In Ten-Mile Maple Forest, a thousand years passed in the blink of an eye. Over a thousand years, seas turned to mulberry fields.
Guigui had grown a little older. He followed his father in learning to read and write, and in martial arts.
Ning Chen taught Guigui everything he knew, including military strategy, swordsmanship, and the principles of how to conduct oneself.
A thousand years was an unimaginably distant span for mortals, yet to a Great Dao Saint, it was no more than a snap of the fingers.
A Saint's lifespan was practically endless. Though Guigui was not a Saint, he was the world's only Holy Embryo. Even after a thousand years, his appearance had not changed much; he had merely grown a little.
Like a human child of four or five, Guigui had begun to turn somewhat mischievous. He often teased Little Gourd and the small animals of Ten-Mile Maple Forest. Sometimes, he would run off by himself and not return until sunset.
Ning Chen granted Guigui the greatest freedom. He only taught him the principles of being human, leaving everything else for Guigui to experience on his own.
Over those thousand years, the Golden Tent Royal Court that had once destroyed Great Xia changed dynasties several times. War erupted time and again, while peace was always hard-won.
War and peace became an eternal, unchanging cycle in the human world, repeating over and over, beyond anyone's power to alter.
From his youth until becoming a Great Dao Saint, the flourishing age of a hundred generations that Ning Chen had always hoped to see had never arrived. Wherever there were people, war seemed destined never to cease.
Yet even so, Ning Chen had not given up. He continued waiting for that flourishing age of a hundred generations to come.
"Daddy,