Chapter 9: The Art of Massage

Moon Temple.

It was already deep night, but the Moon Temple was still lit with lamps. After the Star God Emperor’s ridiculous escape, the Xuan Yue Goddess had simply washed up, then sat in her study and refused to go to sleep.

"Your Highness, it’s already the second watch. Why don’t you rest first?"

Yue Xin, the maid who had been helping her think through her plans, reminded her with concern.

"No need. If you’re tired, go rest first." With a slight furrow in her brows, the Xuan Yue Goddess did not even look up. Her arrangements were already in the final stretch; only a few details still needed to be weighed and confirmed.

With her husband’s life and death unknown and her beloved son nowhere to be found, one wrong step in this scheme would bring total ruin. How could she possibly sleep in peace?

Yue Xin blinked and said with a smile, "Your Highness, why put yourself through this? Most of it’s already decided. The remaining details won’t be solved by forcing yourself to think. Rather than sitting here idle, you should rest first. Maybe when you wake up tomorrow morning, inspiration will suddenly strike and solve everything."

"If Your Highness truly doesn’t want to sleep... then should I call over a massage master? Let him loosen you up a bit. Maybe that would bring some inspiration too."

Among the maids around her, little Yue Xin was the most capable, though her personality was a little odd and mischievous. With her nearby, there was never any shortage of amusement.

The Xuan Yue Goddess actually agreed with what she said. Some of the ideas that had come to her tonight had indeed flashed into existence amid Yue Xin’s laughter.

What she didn’t quite understand was the "massage" Yue Xin mentioned, so she asked about it.

Yue Xin quickly explained, "Massage is a kind of medical therapy from the Tianqi human race next door. It uses kneading and pressure on the skin to relax the body and mind. During the days when Your Highness wasn’t here, we were pressured and needled by the Star God Emperor a lot. Whenever we had free time, we’d go find a massage master to unwind."

The Xuan Yue Goddess roughly understood. As cultivators, it was hard to relax through ordinary massage alone, and the maids by her side were all fairly strong in their cultivation. If they all said it was good, then this massage clearly had something to recommend it.

After thinking it over, the Xuan Yue Goddess agreed to let Yue Xin bring a massage master to the Moon Temple. She had been busy all night; it would be good to relax a little.

(Massage is one form of traditional Chinese medicine. Put simply, it’s the ancient kind of massage. Since this book has an immortal-heroic setting, it uses the term "massage" for this sort of treatment.)

...

...

Very soon, Yue Xin brought the massage master over. He was a middle-aged man with a sturdy build and an honest, somewhat plain face.

"The Goddess has been waiting for you. Go in," Yue Xin said as she led the massage master to the door of the sleeping chamber.

"Yes..."

Once the guide, Yue Xin, had left, the massage master, Lu Fu, could hardly believe that he was really going to serve the supreme and holy Xuan Yue Goddess. His heart was already thudding wildly.

He carefully pushed the door open. The lighting in the sleeping chamber was dim, and by the moonlight filtering down through the crystal dome above, he could faintly make out a jade-like body glowing with a soft afterglow, lying quietly facedown on the large bed.

Suppressing the stirrings in his chest, Lu Fu took a deep breath and walked toward the bed.

The moonlight pouring through the crystal dome happened to fall perfectly across that exquisite jade body. She lay quietly with only a sheer gauze robe draped over her, so thin it was impossible to tell whether it had been worn or merely covered over her body. It outlined the graceful curve of her back, while her snow-white, jade-clear skin shimmered with the unique lunar glow of the Xuan Yue Goddess.

Beneath the gauze, there was no other unnecessary fabric. Two slender, straight legs lay quietly exposed, like a work of art carved and polished to perfection, beautiful as a painting.

Even now, the massage master Lu Fu still could not believe that the delicate, graceful body on the bed was truly the immaculate Xuan Yue Goddess of the Divine Proclamation Empire.

His secret massage techniques could soothe and delight cultivators, but he himself was only at the very bottom rung of society. The Xuan Yue Goddess, by contrast, was the daughter of a nation, a goddess revered by tens of thousands. How could he possibly believe that someone as lowly as he had been granted the chance to serve her...

Lu Fu held his breath for a long while, too afraid to exhale and disturb the goddess on the bed. His eyes slowly sharpened with a frightening intensity as they swept back and forth over the stunning jade body lying motionless on the bed.

The resting Xuan Yue Goddess also noticed that the newcomer was a man, but she paid it no mind. In a slightly lazy voice, she asked, "Can we begin now?"

