After giving them the quick tour, he led them out and back towards the Airship that was prepared for them outside. Taking them inside he pointed out the differences from the basic model. It had eight engines instead of two, twice the size of the cabin inside, and up to four times the payload. Inside it was filled with luxury furnishings and larger windows. The extras and addons used up half of the weight capacity, but it still had a payload of five tons. It also had beast hides on the envelope and high quality wood for the cabin along with defensive arrays for protection.

The basic model only had arrays to lighten the cabin like a common Lifting Pack, and another to collect gas to fill and seal the envelope when damaged. The cabin was made of Black Bamboo, a very strong and common type of bamboo that was darkly colored and stronger than normal bamboo. The envelope was a stronger form of canvas sealed with a sap or latex like substance, specifically chosen because there was a cheap array that could produce it. Then they just had to mount a couple Steam Engines with fan blades and the ship was complete. It wasn’t much in the way of durability and the five thousand pound payload wasn’t the best, but it was more than the thousand for a Black Cloud Eagle and it would never get tired and have to stop for breaks.

“We’re also working on a few military versions that have landing pads for Flying Mounts and platforms that can be lowered down to the ground. They can act as troop transports, or rest and resupply zones for Flying Mounts. This is a great opportunity to show off a new product, so thank you both for indulging me.”

Cui Shufen laughed, “Didn’t you say this thing was faster than the Black Cloud Eagle?”

“It is, but I’m pretty sure if you weren’t humoring me, you two could have taken a Thunderhawk or something even more powerful to the auction. I’ve also planned a few stops along the way to show the Airship off, if that’s alright with the two of you, that is. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I was told to start showing it off to the merchants around the province. This model has private cabins, washrooms, and even a kitchen. It’s something of a poor man’s Flying Ship. Around fifty thousand to produce and on sale for a hundred thousand Spirit Stones. Hopefully the increased comfort will compensate for the delayed journey.”

After they entered the ship, the rest of the crew followed them on. A pilot, chef, and four guards that doubled as servants and crewman. Most of the time they would serve the passengers, but if there was a problem with the Airship they were trained to assist.

The trip was quite serene, flying from city to city and showing off the huge Airship. The massive envelope made it far flashier than a standard Flying Ship even if it was nowhere near as expensive or capable. The standard model flew at about a hundred miles per hour, while the upgraded one they were in could hit double that. That said, it was nothing compared to Flying Ships, where even the cheapest could break the speed of sound.

On the other hand, the Airship was much cheaper and just like he’d hoped many wanted to fly in style. Flying Beasts at higher ranks were much faster, more agile and could fight back in mid-air. They also required one to hold onto the back of a beast for hours at a time and endure the cold rush of wind and suffer through the extremes of weather. Airships were perfect for the smaller Sects or large companies to have luxury air travel.

They made it to Red Knife City after about ten days and stayed longer than usual. Daggerguard City was on the other side of Red Knife Pass, the two cities guarding either side of the pass. Not wanting to get attacked by Daggerguard City they stayed in Red Knife City for about five days till they got permission to cross the pass. In the meantime they played around in Red Knife City and Sage made sure to give many dozens of people tours of the Airship.

The pilot had been informed to keep the Airship at a low altitude and they were careful to seek clearance to fly through Red Knife Pass, specifically because they didn’t want the Cult of the Woodlord to realize that the Airships could easily fly up to Green Plateau Province. They wanted them to think the Airship had a low maximum altitude, the Cult of the Woodlord was their only real rival after all. The two Sects mostly competed only in business, but there were always skirmishes and secret confrontations between them.

Daggerguard City itself was quite interesting. He was told the architecture was similar for all the pass guarding cities for Green Plateau Province. The city had a wall that looked to be constructed of dozens of massive redwood trees with thick and heavy vines weaving them together. The trees were about thirty feet wide with an equal distance between each of them. Upon closer inspection the heavy vine ‘walls’ were further fit vertically with thorn covered green vines. The thick trees were each two to three hundred feet tall and they had treehouse like guard posts mounted at the hundred foot high level. The vine walls were about fifty feet tall and had large rope bridges hanging over the top of them connecting to wooden parapets built around the trees.

Looks like an elven tree village. I’ve always wanted to live in a huge treehouse.

The ‘strange flying ship’ drew plenty of attention and Sage was sure to keep spreading the term ‘airship’ to get it to catch on. In another bid for them to underestimate the Airship, Sage parked it outside of Daggerguard City. He wanted to grow a grove of Sacred Banyan to form a defensive structure, but then he figured it might be an insult to the Cult of the Woodlord so they just anchored it by ropes to a few large rocks. The crew stayed on the ship while Sage, Jin Shih, and Cui Shufen entered the city and went to the inn where the two Personal Disciples had already made reservations. After asking he found they already had VIP passes for the auction, so they were free to do as they wished for the next few days leading up to the auction.

Surprisingly, Cui Shufen acted like any other girl and spent her free time shopping for clothing, cosmetics, and accessories. For some reason he thought she might have other interests with Peak Master Lupeng as a Master, but he was proven wrong. Jin Shih acted as Sage had guessed and accompanied Cui Shufen on all her shopping trips.

Trying to get in her good books by carrying her bags. Typical.

Sage, on the other hand, left the two of them after the first morning of their shopping trips. He instead arranged to meet them for lunch and dinner everyday while spending the rest of his time learning about Daggerguard City, Green Plateau Province, and the Cult of the Woodlord. As members of the Holy Flame Sect it was quite rare for them to be allowed in to a city of Green Plateau Province outside of specific times for special events. Normally, each sect would rely on merchants to transports goods from Daggerguard City to Red Knife City and vice versa.

On the second day, Sage paused his information gathering when he saw the name of a business, ‘The Beast Den’.