissed his eyes. “Jiaojiao, stop crying. Daddy isn’t going to leave you.”
He comforted the little kit for a long while, finally coaxing the little one to stop crying. He patted the little kit’s head and fed him milk. After fasting for so long, the little kit finally drank eagerly. Gulp, gulp—before anyone realized it, the tiny little kit had drunk as much milk as his own body size. Normally, the little kit needed to be fed every half hour to an hour. Going half a day without milk was practically a starvation for him. Yun Yingzhi rubbed little kit’s belly, feeling a deep ache in his heart.
By the afternoon, the competition had already begun. Yun Yingzhi handed the little kit to Yun Yinghui and planned to return to the arena—but the little kit refused. He clung tightly to Yun Yingzhi’s finger.
Yun Yingzhi said, “Be good, Jiaojiao. Daddy has to work so he can buy your milk powder. If you eat so much but don’t let Daddy work, you’ll go hungry.”
Tears rolled down little kit’s cheeks as he cried in sorrow, “Da-da-da…”
Yun Yingzhi: “…”
Yun Yinghui translated, “Jiaojiao wants to go with you.”
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelids twitched violently. Out of the large population base, few cubs were born in their second form. Although most people wouldn’t immediately recognize the little kit as a child, Yun Yingzhi still didn’t want him to appear on camera.
But the little kit was crying so pitifully it was unbearable. Yun Yingzhi thought it over again. If he brought the little kit into the arena, he would need to feed him constantly—and on top of that… Little kit didn’t just need milk; he also needed to relieve himself.
He was still so small, knowing nothing, and couldn’t control himself in public. Would he really broadcast a human child going to the bathroom live? That would become little kit’s permanent embarrassing history.
Yun Yingzhi hesitated. “Jiaojiao… it’s not that Daddy doesn’t want to bring you, but if I do, you might end up embarrassed in front of the entire Empire.”
Little kit continued crying. After a long tug-of-war, Yun Yingzhi had no choice. Little kit’s current emotional state clearly depended on him completely.
Yun Yingzhi was surprised by Yun Yinghui’s preparation. Clearly, Yun Yinghui had come fully prepared. Along with handing the little kit to Yun Yingzhi, he had brought milk powder, bottles, warm water for preparing the formula, a small blanket, teething sticks, little toys, and…a diaper specifically for the little kit.
Yun Yingzhi: “…” Well, it would prevent the little kit from peeing in public—but… a tiny kit wearing a diaper… That was still embarrassing. A total black-history moment, really. Yun Yingzhi tried again to have the little kit stay with Yun Yinghui, but he failed.
Left with no choice, Yun Yingzhi put a diaper on the little kit and then tucked him into his pocket. The little kit resisted being shoved into the cotton jacket pocket. He latched onto Yun Yingzhi’s arm and crawled up into the collar instead.
Yun Yingzhi hesitated for a moment, unbuttoned a few buttons so the little kit could lie more comfortably in the collar. He glanced at the little egg bouncing inside the incubation box and thought that little egg was tougher than the little kit. After saying goodbye to Yun Yinghui and the egg, Yun Yingzhi returned to the arena with the little kit.
Everyone in the arena was surprised to see Yun Yingzhi arrive late. Their curious gazes turned toward him, then fell on the tiny head peeking from his lapel and on the heavy-looking luggage bag in his hand.
The first reaction from the crowd was that the little kit was adorable. A question mark slowly formed in their minds: had he brought a pet to compete? No—that small, tear-red-eyed baby rabbit—could it really be a mere pet? The two examiners, Masters Tang and Ted, walked over to Yun Yingzhi to ask about the situation.
Yun Yingzhi answered innocently, “The competition rules didn’t say you couldn’t bring your family along.”
For a moment, the two invigilators were left speechless. Under their scrutiny, the tiny little kit cocked his head and looked at them through teary eyes. “Da-da?”
In that instant, the two elderly source-weapon masters felt something pierce their chests; their hearts nearly melted. So rabbits could be this cute?
Yun Yingzhi wasted no more time and began his work. He had processed all the raw materials that morning. In the afternoon, he needed to turn the ideas in his head into reality. At first, he had worried that bringing the little kit would be inconvenient. To his surprise, the little kit behaved obediently through the whole process and did not interfere.
However… Masters Tang and Ted exchanged a look. Their expressions gradually turned to shock. The viewers glued to the livestream were stunned as well. Initially, like the two masters, most eyes were fixed on the little kit. The chat was flooded with messages about the little rabbit.
“Look, that baby rabbit—his eyes are so red. He must’ve been crying for so long!”
“He’s sleepy, his eyes are closing, his head is nodding—he’s going to sleep. So cute, so cute! He’s asleep! He must be asleep!”
“Wait, can rabbits be this well-behaved? This is the first time I’ve seen such a calm little rabbit.”
“Is it true that only macho men like such cute little creatures?”
People naturally liked beautiful, adorable things; their attention was involuntarily captured by the little kit. Then their gaze had to swing back to Yun Yingzhi, because his destructive power was excessive.
