Chapter 488: Nabistin

In the Purple Beaver Parking Zone of Third New Nabistin.

A hovercar descended from the cyan aerial highway. Without requiring any guidance, the vehicle's autonomous driving system smoothly steered itself into a parking spot.

Nona opened her Book of Gospel and checked her route history. "It really only took ten minutes..."

The map clearly showed that ten minutes ago, she had still been inside the Senheiser Building in Vanmura. Now, she had already arrived at the imperial capital of the Gospel Kingdom, the blessed land of the Omniscient Weaver, Nabistin!

Notably, Nabistin was located at the heart of the Gospel Kingdom, while Vanmura was situated at its southwestern edge. The distance between them exceeded 1,200 kilometers.

"This speed has way surpassed high-speed trains. It's almost as fast as traveling at ten times the speed of sound! We were riding in Salome's Ten-String Racer, which isn't even built like an alchemical aircraft. We didn't even use any protective equipment designed for hypersonic travel. The entire journey was just a smooth drive."

Nona bit her fingernail. "Unless spatial gates become completely widespread, no other form of transportation could possibly compete with this Azure Skyway!"

Quinna lightly tapped the steering wheel with her finger, a smile gracing her lips. "No wonder they only sent us the invitation today. They wanted us to personally experience the future direction of development."

Normally, when a country wanted to test new technologies, systems, or policies, it would designate an experimental zone and observe the results before expanding nationwide. The Gospel Kingdom, however, was completely different in this regard.

All reforms began in the imperial capital, Nabistin. Even if another city developed some new high technology, it would inevitably be first applied and popularized in Nabistin.

This was not because Nabistin suppressed other cities and stole their technological achievements. Rather, Nabistin was simply too efficient. While other cities were still researching and planning, Nabistin had already begun production.

It was like being in school. Before you had even received the homework, the class representative next to you had already finished it.

Reality had proven that any technology Nabistin adopted was guaranteed to be effective. Nabistin would eventually provide the entire country with a flawless answer sheet. Over time, all the other cities simply stopped doing their own homework and directly copied Nabistin's solutions.

That was how it went with the second-layer city concept, and now the same applied to the Azure Skyway.

Today was June 18, three days after the release of the ninth ranking. That afternoon, while Quinna and Nona were discussing when the Gospel Ranking would be announced, an invitation from Nabistin arrived directly in their Books of Gospel.

They were instructed to depart no later than 6:30 p.m. and use the Azure Skyway to arrive at Nabistin before 7 p.m.

Given the prestige of Nabistin's imperial banquets, neither of them had ever attended one. Fifty years ago, the guests invited to such a banquet had been the previous generation of Six-Emblem Family Leaders.

No matter how they looked at it, an invitation would normally never be sent out on the afternoon of the event while requiring guests to travel over a thousand kilometers to the imperial capital within thirty minutes, as if they were simply popping next door for dinner.

Yet now, they truly felt as if they had merely traveled to the neighboring community.

Quinna opened her Book of Gospel and checked the information regarding the Azure Skyway. Surprisingly, it didn't require any Contribution Points at all. Someone had already paid the bill for them.

The technology behind the Azure Skyway was an advanced application of the Space Class. Nona couldn't wrap her head around any of it, and even Quinna, a Sacred Realm sorcerer, struggled to comprehend it.

Simply put, space could be imagined as a soft sponge, with all objects moving through the gaps within it. Now, imagine smashing a dent into that sponge. When an object slid down along the bottom of that dent, gravity caused it to accelerate faster and faster.

That was the principle behind the Azure Skyway.

The entire spatial structure of the Gospel Kingdom had already been distorted. Nabistin had become the bottom of the pit within this sponge, while all Azure Skyways served as the slopes of the pit.

When Quinna and the others traveled along an Azure Skyway toward Nabistin, they were like grains of sand sliding down a slope.

With spatial gates still impossible to realize, this was undoubtedly the most cost-effective method of transportation.

