Chapter 53: A Maiden as Beautiful as an Immortal

Tong Jin frowned slightly and thought to himself, "So be it. Since I have run into this, I cannot simply stand by and watch them die."

Just as the four of them were struggling desperately to fend off the pack of wolves, a gap suddenly opened up in their defense. A wolf lunged from the flank, breaking through their line and hurtling straight toward the young girl lying unconscious on the ground.

"Young miss!" the four cried out in a hoarse scream almost simultaneously.

Suddenly, a figure flickered beside the girl. Before the four men could even register the movement, the attacking fierce wolf was sent flying sideways, splashing a heavy spray of pungent wolf blood across the air.

The wolf pack remained completely undeterred, lunging forward with even greater ferocity. Not daring to let down their guard, the four men mustered every ounce of their strength to swing their sabers against the relentless waves of attacks.

Tong Jin bent down and lifted the girl into the crook of his arm. As he did so, the veil covering her face accidentally slipped away.

At that moment, the bright moon hung obliquely in the treetops. Bathed in its pristine, silvery glow, Tong Jin felt his soul struck by an indescribable shock for the very first time. Her visage was simply too breathtaking!

Her head was shaped like that of a cicada, her eyebrows like the antennae of a moth, and her skin was as tender and flawless as white jade. Her closed eyes bore long, slender eyelashes, and her lithe body in his arms draped softly like cascading silk.

How could Tong Jin have ever laid eyes on such an ethereal woman? Even the renowned Fairy Tianfeng of the Holy Capital would pale far in comparison to her. Under the moonlight, the young girl's eyelids fluttered gently as she slowly opened her eyes. The depths of her gaze, clear as twin springs, possessed an almost magical power that riveted Tong Jin's attention, making him unable to look away for a long time.

After a full half-moment, a stern shout from the distance broke the two of them out of their mutual gaze.

"Ah! It's Uncle Man!" Remembering something, the young girl stood up from Tong Jin's arms and looked around. She would have been better off not looking, for the four men who had barely managed to hold off the wolves were now covered in blood and swaying precariously.

Tong Jin gave an inward sigh, suppressing the excitement that had welled up inside him upon seeing the girl's face. With a flicker of his figure, he appeared directly in front of the four men who were fighting desperately. With a mere flick of his sleeve, the wolves were blasted several zhang away as if struck by a massive impact.

Taking advantage of the opening, the four men raised their heads and stared in shock at the youth before them. The young girl behind him also wore an expression of sheer disbelief, which instantly transformed into excitement as two lines of clear tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Uncle Man!" the girl cried out tenderly, throwing herself into the bearded man's arms.

Enduring the agonizing pain tearing through his wounds, the bearded man bowed deeply to Tong Jin until his back was parallel to the ground. "Meng Man offers his thanks to the young hero for saving our lives!"

At that moment, Tong Jin's eyes were uncontrollably fixed upon the tear-stained face of the young girl. Sensing his lapse in composure, the girl almost broke into a smile through her tears. She reached out to help the bearded man up from his bow, which finally allowed Tong Jin to pull his thoughts back.

"Ah, what did you say, uncle?" Tong Jin asked in a daze.

The bearded man was clearly startled for a moment before realizing the cause. He chuckled, "Meng Man is deeply grateful to the young hero for your rescue!"

Tong Jin shrugged. "I just happened to pass by. I couldn't very well stand by and watch people die." With that, he couldn't help casting another glance at the fair beauty.

Clearly feeling shy under Tong Jin's gaze, the young girl gently pulled her veil back over her face, prompting Tong Jin to utter an inward expression of regret. In truth, upon seeing a woman of such rare and otherworldly beauty, Tong Jin had harbored no improper thoughts; it was simply an appreciation of beauty, an attraction to something transcending worldly aesthetics. He had simply failed to realize that staring so boldly at a young woman would provoke feelings of aversion.

At that moment, the wolf pack had reorganized and lunged forward once more. As the bearded man prepared to raise his saber and charge, Tong Jin flickered and vanished straight into the midst of the wolves. His palms danced in a blur, and instantly blood filled the air as the carcasses of the wolves piled up rapidly before the naked eyes.

Finally, with a long, piercing howl, the wolf pack seemed to receive a summons, and in the blink of an eddying instant, they scattered and fled completely.

"The young hero is truly extraordinary! To single-handedly rout an entire wolf pack! May I ask the young hero's esteemed name?" the bearded man asked with heartfelt admiration.

