Chapter 63: The Final Chapter, New Year's Eve, Lantern Festival

  Boom! It's as if everything has been blown up.

  Family is more important than anything else, it's supreme.

  Kogō Toku, Kogō Chi and Kogō Tai, these three merchants, had extremely sharp eyes.

  They had long since discovered Gu Chao's habit.

  Not using all means at once, but rather using them one by one, always keeping the trump card hidden, and only playing the next trump card when the previous one has not been used.

  Very clever tactics.

  In the ups and downs of business, a person must have an ace up their sleeve. If they are easily seen through by their enemies, they will soon be defeated. Similarly, Gu Chao's tactics were to first use his internal strength to knock down his opponent, then if that didn't work, he would use his first-level martial arts skill, and finally resort to using his second-level martial arts skill.

  After living for a long time, one knows that keeping an ace up one's sleeve is no fake.

  Gu Chao was just a twelve-year-old boy who would turn thirteen during the New Year, yet he already knew how to keep an ace up his sleeve.

  This child is worth expecting.

  Gu Fangde stood up: "Now congratulations to Gu Chao, Gu Chao is the first place in our family competition this time, Gu Momo is the second place in the family competition. The two of them will receive 4,000 and 1,000 taels of silver as rewards respectively. Others also performed well. Our Gu family was originally a commercial family, now it's only half-commercial and half-martial arts family."

  "In this world, might makes right."

  "So, in order to make our family stronger, we need to transform."

  "And our hope for transformation lies with you, the younger generation of the Gu family. Gu Chao, Gu Momo, Gu Yu and others like you are the leading figures in the Gu family's transformation. From now on, you must work even harder, only when you become Innate can our Gu family become a lower-ranking martial arts family." A lower-ranking martial arts family needs at least one Innate to preside over it, and there are many other requirements as well.

  Gu Fangde said this, Gu Chao, Gu Momo and Gu Yu looked at each other, with their level, they can all set foot in the Xiantian realm later, and now they obviously have a competitive consciousness, wanting to see who will arrive at the Xiantian realm first.

  "Meanwhile, other disciples, whether they have joined the sect or are still temporarily unaffiliated family juniors, work hard."

  "Our future is the Martial Arts Family."

  This is a very stirring remark, almost instantly igniting everyone's passion.

  Transforming a business-oriented family into a martial arts-oriented one is a major transformation, it's an exciting and thrilling thing.

  For the family, let's work together!

  Thus, the grand family competition of the Gu household came to a thunderous end.

  After this family comparison, the Gu family's position in Tao Fang County was thoroughly consolidated. The other families in Tao Fang County knew that they could not compete with the Gu family and also knew that the Gu family's ambition was so great. At the same time, those who came to propose marriage to the Third Madam, wanting to be matched with Gu Chao, were endless.

  The three madams were naturally delighted and looked at the information of each girl, wanting to find a suitable girl for Gu Chao.

  Gu Chao didn't have so many empty moves, Gu Chao continued to practice his knife skills.

  Indeed, I did have a bit of luck and obtained the mysterious knife tip, which greatly improved my knife skills. However, having an encounter is not enough; one must also put in the corresponding effort to achieve success. In this world, every day there are people who can have encounters, but those who truly reach the pinnacle are always only a tiny minority, or just a few individuals.

  The one who is unbeatable in martial arts is called the Martial God.

  But the throne of the martial god is high above, and most people have fallen on the road to becoming a martial god.

  The following days at Gu's house were also simple.

  Gǔ Chāo was practicing every day like a madman, either cultivating internal energy or knife skills. With the help of low-grade yuanqi wood to accelerate internal energy cultivation speed, Gǔ Chāo's internal energy cultivation speed was not slow either. At the same time, Gǔ Chāo also spent three thousand taels of silver at a nearby city's dan medicine shop, buying ten portions of Nei Li Gao, a type of ointment made from special medicinal herbs that can accelerate internal energy cultivation speed when applied to the body.

  Time is constantly passing by.

  ……

  During his cultivation, Gu Chao also enjoyed a bit of this world's exotic customs.

  Cultivation is necessary, enjoyment is also necessary.

  Both hands grasp, both hands must be firm.

  Many years ago, there was an ancestor worship ceremony that Gu Chao also attended. Ancestor worship is a form of reverence for one's ancestors, and it is this reverence that has been the driving force behind the continuation of many families. The ceremony was quite elaborate, requiring preparations such as pig heads, sheep heads, cow heads, etc., as well as a multitude of complex rituals. Gu Chao, Gu Momo, and Gu Yu, as the three most outstanding members of the Gu family's current generation, followed behind Gu Fangde and two others.