That morning Yun Yingzhi had spent four hours astonishing everyone by processing materials from three vending machines at a staggering speed. Then, in under an hour, he consumed almost all the remaining material—more precisely, he destroyed about eighty percent of it, leaving roughly twenty percent as ambiguous half-finished pieces.
In any case, the materials were used up. Most of the chat had been dominated by little kit until someone bluntly pointed out the problem and the chat shifted away from the rabbit.
“Did you see that? Master Tang’s expression just cracked.”
“Master Ted’s expression cracked too.”
“How did macho guy manage that? Unparalleled destructive power!”
After the nickname “Red Peony” stuck, Yun Yingzhi earned another new title. The viewers’ eyes bounced between Yun Yingzhi and the two masters. After consuming all the materials, Yun Yingzhi frowned and fell into thought.
Little kit woke up hungry. The diaper-clad little kit crawled out of Yun Yingzhi’s collar and pressed his chubby face against Yun Yingzhi’s mask. Yun Yingzhi snapped out of his reverie, patted the little kit’s head, opened his luggage, and prepared formula.
During that process, the little kit crawled back into the collar. After the formula was ready, Yun Yingzhi pulled the small white rabbit out and fed him. At this stage little kit could have held a bottle twice his size and fed himself, but today he was unusually fussy and insisted Yun Yingzhi feed him. While feeding him, Yun Yingzhi kept turning over the problems he’d run into during practice in his head. Masters Tang and Ted still wore those cracked expressions. The livestream chat lit up again.
“The diapered little kit drinking milk is so cute!”
“I’ll donate my milk money to the baby rabbit!”
“I think big macho guys need time to care for cute pets, and him spending time on the baby rabbit might have prevented him from destroying more materials. On that basis alone, Starshine Competition probably won’t ban contestants from bringing pets.”
“Look how long Master Tang and Master Ted’s faces have been cracking!”
“Can someone calculate how much material the macho guy destroyed in that hour? This destructive power—honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it!”
The chat soon erupted with fans wildly estimating how much of the organizers’ resources Yun Yingzhi had “harvested.” Yun Yingzhi changed the little kit’s diaper, carefully tucked him back into his collar, then ran toward another row of vending machines.
“Have you noticed? The macho guy didn’t even seem aware that the two masters were watching him from close range; all his attention was on the baby rabbit and on destroying materials.”
“Look, the two masters’ gazes followed him as he moved; their faces still looked split—this is hilarious!”
Under their watch, Yun Yingzhi emptied three more vending machines in quick succession. Little kit blinked and looked around curiously. The crowd frightened him a little, so he tucked his whole tiny body back into Yun Yingzhi’s collar. Not long after, he popped his head back out. Yun Yingzhi kept processing materials and then began to destroy them again.
The two masters finally recovered from their shock. Master Tang’s eyelid twitched uncontrollably as he looked at Yun Yingzhi. “Contestant—”
Yun Yingzhi had not yet started his destructive work when he turned to Master Tang with a puzzled look. “Yes? Is there a problem?”
Master Tang’s mouth twitched. “Although the competition provides materials to you at very low prices, you still have to pay something. I think you should calculate how much you’ve wasted.”
Yun Yingzhi flashed Master Tang a grateful smile and spoke sincerely, “Thank you for your concern. I know research on source weapons will involve a lot of loss. However, to develop the best source weapon, it’s worth it.”
Master Tang: “…”
Master Ted: “…”
Yun Yingzhi continued wielding the “death cleaver” over the stacks of source materials.
Little kit blinked and looked at the two masters whose expressions had completely cracked. Perhaps he found their faces amusing, because he covered his mouth with both paws and giggled, “Da-da-da!” Hehehe.
Every half hour to an hour, the little kit reminded Yun Yingzhi to feed him.
At first, little kit had been shy and only moved around on Yun Yingzhi, refusing to drink by himself. He insisted that Yun Yingzhi feed him. But by evening, the little kit had grown accustomed to the environment. He could now lie on the workbench alone, clutching a bottle as large as himself and drinking independently.
Finally, a day that had been exhausting—and in many ways, incomprehensible—for the competition organizers came to an end. Everyone in the arena still stared at Yun Yingzhi in awe.
Yun Yingzhi tucked the little kit into his collar with one hand, grabbed his luggage bag with the other, and dashed out of the arena toward the underground parking lot. Yun Yinghui had been waiting for him there for quite some time. Yun Yingzhi entered the floating car and took the little egg out of the incubation box, holding it on his lap. The little egg lay perfectly still, like a stone egg.
Yun Yingzhi felt a little strange. Previously, the little egg had been very lively—why was he so quiet now?
“Zhizhi,” Yun Yinghui called his name.
Yun Yingzhi patted the little egg and looked at Yun Yinghui. “Hmm?”
Yun Yinghui said, “If you’re competing tomorrow, then you’ll have to bring the little egg with you too.”
Yun Yingzhi: “Ah?” His expression cracked.
Yun Yinghui added, “After you took Jiaojiao away, the little egg has basically shut down emotionally.”
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelid twitched as he glanced at the withdrawn little egg in his hands. So… he was going to have to bring his whole family to compete again tomorrow?
This Title is available for faster chapter releases through paid Patreon membership. Any proceeds go to keeping the website running. Check it out HERE.
