School of War's Thirteen Cloud Ladders

The Art of War had thirteen chapters, and the battlefield of the Sun Tzu Literary World was divided into thirteen layers of continents from bottom to top. From afar, they resembled the Mohist School's siege cloud ladders, and cloud-like stairways linked the continents together. Thus, these thirteen continents were named the School of War's Thirteen Cloud Ladders.

After entering the First Cloud Ladder, members of the School of War could take part in battles. As long as they won, they would gain a certain amount of Slaughtering Power. Once they had accumulated enough Slaughtering Power, they could enter the Second Cloud Ladder, and so on.

The minimum qualification for entering the Thirteen Cloud Ladders was to be a School of War Metropolitan Graduate who had passed the Palace Examination. Ordinary Metropolitan Graduates had only one opportunity each year, Sacred Academy Metropolitan Graduates could enter three times a year, three opportunities could be exchanged with Literary Ink from the Literary Ranking, and three more could be exchanged with military merit. Disciples of Half-Sage Families received three additional opportunities, disciples of Second Saint Families received six more, while disciples of the Sage Kong Aristocratic Clan received nine.

For every advancement in Literary Rank, one received three additional opportunities per year.

A Metropolitan Graduate of the Kong Family Sacred Academy could enter at most eighteen times per year.

Only the Sun Tzu Aristocratic Clan and the Sun Bin Aristocratic Clan were exceptions. Their disciples directly received ten additional opportunities every year.

Fang Yun was a Void Sage. Even though he had not passed the Palace Examination and was not a Sacred Academy Metropolitan Graduate, his base number of annual entries had reached thirteen. After being conferred as a Void Sage, the Sun Tzu Aristocratic Clan and the Sun Bin Aristocratic Clan each gifted