Tong Jin smiled broadly. "Uncle, you flatter me. My name is Tong Jin. I'm just passing through today, so it was merely a trivial effort." Having said that, Tong Jin made preparations to bid them farewell. Yet, before he could voice his departure, the young girl walked slowly up to him and once more removed her veil, her beautiful face revealing an expression of profound sorrow.

Tong Jin frowned slightly. "Elder sister, is there anything else?" Although the young girl appeared quite young, she seemed slightly more mature than Tong Jin, around sixteen or seventeen years of age.

Instead of answering, the young girl burst into tears once more. "Young hero, since you are a cultivator, I beg you to help us. If the Meng family survives this ordeal, this humble maiden is willing to submit to your every command."

"Young miss!" the bearded man exclaimed as he hurried forward to support the girl, who was about to drop to her knees.

Tong Jin beat him to it, reaching out to steady the girl by her arms and gently raising her up. "Elder sister, there is no need for such grand formalities. If I, Tong Jin, am capable of helping, I will assist you." The girl's image was already flawless in Tong Jin's mind, and now that she was kneeling to beg for his help, how could he possibly refuse?

Hearing that Tong Jin was willing to help, the young girl's eyes lit up with excitement. Smiling through her tears, she turned to look at the bearded man and the other three men, who were likewise filled with excitement. "Young Hero Tong Jin is willing to help us! Our family is saved!"

Tong Jin said in total bewilderment, "If you ask me, we should find a quiet place first to dress these four uncles' wounds, and then you can tell me the whole story in detail."

The group nodded and followed Tong Jin gratefully toward the sound of trickling water.

Under the moonlight, only the blood-soaked corpses of the wolves remained scattered across the ground. Anyone passing by at this moment would surely have their legs turn to jelly and flee in sheer terror.

By the side of a bubbling stream, a bonfire crackled to life.

"To not keep secrets from the young hero, the five of us belong to the Meng family of Desolate Sky City. We made this special journey eastward to seek cultivation experts for assistance, never expecting to encounter such danger along the way. We are entirely indebted to the young hero's intervention," the bearded man said with a sigh as he used strips of cloth to bandage the washed wounds on his legs.

"Where is Desolate Sky City?" Tong Jin asked.

"Desolate Sky City lies along the route leading to the Western Plateau. Once you pass through Desolate Sky City, you enter the plateau region," replied another man in the group who was wearing a leopard-skin vest.

Tong Jin thought to himself that it was no wonder the bearded man spoke of heading eastward; to them, it seemed anywhere outside the west was considered the east. Aloud, he remarked, "Since we are heading in the same direction, it happens to be on my way. I am simply curious what kind of favor you intend to ask of me."

After a brief hesitation, the bearded man finally spoke. "Actually, our trip to the east is to find cultivators willing to aid us. There are two major families in Desolate Sky City: our Meng family, and the Gu family. For the longest time, our two families kept to our own affairs. But last year, the head of the Gu family passed away, and his eldest son, Gu Ming, took over the leadership of the clan. Now past forty, he actually set his sights on our young miss..."

At this point, the bearded man cast a pitying glance at the young girl before continuing. "How could the people of the Meng family ever agree to such a match? Naturally, we sternly rejected it. To our surprise, Gu Ming used a minor dispute as an excuse to declare war on our Meng family. However, fearing a mutually destructive outcome, he proposed instead that each family select three young people under the age of twenty-five to participate in a trial by combat."

Tong Jin listened expressionlessly as the bearded man recounted the tale, and could not help interrupting, "Why must the participants be under twenty-five?"

The bearded man replied, "It is nothing more than a deliberate pretext to make things difficult for us, a way for him to flaunt the Gu family's connections." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Between our two families, there are a total of five cultivators, but even the youngest among them is over thirty. Of those, the Meng family has three. The Gu family, counting their newly appointed head Gu Ming, has two cultivators, and the other's cultivation is said to be even higher than Gu Ming's."

"Since you outnumber them, why would the Gu family dare to act so lawlessly?"

"Alas!" The bearded man heaved a sigh, and the man in the leopard-skin vest chimed in, "Counting the family head, our family's three cultivators went straight to the Gu family to reason with them, immediately confronting two of them. To our shock, Gu Gu-feng, apart from Gu Ming, possessed remarkably high cultivation. The three of us from the Meng family fought the two of them to a standstill, leaving us with no choice but to retreat."

Hearing this, Tong Jin rubbed his smooth chin, lost in thought.