Chapter 197: Gu Fan’s siblings (Part - 3)

Now his second brother was an idiot, but an idiot with power can be a nuisance. Thinking about his second brother, Gu fan could not help but look at his Madam Li.

He knew how much she cared about her son. All her life, she had plotted, planned, made her move just to make sure her son would one day replace Gu Yangtian as the patriarch of Gu Clan.

So if one day she had to choose between him and Gu Bao, Gu Fan wondered. Will she betray him?

But other than his second brother, Gu fan had other headaches as well.

And his third headache was Gu Jian, the "Sword" of the Gu Clan.

And unlike his name suggested, he wasn’t a battle frenzy maniac. It was actually the fourth brother. But his third brother was rather smart.

He was a sharp, aristocratic young master who was deeply involved in the clan’s politics.

Unlike Gu Bao who was a loud mouth, obnoxious young master of the Gu Clan, Gu Jian never showed his fangs.

Gu Jian rarely shouted. He rarely threatened anyone publicly. Because while Gu Bao relied on his powers, Gu Jian understood that a knife was far more useful when the victim didn’t see it coming.

He stayed behind his father’s shadows, manipulating the strings to everyone in his father’s court with a smile on his face that never seems to leave.

Right now, Gu Jian was not in the clan and that made Gu Yangtian lose his strongest support.

Gu Jian has been engaged to a young miss of a very powerful clan, much more powerful than the Gu Clan, and while the Gu Clan faced a series of ordeals one after the other, Gu Jian is visiting his fiancee’s family for the same reason Madam Li sent Gu bao away.

There has been a slight change in the story from what Gu fan remembered. Originally, Gu Fan remembered that Xiao Mei was supposed to spill tea on Gu Jian’s fiancee only for her head to end up saying bye bye to her body.

But Xiao Mei was still alive and kicking, feeding him with vitality points every single day.

’Sooner or later,’ Gu Fan thought, thinking about the smiling assassin brother of his, ’My knowledge of the story will stop being useful. I should make the most of it before it is too late.’

Fourth was Gu Heng, the "Eternal."

He was different from the rest of his siblings. He was a hot-headed martial fanatic who served as the main family’s heavy enforcer who would spend most of his time training outside the clan.

He was a straightforward, surprisingly direct and genuinely one of the few good characters that he wrote.

Gu Heng hated political scheming, entirely preferring to solve every single clan dispute with his heavy fists in the martial arena.

If Gu Heng disliked someone, he told them to their face.

If he wanted to fight someone, he challenged them in front of everyone.

If he wanted to kill someone... Well... He usually warned them first.

In a cultivation world filled with smiling snakes, that practically made him a saint. But well, apart from the main character, saints don’t really sell a story. Gu Fan had to make him a scapegoat to boost his plotline.

But things can change this time. Gu Fan knew he could easily manipulate this meathead if he simply pointed him at the right enemies.

Fifth was Gu Han, the "Cold" son. Except Gu Han wasn’t just cold, he simply did not care.

He was the aloof scholarly sibling who hardly cared about the materialistic struggles of this world.

Gu Han simply didn’t care.

Clan politics? He wasn’t interested one bit.

Patriarch’s seat? Why would anyone fight for that role? Too troublesome.

Marriage alliances? If it isn’t going to help him understand Dao, it was already annoying.

Cultivation tournaments? Is he a monkey to entertain a bunch of people who had nothing better to do?

Gu Han had already completely left the Gu Clan and the Poison Valley years ago to travel across the empire. He did not wish to take sides or become a political tool for his brothers. He would never want to interfere even if the clan was facing absolute, total annihilation.

No one knew exactly where he was.

Some said he joined a powerful sect way up in the north while others claimed he used the Gu Clans knowledge to become an alchemist. There were as many rumours floating as many mouths in the Gu Clan.

One ridiculous rumour said he opened a noodle shop near the northern border. And to be honest, knowing Gu Han... Gu Fan genuinely couldn’t reject the noodle shop theory.

Even Gu fan did not know what happened to Gu Han. Once he wrote his departure from the Gu Clan just when Gu Chen was starting to show his cultivation talent, he never once brought him back to the story. He just forgot about him.

