"Observer?"
"F-fifth rank?!"
"What sort of official post is that? Why have I never heard of it?"
After all, those who had survived Minister Xun's great purge and could still be dispatched here were all elites.
Naturally, they knew the Imperial Court's official posts and classifications inside out.
Yet they had never heard of an official position called Observer.
"The authority the Sage Emperor granted me," Lin Ke explained. "I may appoint officials of the fifth rank and below at my discretion."
This was considerable power. Appointment authority was a supreme authority that went hand in hand with imperial power.
In the Great Wei Sacred Dynasty, officials of the third rank and above received "investiture by edict," those of the fifth rank and above received "appointment by imperial decree," and those of the sixth rank and below received "appointment by imperial order."
For officials of the third rank and above, the Sage Emperor personally presented their letters of appointment, called "investiture by edict"; for officials of the fifth rank and above, the Sage Emperor issued a decree appointing them, called "appointment by imperial decree"; for officials of the sixth rank and below, "Appointment by imperial order" was used.
The word "order" carried a sense of admonition. When the Sage Emperor promoted officials and bestowed titles upon them, he admonished them to guard against arrogance and impatience, to keep striving, and not to grow conceited or let imperial favor go to their heads.
Regardless of how an appointment was made, however, the central figure was always the Sage Emperor.
Now, Lin Ke alone had broken that precedent by appointing an official-and a fifth-rank official at that.
It had not seemed so striking during the court assembly, but now, after Lin Ke casually let slip a few words, the eyes of everyone