readsfreenovel Chapter 281 : Have You Come to Fish for Time?
Chapter 281 : Have You Come to Fish for Time?
Jin Seong-un read the *Chronicle of Wicked Consorts* while traveling from Beijing to Yichang.The evil deeds committed by the women recorded within that book were difficult to fully describe with words alone.
A lake of wine and a forest of meat—living lives drowned in debauchery.
The punishment of the bronze pillar—heating an oil-coated copper pillar over flames and forcing people to walk across it.
There were even descriptions of laughing in delight while watching people burn to death.
Furthermore, loyal officials who dared to speak honestly were killed, and even their corpses were brutally mutilated.
The *Chronicle of Wicked Consorts* contained countless stories of vile women that naturally caused one to frown, and among them, Noble Enchantress was referred to as the greatest villainess of all.
Jin Seong-un found it difficult to connect the Noble Enchantress he had personally seen and experienced with the atrocities written in that book.
At Jin Seong-un’s question asking whether she knew of the *Chronicle of Wicked Consorts*, Noble Enchantress’s expression stiffened slightly as she replied.
“I know of it.”
A brief silence settled over the Martial God Realm.
The Sword Immortal, the Merchant King, and the Divine Thief suddenly scattered as though they had urgent business to attend to.
The Sword Immortal wiped down the Go board, the Merchant King polished his saber, and the Divine Thief, having nothing to clean, even wiped down the already spotless floor.
Yet all three clearly had their ears wide open as they waited for Noble Enchantress to speak.
At last, Noble Enchantress spoke with a sigh mixed into her voice.
“They say my name appears in the final section of the *Biographies of Virtuous Women*, the *Chronicle of Wicked Consorts*. More than anyone else’s.”
“...It certainly does. Master, I cannot believe it. How could someone as compassionate as you commit such atrocities?”
“It is all true.”
“Pardon?”
Jin Seong-un’s eyes widened slightly.
It was hard to believe.
Noble Enchantress immediately continued.
“Yet it is also not true.”
Confusion surfaced on Jin Seong-un’s face.
Noble Enchantress closed her eyes as though recalling a distant past and said,
“It is a story from a very, very long time ago.”
Soon after, she lightly waved her hand. Pure white energy scattered like fragments of starlight and carried Jin Seong-un into her memories.
.
.
.
In the distant past, near the end of the Shang Dynasty.
A carefully tended flower garden was stained entirely red with blood.
Dying people lay sprawled everywhere, while Noble Enchantress hurriedly walked among them.
Behind her followed rows of women dressed in similar clothing.
At one point, Noble Enchantress stretched out her hand toward a collapsed middle-aged man. Pure white Women’s Moon Qi enveloped his entire body and soon healed his festering wounds.
“Thank you, Heavenly Maiden! Thank you so much!”
The middle-aged man repeatedly bowed to Noble Enchantress in gratitude.
The others were no different.
Using the Original True Face Technique, Noble Enchantress continuously saved the patients, and they praised her not merely as a Divine Physician, but as though she were a Heavenly Maiden herself.
While examining a woman’s body, Noble Enchantress let out a quiet sigh. The woman’s lifespan had already completely burned away, leaving no means of saving her even with the Original True Face Technique.
With sorrowful eyes, Noble Enchantress placed her hand over the woman’s chest and circulated her Women’s Moon Qi. It was consideration for her final moments in life, hoping at least to ease her suffering.
This place.
This nameless flower garden.
It was where Noble Enchantress lived while cultivating her Internal Arts Method, treating patients, and raising disciples.
Her beauty spread through even the smallest rural villages, and her kindness and compassion became known throughout all under heaven, crossing national borders.
There were also those who sought her out to ask for instruction in Internal Arts Methods, desiring to cultivate the strange thing known as martial arts.
Yet Noble Enchantress always refused.
Martial arts were simply another form of violence. She did not wish for her enlightenment to become a means of harming others.
The ones who sought Noble Enchantress were not only commoners.
King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty also frequently sent officials to summon her.
However, Noble Enchantress never answered his summons.
King Zhou was a tyrant who indulged in alcohol, violence, and women while ruling with brutality.
