Putting aside his thoughts of the nature of this world, Sage traveled into the first level of the Tianxia Capital and saw that it was less like a city and more like a gigantic port. Most of the people entering the city were actually here to drop off and pick up goods for transport. Even those who weren’t traveling with a large carriage or caravan, many of them had many storage treasures filled with goods. Once they did their business they would unwind at inns, taverns, or other seedier establishments. Some might also spend some of their earnings at shops, and then they’d leave the capital with another load of goods.

Sage paid for a local carriage based taxi and spent a few hours to look at what this first level had to offer. Given the sheer size of the place there were also residences and other businesses needed to support the locals, but they were located far away from the entrances. The majority of the space on the first level was taken up by massive warehouses, with tall and narrow buildings jammed between them. Which also brought up another point, the buildings inside the Tianxia Capital could be considered skyscrapers on their own. These fifty story buildings contained all the shops and other businesses, pushing them up into the sky so there was more room for the huge warehouses and the flow of traffic on the wide streets.

Seeing that most of this level was much like a land-based port, filled with giant warehouses and people unloading goods, Sage moved up towards the second level. On each of the inner walls of the giant tower that was the Tianxia Capital, there was a huge ramp. This ramp was a mile wide, making it a city district on its own. There were tall buildings built up against the wall, while on the inner side of the ramp were housing divisions for wealthier residents that looked out over the city level from above. The prices for these homes increased as they rose in elevation, so the richest got to look down from above on everyone else in the level. Between these two building areas were many wide lanes for traffic both heading up and down, with multiple privileged roads reserved for special uses. While it might seem steep to climb a thousand feet, the ramps were hundreds of miles long making the slope quite gentle. Of course, this also meant it took a long time to climb to the next level, so there was also a much steeper ramp that charged a fee for use. This Quick Ramp led right up to the Quick Ramp for the next level, greatly reducing travel times.

Unfortunately, Sage didn’t have the clearance to use the Quick Ramps yet, so he had to travel up to the next floor the slow way. The carriage he rented was pulled by Demonic Beasts, but traveling hundreds of miles still took many hours. Eventually, they reached the second level and Sage left the carriage in front of an office. Heading inside he had to follow a similar procedure as when he first arrived in the capital, except this time he had to pay Spirit Stones as well. This whole process actually had to be done three more times, taking Sage nearly half a week to ascend to the 5th level of the capital. It was only here on the 5th level that he could finally have access to the first true administrative office and purchase rights to multiple higher levels at once. It was also where he could purchase rights for the upper gates.

The second level of the capital had gates available for those with Flying Mounts or Magical Tools. It was similar in makeup to the first, but catered to those arriving through the air. The third level had more of the same, yet it was dedicated to Flying Ship docks. The fourth level was a logistics hub, where supplies from the first three floors could be moved before being taken to the level they were needed. The fifth level was far more imposing than the first four as it had large internal walls arranged around the ramp exits that looked like granite fortresses and were filled with narrow arrow slits and defensive formations thrumming with power. Along with being an administrative hub, this was also a defensive strongpoint.

Upon entering the office and waiting in line for a few hours, he finally gathered more information about the Tianxia Capital and found out that this wasn’t an unusual thing. There were similar arrangements on the tenth level and every ten thereafter. There was a Sky Port, as well as extensive defenses to ensure that if the worst were to happen it couldn’t spread unchecked through the thousands of levels of the capital. There were grades for Flying Ships and the weaker ones had lower altitude limits than the more expensive ones, which meant even if someone was a resident of a really high level they might only be able to enter the capital at a much lower level.

This is also where Sage realized the oppressiveness of the Imperials. For every level he wished to have access to, he would have to pay 100 Spirit Stones. There was also an additional fee to access the Sky Ports, but if he purchased the levels in batches of ten this fee was waived. This little bonus might have built some goodwill if it weren’t for a single devastating fact: they only sold them in bundles of ten, or one at a time. If he didn’t purchase ten, he’d have to travel up to every level on the slower ramps, buying them one at a time. So, if he didn’t want to spend an eternity climbing the tower he had to pay 1000 Spirit Stones at a time to use the Quick Ramps to climb ten levels at a time. If he wanted to reach the 50 thousandth level he’d be forced to spend 5 million Spirit Stones. It was no wonder Zhenyan always looked down on him, just the door pass was this expensive.

What was worse was that those who were born on a floor automatically got access to it. If they were to leave the tower they couldn’t enter other floors, but they could climb up to the highest floor they had access to. They only had to pay for the specific levels they wanted to access, not every single one in between. This was some sort of veiled class system, and those that wanted to increase their status had to keep spending more and more the further they wished to go. Only, from what Sage saw, the division was not that direct between levels, but when comparing 50,000 of them it did seem to be that the more rich and powerful were located up near the highest levels. Only with enough resources could they afford to never leave or to make the trip up and down from such heights economical. Those that still relied on the outside world would want to be closer to the ground.

“You’ll need to get up to 19,046 for now, you can climb higher later.”

“So you want me to shell out 1,904,600 Spirit Stones, and that’s just the start? You told me it was just a task, yet now you want me to spend a fortune?”

“Who told you to be so bad at making money? If you didn’t give it all away to your Family you wouldn’t care about this little pittance.”

Sage had thought he’d got a good deal by not having to pay a fortune for Guan Zhenyan’s help, but it seemed agreeing to a ‘task’ was even worse for his pocket book as he had no idea how much he’d have to come up with to complete it. Unfortunately, he’d already made the deal so he could only go along with this cheat’s instructions. After paying for access up to the tenth level he went to one of the larger local shops to sell goods and materials from the Inner World. It was easy enough for him to disguise his looks so he could treat different levels as whole new cities like when he was in the Depths. Every day he ascended ten more floors, purchasing another pass and selling some goods to build up his funds, as he had the premonition he was going to need them.