Chapter 935: Critiquing with One’s Life

"Sir, you must be around forty years old, right? Gongjin says you’re highly capable, so I plan to bring you on board for a grand venture. When you eventually pass away, you won’t have any regrets about your life!" Sun Ce said with great vigor, raising his arm confidently.

Sun Ce’s straightforwardness almost caused Zhang Hong to choke, but the last sentence reminded him of someone—Liu Bei. And now, he did regret his past decisions.

"Not regret, huh?" Zhang Hong murmured to himself as he sipped his wine. His spirit energy slowly seeped out and began to purify. After finishing his drink, he stood up slowly. "I’ve already regretted something once in my life. I don’t want to regret it again."

"Greetings, my lord. I, Zhang Hong, am willing to follow in your footsteps and serve you with all my might!" Zhang Hong said, bowing deeply to Sun Ce. His sudden decisiveness took both Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao by surprise, while Sun Ce quickly stood up and helped him to his feet.

As they returned with Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong in tow, Sun Ce was still puzzled. What had he said that made everything go so smoothly?

Meanwhile, far above them in the sky, floating thousands of meters high, Yu Ji smiled faintly.

"Sun Ce’s luck has been pushed to its absolute limit. The peak cannot last forever. Forcefully elevating his fortune has even caused figures like Zhang Hong to have their fates altered. It won’t be long before Sun Ce’s luck hits an all-time low," Yu Ji thought silently as he watched Sun Ce.

Yu Ji’s interest in Sun Ce stemmed from the overwhelming fortune that surrounded him. Generally speaking, people like Sun Ce were the kind around whom the world seemed to revolve.

He consistently turned danger into safety, fortune favored him, and benefactors seemed to appear at just the right moment. For people like Sun Ce, these phenomena were almost normal. But Sun Ce’s situation was even more extreme. Whenever he needed people, they came; whenever he needed an army, someone would bring soldiers; and when he set out to conquer the world, wise ministers and fierce generals flocked to him without hesitation. It was almost absurd.

He seemed like the quintessential "child of destiny," which piqued Yu Ji’s curiosity. He wondered what would happen if he killed Sun Ce and absorbed his fortune—whether destiny itself would change.

With a smile on his face, Yu Ji transformed into a stream of light, prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. Only by embracing such a mindset did he believe there was any chance of taking down Sun Ce. After all, even with Sun Ce’s fortune artificially pushed to its peak, once it reached its nadir, Sun Ce would still not be completely powerless.

"Bo Fu, are you alright?" Zhou Yu asked, noticing that Sun Ce had suddenly stopped in his tracks. A moment ago, Zhou Yu had seen a vision of Sun Ce’s face covered in blood.

"Huh? Oh, it’s nothing..." Sun Ce replied with a smile, brushing off the strange feeling. However, he couldn’t shake the odd notion that Zhou Yu might leave him.

"Why would Gongjin ever leave me?" Sun Ce thought as he resumed walking. He didn’t dwell on it, as he and Zhou Yu were not only sworn brothers but also brothers-in-law. What Sun Ce hadn’t considered was that if he himself were to fall, then in a sense, Zhou Yu would indeed be parted from him.

Yu Ji, meanwhile, had been closely observing Sun Ce for some time, and what he witnessed left him utterly shocked.

Even after Yu Ji had used a secret technique to intensify Sun Ce’s fortune, his overwhelming luck remained at its peak for an extended period.

During this time, Sun Ce’s mind became extraordinarily clear, his strength surged, and he shattered several cultivation barriers in rapid succession. His progress was astonishing, to the point that even Zhou Yu began to suspect something was wrong. But as the days went by, they grew accustomed to this new normal.

What made it even more terrifying was that after his fortune had been fully ignited, people continued to come from afar to pledge their loyalty to him. Even the stubborn Zheng Du finally submitted to Sun Ce’s sheer dominance. The remaining three major families of Jiangdong bowed to Sun Ce after he visited them one by one, all overwhelmed by his aura.

Following his successful submission of the Jiangdong clans, Sun Ce then traveled to the Mountain Yue tribes, where he impressed them with his strength, presence, and generosity. While the Mountain Yue did not kneel outright, they too acknowledged Sun Ce’s authority, agreeing to follow his rule as long as he remained alive.

Afterward, Sun Ce made his way to Jingnan, where the chieftains of the Wuxi tribes, already subjugated, knelt in submission before him. From that point on, as long as Sun Ce lived, Jiangdong, Jingzhou, and Huainan would all recognize his dominion.

Thus, under the explosion of Sun Ce’s fortune, countless problems that had plagued Yuan Shu’s rule were effortlessly resolved. However, as the full moon wanes, so too did Sun Ce’s fortune eventually begin to plummet. At the very nadir of his luck, he would face the most dangerous assassination attempt of his life, and ultimately...

For now, though, Sun Ce was unaware that he was on the brink of reaching the pinnacle of his life. His thoughts were occupied with whether it was time to marry Da Qiao. In this timeline, where he had not yet taken a wife, Da Qiao—renowned for her beauty and suitable in status—was now the perfect match for Sun Ce, especially after he inherited his father’s title.

Zhou Yu found himself in a similar position. Despite changes in their status, no family in Huainan, Jiangdong, or Jingzhou could stop these two heavenly prodigies from achieving their goals.

Meanwhile, in Taishan, Xu Shao was busy revising his final ranking lists. As for his lists of civil and military officials, he found himself quite troubled. Many of those he had previously ranked had already been killed, requiring several adjustments, which would take time. Thus, he decided to first release something more light-hearted—perhaps a ranking of beauties.

"Cai Shi, Master Xu has released a ranking of remarkable women!" a group of noble ladies crowded around Cai Yan’s residence, chatting excitedly, while Cai Yan remained calm, playing her guqin, showing no interest whatsoever. What did it matter if one made it onto the list? Where was the person she was waiting for?

"Yueying, you made it on the list!" Wang Yi said to Huang Yueying, patting her on the shoulder with an indignant expression. Why wasn’t she on it too?

"I think Master Xu is really tempting fate..." Cai Yan’s younger sister, Cai Zhenji, commented to her older sister. "Tsk tsk, even Empress Fu, Lady Gan, Lady Bian, and both Qiaos made it. Xu Shao really is risking his life with this one."

Cai Zhenji’s remark drew a faint smile from Cai Yan, who reached out and playfully tapped her younger sister on the forehead. "You little rascal! Who told you to run off back then?"

"Whatever," Cai Zhenji said, squeezing the lamb in her arms. "I’ll just focus on raising my son. Better to stay far away from these things. Now, say ‘Auntie’~"

"Xu Shao really is using his life to critique people..." Chen Xi said with a nervous laugh as he looked over the list, noting some rather peculiar choices among the ranked beauties. "But why did one of my maids make the list?"

"Chen Yun, last place?" Jia Xu asked casually. The list had been snatched by Chen Xi as soon as it arrived, so Jia Xu hadn’t yet had a chance to read it.

"How did you know?" Chen Xi asked, puzzled.

"Your reputation, and the fact that she’s the most famous and skilled of all the performers," Jia Xu replied casually as he took the list and glanced over it, his mouth twitching slightly. "He really is critiquing with his life on the line."

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