That idiot from the Sword Sect turned out to be a lucky charm.

After finishing up the remaining tasks, Feng Bao and Lin Zhifeng returned to the cultivation world together.

As for whether Star City will hold another son-in-law selection competition, they no longer care. After all, they have already helped, and how the Jiang family father and daughter choose is their own business; no one can control someone else's life.

The storm sent Lin Zhifeng back to his sect, and he himself returned to his sect.

Lin Zhifeng followed Feng Bao to the mortal realm and stayed there for more than a month. However, when he returned, he found that he had only spent half a day in the cultivation world.

This truly proves the saying: "A day in heaven is equivalent to thousands of years on earth."

If we go to Zhaixing City again next year, Jiang Yu and her father may no longer be there.

No wonder my uncle left looking dejected after he came back.

Jiang Yu only has a lifespan of a hundred years. Who knows where she will be reborn next? If her uncle brings Jiang Yu back this time, he will only have to watch her die in front of him in a short hundred years.

That was absolutely too cruel!

Lin Zhifeng then thought: When the original owner's mother, Feng Yu, passed away, what were the original owner's father, Lin Yuan's, feelings? If there was no original owner to take care of, would he also go to find Feng Yu's reincarnation and want to continue their past relationship? Or would he have already seen through the tribulation of love and cut off the threads of love with his sword?

In short, none of these situations are perfect and all leave room for regret.

Lin Zhifeng felt lost and dejected for a long time, deeply saddened by the love affairs of others. Therefore, he became even more determined to focus solely on cultivation and avoid matters of the heart.

Meanwhile, Lin Zhifeng's brothers had recently upgraded their spirit swords. Most of them succeeded, with only a few failing and ending up with nothing but spirit stones and upgrade materials. Even those who succeeded had almost exhausted their savings and were now penniless.

So everyone started planning to go out and do a mission: firstly, to earn mission points so they could save up enough to exchange for useful items; secondly, in case they had some unexpected encounters along the way and obtained some spirit stones or herbs to supplement their household income.

They've been going through all the missions in the Mission Hall these past few days and found a mission to quell a monster riot that's definitely worth doing.

First of all, this is a multiplayer mission, recruiting a total of one hundred people. This way, brothers can accept missions together and fight side by side.

Secondly, the location of this mission is not too far from the Sword Sect; it can be reached in a day or two by flying on a sword.

Third, the demon cores obtained from killing demonic beasts can be handed over to the sect as proof of mission completion, earning corresponding mission points as a reward. Furthermore, the flesh, hide, and even bones of demonic beasts are useful and can be sold to pharmacies, restaurants, or material shops for spirit stones, providing another source of income.

So this task is such a great deal!

Everyone quickly went to the elders of the Mission Hall to register. Lin Jun, that guy, took it upon himself to sign the mission form on behalf of Lin Zhifeng as well.

When Lin Zhifeng received the notification from the Mission Hall and was to set off the next day, he realized that Lin Jun had overstepped his bounds and done things for him.

To prevent such incidents from happening again, he went to the Seventh Elder to give Lin Jun a hard dressing down.

Specifically, he demonstrated his progress in cultivation to the elders; he gave them several thousand-year-old spiritual herbs obtained from the secret realm, which were pre-allocated according to each elder's spiritual root attributes; and he divided the wild honey into nine portions, giving one portion to each of the nine elders.

He kept none of the honey for himself, because the young bees in the hive behind the mountain had already hatched. In the near future, he would have an inexhaustible supply of honey and royal jelly.

The nine elders were all deeply moved when they received the gifts, and they were quite satisfied with Lin Zhifeng's current progress in cultivation.

The Seventh Elder looked at the gifts he had received, then compared them to his own "unfilial son"—who had returned from a trip to the secret realm without bringing anything good to show his respect to his father; he had even swindled a considerable amount of spirit stones and spirit ore from him, claiming he needed them to upgrade his spirit sword. And look at Lin Zhifeng, he's also a child, even a few years younger than Lin Jun. The difference was simply too great!

Hmph! I must teach this unfilial son a lesson when I get back tonight! The Seventh Elder thought to himself.

So when Lin Zhifeng and his group set off to carry out the mission of quelling the monster riot, Lin Jun, who had been thoroughly subdued by the Seventh Elder, came to Lin Zhifeng to complain: "Little Lin, it's all your fault. Why did you send gifts to the Nine Elders? I got scolded by my father half the night last night."

Lin Zhifeng said, "My father is away, and the nine elders have taken good care of me. I made some gains in the secret realm, so I gave them some small gifts as a small way of repaying them. It's only right. How could I cause you to get scolded by your father? Surely no one comes back from the secret realm without preparing a single gift for their father? Surely not? Surely there really are such ungrateful wretches?" After saying that, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Lin Jun was so angry he wanted to hit him, but Lin Zhifeng had already jumped onto the crane and galloped away.

Lin Jun, riding his newly upgraded Fiery Sword, chased after them. The two of them playfully bickered along the way, much to the amusement of the other disciples traveling with them. However, these two were strong-willed and thick-skinned, and didn't care at all.

These 100 people traveled day and night and arrived at the mission location in just one day.

The incident occurred in a village near a minor sect affiliated with the Sword Sect.

The village is located near the Dark Forest, a densely vegetated forest teeming with monsters. The villagers generally avoid venturing into this forest; and due to the protective barrier surrounding the village, the monsters of the Dark Forest rarely venture into the village.

However, last month, the village was suddenly attacked by mutated monsters for some unknown reason.

According to surviving villagers, the monster was several times larger than the ones they occasionally saw at the edge of the forest, and extremely ferocious. It wreaked havoc in the village, smashing down many houses and killing numerous villagers.

One of the bolder villagers carefully observed the attacking monsters. He discovered that these monsters had blood-red eyes, making them look like demons from hell.

The leader of Lin Zhifeng and his team on this mission was his old acquaintance, Senior Brother Wu Di.

After Wu Di led the group to learn about the situation from the villagers, he went to check the village's barrier. The barrier was set up with the help of people from a minor sect affiliated with the Sword Sect. Although it wasn't particularly advanced, it was more than enough to resist ordinary demonic beasts.

The barrier has now been completely destroyed by the mutated monsters.

So what exactly caused these monsters to mutate? Wu Di planned to lead everyone into the Dark Night Forest to investigate.

Lin Zhifeng also received a new mission—to investigate the Dark Night Forest and find out the reason for the monsters' madness. The reward is ten points of luck.