Night fell.
Insects chirped incessantly outside the window.
Yan Lingyun sat beside the bed, holding the child, carefully and gently applying the cooling balm still on her fingertips.
In a moment of inattention, mosquitoes had left several large welts on the little fellow's arm. It had taken considerable coaxing to get him to sleep.
The electric fan beside them spun for all it was worth.
Lian Youming, meanwhile, chased the culprits who had bullied his son around the room, hunting mosquitoes.
In the blink of an eye, Little Stone was almost a year old.
Around this time last year, he had still been preparing for the battle at Mount Lu.
In the space of a single year, he had risen from a Grand Boxer who had achieved three energies unification to the realm of foresight.
It really had been rather fast.
But it had not come easily.
He had fought through several brutal battles: his fight with Xue Hen, the battle on Wudang Mountain, and this latest journey overseas. Everyone he had encountered had been among the foremost masters of the age. None of it had been easy.
The present was difficult, and the future would only grow harder.
Only after making a circuit of the room did Lian Youming sit beside the bed and lean close to Yan Lingyun. They exchanged a smile.
Looking back at Little Stone on the bed, they found him sprawled on his back, his sleeping posture particularly overbearing.
Only the tears still glistened at the corners of his eyes.
"When did he learn to walk?"
"Just a month ago. I took my eyes off him for a moment, and, hehe, he was practically running! Oh, right, haven't you forgotten something?"
"What?"
"Xiao Shuang's taking the college entrance exam this year. He said he wanted