Creating two stable spatial gates required a Sacred Realm sorcerer proficient in the Space Class to spend an entire year constructing them. Afterward, they required frequent maintenance to prevent spatial turbulence. They were extraordinarily delicate facilities.

The Azure Skyway carried no such restrictions. It merely required creating a "dent" within space. While spatial dents still required Sacred Realm maintenance, a single spatial dent could extend into more than a dozen Azure Skyways. Its cost was slightly lower than spatial gates, but its potential for widespread use was more than ten times greater.

The intentions of the Isa Imperial Family were obvious. Just as the national plan for the past fifty years had been the construction of second-layer cities to increase urban capacity, the plan for the next fifty years would be the establishment of an Azure Skyway transportation network, reducing the travel time between any two cities to within thirty minutes.

Unlike other policies, this was likely Isa's absolute decision. There would be no room for negotiation.

The Isa Imperial Family rarely forced policies upon others. Instead, they granted each city a great degree of autonomy, allowing city governors to selectively implement the policies they needed.

For example, Vanmura had never implemented the Comprehensive Smart Home Popularization policy. Many services there were still performed manually, and the employment of maids remained common practice.

In other words, the entirety of Vanmura was an inefficient, labor-intensive "old-era city" with the lowest level of intelligence among all second-tier cities.

The reason Vanmura remained so feudal was that the city's income relied entirely on Mermaid Weed. The citizens' overall productivity contributed little to the economy, so there was no need to increase efficiency.

On the contrary, improving productivity would only mean that people would lose their jobs.

Vanmura certainly had the resources to support a jobless population on handouts. It was just that the Six-Emblem Families refused to let their own people become idle consumers who contributed no value. To them, even low-value labor was far better than no labor at all. This was actually a flaw of the Six-Emblem Families. They were unwilling to abandon even a single member of their people.

Had this happened in Montphera instead, those jobless people eliminated by technological advancement would, driven by their subconscious instincts, actively seek out extremely dangerous work, such as human experimentation. In short, even a discarded piece of paper could still be squeezed for the smallest remaining drop of value.

Within the Gospel Kingdom's evaluation system, the primary factor distinguishing tier-one from tier-two cities was the labor participation rate of their residents. A higher participation rate directly correlated with greater public safety, stronger education standards, and higher overall citizen satisfaction.

That was precisely why the Azure Skyway gave Quinna such a headache. Its introduction would inevitably trigger a massive change in production relations. Entire industries would vanish overnight while new roles emerged. Managing and adapting to this shift was a challenge every ruler had to face.

The two of them stepped out of the vehicle and walked toward the entrance of the parking terminal. Beside the walkway stood a wall of transparent glass. As they passed, glowing purple text appeared across its surface, displaying their identity records.

[Quinna Senheiser. Arrival time: June 18th, 5:53 PM. Access granted.]

[Nona Senheiser. Arrival time: June 18th, 5:53 PM. Access granted.]

A staff member approached and gestured toward the pavement. Looking down, Quinna and Nona saw laser-projected directions beneath their feet.

[Washrooms, Mink Street <<<]

[Imperial Palace, Central Avenue ↑↑↑]

[Nabistin Spirit Museum, Platinum Avenue >>>]

Having no interest in sightseeing, the sisters turned directly toward the imperial palace.

Nabistin lacked conventional roads or vehicles altogether. The entire metropolis was built with pedestrian thoroughfares paved in shimmering silver-white tile. As they walked, their bodies automatically picked up speed. Golden road signs [↑↑↑] materialized on the ground ahead, guiding their path.

At times, the system would suddenly slow Quinna and Nona down to let another pedestrian cross ahead of them, accelerating them back to their 80 km/h cruising speed once the path was clear. On wide-open stretches, they reached up to 120 km/h.

The rest of the crowd moved with the same fluid efficiency. Thousands of people surged across the pavement at terrifying speeds, yet not a single person collided. Even when someone abruptly stepped out of a storefront or stopped dead in the street, the surrounding flow adjusted instantly. The constant micro-adjustments in speed merged into a rhythmic harmony, like notes in a perfectly coordinated symphony.