He even sent soldiers to trample and destroy the flower garden, and blocked patients from entering so they would die without receiving treatment.
Yet all of it was futile.
Even the soldiers who came under King Zhou’s orders were moved after seeing Noble Enchantress.
With beauty unmatched beneath the heavens and unconditional compassion toward others, she caused even hardened soldiers to feel ashamed of themselves.
As the soldiers struggled between their orders and their humanity, an angry voice suddenly thundered above them.
“Have you come yet again to torment Noble Enchantress? Begone at once!”
As a man clad in blue robes strode across the flower garden, the soldiers hurriedly scattered and fled.
His clear blue robes, as pure as the sea itself, and the treasured sword hanging from his waist made it immediately obvious who he was.
Grand Duke Jiang.
Also known as Taigong Wang.
He was the State Preceptor of the neighboring Zhou Kingdom, a man famed not only for his wisdom but also for martial prowess said to reach the heavens themselves.
“Tsk, it seems King Zhou’s tyranny remains unchanged. How exactly does he intend to bear the weight of such Karmic Retribution?”
Even while speaking of a king, Grand Duke Jiang did not hesitate to criticize him. To begin with, he was not someone who cared about the opinions of the world.
Noble Enchantress watched him before speaking with a peculiar smile.
“Have you come to fish for time again?”
“Indeed. Even after the soldiers trample this place so thoroughly, the flowers continue to grow splendidly. It seems this land possesses excellent energy.”
After saying that, Grand Duke Jiang sat beside a pond at one corner of the garden and cast out his fishing rod.
Noble Enchantress burst into laughter as though dumbfounded.
“It is not because the land is special. It is because we care for it with devotion.”
“Then I shall fish with devotion as well.”
“There are no fish in that pond.”
“I told you. I am fishing for time.”
Noble Enchantress shook her head.
She could not understand why such a flawless and dignified man kept returning to this flower garden.
The flower garden was a resting place for the lacking and suffering.
Noble Enchantress cared for the poor and the afflicted there, yet she could see no suffering whatsoever within Grand Duke Jiang, leaving her with nothing she could do for him.
As Noble Enchantress stared at his back, her disciples standing nearby suddenly began making a commotion.
“I think he’s in love with Master.”
“He didn’t come to fish for time. He came to fish for Master. As if he even has a chance!”
Grand Duke Jiang, whose hearing was naturally sharp, heard every word clearly, yet neither denied nor affirmed it. He merely laughed heartily and continued fishing.
Such peaceful days continued one after another.
Noble Enchantress treated patients, cultivated her Heart Method, and instructed her disciples.
Grand Duke Jiang often visited to fish, eat meals, and play around with Noble Enchantress’s disciples.
Sometimes the two drank tea together while discussing enlightenment, and once they began, they could continue for days and nights without rest due to the depth of each other’s understanding.
The two enjoyed one another’s company, respected one another, and continuously thought of each other.
Then one day, when Noble Enchantress opened her eyes—
She realized her body would not move according to her will.
‘What is this...?’
She hurriedly tried to circulate the Women’s Moon Heart Method, yet the Women’s Moon Qi within her Dantian would not move in the slightest.
After that, her body spoke and moved against her will.
Pretending to treat the patients who came seeking help, she instead left them to die in agony, and she drove away disciples who sought her teachings, calling them bothersome.
Before long, Noble Enchantress realized the truth.
The only existence under heaven capable of such a thing was a Nine-Tailed Fox demon that treated another’s body like its own home.
The Nine-Tailed Fox that had seized Noble Enchantress’s body only displayed the same gentle and compassionate smile whenever Grand Duke Jiang visited.
Even such a sinister and powerful Nine-Tailed Fox, capable of stealing the body of a Heavenly Maiden, feared Grand Duke Jiang’s martial prowess.
Eventually, the Nine-Tailed Fox headed for the royal palace.
King Zhou, who had always lusted after Noble Enchantress, welcomed her enthusiastically and held a grand banquet.
From that day onward, King Zhou and Noble Enchantress spent their days in depravity and cruelty.
There was not a single day without drunkenness.