And it was justifiable from his point of view. There were just too many of Gu Yangtian’s children to give a cameo to everyone in his story.

Even his readers never really brought up Gu Han again, and just like that the cold, aloof son of Gu Yangtian got buried in the annals of millions of words that he wrote in those six years.

’He had so much potential that I could have used,’ Gu Fan shook his head, ’If I had just mentioned him in passing or even written a letter from him portraying him as the good, loving older brother. I would have had some assurance that he wasn’t some backstabbing opportunistic bad guy.’

’Well, nothing can be done now,’ Gu Fan sighed as he remembered about the sixth and last brother, Gu Ying, the "Shadow."

Being the brother born exactly right before the formerly crippled Gu Fan, Gu Ying was incredibly highly insecure and deeply, terrifyingly competitive.

Gu Wei was the heir.

Gu Bao had Madam Li behind him.

Gu Jian was already making political connections.

Gu Heng had martial talent, and

Gu Han had escaped the entire mess.

First Gu Ying had to desperately try and not get overshadowed by his older brothers, in the meantime, he had to make sure he was not put in the same bracket as the cripple Gu Fan.

And this constant seeking of approval, being forgotten by Gu Yangtian and the need to not fall behind eventually made his sixth brother down the slippery slope. He found himself a master "Who shall not be named," and followed him back to his evil sect.

Eventually Gu Fan’s sixth brother would become specialised in lethal, underhanded assassination arts.

The evil sect would twist him into a treacherous, highly paranoid bad character who wouldn’t mind stabbing his own mother in the back just so he could take over the Gu Clan.

And then in the end there was the youngest, illegitimate, bastard cripple son of Gu Yangtian. The seventh young master in name, Gu Fan.

Just like his name suggested, since his birth, he had been the ordinary, worthless black sheep of the Gu Clan. His only identity was that of a cripple, a joke, the family embarrassment.

Well, at least, that was what the original story had called him.

Gu Fan smiled thinking about how things had changed.

And finally...

There was the only sister, Gu Yue, the "Moon," the jewel of the Gu Clan.

Gu Yue was older than Gu Fan but younger than Gu Ying.

And since she was the only daughter of Gu Yangtian, meaning the clan elders treated her exactly like a supreme, untouchable Heavenly Pearl of the inner court.

She was the textbook definition of a cold, arrogant Jade Beauty, possessing a premium cultivation foundation that made her heavily sought after by rival supreme sects for lucrative political alliance marriages.

And she was absolutely aware of her own value.

She watched with amusement as Young masters wrote poems for her, and challenged each other.

One idiot even spent thousands of spirit stones to release glowing butterflies during her birthday banquet.

But apparently it wasn’t enough. Gu Yue rejected him before the butterflies landed.

In the original novel, Gu Yue had barely acknowledged Gu Fan’s presence.

And once when they crossed paths, she did not forget to remind him that his existence damaged the Gu Clan’s reputation.

And that was also the reason on her sixteenth birthday, Gu Yue was taken away by a fairy.

Finally as Gu Fan finished processing the massive lore dump in his head, he slowly tapped his finger against the table.

Gu Wei is dead for good.

Gu Bao is returning tomorrow.

Gu Jian is a snake with his sword ready.

Gu Heng is someone he can ignore for the time being.

Gu Han is probably selling noodles to travellers.

Gu Ying is gone and will not be returning for a while.

Gu Yue is out of the picture for good. She won’t care what happens to this drowning clan.

And him? Gu Fan smiled. He was going to have a lot of fun playing around.

Meanwhile, Madam Li immediately noticed that sneaky smile on his face.

"Why are you smiling?" she narrowed her eyes and asked.

Gu Fan looked at her, "No reason."

"That is never true." Madam Li did not believe him.

"My family is interesting," Gu Fan replied.

Li Hua stared at him suspiciously, but Gu Fan did not explain much as he picked up his tea cup and then turned to look at Gu Clan’s courtyard.

Gu Bao was returning tomorrow.

The spoiled Second Young Master.

The biological son of Li Hua.

The man who had originally arranged Gu Fan’s poisoning.

Gu Fan slowly smiled into his tea cup.

"Very interesting."