I Am Supreme

Yun Yang did not interrupt Qian Duoduo’s tirade, quietly waiting for him to continue and apparently anticipating the story of the Celestial Luck Banner’s origins.

“Legend has it that the Celestial Luck Banner was also preordained. When it emerged, there were nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine flags that were circulated in this world!”

“The total of the banners remained the same at any one time. Whether it was natural disasters or manmade catastrophes, intentional or accidental influences, nothing could destroy the Celestial Luck Banners.”

“To this day, the flags have all been owned. It’s impossible that the banner bearers will voluntarily give them up, so those who want them could only take them by force!”

Fatty focused and took a long time to think before he said, “From what I can see, the Celestial Luck Banners are actually like… they’re like… the personification of the laic minister positions, as well as the status and the benefits they bring. The position you get commensurates the remuneration you receive; if you can’t reach that status, the treatment is naturally not yours to enjoy. To be more exact… take, for example, the seventh rank county magistrate and a provincial governor in a novel, the stipend between these two must be vastly different right? So are their powers! Their area of jurisdiction, too, will be as far apart as heaven and earth. The attitude of a third party towards them will differ as well…”

“Let’s just speak of the contrast in a straightforward manner!”

Yun Yang was speechless as he thought to himself, ‘Do I need you to explain this to me? I’m from that world!’

“A more tangible illustration,” said Qian Duoduo, “To become a county magistrate from an ordinary citizen, one must learn, study, be tested, sit for an examination, get recognized by someone already in power, before that someone can be sanctioned to power and status. Then again, there are only so many positions. You’ve come to fill in the position, but what happens to the magistrate whom you’re replacing? Maybe he resigned, maybe he was dismissed, maybe he has been captured by the law, he may even have been killed. It just depends on the outcome of the contest between you and him. That’s all!”

Yun Yang replied faintly, “It may not be such an extreme case. The one being replaced may have left due to a promotion, may he not?”

Fatty was tongue-tied for a moment before he said dejectedly, “Your concept is unique and has substance to it, boss, but it’s baseless and hardly executable for there is no possibility of promotion to the Celestial Luck Banners.”

Yun Yang’s interest grew the more he listened. He continued to probe further, “Can we put aside the promotion issue first – it’s far away anyway. Tell me about the pros and cons of obtaining the flag and its usage!”

Quietly wracking his head for the correct wordings, Fatty began steadily, “Things seem to be set after acquiring the banner but there’s actually a lot of consequent work. It’s not a once and for all matter. Back to the county magistrate example, when you’ve become the magistrate, it’s a matter of course that you grasp the power over a certain territory; to actually accomplish continuous obedience and complete compliance, however, some time is still needed – because the citizens under your jurisdiction are still the original citizens. They’re still affected by the initial magistrate’s influence. Which means, even if you’ve gotten the Celestial Luck Banner, the organization recognized by the heavens is still the original school during the beginning period of time when you’ve just acquired the flag – not you, the owner of the banner in reality.”

“Therefore, what you must do at this time is to obtain the recognition of the heavens.”

Yun Yang frowned.

“That’s exactly what I’m asking – how do I get the acknowledgment?”

“The so-called process begins once you have successfully snatched the Celestial Luck Banner. Sometime after your success later, the highest authority in the territory you’re in will send an official in charge of that area to conduct an evaluation with a Golden Glimmer Celestial Luck Banner. The evaluation consists of… continuously accepting the battle challenge from three competitors of the same class of flag. Only by going through and succeeding this test will the Golden Glimmer Celestial Luck Banner erase the original name on the flag you’ve got and change it into the name of your sect. By doing so, the banner will truly be yours and stay yours until your sect ascends or is defeated by others!”

Fatty was comprehensive in his knowledge, calmly spilling the contents like he was counting his treasure.

Yun Yang was sharp enough to have his fair share of questions.

“About accepting the battle challenge from three competitors of the same class of flag… There is another story behind it, isn’t there? I guess that there won’t be a difference in ranking despite the equivalent classes, am I right? If there is and if the three contestants sent are from upper ranking sects, isn’t defeat guaranteed then? Doesn’t that render all the effort in vain?”

Fatty stared at Yun Yang in shock for some time.

‘This boss hasn’t even established his sect, but he’s already thought of such faraway issues.’

“It won’t be so bad. There is ranking among the sects but there’s only a total of nine ranks. If the one you defeated is the ninth, then they can only send sixth, seventh, and eighth for the battle. There is a further standard in this. The strongest of the evaluating sects can deploy, at maximum, half of the sect’s manpower to combat; the second strongest can send seventy percent while the weakest one can, at most, send ninety percent of its combat force.”

