"Extra, extra! The 'Unparalleled Ranking' is passionately on sale, and if you buy now, you'll get a poster of the most valuable martial artist today, 'Unrivaled Under Heaven·Lan Yan' worth twenty coins! Limited quantity, while stocks last!"

"A life without the Unrivaled List, and reading about heroes is in vain! Not nine-nine-nine, not ninety-nine, nine coins won't leave you cheated, nine coins won't leave you deceived, and there's a hundred percent chance to draw today's number one martial artist character card, plus a chance to draw flash cards worth thousands of gold coins, what are you waiting for!"

"It's a one-in-a-hundred epic character card 'Felling Rivers Lan Yan'! Congratulations to this customer! If you're not interested in collecting god-tier cards, you can go to 'Steam Guild' in Jinlu Alley to exchange this card for money, as epic cards can be unconditionally exchanged for one gold coin according to regulations!"

Under the envious gazes of all, the young man who drew the epic card hurriedly put the exquisite card into his safe embrace, carrying the 'Unparalleled Ranking' and turned away: "I'm not selling it!"

In mid-September, the first edition of the 'Unparalleled Ranking' was shockingly released, with the Statistical Department promoting it, and the specific distributor was the new guild 'Steam Guild' co-funded by two families, Shi and Qin. As the Statistical Department had already informed various departments in Yanjing, no one dared to trouble Steam Guild.

At dawn, the Steam Guild's store in the two bustling districts of Yanjing opened dramatically, and the pre-arranged promotional team went street by street banging gongs, beating drums, and playing suona, awakening the citizens of Yanjing from their dreams. The full-bellied citizens of Yanjing heard the commotion outside, first cursing 'what are they competing for?', then hurried to get up and buy a copy, before having breakfast while chatting in the early market.

In just one morning, the 'Unparalleled Ranking' conquered the whole of Yanjing.

Firstly, the background of the Statistical Department almost makes it unquestionable—as Yanjing's most notorious intelligence agency, Yanjing's Stat Department might not be trusted by the public, but that's for good things, while for rankings, which carry a 'troublemaking aura', the public almost wouldn't doubt Yanjing's Stat Department.

The martial artist ranking list is such a list, only the Statistical Department in all of Huiguang would dare to produce such a thing!

Secondly, comparing combat power has always been a matter of interest for scholars and commoners alike, through ancient times to the present, whether it's 'Does the Grand Ancestor of Huiguang beat a land deity?', or 'My martial artist from Feihua shoots down your sword-wielding martial artist from 800 meters', or 'Are 500 sword-wielding martial artists unbeatable on land', these debates have never lost popularity, and many even start fights to enact full martial arts displays to determine who's right based on who wins.

Finally, the sales model of the Unparalleled Ranking this time is very novel. Normally, such a ranking list only needs to sell one copy for everyone to take turns enjoying it for free, so why buy it? However, the Unparalleled Ranking comes with a poster of today's number one martial artist and a character card, and if an epic character card is drawn, it can be directly exchanged for one gold coin, while the price of Unparalleled Ranking is only nine coins!

Nearly a hundredfold profit!

Though nine coins aren't cheap, given that no matter how impressive they are, ultimately the Unparalleled Ranking, the poster, and the character card are just three sheets of paper, they aren't worth nine coins, while the daily food cost for an ordinary worker is just nine coins. Yet, when thinking about the opportunity to win a prize, everyone opens their wallets generously.

'Even if you don't draw an epic card, a rare card isn't bad.' Everyone comforts themselves with this thought, then ended up with a common card 'Chenfeng Lan Yan'.

They look at the card face showing Lan Yan with hands behind his back, wearing glasses, standing on the city walls of Star Engraving County at night, smiling while looking at the city ablaze, with a caption below:

"Fight for me."

Good-looking women can indeed captivate and mesmerize, but a man with charisma doesn't lose out either.

Even the worldly-wise citizens of Yanjing haven't seen such a charismatically confident number one martial artist. Moreover, this charisma isn't the imagined 'invincible with me', but rather a different kind of 'playing with the world' confidence, compelling them to buy more Unparalleled Rankings hoping to see if the 'Statistical Department Lan Yan' would be even more flamboyant.

Several lucky individuals who drew epic cards couldn't resist amidst the crowd's jeers, directly taking their epic cards to the Steam Guild to exchange them for money.

