Not long after leaving the treasury, Celia found a wide piece of cloth and a stick of charcoal.
The sun had already begun descending when she arrived at the Academy's training center. This was where voices never truly faded. Apprentices came here to fight. To train. To prove themselves. To tear apart and rebuild their limits.
Celia now walked to the center of the open grounds and spread the cloth.
Then she wrote.
Large, simple letters.
Bold enough for even the furthest eyes to read.
"Heavenly Massage. Experience heaven itself. First three customers free."
She stood beside it.
Still.
Silent.
The first laughter broke almost instantly.
"That nymphomaniac again."
"Heavenly massage?"
"Does she think she's a physician now?"
"I bet she just wants to touch guys."
"Shameless."
"Desperate."
Voices stacked over one another. Some sharp. Some mocking. Some amused. None serious.
Celia did not react.
She stood with her eyes closed and folded her hands behind her back. The laughter washed past him as if she were a stone planted in flowing water.
"This takes me back," She thought quietly. "Standing on street corners with the same ridiculous sign… waiting for fools to laugh first… and crawl back later."
Time passed.
Steps moved around him.
No one stopped.
Hours slid by.
Then some of the Female Apprentices finally stepped close, curiosity mixing with boredom.
"Oy," one called. "What devil trick is this supposed to be?"
"We know you just want to feel up some guys."
"How low can you sink?"
Celia did not open her eyes.
"Hey!" another voice snapped. "Are you deaf?"
A fist drew back.
Just before it could move, Celia opened her eyes.
"Stand aside," She said calmly. "I have a customer."
The laughter behind her faltered.
The Apprentices turned.
A young man, looking more like a pretty boy, stood a few steps behind them, arms crossed over his chest. His posture was firm. His eyes are cautious. Yet beneath that caution flickered something else… doubt mixed with pain.
"What kind of massage?" he asked, his tone sharp.
The laughter died for a moment.
Meanwhile, Celia's gaze moved to him. "The kind that makes back pain disappear."
His eyes widened slightly.
"How..."
He stopped. "How do you know?"
Celia did not answer.
He only glanced back at the sign and smiled. "You're saying you can cure my back pain… with a massage?"
The young man's voice carried doubt, yet his eyes never left Celia's face. The latter looked at him calmly and nodded once, as if the matter were already settled.
Before she could speak again, noise broke in from all sides.
"Don't listen to her!"
"She is just after men like you who are new to the Academy."
"Do you even know who this is?"
The man then turned slowly to the crowd of female Apprentices, his brows knitting together. "Then tell me," he said flatly. "Who are you?"
"We are..."
Their voices were cut off.
"I can heal you," Celia said, "but only under my conditions."
He turned back to her at once. "Conditions?" His lips curved faintly. "You stood here half a day without a single customer. If I leave now, do you really think another will come anytime soon?"
The laughter around them resurfaced.
For a brief moment, Celia said nothing. Then she inclined her head slightly and said. "Then, for having enough courage to stand in front of me, I will give you a warning instead of a massage."
His smile faltered.
"The pain in your back is not from poor posture," She continued, "If you ignore it, your cultivation will slowly destroy your spine. When that happens, walking will become difficult. Standing will feel like punishment."
Color drained from his face. "A cripple…?" he whispered.
Sweat gathered at his forehead, and he gulped his saliva.
"Then… then what caused it?"
Silence answered him.
A heartbeat passed...
And then second.
But Celia didn't answer him at all.
His breathing grew uneven.
"I'll do it," He said suddenly. "I'll accept your conditions."
Celia nodded. "One. The session lasts ten minutes. Not a second more."
He swallowed.
"Two. Afterward, you must tell ten people what you felt."
His fingers tightened.
"Three. You may only return within one month of today. If you break any of these, do not come looking for me again."
The Apprentices burst into laughter.
"Ten minutes?"
"One month?"
"She'll be lucky if anyone even remembers her by tomorrow."
The man hesitated only a breath.
"I accept."
"Then follow me."
Celia rolled up her sign, slung it across her back, and walked away without looking back. After a brief pause, she followed.
No one stopped her.
They simply watched.
*
"This… is your place?"
The pretty man stood at the door, eyes darting to the quiet courtyard around them. "We're doing it here?"
"Would you rather do it outside?" Celia asked lightly.
The man's face warmed, and he stepped inside.
After a moment of stiff hesitation, he followed.
The house was quiet. Too quiet to the point that he could feel his own heartbeat.
"I swear," he said nervously, "if you touch me inappropriately, I won't care if you are a female. I'll kill you."
"First of all, sissy-looking people like you are not my type," Celia replied without pause. "Secondly, you are too young."
"You look about my age!" The man countered, feeling as if his ego was shattered.
"Lie on the bed with your back facing up." Celia didn't care enough to have a pointless conversation.
The man stared at her hard, searching her eyes for mockery or hunger. After a long breath, he slowly lay down.
"You can keep your clothes on," Celia added.
Relief washed over his shoulders at that sentence. He was indeed worried about getting taken advantage of. After all, he was a virgin and didn't have any experience with females, except that he knew the females in the Academy were even more aggressive and ambitious than men.
Celia then stretched her arms once, slowly. Her fingers cracked softly as she then said. "Your ten minutes begin now. Try not to faint."
"What do you—"
His breath shattered before he could finish the words.
A shock rippled through his back at once.
It wasn't pain.
It was something unexplainable and something deeper.
Heat surged along his spine like liquid fire. His lower body stiffened, and a groan escaped his lips before he could stop it.
"Don't move so much," Celia said calmly. "It disrupts the alignment."
"I—I can't control it—!"
Every touch sent waves through his nerves. His thoughts blurred. His sense of time melted. The ceiling spun slowly above him as if the world itself had turned liquid. Meanwhile, the blood rushed below his waist, giving a bulge in his pants.
It did not feel like hands.
He didn't even know how much time had passed, but eventually silence returned like the sudden fall of a curtain.
He turned his head slowly, breath unsteady, his face flushed and unsteady. "Why… why did you stop?" He asked.
"Your time is up," Celia replied plainly, staring at him.
"But—"
"The pain should be gone," She said flatly. "Reduce your training by half for one month. If you don't, it will return."
He slid off the bed unsteadily while trying to control the blood rush into his lower abdomen. "Can't you massage for just five more minutes… I'll pay whatever you want…"
However, Celia plainly rejected him. "I don't accept money from my free customers."
The man bit his lip hard and clenched his fists at that. Perhaps, the rejection was so hard that he lost the heat in his lower abdomen.
"Next month," Celia then said. "And don't forget your second condition."
The man nodded slowly.
"My name is Leo," she said before leaving.
"Celia..."
As the man stepped outside, his legs shook with each step, as if he were walking through a dream he had not yet woken from. The pleasure he had just felt was like he had stepped into the land of ecstasy for a brief time.