Chapter Fifty-One: Gale Step

  It's not easy to master a set of martial skills.

  At first, Gu Chao also spent some time mastering the 72 basic knife techniques of the first-class martial arts.

  Second-order martial skills are more troublesome than first-order martial skills and take longer to cultivate.

  This is actually still faster than Gu Chao's training speed. If it were someone with a knife technique talent inferior to Gu Chao, the training would be even slower.

  He was practicing the Gust Knife Technique, although he hadn't reached the level of minor completion, but he could feel that this technique truly lived up to its name. The speed of the knife was extremely fast, and for a moment, the shadow of the knife danced like light, and then came rushing in like a gust of wind. This Gust Knife Technique was really enjoyable to practice.

  After practicing the Gale Knife Technique, Gu Chao began to practice the Gale Step Technique.

  At that time when I went to Xin Xue Pavilion, Nan Gong Yuan only taught me the Swift Wind Knife Technique and the Listening Wind Heart Method.

  He then went to Xuegong again and asked Nan Gongyuan for a set of footwork.

  Footwork and lightness kung fu are two different things.

  What is known as qinggong, isn't something that can be learned now, it requires reaching the second major boundary of martial arts, the Xiantian Boundary, to learn. Qinggong emphasizes the aspect of lightness, after practicing qinggong, one's speed can increase, and even allow for flight through the air, flying and escaping. Qinggong is a method that makes one's speed faster, fly higher, it's extremely important for martial artists. If your qinggong is good, you can't beat an opponent but you can escape. If your qinggong is good, you can defeat an opponent and still pursue and kill them. If your qinggong isn't good, you can't beat an opponent and can't escape, even if you defeat an opponent you can't pursue and kill them, this is frustrating.

  Agility-based root bone is actually the most suitable root bone for light work, so although agility-based root bone is not as good as overbearing root bone in head-on combat, it is also a very useful root bone. Mobility and guerrilla warfare are the kings of the way, high survival rate is the king of the way, only with life can there be everything.

  While footwork is also somewhat different from qinggong, it emphasizes evasion.

  The footwork lies in the clever use of various steps between the feet to dodge others' attacks. It is said that in a distant country, there is a set of Luo Shen Steps, which are quite extraordinary and have a terrifying ability to avoid attacks. If one masters this set of Luo Shen Steps, it will be extremely difficult for their opponent to land a hit.

  The function of footwork is to dodge.

  The requirements for footwork are not as high as those for lightness, and can be learned in the acquired realm. For example, in the Wooden Dummy Form, many people use the footwork passed down from their families. Among the 61 people at Snow Mountain Manor, about half of them know various kinds of footwork, which have their own strengths and weaknesses.

  Gu Chao also felt that he didn't have a good footwork at the time, and was at a disadvantage in some small ways, so he went to ask Nan Gong Yuan, an elder, and as a result, he learned a set of rapid wind footwork.

  Gale Step, also a second-tier martial skill, is used to dodge the opponent's attack.

  The Xifeng Step Method has many images printed on the secret book, and there are also many explanations. These explanations are basically all from the I Ching, such as "Gui Mei Qu Wu Wang", "Tong Ren Wang Da You" and so on. Fortunately, in the usual curriculum of the Tai Shan School, there is a course on the I Ching, so it can be understood. Now it finally makes sense what the purpose of studying the I Ching course is, and how to understand the secret book without studying the I Ching course.

  Gu Chao finished watching and stood in the middle of the courtyard, starting to practice this set of Rapid Wind Step.

  Rapid Wind Step, lies in one word "Rapid".

  Feeling the opponent's attack, immediately turn around with a swift move and dodge the opponent's attack.

  Gu was practicing his Wind Step technique.

  "Step like a whirlwind, change with the wind..."

  "This set of rapid footwork, actually quite fast, could it be that I also have a certain amount of innate talent in practicing footwork? However, this kind of innate talent can't be directly observed, and can only be verified by using some things to repeatedly ponder and infer."

  Gu Chao has been practicing all along, just like a martial arts fanatic.

  This world has too many strong people, I must keep getting stronger.

  This made the two maids, Chunlian and Qiujie, who were standing beside him, admire him greatly. They couldn't believe that this young master was so serious about it. The two maids also wanted to follow along and take a look, but they were complete outsiders and couldn't understand anything.

  While practicing this, Gu Chao was also thinking to himself that he had learned a total of three sets of martial skills so far, two of which were knife techniques and one was footwork. In addition, there were two internal strength mind methods that did not belong to the category of martial skills. This made a total of five sets of skills. Furthermore, the Yuanqi Wood was constantly circulating and absorbing strands of Yuanqi into his body, causing Gu Chao's internal strength to gradually increase. His internal strength had now almost reached the middle stage of the sixth layer of the Post-Heaven Realm.

