Health & Massage Parlor

Alchemy Commission.

Though this department's primary function was to handle logistical and medical matters aboard the Xianzhou "Luofu,"

it actually oversaw many medical and wellness establishments throughout the Luofu.

The one Bai Heng knew best was the Health & Massage Parlor.

From Bai Heng's perspective, it was basically a massage parlor.

Many alchemists of the Alchemy Commission were intimately familiar with the distribution of the body's acupoints, so massage came naturally to them.

Many Cloud Knights on the front lines spent all year suffering sprains and broken bones. When they returned at year's end, they would come here to have their arms and legs worked over and loosen their stiff muscles.

Bai Heng was naturally no exception. Whenever he was beaten black and blue by his master Jingliu, he not only had to visit the Alchemy Commission for medicine, but also had to go to the Health & Massage Parlor for a professional massage.

Now that he had traveled such a long way, this was the first place he thought of for relaxation.

At dawn.

Bai Heng lay on a massage bed within the Alchemy Commission, holding two booklets he had bought on the road.

One was titled Xianzhou Gazetteer, while the other was titled Gleanings from the Xianzhou Chronicles.

He had bought these two books because he was very interested in how the Luofu had changed after the Shuhuo Uprising.

While he flipped through the booklets, an Alchemy Commission technician thoughtfully massaged his legs.

"Would you like the upper areas massaged too?"

"...Mm."

"Customer, how is this amount of pressure?"

"It's... it's fine."

"Customer, I'm Wang Gang, Technician No. 34 of the Alchemy Commission. Don't forget to leave me a five-star review."

"Okay..."

Bai Heng was covered in black lines and did not dare say a word.

Come to think of it, hadn't all the attendants here seven hundred years ago been young, beautiful older sisters with gentle hands?

Why had they turned into muscular, broad-backed old weirdos?!

Fine. Better read.

Inside the small room lit by orange paper lanterns, the burly man vigorously kneaded Bai Heng's legs. The force was so great that faint crackling sounds could even be heard from his muscles.

But perhaps because his physique had been altered by the simulation system, Bai Heng actually found the pressure just right.

An hour later, Bai Heng had finished both relatively short booklets.

He had also gained some understanding of the Xianzhou's current state.

The records in the booklets were not very detailed. They merely gave a rough account of how, seven hundred years ago, the Xianzhou "Luofu" encountered the Shuhuo Uprising and fought an unprecedented, glorious war against the abominations of Abundance.

In that war, the Xianzhou's soldiers and civilians swore to become clouds shielding the sky, protecting the Xianzhou and never falling. They ultimately won at a terrible cost. Tengxiao, then General of the Luofu, died in that war, and the High-Cloud Quintet, celebrated by the people of the Luofu, fell apart afterward.

The short-life species youth Bai Heng, who had made a deal with the Suiyang "Di Kui" and become an emissary under the Calamity of the Finality, also perished after that battle. As for the reason for his death, the author did not record it.

At the end of the article, the author merely used a few brief strokes to summarize the aftermath of that war.

Jingliu, the former Luofu Sword Champion and one of the High-Cloud Quintet, was suspected of lingering on the brink of becoming Mara-Struck after the war and was detained under the Ten-Lords Commission's custody.

Dan Feng, the Vidhydara High Elder and Imbibitor Lunae; Yingxing, a short-life species craftsman; and Bai Heng, a Foxian pilot, used the flesh and blood of Calamity-Bringer Shuhu. Imbibitor Lunae arbitrarily employed the miraculous art of transforming into a dragon in an attempt to reverse fate, causing the Imbibitor Lunae Rebellion to erupt.

In the end, Jingliu slew the monstrous dragon in the Scalegorge Waterscape, then completely fell to mara one year later.

Dan Feng was sentenced to molt and reincarnate.

Yingxing and Bai Heng were affected by lingering thoughts of Abundance during the Imbibitor Lunae Rebellion. One vanished without a trace, while the other had voluntarily remained frozen in the Prison of Confinement under the Ten-Lords Commission for seven hundred years.

Of the High-Cloud Quintet, only Jing Yuan remained to shoulder the burden alone, becoming the current General of the Luofu.

Furthermore, after this period of history, the Xianzhou people changed the title Calamity of the Finality to Monarch of the Finality, in remembrance of the young hero who had completed a deal with the Suiyang "Di Kui."

"Customer, would you like to add another hour?" Wang Gang's booming voice sounded beside Bai Heng's ear.

"No need."

Bai Heng closed the booklet, draped his coat over himself, and prepared to leave.

However, before leaving, he asked Technician Wang Gang a question:

"By the way, brother. Do you remember the Shuhuo Uprising that broke out on the Luofu seven hundred years ago?"

"The Shuhuo Uprising?" The other man frowned, looking thoughtful. "I have heard stories related to that period of history... but I'm only four hundred years old this year, still young. I wasn't even born when the Shuhuo Uprising broke out. I only heard my father mention it."

"Then do you remember the short-life species youth Bai Heng, who made a deal with the Suiyang 'Di Kui'?" Bai Heng asked.

At the mention of that name, Wang Gang seemed to perk up. Wearing an excited expression that said I know this one, he leaned close to Bai Heng and said,

"Customer, judging by your clothes, you must be an outsider from beyond the Xianzhou."

"...Mm." Bai Heng looked at the man's excited expression.

Am I... am I really that famous?

But the man's next words poured a basin of cold water over Bai Heng.

Because the way he had become famous was rather strange.

Technician Wang Gang spoke in a gossiping tone:

"On the Luofu, the story of the former Sword Champion Jingliu and that short-life species youth is known in every household..."

He started from Bai Heng becoming Jingliu's Childhood Fiancé and went all the way to Bai Heng dying beneath Jingliu's sword during the Shuhuo Uprising.

The episodes absent from the books had now been preserved through the oral tales passed down among the people of the Xianzhou "Luofu."

After being artistically embellished countless times, it had truly become a twisting and moving tale.

Simply put, these two historical figures had become the couple everyone on the Luofu shipped.

There were even stage plays on the modern Luofu adapted from their story.

As it happened, a theater on Xuan Ye Avenue would be staging a play tonight. Wang Gang happened to have an extra ticket, so he gave it to Bai Heng as a gesture of friendship.

After Bai Heng left the Health & Massage Parlor, he looked at the ticket in his hand, engraved with the Yaksha Emblem, and sighed.

"Forget it. I'll treat this as a company-funded vacation on the Xianzhou 'Luofu.'"

Divination Commission, Great Calculation Array.

Fu Xuan, bright-eyed and white-toothed like an exquisite porcelain doll, opened her amber eyes. The gem-like pupil between her brows lit up.

The Great Calculation Array, formed from countless jade abacus crystals, revolved before Fu Xuan.

"The stars turn, flowers fall upon the grass; all things are predestined. Former Sword Champion, this is already your seventh visit this month, isn't it?"

Fu Xuan glanced sideways at the woman whose figure was hidden in shadow, black gauze covering her eyes, skin white as snow, cold and distant as the moon, like an exiled immortal.

A calm yet shattered voice sounded beside Fu Xuan's ear.

"You need not ask so much. Just tell me the result."

Fu Xuan withdrew her gaze, and the divine eye between her brows peered through the Great Calculation Array.

"Sword Champion, the dead... wait..."

Jingliu released her folded arms, lifted her slender, well-proportioned leg, and stepped out from the shadows.

"What is it?"

Fu Xuan casually pinched her fingers together, drew a deep breath, and said,

"This person is within the Luofu."