This was another piece of infrastructure Nabistin had successfully deployed while the rest of the kingdom lagged behind, the Path of the Chosen.

Put simply, it accelerated foot traffic through ground-based propulsion systems. Initially tested on dedicated high-speed lanes, the mechanism for coordinating individual routes had been perfected and expanded to cover every street in the city. Nabistin had progressed so far that it had effectively returned to basics. There were no vehicles. Everyone simply walked, but at a frighteningly fast speed.

Halfway to their destination, Quinna suddenly halted and turned into a patisserie.

Knowing her sister's weakness for sweets, Nona silently followed her inside.

The shop attendant bowed respectfully. "Every cake recipe from our bakery has already been transmitted to your Books of Gospel. Based on your recorded preferences, we highly recommend Cake No. 13, the Black Forest Lava Cake, and Cake No. 19..."

Nona nudged her sister. "We're attending the imperial banquet in a bit. You can buy cakes on our way back."

Quinna grinned cheerfully. "Do you honestly expect a formal banquet to fill your stomach? Let's eat some cake first to tide us over."

The moment Quinna pointed to Cake No. 13, a server emerged from the kitchen carrying the freshly prepared Black Forest Lava Cake.

"Then hurry up and finish it. We need to get moving."

"Here, open wide."

"Mm... I told you I'm not eating."

"Wow, this molten filling is so sweet. Try a bite."

"Stop feeding me!" Nona stuck out her tongue, trying to lick a drop of cream from the corner of her mouth. When she couldn't reach it, she wiped it away with a finger and popped it into her mouth. Then her expression shifted. "The Woven Festival ends tonight."

Quinna nodded around her spoon. "Mmhmm. The final bell will signal the arrival of the new Empress. Within six hours at most, we'll witness the next mortal saint who will rule over the Gospel Kingdom for the next fifty years."

"Little Annan has probably failed," Nona said. "After all, her ranking was invalidated because of 'Ashe.' According to the contract between you and Little Annan, she'll return to the Senheiser Building once the festival concludes, correct?"

Quinna held the spoon between her lips, savoring every last bit of cake. "Mmhmm. When the sun rises tomorrow, Annan will be one of us again. The inheritance of the Dolans will officially take the surname Senheiser."

"So, what are you actually thinking?" Nona asked. She cared little for the Dolan family's legacy. "Little Annan will probably bring Ashe back with her."

"Then Ashe will take the Senheiser surname as well."

"You know that's not what I mean. I'm talking about the special relationship between you and Ashe that showed up on the future rankings."

"I told you that was just the Gospel weaving nonsense."

"Do you have any personal thoughts about it?"

"What kind of thoughts?" Quinna bit down on her spoon with a playful smile. "If you don't spell it out, how am I supposed to answer?"

"For example... the kind where, on the day Annan and Ashe get married, you call Ashe out beforehand and devour him first."

Quinna stared at her, stunned. "Have you been reading those strange novels again? Give me the title. I'll read it when we get back."

Nona's tone turned deadly serious. "Depending on your answer, I might take Little Annan and Ashe away from you. Unless you revoke my authority right now, I have the legal right to do so. Last time, when you said you wanted to bring her back into the fold, I cooperated and faked that information leak. This time, I won't help you ruin things for her."

Quinna took another bite of the lava cake. Dark chocolate filling oozed down the corner of her mouth like molten magma. Holding the spoon between her teeth, she went quiet for a moment before giving a casual shrug. "Fine, fine. I admit I'm somewhat intrigued by Ashe. Still, that interest is roughly the same as seeing a cute little animal. Besides, he's Annan's pet. Teasing my daughter until she cries is genuinely entertaining, but I only wanted to mess with her a bit. I never intended to steal her toy."

Nona finally let her shoulders drop. "So you're saying you don't actually plan to make a move?"

Quinna blinked innocently. "Eh? When you see a cute pet or a fun toy, isn't it completely natural to want to borrow it and play with it for a few days?"

Nona's expression darkened. "How many days are we talking about?"

"Just until I get bored. Then I'll give it back."