That pleasant voice reached Lu Fu’s ears, and he awoke as if from a dream. After answering respectfully, he pulled over a small stool and sat at the side of the bed.

Because the Xuan Yue Goddess was lying facedown, the side of the bed was the perfect place to massage her head.

Before beginning, Lu Fu took out his tools of the trade from his storage ring and introduced each one to the Xuan Yue Goddess.

"Your Highness, this is incense. It helps calm the mind and clear the head... this is essential oil blended with musk. When applied to the skin, it produces a slight warming sensation, mainly to relax the flesh... this is the blanket Lady Yue Xin brought over. If you turn over later, you can cover yourself with it... and this is..."

"Enough. Just start," the Xuan Yue Goddess said impatiently, cutting him off and waving for him to begin at once.

Massage master Lu Fu did not dare delay. He lit the calming incense at the bedside, then used his inner force to warm the essential oil.

After that, he spread the oil across his hands and, through the Xuan Yue Goddess’s sheer gauze robe, placed them on her shoulders. The silky smoothness of her skin under his palms made Lu Fu feel as if he were touching a slab of the finest white jade.

After a brief daze, he steadied himself and began kneading and pressing the Xuan Yue Goddess’s fragrant shoulders.

The Xuan Yue Goddess had her head tilted to one side on the pillow, her willow brows and almond eyes closed in contentment, her breathing even and calm. It was obvious she was thoroughly enjoying the massage.

But Lu Fu was suffering terribly. From his angle, he could see the goddess’s back in full. The entire elegant expanse was white and flawless, its beautiful lines made even more mysterious and enticing by the gauze and the moonlight.

Below the supple waist that curved like willow branches was a pair of full, steeply rising hip mounds. Even worse, from his position near her head, Lu Fu could see the valley formed by the two plump rounds of flesh.

Half concealed beneath the gauze, the crease between those full hips looked in his sight like an endless crack in a canyon. While massaging her shoulders, Lu Fu kept finding himself lifting his head to glance toward the end of that cleft, trying to locate the Xuan Yue Goddess’s sacred garden, but he could only see a dark, bottomless groove.

Immersed in the comfort of the massage, the Xuan Yue Goddess gradually noticed a gaze like a roaring blaze fixed on her body. Though she felt somewhat displeased, she did not take it to heart.

No one knew her allure better than she did. Even the Star God Emperor had been hopelessly infatuated with her, let alone a hot-blooded man.

Then Lu Fu’s voice suddenly reached her ears.

"Your Highness, I need to apply some essential oil to your back, so I’ll need to lower your clothing a bit. What do you think?" Lu Fu did not dare directly ask the Xuan Yue Goddess to lift the sheer robe away, so he phrased it as tactfully as he could.

Though he very much wanted to personally remove her clothing, he still had enough self-awareness to know his place. The goddess was not like those lonely, empty women he encountered in ordinary life. She was not someone to be casually flirted with.

Yet the Xuan Yue Goddess’s reply was beyond his expectations. In her lazy, soft voice, she said, "Just strip it off."

Those four short words sent Lu Fu’s heart surging wildly, and he could not help but nearly drool.

After dazedly answering, his hands trembled as he reached out.

Of course, he did not dare simply yank up the sheer robe covering the Xuan Yue Goddess’s back. Instead, he pinched one corner and slowly pulled it downward, fully exposing her flat, smooth, beautiful back.

Carefully, Lu Fu poured some essential oil onto the Xuan Yue Goddess’s lovely back and respectfully asked, "Your Highness, is this temperature all right?"

Who would have thought that his caution would instead annoy the Xuan Yue Goddess.

"If you have to ask me about every single step, then how are we supposed to finish? Relax. Treat me like an ordinary person. Don’t be so timid."

The Xuan Yue Goddess said with a trace of displeasure.

Ever since eloping with Lin Qingyun, she had realized that compared to being worshiped by others, she actually preferred to interact with people as equals.

Back when she was in the Divine Proclamation Empire, everyone around her acted with extreme care no matter where she went, terrified that one careless move might anger her. She didn’t bite people. Wasn’t it better for everyone to get along normally and on equal footing?

It was precisely because she had always been bound by these invisible restraints in the Divine Proclamation Empire that she chose to discard her name and travel the world under an ordinary identity.

If she hadn’t met Lin Qingyun, she would only have returned to the Divine Proclamation Empire whenever she was needed for the New Moon ritual, and then continued on in pursuit of freedom afterward.