  In addition, during the Chinese New Year, Gu's family decorated their home with lanterns and couplets, hung peach symbols, set off firecrackers, and had a lively celebration. The peach symbol was similar to the spring couplets on Earth, but it was made of peach wood with words carved on it, whereas spring couplets were made of paper. The firecracker was actually just a firework, but with a different name. On this day, Gu Jia relaxed and had fun, and even received 20 taels of lucky money. It's not surprising, considering that Gu Jia was only 13 years old at the time, so it was normal for him to receive lucky money. Gu Jia was overjoyed, tears streaming down his face, as he hadn't received lucky money in many years.

  After passing the New Year, Gu Chao continued to practice his skills.

  Unconsciously, the Lantern Festival has arrived. There are two major events during the Lantern Festival: one is eating glutinous rice balls and the other is attending the lantern fair. On this day, all members of the Gu family went out to participate in the lantern fair. At the age of 20, the lantern fair was a good time for young people like Gu Yu to go on dates with their girlfriends. The streets were filled with lanterns, and Gu Yu's girlfriend, Liu Xiaoniang, walked hand in hand with him, carrying a lantern between them, wasn't it very romantic? Gu Yu had also asked out Liu Xiaoniang from the Liu family of Liu Da Guanren. Liu Da Guanren was a retired official, and the Liu family was known for their love of poetry and books. Liu Xiaoniang had an elegant demeanor and looked pitifully beautiful, which made Gu Yu very fond of her.

  While others, such as Gu Ling and the like, were just joining in on the excitement, engaging in fierce battles within their families, they were actually only twelve or thirteen years old, mere boys and girls. Gu Meng also went.

  Gu Chao also went with the intention of joining in the fun.

  What a wonderful lantern festival! As soon as I stepped out of my house, I saw that tonight the lanterns are like dragons everywhere, and there are lanterns all over the place. At the lantern festival, the most popular activity is guessing riddles on lanterns. Each boss hangs up various kinds of lanterns for everyone to guess. If you can guess correctly, you can take away the lantern; if you fail, please pay three cents. Three cents isn't expensive, it's just for fun.

  Among the crowds of people, Gu Mengmeng saw a lantern shop with beautiful lanterns in various shapes, such as phoenix, dragon, lotus leaf and orange. Gu Mengmeng was attracted by these lanterns, but guessing lantern riddles wasn't an easy task.

  Gu Mengmeng had already incorrectly guessed over ten times, her small face was red with anger.

  On the side, Gu Ling and Gu Lang were also there, but it was clear that neither of them could do anything. Gu Lang joked: "Gu Ling, your Roushan School is known as the Book Sword Gate School, can't even guess riddles."

  Gu Ling's face turned slightly red: "We are Confucian scholars, with a broad and long-lasting spirit, not riddle-guessers." In fact, many of the Lu Shan School's masters were skilled at guessing riddles, after all those years of reading books hadn't been in vain. But Gu Ling was clearly not yet a Confucian master.

  "Alright, I'll go."

  Half a spring and autumn wrote a word, Gu Chao nodded: "Qin character", the crowd heard Gu Chao immediately react, involuntarily stunned, half a spring and autumn, isn't it Qin character? A lantern arrived in his hands, this is a phoenix lantern, very beautiful.

  Seven fairy daughters got married one by one, Gu Chao thought for a moment: "Six spirits have no master." Then he matched another pair.

  Willow sweeps green head with young master, Gu Chao thought for a while, this is a bit difficult, but immediately responded: "Feather Sakura".

  Baolongtu didn't say a word. This is a riddle of a Tang poem. Gu Chao thought for a moment: "The blue sky has no clouds."

  Month after month, two months share a side. Above are fields that can be tilled, below is a long flowing river. A family of six, with two not reunited, this riddle is quite difficult, even the ancients thought for a moment: "Use characters."

  One by one, the riddles were solved by Gu Chao.

  On the side, Gu Ling, Gu Lang, and the boss of the lantern shop, as well as the people around them, were all stunned. Gu Chao was not only good at fighting, but also incredibly skilled at guessing riddles. The crowd erupted in bursts of applause, shouting "Great master! This is a true master of guessing lantern riddles!" The crowd was cheering for the master. The boss of the lantern shop had a bitter face, having encountered such a great master and suffering a huge loss. Among the crowd, Tao Ying stood out, she had also come to play at the Lantern Festival. She never expected Gu Chao to be so amazing, even good at guessing lantern riddles.

  It's actually quite simple, most of these lantern riddles are things Gu Chao has seen before in his past life on Earth, and the ones he hasn't seen won't stump him either, after all a IQ of 142 isn't just for show.

  Gu played for a while and then stopped too.

  But even so, a legendary story was left at the Lantern Riddle Festival.

  Gulang and Gu Lang were deeply impressed.

  I'm speechless!

  It turns out that Gu Chao still has such skills.

  The first update was delivered, and this one took longer than expected.