  Now Gu Chao's strength is much stronger than seven months ago when he had not yet entered the Tai Shan Sect.

  Of course, this is the charm of the sect, which can make people stronger in a short period of time.

  It's too difficult for an outsider to achieve such improvement, after all, the resources, mentors, and systematic education of a sect are not comparable to those outside.

  ……

  "I heard that San Gu's family is currently holding a big family competition." said a vendor selling roasted flatbread.

  "Isn't the Family Competition something only the Martial Families participate in?" another oil seller asked.

  "Your news is really outdated, the San Gu family has given birth to more than 40 children, haha, you haven't seen that the three brothers of San Gu are making babies every year and now they look older than their actual age. Then they spent a huge amount of money to send their children to various sects to learn martial arts, it's clear that they want to turn the merchant family into a martial artist family. With so much investment, there has been some return, now it is said that more than 10 people have entered the Wu Zhe sect. And this time it's just letting those over 10 people participate in the family competition, it's said that the strongest one will be awarded several thousand taels of silver."

  "Heavens, several thousand taels of silver, the Three Ancients' family is indeed wealthy, no wonder they are the richest in Tao Fang County. Apart from their family, I reckon there isn't another household that can casually take out several thousand taels of silver."

  "That's it."

  "Haha, unexpectedly, our Tao Fang County has also started to hold a family competition that only the Wu Zhe family can have." The vendor selling roasted flatbread also had an air of pride. Holding a family competition was a first for Tao Fang County in all these years, and everyone from top to bottom felt extremely novel and were discussing it everywhere. Many people had never seen a family competition in their lifetime, so they wanted to take a look, but in this land of Tao Fang County, if you didn't have the right connections, thinking about watching this ancient family's competition was simply impossible.

  Listening to the gossip of people around him, Gu Chao was somewhat unconvinced.

  Of course, Gu Chao is in this big world of martial arts, so he has some doubts.

  In fact, in this world, non-martial artists are quite curious and envious of everything about the martial artist's world.

  A warrior is someone who stands above all else in this world.

  Gu Chao was walking on the road, and this time he didn't do anything else, but went to a blind date. This was his mother's third attempt at matchmaking for him in this life. The object of the blind date was said to be the daughter of the county magistrate of Tao Fang County, whose surname was Tao and name was Zhiqian. His daughter's given name seemed to be Taoying. In this world, there is one good thing - before getting married, both parties generally meet for a blind date first to see if they hit it off, and only get married if they do.

  Gǔ Chāo originally didn't want to come to this blind date, but his mother, the third madam, insisted that he give it a try, so Gǔ Chāo reluctantly agreed.

  Forget it, Gu Chao only planned to take a casual look and didn't plan on agreeing. A man living in the world without great achievements or accomplishments, how can he start a family? Moreover, his body is only 12 years old now and will be 13 after the new year, yet he's already being asked to go on blind dates. Damn, this world really isn't ordinary when it comes to getting married early, just like ancient China on Earth.

  This blind date was at the most famous wine house in Taofang County - He Fei Wine House.

  At the second floor of He Fei wine house, Gu Chao met his blind date Tao Ying.

  Tao Ying is a twelve-year-old girl, with a bit of an innocent and pure taste, but in terms of looks, she can't compare to Liu Ya, let alone Gu Chao's younger half-sister Gu Momo.

  Gu Chao took a policy of not speaking and disagreeing this time, so he didn't plan to open his mouth.

  Gu Chao found that Tao Ying also seemed to be looking at him with a disdainful gaze, and was also unwilling to speak.

  It seems that this blind date is completely a mess created by the elders on both sides, and neither I nor Tao Ying agree with it, which is also good to avoid trouble.

  This time the blind date, both parties - Gu Chao and Tao Ying were completely silent, although the elders of both sides, San Fu Ren and Tao Fu Ren, kept talking, but it was still awkward.

  After this, Gu Chao also received the news that Tao Ying, the object of his blind date, seemed to think that he was the weakest among the more than ten disciples who had entered the door of the ancient family, and did not take a liking to him. Upon receiving this news, Gu Chao fell silent and lost his smile, nor did he go to care about it.

  He didn't care about such minor contempt.

  Having lived for two lifetimes, Gu Chao has become quite indifferent to many things.

  What's truly worth fighting for will be fought for, but getting angry over such trivial matters is really boring. Besides, I didn't even take that Tao Ying seriously to begin with.

  Gu Chao practices his sword skills every day, or cultivates the new internal power technique "Listening to the Wind Heart Method". He rarely leaves the basic courtyard, displaying a state of martial obsession.

  The day of the family's grand gathering has finally arrived.

  (The second update is sent out, this chapter is a bit longer, the new book list was exploded, asking for recommendation votes to support, we want to explode back.)