Sage was initially quite interested until he learned that Jin Shih was inviting him to attend the auction along with the two of them. That immediately made him leery. So far Jin Shih hadn’t shown him any goodwill, so this invitation coming out of the blue could only mean one of two things. It was possible he wanted to improve their relations, maybe he saw the value in Sage or the Peak Master had encouraged him to. On the other hand, it could mean the complete opposite. It could be a setup for Jin Shih to try and undermine him somehow.
After a few minutes of contemplation, he finally agreed. The deciding factor was Cui Shufen. She had treated him respectfully every time they met, and while she seemed a bit odd, it was reassuring. There was also the fact that he was quite eager to get his hands on more stuff from the Cult of the Woodlord. They were the only ones with Arborists and Gardeners that he’d ever heard of and there were many secrets he wanted to learn from them. Sage accepted Jin Shih’s invitation and smiled politely even as he noticed the look on the man’s face. Jin Shih had looked from Sage to Cui Shufen, studying her face as this exchange was completed.
Oh, there’s a third option. He might just want to show me up in front of the girl he likes. So juvenile.
With that thought he remembered that these two Personal Disciples were both quite young. Each of them were only in their mid-twenties, which is probably why Jin Shih was obsessed. Cui Shufen was one of the only other Personal Disciples that was the same age as him, and she wasn’t bad to look at.
The three of them had a polite conversation for a while, but then they excused themselves. Cui Shufen asked to see more of Sage’s inventions, but then Jin Shih interjected and reminded her of the time. A few minutes later they’d left the building and Sage immediately began planning for the worst case scenario. He thanked Wen Wen for all her hard work and excused himself, heading to his room and getting to work.
A week later, Sage met up with both Jin Shih and Cui Shufen. Wan Ling, as well as Sage’s other friends, wanted to come along with them to the auction, but Sage was invited by the Personal Disciples and he didn’t want to invite more people along with them. For one, because he didn’t want to offend them. Additionally, he was worried that Jin Shih was up to something and he didn’t want to put his friends into danger. Thankfully, he was able to convince them not to come, but only after promising to attend two other big auctions with them instead.
There was still three weeks left until the auction, but the auction was at the edge of the province and Sage convinced them to leave early so he could show off one of the new inventions that was already being produced in large numbers by the Sect. With such a large auction, it was a good opportunity for advertising. When Jin Shih and Cui Shufen arrived on an eagle the size of a bus, Sage greeted them and hopped up onto the eagle beside them. Then he gave some directions to the eagle’s handler and they flew to a location outside of Holy Flame City. At first there didn’t seem to be anything going on, but then they flew into a large illusion array and below them a set of huge aircraft style hangers appeared.
“This is where we’ve been producing the new product we’re going to show off. It’s slower than most flying beasts, so that’s why we need a little more time. Look, there it is!”
Sage pointed towards one of the hangers where a huge set of doors was opened and a huge object was exiting the hanger. As they flew in slow circles around it, the group got a good look at it. It was a massive horizontal cylinder made of beast hides, the two ends of the cylinder were curved to end in points. The back point had a set of four fins in a cross formation. Underneath the huge cylinder it looked like there was the wooden hull of a ship stuck to it. The ship had porthole windows and from the sides of it were more cylinders on struts, with two twisted blades coming out from the center of their backends.
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Cui Shufen and Jin Shih looked at the strange object and it was only when the eagle landed on the ground did they realize what the object was. They saw that it wasn’t touching the ground, tethered by ropes to some large poles. Jin Shih looked at Sage and immediately started criticizing it, “Is this a new type of Flying Ship? How do you get into that big bladder?”
Sage shook his head and Jin Shih continued before Sage could explain, “So it really is just the ship portion for passengers? That ship is much smaller than most Flying Ships, how do you expect to compete with such a small ship? Are you trying to get attention with that giant bladder up there?”
Cui Shufen looked at Sage and waited for the answer, wanting to know what the deal was with this strange contraption. Sage finally smiled as he had the chance to explain, which he did by first posing a question. As he talked he beckoned to them and started to walk them towards another hanger.
“How much does it cost to purchase a Flying Mount?”
Cui Shufen jumped in this time, starting with the mount they rode in on, “A rank 3 Black Cloud Eagle costs ten thousand Spirit Stones. The rank 4 Windfalcon costs thirty thousand, and a rank 5 Thunderhawk is at least fifty.”
She explained the most common and cheapest of flying mounts. There were many varieties of Demonic Beasts that were in other beast shapes that had wings like Winged Tigers, Pegasi, Gryphons, Manticore, and many others, but they were all vastly more expensive than bird types.
Sage nodded, “You also need to include the cost of a handler, food, and lodgings for them. How much are Flying Ships?”
“The cheapest model the Holy Flame Sect produces costs about five million Spirit Stones. There’s also a limit on how many are created every year, and most of them are heavily customized and cost far more.”
At this point they reached the closed hanger and he opened a door to show them inside. There was another of the strange vessels inside, but this one had a much cheaper looking ship hull, appearing more like bamboo. It also had only two sets of the bladed cylinders and the giant bladder was made of a canvas like material with a shiny rubbery coating.
“This is the mass production model of Airship. Well, that’s the name I proposed, but I think they want to call it something else. While it may look silly, it can actually carry five times more than the Black Cloud Eagle. It’s only about half the speed, but we offer upgrades to make it faster. Each of the engines, those bladed cylinders, consumes one Spirit Stone as fuel every day. So this base model can fly without exhaustion at a cost of two Spirit Stones per day. More importantly, it only costs about five thousand Spirit Stones to manufacture. I’m told the plan is to sell it at nine thousand or so until it becomes more popular.”
Jin Shih and Cui Shufen took another closer look at the strange device. They both seemed to be reconsidering the unusual contraption and wondering if it actually lived up to what Lang Sheng had told them. Sage on the other hand brought them up to the cabin and pulled open the door. It was hinged at the bottom and swung down like a ramp with a set of ropes on either side to pull it back up and also to serve as a handhold. Sage drew up a design for a door like small jets on Earth with folding stairs and railing, but they were too heavy to use on the basic model. The design was just waiting for someone rich to pay extra for the privilege.
The cabin itself was only a small size ship, with only a single internal deck that was about fifty feet long and twenty feet wide. The ship was attached directly to the underside of the envelope giving it no real upper deck, nor any poop deck or other raised decks fore or aft. Jin Shih and Cui Shufen took a look around and noticed how simple it was inside. There were two foot wide porthole windows all around the whole cabin to give a decent view of the outside, and the only place that stood out was the pilot area. In the place where a ship would usually have a figurehead the inner deck of the ship had a small walkway. It was just a few feet wide with a handrail, and there was a large ship wheel at the end of it. The small walkway was surrounded to the sides and below with large windows. It would give the pilot a horizontal view range of about two hundred and seventy degrees and a pretty wide view below as well. Sadly, it was still blocked directly downwards and from above by the envelope, but it wasn’t terrible.