Chapter 2515: Eve of the Festival

Because the airship's speed was far faster than those not-yet-mature steam locomotives on the ground, this specially arranged airship journey did not go straight, but first climbed upward, slowing its ascent only when it neared the altitude of the Floating City Chang'an.

"That is the Floating City you all passed through via the transfer portal; it seems small from the ground, but it is truly spectacular when you get closer."

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Ever since the portal to Code Plaza was established, the Floating City rarely came near the ground; even the locals had not seen it many times, let alone these visitors from the Tianshui Plane.

After the accompanying security officer gave a brief introduction, the group of guests from the Tianshui Plane began to scream with excitement, not just because of the massive main body of the Floating City hovering nearby, but also because of the thrill of looking down at the ground from the airship at such a high altitude.

If someone were to look from a distant perspective outside the airship, this so-called giant airship would be nothing more than an invisible speck against the backdrop of the azure sky in front of the Floating City.

In reality, the airship was still quite far from the Floating City at this moment, but because the main body of the Floating City exceeded 2 New Li in diameter—far surpassing the volume of any ground building—it could induce an incomparably shocking sense of oppression from a massive object, even without truly getting close.

Up at high altitude, without the obstruction of ground buildings and forests, the biting gale made it almost impossible to breathe normally, but the thrill brought by this sensation was no less than that brought by the Floating City.

Fortunately, after this specially summoned giant airship reached a certain altitude, it only paused for a moment before descending amidst the excited screams of the passengers, moving northward as it descended.

As the altitude decreased, looking down from the air, that wide and straight 【Daxia-Saville Passage】 looked like a ruler heavily imprinted upon the forest.

Although one could feel the grandeur of this road on the ground, it was even more apparent from the air; almost all the Tianshui Plane visitors who saw the full view of the 【Daxia-Saville Passage】 could not help but praise it in unison.

The only regret was that at the current stage, Daxia Territory and the Savile Territory to the north were only connected by a single passage; on the east side of the southern passage, new-style villages with orderly planning of farmland and houses had already appeared, and in the north, there were similar plans, but they had not yet been integrated into one.

However, looking down from the air, most people could still discern Xia Duo's planning philosophy in Nan Jing: to actively promote the integration of the two places, not just administratively, but also in terms of geographical space.

……

Despite slowing down, the airship still arrived at Savile Town before the ground steam cars reached the northern end of the 【Daxia-Saville Passage】, and it landed on the top of the standard spire at the original location of the Tower of Time.

The so-called standard spire shared the same design blueprint as the No. 1 Spire Xia Duo had previously built to house New Apprentices, and the No. 2 Spire, the private Mage Tower built for Saville.

This Mage Tower design was relatively simple and was originally used as an anchoring point for the floating platforms on the periphery of the Floating City; No. 1 and No. 2 were completely high-spec versions, while the one now placed in Savile Town was the normal version.

But the normal version was meant for anchoring floating platforms, so this Mage Tower could likewise serve as an aerial docking platform for airships without needing to land on the ground.

When the airship approached, a regular square stone slab squeezed out from the void bit by bit, carrying a locking force of its own; once the airship slightly reduced its power, it automatically docked onto the slab.

At the same time, a member of the Tower of Time wearing a Mage Robe approached to coordinate with the security officer from the south, and after a simple process, the passengers on the airship were permitted to disembark.

Then, the Mage Tower released its lock on the airship, and the slab carried the passengers down to the ground.

"Everyone, I will arrange for you to have free time in Savile Town next. Remember, Savile Town is integrated with Daxia Territory and must also follow the rules and regulations of Daxia Territory. After the Midsummer Festival ends, we will arrange for you to return to Daxia Territory by land, and then transfer via the Floating City to Seventon."

The accompanying security officer gave a brief explanation of the itinerary, then conducted a handover with the personnel in Savile Town, turning these guests from the Tianshui Plane over to the people of Savile Territory to host, before departing.

These security officers from the south were now effectively on semi-vacation; they would not need to reassemble until the Midsummer Festival to maintain order at the Central Plaza.

As for those Tianshui Plane visitors, upon learning they were finally free to move about, they were all eager to try; the previous tour clearly could not satisfy their curiosity about this Main Plane territory.

Next, some of these people headed to the Central Plaza to experience the lively atmosphere on the eve of the festival with the locals, while others went to the Trade District to inquire about prices in the Main Plane, seemingly planning to make a big move.

Others went to find the taverns where Adventurers were said to gather; there were no Adventurers in the Tianshui Plane, but legends of Adventurers were widely circulated even there, and places like taverns were the easiest to gather information.

Still others went to the Temple at the first opportunity to pray to the great Lord of Radiance.

The rest just went with the flow, walking wherever they pleased without a very clear goal, or rather, these people wanted to see and understand everything.

……

Daxia Territory.

Seeing that those Tianshui Plane visitors, especially the dozen or so lords, were behaving themselves, Xia Duo quickly withdrew his gaze. At this time, Niya had already gone to Seventon, and after Xia Duo toured the territory, he returned to the Tower of Time.

With a little time to spare, Xia Duo decided to make some preparations for his subsequent research on Bloodline Inheritance. He had long planned the experimental approach; some experiments could be conducted immediately, while others required a longer time and thus needed early preparation.

This part basically involved the cross-plane isolated storage of bloodline essence. After Xia Duo separated a portion of bloodline essence from his main body, he stored them in the New Floating City in the Blue Crystal Plane.

This was something only he could do personally; if he left it to others, for one thing, he wouldn't be at ease, and for another, he would feel quite embarrassed.

And when returning from the Blue Crystal Plane, he specifically checked on the Plane Exploration Center, which had only been established a short while ago. Because of the previous construction of the New Floating City and the subsequent cooperation with Niya to build the Communication Mythallar, the Plane Exploration Center was left with only two new Mage staff members on duty, with almost no High Mages remaining.

In other words, the Active Detection work at the Plane Exploration Center had now almost completely stopped, with only the passive detection of the Plane Exploration Array continuing.

The Plane Exploration Array could only record limited detection data, and those two staff members on duty existed to record, save, and organize those extra detection data, whether active or passive.

But clearly, the data collected by passive detection was almost unselective; not only was the volume large, but it was also difficult to analyze, far less effective than the selectivity of active detection, which could achieve targeted analysis.

The reason Xia Duo still insisted on recording and saving passive detection information was mainly because this part of the information was very comprehensive. Although active detection had strong selectivity, once the approach was wrong, the reference value of all data might plummet.

Therefore, the Plane Exploration Center placed importance on both types of data, without favoring one over the other.