A Vicious Ghost on the Road, a Greedy Wolf in Chaotic Times

Xu Shao suppressed his inner fear and continued to feign calmness as he asked Yuan Shu, 

"May I ask, what is your aspiration?" 

Yuan Shu replied with a smile, 

"My ambition is quite simple: to stroll around the streets every day with my stewards and servants, buy whatever I fancy, squander as much as possible, and spend as much money as I can. 

If I see a beautiful woman, I'll marry her—more is better. 

If there are hardworking servants, I'll buy them too—the more, the better." 

Hearing such an outrageous response, the noble young men below burst into another wave of laughter. 

This Yuan Gonglu truly lives up to his reputation as the most peculiar noble in the Han dynasty. 

He could talk about squandering wealth with such grandeur and without the slightest trace of shame, as if it were a badge of honor. 

Xu Shao's expression grew more serious. The young nobles below clearly understood nothing. Yuan Shu was far from being as simple as they thought. 

Reflecting on Yuan Shu's words, Xu Shao thought: If the streets Yuan Shu mentioned symbolized the Han Empire, the stewards and servants were elite troops, and the beautiful women were palace concubines... 

Then Yuan Shu's aspiration... hiss! 

Xu Shao drew a sharp breath, not daring to think further. 

To his credit, Xu Shao's interpretation was inadvertently spot-on. The Han dynasty had already decayed, and Yuan Shu indeed harbored ambitions to replace it. 

However, at the moment, Yuan Shu wasn't thinking that far ahead. His immediate goal was truly to squander wealth as much as possible to accumulate attribute points. 

Xu Shao was now uncertain how to evaluate Yuan Shu. 

Expose Yuan Shu's disloyalty and have the Han court arrest him? 

What a joke! The Yuan family had held high office for four generations and was incredibly influential. The court would never arrest someone based on the word of a fortune-teller. 

Besides, Yuan Shu's reputation as a prodigal son was already well known throughout Luoyang. 

If Xu Shao declared Yuan Shu to be a contemporary hero, he would become a laughingstock and risk incurring the Yuan family's wrath, possibly leading to his own demise. 

If he didn't speak the truth, Xu Shao felt it would betray his conscience. 

While Xu Shao was grappling with this dilemma, he noticed streams of purple energy rising from Yuan Shu's body. These streams of purple, centered on a trace of imperial aura, gathered Yuan Shu's ominous and deathly energy into a majestic wolf-like form with wings on its back, circling above Yuan Shu's head. 

Seeing this extraordinary phenomenon around Yuan Shu, Xu Shao was stunned. 

In his heart, he was profoundly shocked: This... this is the sign of the Greedy Wolf Star! 

Whenever chaos arises, the stars of Seven Killings, Breaker of Armies, and Greedy Wolf manifest. Together, they create the "Kill-Break-Wolf" formation, heralding the rise of a new dynasty! 

The Seven Killings Star represents a thief who disrupts the world, the Breaker of Armies Star signifies an invincible general, and the Greedy Wolf Star symbolizes a cunning and treacherous figure. 

Among them, while the Seven Killings and Breaker of Armies stars may dominate temporarily, they always meet a tragic end. 

Only the Greedy Wolf Star has the greatest chance of emerging victorious in the end. 

Since Xu Shao was skilled in divination, he had some knowledge of the fate of dynasties. 

He could tell that the Han dynasty was already decaying and that an era of chaos was imminent. 

However, by his calculations, the Han dynasty should still have ten years of peace before the chaotic times began. 

He hadn't expected the Greedy Wolf Star to appear so soon! 

The wolf-shaped aura on Yuan Shu roared and surged, causing one of the stars in the heavens to shine brightly. 

The Greedy Wolf Star had lit up. 

Xu Shao sighed deeply, realizing the Greedy Wolf Star had indeed awakened. 

The grand trends of the world were beyond the power of fortune-tellers to change. 

But since the Han dynasty still had ten years of peace, Xu Shao resolved to do his best to safeguard those years. 

If Yuan Shu wished to sully his own reputation, Xu Shao decided he might as well add to it, ensuring Yuan Shu could not leverage a good reputation to rise early and disrupt the Han Empire.

Thinking of this, Xu Shao spoke up:

"You are the evil wolf of Luoyang, the fierce ghost of the road."

As soon as Xu Shao finished speaking, the guests in Huayu Pavilion burst into laughter.

Today, this fool Yuan Shu had brought so much joy to everyone. They hadn't expected Xu Shao to give him such a unique evaluation in the end.

Thinking about how Yuan Shu had always been a tyrant in Luoyang City, the title of Luoyang's Evil Wolf and the Fierce Ghost of the Road truly lived up to its reputation.

Xu Shao, seeing everyone treating Yuan Shu as a joke and laughing at his expense, felt a tinge of sorrow in his heart.

He thought to himself that calling the Greedy Wolf an Evil Wolf wasn't wrong and didn't violate his standards for judging character.

Though his hint wasn't very obvious, it was still a hint. If they couldn't understand it, that wasn't his fault.

On the stage, Yuan Shu remained calm and composed. He had already known that Xu Shao wouldn't have anything good to say about him.

At that moment, the cold voice of the system rang in his mind:

"Ding! The host's fate has been influenced by Xu Shao, and the skill 'Greedy Wolf' has awakened!"

"Skill: Greedy Wolf. The Greedy Wolf is a cunning and treacherous character, highly intelligent and ambitious. Intelligence and leadership increase by 5 points. Greatly enhances attraction to talents of a scheming nature."

Yuan Shu hadn't expected that one evaluation session would grant him a new skill, and such a powerful one at that. The money spent on this was absolutely worth it.

It turned out that Xu Shao's evaluation of him was the Greedy Wolf. For some unknown reason, he hadn't said it outright and instead referred to him as an Evil Wolf.

Yuan Shu thought to himself that Evil Wolf was fine. Greedy Wolf seemed to be some kind of star constellation, and if it spread, it might bring him unnecessary trouble.

The system continued its notifications:

"Ding! The host has awakened a new skill and has one opportunity to overwrite an old skill. Would you like to overwrite?"

Yuan Shu thought it over—being able to overwrite an old skill was fantastic. His original skills, judging by their names, seemed pretty bad. Overwriting one of them was a dream come true.

Without hesitation, Yuan Shu told the system, "Overwrite!"

"Please choose a skill to overwrite: Mediocrity (unawakened), False Respect (unawakened), Fake Emperor (unawakened), Shared Enemy (unawakened)."

Yuan Shu decisively ordered the system, "Overwrite the skill Shared Enemy!"

These unawakened skills could only be guessed at from their names. From its literal meaning, Shared Enemy seemed to suggest that all the warlords would prioritize attacking him. That wouldn't do!

This most problematic skill had to be dealt with first.

"Overwrite successful! The host's updated attributes and skills are as follows:

Force: 15, Leadership: 36 (Greedy Wolf +5), Intelligence: 25 (Greedy Wolf +5), Politics: 22, Charm: 55, Luck: -9.

Skills: Mediocrity, False Respect, Fake Emperor, Greedy Wolf."

Looking at his updated stats, Yuan Shu nodded in satisfaction. Although it still looked terrible, it was a big improvement over before.

"Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining the 'Greedy Wolf' title. Reputation points increased by 10,000, redeemable for items in the system store!"

The system sent another notification, and Yuan Shu curiously asked:

"What is this system store?"

The system replied, "When the host's attributes all exceed 50, the system will upgrade, and the system store will open. At that time, the host can use reputation points to redeem corresponding items."