I can see where Jiao gets it from.

Zhu Ping began to complain to Jiao who was riding in the carriage beside her, but Jiao shook her head, “Just wait a moment, Aunty.”

Sage dismounted and walked over to where all of those that Zhu Ping had brought along were gathered. He waved them all to come closer, “Alright, it is now time for you to make a decision. From this point on, all those that stay with us will be considered one of our people. You will be privy to some secrets, as well as gain certain benefits, but you will also be subject to some rules. It is now your last chance to leave, understand?”

Zhu Ping’s face scrunched up, and she looked ready to jump into another tirade, but Jiao patted her upon the arm, “Do not worry Aunty. It is for the best.”

The middle aged woman frowned a little and then let out a loud sigh, “Fine, fine. If you say so.”

At this time all the others from the Zhu Clan were just looking at Zhu Ping and waiting to see what her orders were. They were all quite loyal to her and would do however she wished. Sage was surprised to see this, but also pleased that these people were at least loyal on the surface. None of them showed any signs of wanting to leave, instead just waiting for her instruction.

She patted the air in the direction of her subordinates to say it was okay and they all nodded their heads, staying in their positions. Sage nodded, “Good, you’re all still here, that will make this quicker.”

He extended his Spirit Power and Qi, slowly enveloping every one of them in it, “First things first. Do not resist me.”

The energy surrounding them wasn’t strong and it would be easy for even the weakest of them to resist, but they looked to Zhu Ping. Jiao smiled at her and then Zhu Ping nodded again. They weren’t sure what was going on, but then everything changed and they suddenly realized what had happened.

“That weak layer of energy… a Storage Treasure?” Zhu Ping was amazed to see a new landscape around her, “Your new husband has a Storage Treasure of such caliber?”

Jiao smiled and nodded, “That punk has many secrets. Why do you think so many people are trying to kill him all the time?”

A few moments later, more and more people appeared all around them, along with Demonic Beasts and the many carriages and carts they had brought along on their trip. They were standing in a large clearing in front of a large tower, one that rose hundreds of feet into the air. In the distance they saw similar towers, eight of them in total, placed in the cardinal and intercardinal directions a half mile away. Around the base of these towers were many vines that had twined together into tree trunks and had large tree limbs covered with bright green leaves. These limbs also spread out and connected to the forest, like the trees had tried to assimilate the bases of each tower.

Spanning between these towers, high up in the air, were large silken webs woven into bridges. They were far away enough that it was hard to make out any detail, and the scale of the web was so large it did little to block the light that was shining down from above. In the distance about a mile away in every direction, a layer of thick white mist spanned from the ground to the sky, forming a cloudy barrier at the edge of the world. In the sky, the same mist formed a hemispherical shape, forming a dome a mile high in the center.

Sage appeared last and then waved towards the large central tower, “This will be our home for a while. We’ll need to travel for a few months, perhaps a few years if things don’t go well,” then Sage pointed towards the other towers, “The surrounding towers are used for agriculture, and there are Dragoons working there, so don’t bother them too much.”

The others from his side had already walked into the big doors of the central tower while Jiao and the Zhu Clan’s people were waiting beside him. At this point he started to walk them towards the tower, “The jungle is populated with some low rank Demonic Beasts and Spirit Animals, for the added atmosphere and also as free range game. You’re free to do as you wish, just be aware there are wild animals running around.”

They walked into the building and up towards a large box, one which used a Steam Engine to power an elevator. The main mechanism was pretty simple to set up with a counterweight, but he’d spent much more time working on safety mechanisms. He walked the group onto the large platform and touched one of the buttons to show them how simple the device was to operate.

Only, they weren’t really paying attention to his demonstration as they were marveling over the box they’d entered. It had a silvery metal frame, but the ceiling and walls were transparent glass. In this world, glass was nearly non-existent, with the only examples of it being small, colored, or cloudy. It was mainly used to make baubles and little decorations, it wasn’t used in windows, let alone to create walls like in this elevator.

In fact, this wasn’t glass, it was Gemsteel. Gemsteel was a type of crystal that could be manipulated like metal using Violet Vitriol and other strange types of liquids rather than by heating them in a flame. Since they were crystalline, Sage was inspired and did some experimenting. He tried a few varieties of Gemsteel before finally finding one that was mostly transparent. Then he experimented with different additions and filtering processes before ending up with the clear glass he had now. He’d completely skipped the idea of glass blowing and used the one major innovation he remembered from the glass industry, floating the molten material onto a liquid so it cured into perfectly flat sheets.

By the time Sage realized how surprised they were by the glass, the doors behind them had already closed and the platform started to move. Some of them cried out in terror, but most of them just grabbed the railing out of concern.

“This is an elevator, you press this little spot, a button, for the floor you wish to go to and it carries you up or down. Think of it as a magic device activated with a mechanism instead of Qi. It’s powered by a Qi Gathering Array so there are no Spirit Stones to swap out.”

With thousands of years on his hands, Sage had used his Soul Clone to work on many little inventions like this on the Inner World. They were a good way to break up each day of training, and he didn’t have to waste months of time on the real world doing research and testing like he had in the past. Sometimes he had to pick up materials, but he preferred to use those things that were already native to the Inner World so he could enact them on a large scale if necessary without huge costs.