Then they regretted it in the afternoon—wealthy individuals offered more gold coins to buy epic cards, starting from two gold coins.

Especially when all ten thousand copies of Unparalleled Ranking in Yanjing were sold out, the price of epic cards soared to ten gold coins, and the legendary unique flash card 'War Ghost Lan Yan' became even more formidable—wealthy individuals directly offered ten gold coins—not buying, just as a reference price, if someone is willing to sell, the starting price is one hundred gold coins!

Because there were only a hundred epic cards in all of Yanjing, and are there only a hundred rich people in Yanjing? Many people didn't realize the unique sales trick of Steam Guild early in the morning, and when they realized the rarity of epic and flash cards, the Unparalleled Ranking was already sold out.

It's said that wealthy individuals have already sent people to other districts waiting for the Unparalleled Ranking's distribution, as Steam Guild has already announced that the initial release across Huiguang will total ninety thousand copies, with each district having one flash card, a hundred epic cards, and there will be no reprints or additional sales; epic cards may be reprinted in the future, but flash cards are unique.

What do wealthy individuals care about the most?

What I have that others don't, and what I have better than others!

The Steam Guild blatantly offers them a bait of comparison, and most have taken it. Putting aside those determined to complete 'God-tier Card Collection', more importantly, everyone sees the potential increase in value of god-tier cards—selling a single card for hundreds or thousands of gold coins, and should their family fall in hard times later, holding onto this card for a getaway provides utmost security—isn't it the Bitcoin of this era!

Of course, all this is premised on Steam Guild controlling the release quantity of epic cards and flash cards. Therefore, when Xian Chan sent people to the academy to find Le Yu, demanding reprints and urgent funds draw, Le Yu wrote a big 'Get Lost' for the trembling agents to return to the bloated Raccoon Slave inspector.

The Imperial Academy was naturally also inevitably affected by the Unparalleled Ranking wave. Unlike the outside where card-drawing comparison is taking place, the Imperial Academy students are genuinely conducting academic research, discussing whether the rankings are reasonable, mainly focusing on whether Lan Yan is truly the number one martial artist today.

However, the Stat Department has already stated that they wouldn't include the martial arts pillars in Yanjing into the rankings, so students have no leverage to argue, while Lan Yan does indeed have the qualifications in terms of achievements—he's currently the only martial artist commander who has won an internal battle.

The Heyang Army Commander Gaishi Wen was discredited again, this time by all Yanjing.

Le Yu, dining in the Pig Trough cafeteria, hears 'Why should Lan Yan be the first, Principal Cha, even without any achievements, is surely stronger than him' from his left ear, and 'Gaishi Wen was clearly going to hold at Wolf Prison harbor but got deceived into leaving, even I could be a commander better than him' from his right ear, feels quite satisfied.

He knows from the Statistical Department that recently Lan Yan has been calming down, continuously resting in Chenfeng District without causing trouble, and the release of Unparalleled Ranking just so happens to put the quiet Lan Yan back under the spotlight.

You've offended me, Le Yu, Lan Yan, do you still want to quietly make big money?

I help you rise to fame, I help you entertain guests, then I get to see your downfall!

Thinking of this, Le Yu clears his throat and uses a harmonious combat technique to create an omnidirectional voice: "Lan Yan is the number one under heaven, I'm not targeting Cha Huan, I'm saying all martial arts pillars are garbage!"

The Pig Trough cafeteria fell silent for several seconds, followed by thunderous responses erupting:

"Really? Does someone truly believe Lan Yan is the best under heaven? Bleh!"

"Just Lan Yan? No more than a charlatan that dies upon my graduation!"

"Drinking tea, killing Lan Yan, a cinch!"

"Who's speaking!? Stand forth, if you defeat me, I'll accept your words!"

"Ha? Lan Yan's admirer only dares to shout with harmonious combat techniques, no guts to step out? Indeed, deceivers only travel with those who share their deceitful ways."

"Lan Yan's worshipper, get out of the Imperial Academy!"

Successfully attracted a wave of hatred from Imperial Academy students towards Lan Yan, trapped Lan Yan (1/1) (Daily task completed).

As long as Le Yu, the top black fan of Lan Yan, remains at the Imperial Academy, he won't allow any Lan Yan fans aside from himself in the Imperial Academy!

"Brother Hongle."

Qian Yuya suddenly sits opposite Le Yu, holding a tray.

"Join for a meal?"