A hundredfold return! My unfilial disciples are all reincarnations of the Empress.

Unable to sleep that night, he sat on a blue stone atop the peak, carrying a wine jug.

"Host," the system voice suddenly appeared, "I've detected that there's a place called Meteor Cliff, 1200 miles to the southwest, where ancient artifact-forging relics have recently surfaced."

Lin Feng laughed: "You're not entirely useless."

He finished the last sip of his drink and stood up.

"We'll set off in three days, taking my apprentices to 'hunt'—to gain experience."

Three days later, the four of them set off.

Meteor Cliff is located in the southwest, in a remote location.

After flying for most of the day, several beams of light began to appear on the horizon ahead.

That beam of light wasn't some rare and precious material; it was man-made, a detection spell formed from condensed fire-attribute spiritual energy, illuminating the entire ruins area.

Once they landed, they discovered that the site was quite large.

The mountain appears to have been cleaved in half by something, with a clean and smooth cross-section, revealing it to be a remnant of ancient architecture.

The cross-section is inlaid with stone gates of various sizes, and each passageway leads in a different direction.

By this time, a large number of people had gathered outside the entrance to the ruins, mostly independent cultivators.

"With so many entrances, which one should we take?" Chi Yao peered out.

Lin Feng used his divine sense to scan the area. The aura behind the stone door in the very center was the most chaotic, showing signs of a fight and an indescribable fishy smell.

"Go in the middle."

The four stepped through the stone gate.

Every few steps along the walls on both sides of the passageway, a luminous pearl is embedded, illuminating the entire path.

After turning the corner, the passageway suddenly opened up, and a circular hall appeared before us.

In the center of the hall stood a stone platform, upon which floated a long sword. The sword was entirely black, with dark purple patterns flowing across its surface.

Below the stone platform, seven or eight untrained cultivators were fiercely fighting around the sword.

Someone with sharp eyes spotted more people at the entrance and immediately shouted, "More people are coming! Clear the area!"

Before he could finish speaking, a sword aura slashed towards him. Lin Feng dodged to the side, raised his sword to return the aura, and forced the man back three steps.

"Make your move," he said in a low voice.

Liu Yushu immediately unleashed her Ice Domain, the chill spreading across the ground, causing several rogue cultivators at the front to slip.

Chi Yao had already charged out with her sword drawn, while Chu Lingyan retreated to the rear, gathering azure light in her hand, ready to deliver the final blow at any moment.

The hall instantly descended into chaos.

In the midst of the chaos, Lin Feng noticed something—the sword hanging on the stone platform had its aura flickering, like some kind of restriction being activated and then suppressed.

As he fought, he moved closer to the stone platform. Just as he was about three zhang away from the platform, a figure swept over from his left and raised his hand to snatch the sword.

Lin Feng flicked his wrist, and the Frost Sword swept out, forcing the man back.

He looked closely and saw that the other person was tall and slender, dressed in a black fitted outfit with tight sleeves, with an ordinary face, but with a very small red mole on his right earlobe.

"You're not a rogue cultivator." Lin Feng's gaze fell on the other man's sword. "A member of the Crimson Cloud Sect?"

The man's expression changed slightly, but he quickly regained his composure: "I misjudged him."

What are you doing here?

"Take your sword," the other person said matter-of-factly. "Is it any of your business?"

Lin Feng turned the hilt of his sword: "None of your business."

After exchanging blows for several rounds, it was clear that the opponent was not using his full strength. He would feint a few times and then retreat.

"This sword is yours." The man said this and turned to leave the hall.

Lin Feng didn't chase after it. He looked back at the black sword. The restriction had been completely stabilized, and the dark purple patterns on the surface of the sword were slowly flowing.

He walked closer and saw two characters engraved below the hilt of the sword: "Xuan Shuang".

He reached out and grasped the hilt of the sword. The icy touch spread through his palm, without any repulsion or backlash, as if it were an unclaimed object waiting for him to take it.

He put the Xuanshuang Sword into his storage bag and turned to look at his disciple.

Several independent cultivators had been forced back to the edge of the hall by Liu Yushu and Chi Yao working together.

Seeing that Lin Feng had obtained the sword, they stopped arguing and left the hall grumbling.

"Retreat." Lin Feng led the three back the way they came.

It was already dark when they returned to the ground. They found a cave nearby to stay in, and Lin Feng took out the Xuan Shuang Sword and examined it again.

The dark purple patterns on the sword became more pronounced under the moonlight, resembling some kind of runes.

"Master, you fought that person just now and recognized his identity?" Liu Yushu asked.

"It's not completely confirmed, but the material of his sword is the black iron ore commonly used by the Crimson Cloud Sect."

Chi Yao frowned: "The people from the Crimson Cloud Sect have come to steal things from the ancient ruins?"

"I don't know." Lin Feng sheathed his sword. "But this is no simple matter. A disciple from a sect has appeared in ruins a thousand miles away, and their purpose has run into us."

The next day, the four set off back to Qingyun Palace.

On the second day after returning to Xiaozhu Peak, at noon, an outer disciple delivered a letter.

The envelope was unsigned, and a dark red sealing wax stamp was pressed onto the seal.

Lin Feng opened the letter; inside was only a single sheet of paper with a single line written on it: "The Xuan Shuang Sword is a lost item of my Crimson Cloud Sect. Please return it, Peak Master Lin. Three days later, an elder of my sect will personally come to collect the sword."

He finished reading the letter and chuckled.

Chi Yao leaned closer for a look and blurted out, "They're here to steal the sword?"

"I've come to 'retriev the sword.'" Lin Feng folded the letter and placed it on the table. "That sounds nice."

"What should we do then?"

"Wait for them to come."

Three days later, the people from the Crimson Cloud Sect arrived as scheduled.

The person who arrived was an acquaintance, Yan Changfeng, followed by a young disciple whose cultivation was at the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm. He was someone I had seen in the last competition.

Yan Changfeng adopted a polite demeanor, saying it was a misunderstanding. He explained that the Xuan Shuang Sword was indeed a lost item of the Chixia Sect, stolen during a plundering of the sect years ago. He only recently learned that it had been lost and had just been acquired by Peak Master Lin.

Lin Feng didn't get angry after hearing this.

"Elder Yan claims it's a lost item from the Crimson Cloud Sect, but do you have any proof?"