“The overall evaluation after obtaining the flag will be so. If the Celestial Luck Banner you win were ranked the sixth, then the third, fourth, and fifth-ranked will come forth to evaluate you. All the participating combat forces won’t be from the schools’ instruction too. The Golden Palace’s special agent will use the Golden Glimmer Celestial Luck Banner to pick the combative members from the sects. It’s totally fair and just as favoritism can hardly be brought into play.”

Yun Yang grimaced and said, “This isn’t totally foolproof. What if the sect defeated by the challenger is any one of the top three sects? How can you get three evaluating schools then?”

Fatty choked, lamenting inwardly, ‘What a bold heart you have.’

“There are still middle-class schools if the lower class sects are insufficient. However, such a possibility is almost insignificant. It’s only ever present in the rules and legends. Well, at least I’ve never heard of such cases…”

“Are casualties allowed in these fixed evaluations?” asked Yun Yang.

“Not prohibited. Combat among martial artists is all about not giving in and being merciless. One strike is enough to reverse the outcome of a situation. However, casualties are not common in most duels since those dead from the battles will be revived by the Golden Glimmer Celestial Luck Banner.”

Yun Yang’s jaw was close to dropping.

“There’s something like this? Resurrecting the dead? This isn’t a joke?”

“Do you think that the Golden Glimmer Celestial Luck Banner’s faculty is only limited to increasing the cultivation base? Its abilities are far from what we can imagine… Of course, being resurrected doesn’t mean that there isn’t any resentment created. A lot of grudges start from here. After all, dying once will inevitably birth foul feelings towards those who killed them…”

Fatty snorted.

“Competition is never prohibited among the sects and schools, nor is revenge,” said Qian Duoduo, “There isn’t a lax moment towards personal cultivation from those who were in sects that have the flags. They have to be on their guard against the attacks initiated by the crazed rogue cultivating schools and be prepared for the annual ranking contest.”

“Many sects that are after the top three will see constant changes in their rankings.”

“After all, sects that do not have the Celestial Luck Banners are countless while rogue cultivators and disciples from the lower class flag schools may have differences in capability, but it’s not beyond comparison… This is why everyone toils to maintain their ability. No one dares to take things lightly.”

As if guessing Yun Yang’s thoughts, Fatty continued to say, “Those who die in the ranking contest will not be revived. The Golden Glimmer banner will not be concerned with other battles that have nothing to do with the Celestial Luck Banners.”

“Uh,” Yun Yang coughed and asked, “If the lower class sect succeeds in the challenge – say, the top sect from the nine lower class sects has ascended to the middle-class sect, then the nine lower class will become the eighth. What about the vacant spot?”

“This – this is something I haven’t heard of before. There should be similar cases before this but no particular news has emerged. Nobody knows the exact situation but one thing that we can be sure of is that – the school that fills up the spot, no matter how it’s done, will never be exempted from battles.”

Just by listening to a rough explanation like this, Yun Yang was immediately aware of the danger and risk involved.

There were only nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine Celestial Luck Banners across the entire Bound of Universe!

The upper-class ranks like the Gold, Silver, Amethyst, and Green would be banners that rogue cultivating sects dared not even wish for. Members from these upper-class schools would probably crush them with a single whiff of air.

Therefore, despite the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine flags that were said to be present, those that were actually being circulated were the ones in the lowest class.

In addition, the top three to even top six of these so-called lowest class sects were barely touchable to the rogue cultivators. The most they could amount to was contesting against the last three ranked schools or in a more direct manner – they stood the highest chance fighting for the ninth spot!

A single spot!

On the contrary, how many rogue schools were there in this realm that did not possess the Celestial Luck Banners? More precisely, how many sects like that were there in a palace’s territory? Fatty seemed to have mentioned that there was at least twenty to thirty thousand of them!

Yet there was only one-ninth rank!

The ratio was even more exaggerated and drastic than hundreds of thousands of soldiers crossing a single-log bridge.

Furthermore, how could the last ranked sect, the ninth school, not cultivate in madness when they knew clearly that their position was on such a steep slope? In spite of this daunting knowledge, they were assisted by the Celestial Luck Banner; their cultivation speed was six times faster than rogue cultivators. It was not as easy to eliminate them from their spot.

These purported opportunities for promotion were still slim – not even one in ten thousand!