Nor a single day without blood staining their hands.
Loyal officials who voiced concern and spoke honestly were personally torn apart and killed by Noble Enchantress.
No one dared offer honest counsel any longer, and the kingdom slowly declined.
At last, even the loyal officials left to kill had all vanished.
And on the day King Zhou and Noble Enchantress summoned the common people into the royal palace—
The one who arrived was not the people, but a man dressed in blue robes.
“Hah hah, so this is the place where that fool fishes without even bending his hook—”
King Zhou’s words never finished.
Grand Duke Jiang’s treasured sword had already been drawn. In a single slash, King Zhou’s neck was severed. His head flew into the air as blood sprayed everywhere.
The palace maids screamed and fled, while the few soldiers remaining by King Zhou’s side charged at Grand Duke Jiang.
Naturally, Grand Duke Jiang’s sword slaughtered them all without hesitation.
Only Grand Duke Jiang and Noble Enchantress remained within the hall.
“...Were you unable to overcome your inner demons?”
That was what Grand Duke Jiang believed.
Whether martial arts or any form of enlightenment—
Those who cultivated deeply would inevitably face inner demons. If they overcame them, they ascended to a new realm of enlightenment. If they failed, they lost themselves to madness, just like the current Noble Enchantress.
Grand Duke Jiang believed she had fallen into Qi Deviation.
Noble Enchantress—the Nine-Tailed Fox—could say nothing.
By now, Noble Enchantress’s soul had already been torn apart by suffering and agony, leaving even her voice closer to that of the Nine-Tailed Fox than her own.
The Nine-Tailed Fox merely knelt and wept.
Even to the Nine-Tailed Fox, Noble Enchantress’s beauty was worthy of being called the greatest beneath the heavens.
She believed there was no man alive who would not become captivated by her. Even the Nine-Tailed Fox herself had envied Noble Enchantress enough to steal her body.
Thus, she believed that even Grand Duke Jiang, hailed as a hero, would weaken before such beauty.
Of course, that was merely the Nine-Tailed Fox’s misunderstanding.
“...You crossed the line. Far too greatly. You should have come to me instead.”
Murmuring those words, Grand Duke Jiang swung his treasured sword.
At the same time, the Nine-Tailed Fox unleashed a frantic palm strike, but Grand Duke Jiang severed her head regardless.
“The heads of the tyrant and the villainess are here. The Shang Dynasty no longer exists beneath the heavens. From this day forth, let all people serve King Wu of Zhou.”
As Grand Duke Jiang declared this, several of his subordinates who had come with him to punish the Shang Dynasty shouted that all of the disciples of the villainess Noble Enchantress should also be hunted down and killed.
Great sorrow filled Grand Duke Jiang’s eyes.
That was the final expression the real Noble Enchantress saw through the body that had been stolen from her.
.
.
.
As Jin Seong-un opened his eyes after witnessing Noble Enchantress’s memories, his emotions were complicated.
Noble Enchantress continued speaking calmly.
“When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in this vast place. The Sword Immortal here welcomed me, which means a great deal of time had already passed.”
Jin Seong-un’s eyes widened as he looked back and forth between Noble Enchantress and the Sword Immortal.
Noble Enchantress had spoken as though the Sword Immortal were someone born far after her era.
And judging by his reaction, the Sword Immortal simply nodded as though it were obvious.
Jin Seong-un asked,
“Master Noble Enchantress... were you someone from an even older generation than Master Sword Immortal?”
“Yes.”
Noble Enchantress answered as though he had asked something entirely obvious.
“But why...?”
Jin Seong-un’s confusion was understandable.
The Sword Immortal appeared as an old man, while Noble Enchantress looked like a young woman.
Even aside from that, the Sword Immortal usually treated Noble Enchantress casually, while she treated him with the utmost respect, like an ancient elder beyond compare.
The Sword Immortal puffed out his chest proudly and said,
“The difference in one’s stature cannot be explained merely through the passing of years.”
After all, the Sword Immortal was an existence that was itself akin to a true immortal.
Both he and Noble Enchantress considered that obvious.
