Damn it! Let’s smash the darkness together!
Chapter 162 - 9: Gu Family Legacy, Star Tower Masks, Dutch Treat (Added update for a small mistake! The first update at 6 pm)

Chapter 162: Chapter 9: Gu Family Legacy, Star Tower Masks, Dutch Treat (Added update for a small mistake! The first update at 6 pm)

New Calendar Year 18, November 19th, the end of Shen Hour nears, the frost falls, a slight chill in the air...

Gu Family Ancestral Hall.

A group of Gu Family members clad in black paid their respects with incense in hand, nearly a hundred people, all current elders and stewards, gathered here to burn incense and worship their ancestors.

The layered spirit tablets, like small hills, occupied most of the ancestral hall, each displayed with a broken sword, exuding an aura of solemn lethality.

Family Head Gu Shi Qian led the rites, and after the worship was complete, he lifted the large incense stick above his head and bowed deeply, saying, "To the ancestors we offer this sacrifice!"

The rest of the Gu Family shouted in unison:

"To the ancestors we offer this sacrifice! Heaven and earth, the universe, only our ancestors are eternal! The sun and moon rotate, all laws cannot invade!"

Sword Intent surged intensely, as if about to lift the roof off.

After the sacrifice, most of the people left on their own.

Gu Shi Qian said in a deep voice, "Bring forth the Sword Master’s Life Book."

Two maids from behind jointly brought over something as warm and heavy as jade, the size of a soup bowl, shimmering with flickering light.

He turned around, and reflected in his dark glasses was the figure of a petite, excited girl—Gu Pan, who had been waiting for some time.

This was the Gu Family’s rule, every time a new member of the family received the Sword Tomb inheritance, they could become a new ’Sword Master’, and required to do two things.

First was to have the entire clan offer sacrifices to the ancestors, to proclaim to the whole family.

Second, was to record the Sword Tomb inheritance in the ancestral hall, where the spiritual tablet corresponding to the ancestral information acquired from the inheritance would be revealed; if it was a lost spiritual tablet, it would materialize on a prepared blank tablet.

One Sword Tomb, one inheritor, a lineage of life and death, long and enduring.

The Gu Family had such a unique heritage throughout the years.

Gu Shi Qian looked at the girl who only minutes ago was sharp and outstanding, but now seemed somewhat nervous about the big event, and smiled warmly, saying:

"Gu Pan, imprint your inheritance item just once, and from then on you’ll have left a life marker, officially joining the ranks of the Gu Family Sword Masters."

"Yes, Family Head."

Of course, Gu Pan was nervous, but what made her anxious wasn’t so much about finally becoming a ’Sword Master’, it was worrying...

"If I take out the entire Sword Tomb... that might be troubling."

"In the annals of the Gu Family, no one has ever recorded getting the Sword Tomb’s inheritance. Even the ancestors who were Family Heads have never had such an encounter...

"Although the inheritance is valuable, it is still not my own strength, and what if after leaving the Sword Tomb Ruins, other family members covet it? Right now, I am but a mere mortal."

"To say nothing of the younger generation, once the grand Sword Tomb is revealed, even the elders themselves might be green with envy. Who’s to say they won’t make a move to seize this opportunity for their own descendants?

"Having suddenly come upon such a great opportunity, it’s a joy in the long run, but I must be able to protect it! However, if we look at the short term, I fear for my life!

"Gu Family members obtaining a treasure from the Sword Tomb inheritance through their own skills is, of course, acceptable, following family rules.

"But it’s a different story if it’s too valuable!"

At this moment, Gu Pan, who carried the unprecedented inheritance of the grand Sword Tomb, found herself deep in thought.

It wasn’t that she distrusted her family.

It was exactly because she understood her family too well that she hesitated!

Put yourself in their shoes, if someone else were to get the inheritance of the grand Sword Tomb and she, Gu Pan, came to know of it, she would be envious and resentful, wishing she could replace them.

The inheritance from the Sword Tomb had already been brought out. If that Sword Master died, the family certainly wouldn’t put the inheritance back in - they would select someone new from within to inherit it directly.

The peculiar items branded with the mark of the ancestors from the Sword Tomb inheritance... but aren’t we all descendants of those ancestors? Whoever it may be, wouldn’t they have to call them ancestor?

Frankly, inside the ruins is different from outside.

They’re not the same - the grand Sword Tomb represents the ancestors! Who wouldn’t be muddled upon seeing the ancestors appear right before their eyes?

"Hmm, I’ve been orphaned since childhood, with little to rely on. Although my aunt managed to join the Elder Council by virtue of being a widow of a Sword Master and raised me, at the end of the day, she is merely a Sword Master herself with little say!

"On ordinary days it’s still alright, but if there’s internal strife in the family, she won’t be able to protect me!

"Just like this morning, my aunt was of no use against the Great Elder’s accusations and difficulties. While I can’t blame her for that, I have to be even more cautious myself."

"Sigh..." Gu Pan continued to think to herself non-stop.

At that moment, the Great Elder let out a cold snort, "Gu Pan, why have you not taken out the Sword Tomb inheritance? Could it be that you haven’t actually received the inheritance?"

"Hmm?" Hearing this, Gu Shi Qian also felt a twinge of alarm in his heart.

This child, damned if she’s been deceiving us. Could it be that although she didn’t die in the Sword Tomb, she failed to secure the inheritance and merely escaped by luck?

That might well be the case.

But you claimed you got the inheritance, and everyone believed you since you came out of the Sword Tomb alive.

Now, after performing the Sword Master’s ritual, if you can’t present the inheritance, according to ancestral rules, you might have to be the one to add another mark to the spirit tablets today!

"Panpan, why don’t you hurry and bring out the inheritance?" Gu Yue Ming, who usually dressed as a white-collar city dweller and only today wore mourning apparel for the sacrifice, grew anxious too. His own child better not have done this serious misdeed.

"Humph! I think she’s hiding something. Whether or not she actually entered the Sword Tomb, I did not personally witness it, so it’s hard to say!"

Great Elder Gu Shiyong was now set on punishing Gu Pan, feeling that even if this dispute were taken all the way to the ancestral land, he had done nothing wrong.

For a moment, within the ancestral hall, the atmosphere among the few remaining power holders of the Gu Family turned cold.