"Dream on," Chen Shijie scoffed, "Duke Tian's rank has reached level forty-five, while you and I are only at level six. Aspiring to rise up there? You'd have to become a duke yourself."
"Even dukes don't necessarily have as high a rank as Duke Tian's. It's not like the time of the Grand Ancestor," Zhao Xing said.
Emperor Jing was notoriously stingy! To think of rising to a rank of forty-five was as hard as ascending to heaven.
Because even being crowned a king doesn't guarantee a rank as high as Duke Tian's!
A rank of forty-five was just four ranks shy of the full rank of forty-nine.
Duke Tian got his rank by taking early retirement in his prime. After founding the state, he didn't seek power and gave up many of his fiefdoms, desiring only to live like a wealthy man.
Plus, back then, the rewards for each rank were not as significant as they are now. It was only after the kingdom grew more powerful that the ranks slowly started to carry more weight.