Jin Seong-un’s gaze shifted toward the Merchant King and the Divine Thief.
“Then why are those two...?”
He meant why Noble Enchantress treated those two comfortably despite speaking to the Sword Immortal with such extreme respect.
In truth, although the Merchant King and the Divine Thief technically used honorifics, they treated one another like elderly neighbors next door.
The Sword Immortal clicked his tongue.
“That is because those two are essentially without stature at all. Seong-un, do you expect a worm to speak respectfully?”
The Merchant King and the Divine Thief instantly flared up after suddenly being compared to worms, but the Sword Immortal only smugly boasted,
“Do you finally understand what kind of existence I am now?”
Naturally, Jin Seong-un ignored the Sword Immortal entirely and instead continued replaying Noble Enchantress’s memories in his mind.
After organizing his thoughts, he asked Noble Enchantress in a solemn voice,
“Master, then is my task to correct history’s misunderstanding?”
Jin Seong-un believed Noble Enchantress must feel deeply wronged.
She had spent her entire life living for others, only to have her body stolen by a Nine-Tailed Fox and become remembered throughout history as the greatest villainess beneath the heavens.
However, Noble Enchantress shook her head.
“It does not matter to me how my name is remembered.”
Noble Enchantress was an existence that loved and forgave all beneath the heavens. She held no attachment to honor or historical records.
Soon, she continued.
“Find my successors and pass down the completed Women’s Moon Heart Method to them. The Women’s Moon Heart Method was only truly completed here within the Martial God Realm.”
“But...”
In the final memory—
The soldiers had clearly shouted that all of Noble Enchantress’s disciples should be hunted down and killed.
If that truly happened, then the lineage should have been extinguished during that era.
As Jin Seong-un trailed off, Noble Enchantress smiled gently as though she already understood everything he wished to say.
“Taigong Wang was not that kind of person.”
Though he could not overlook the excessive tyranny of Noble Enchantress and King Zhou, he was not someone who would force innocent disciples to bear responsibility as well.
Even if the entire world demanded that the flower garden be burned and the disciples slaughtered, she was certain Taigong Wang would have secretly allowed them to escape.
Of course, whether those disciples could preserve their lineage across countless ages was another matter entirely.
“Do you think their lineage still survives today?”
“I do not know. Even if it did survive, they would have thoroughly concealed the fact that they inherited the Heart Method of the villainess Noble Enchantress. Revealing such a thing would have gotten them killed.”
Thus, they must have hidden it completely.
Perhaps they had merged into other sects or clans. In the worst case, they might not even know the origins of their own lineage anymore.
That was why, even when Heavenly Energy occasionally aligned and she looked into the mortal world, Noble Enchantress could never locate them.
Feeling as though he were standing alone in the middle of a boundless sea, Jin Seong-un asked,
“...Exactly how much time has passed?”
“Mm.”
For some reason, Noble Enchantress hesitated.
The Divine Thief and the Merchant King also perked up their ears while waiting for her answer. Somehow, whenever the topic of age came up, Noble Enchantress always changed the subject.
As her lovely disciple stared at her expectantly, Noble Enchantress eventually had no choice but to answer.
“Approximately two thousand five hundred years.”
“...Pardon?”
“It has been a little while, hasn’t it?”
Noble Enchantress spoke awkwardly while blushing faintly.
Jin Seong-un stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.
The Divine Thief, who had been polishing the floor until it shone, suddenly leapt to his feet.
“That’s not ‘a little while.’ My grandmother’s grandmother’s grandmother’s grandmother’s—”
The moment the Divine Thief tried to complain, Noble Enchantress casually flicked her hand.
He was instantly blasted away at terrifying speed.
He flew utterly helplessly, unable to resist even slightly, like a bolt of lightning.
Watching this, Jin Seong-un suddenly thought that perhaps Master Noble Enchantress might actually be stronger than even Master Blood Demon.
BOOM-!
Only long after he had vanished did the thunderous explosion finally echo back.
Jin Seong-un was astonished both by the fact that even this vast world had an end, and by the fact that she had sent a person flying all the way to a place beyond even his Sensory Qi.
“......”
An awkward silence settled over the area.