Socially anxious people transmigrate to another world; living in seclusion is too difficult.

Lena led Su Yang and Lin Anlan back to the first floor via elevator, returning to the hall where the statue of their great-grandfather stood. They walked towards another exit of the hall, where every room was extremely luxurious. Finally, Su Yang was led to a large door.

According to Lena, behind this door was the largest room in their house—the dining room. Su Yang had never understood the thought process of these nobles from another world, why they placed so much importance on a dining room. But after the door was slowly pushed open, Su Yang seemed to understand part of the reason.

As the solemn wooden door was pushed open, a huge painting came into view. The painting depicted two people. The larger figure, dressed in magnificent robes, looked dashing and was riding a horse, gazing ahead. The smaller figure followed behind the larger one, watching him intently, as if he were a follower, and was not dressed as splendidly as the larger figure.

Looking to the other side, the entire restaurant was even larger than the previous hall, two stories high, almost half the size of a football field. The entire hall was magnificent and the most luxurious hall Su Yang had ever seen since arriving in this other world. In the center was a square table, and a middle-aged man in a red robe sat in the main seat, watching Su Yang and his companions.

Su Yang's gaze met his, and the imposing aura emanating from him made Su Yang feel extremely oppressed. He unconsciously lowered his head to avoid further eye contact.

Lena bowed respectfully and said, "Father, I'm back." It turned out that this imposing middle-aged man was Lena's father, Little Laws.

"Yeah, it's good to be back." Rolls' response was very simple, without much concern, as if Lena's return was just a trivial matter.

“Father, these two are new friends I made on this trip. This is Su Yang, and this is Lin Anlan. They are…” Before Lena could finish speaking, Laws exclaimed excitedly, “Oh? You are Lin Anlan? The captain of the Blood Squad, the legendary Demon?”

Lin Anlan was immediately displeased. This was only their first meeting, and they were already talking about the Blood Squad and demons. It seemed they were deliberately targeting his weaknesses. Lena, realizing her father had misspoke, quickly tried to salvage the situation, saying, "Father, these are my guests. How could you be so..."

However, before she could finish speaking, Laus raised his hand to interrupt her: "Lena, I am speaking to your guest now. What, have you forgotten the rules?!"

Lena could only grit her teeth and step aside in silence, watching her father continue his rude conversation. Lena was furious but helpless.

"I've never seen this person before. May I ask who you are?" Rolls's topic inadvertently turned to Su Yang. He looked Su Yang up and down and asked.

When the topic turned to him, Su Yang became a little nervous and whispered, "I am Su Yang, uh, just a nobody." This short sentence seemed to have exhausted all of Su Yang's lifelong learning. He had been rehearsing the dialogue in his mind for a long time, practicing what he was going to say. But when the conversation actually started, he forgot everything and could only use "nobody" to introduce himself.

"Hahahaha," Rolls laughed so hard he almost fell over. "This is the first time I've ever heard someone introduce themselves as an unknown person. Hahahaha, you do resemble Master Lena quite a bit."

Su Yang was completely baffled. He couldn't understand what Lena's father was laughing about. He had been so serious just moments before, but now he was acting so irreverently. Lena couldn't stand it any longer and said angrily, "Father!"

Upon hearing Lena's angry tone, Laus immediately stopped smiling and became serious. He first comforted Lena, "Lena, my good daughter, you mustn't be angry with your father. I was just afraid you'd be lured away by some unknown boy to become an adventurer again." Then Laus looked at Lin Anlan and Su Yang and apologized, "Miss Lin, Mr. Su, I was very rude just now. Please forgive me. I was just testing your manners and magnanimity. But then again, Mr. Su seems to be different from other people in this world. I always feel a special feeling about him that I can't quite describe. Never mind, let's not talk about it. Please don't take offense, Mr. Su."

Su Yang felt a chill run down his spine. What did he mean by "different from the others in this world"? Could this Rolls sense that he wasn't from this world? Lin Anlan was equally startled. She knew Su Yang's true origins. Had this Rolls figured something out? What should they do? Should they kill him?

Lin Anlan was truly panicked. His first thought was to kill Little Laus to protect Su Yang's secret. He never considered that Laus was known as the "Hand of the Duchy" and the number one person in the Ministry of the Interior, playing an irreplaceable role in the Duchy's finances. How could he be killed so easily? It was just that Lin Anlan's idea was too radical.

"Alright, it's getting late, Lena, quickly take your friends and sit down."

After seating Su Yang and Lin Anlan, Lena also took her seat, and dinner officially began. During the meal, Rolls seemed to intentionally give the young people space to chat, saying he had other matters to attend to and voluntarily leaving the restaurant. Only Su Yang, Lin Anlan, and their elders remained at the table. With the elders gone, the atmosphere among them immediately relaxed considerably, and they began to chat casually.

Lin Anlan spoke first, full of questions: "Miss Litt, it seems your father is very opposed to your association with adventurers, but you are already an adventurer yourself, so why is he so against it?"

"Well, it's a long story," Lena sighed, and said slowly, "When I was little, I always admired adventurers. I remember seeing an adventurer save an ordinary person and walk away without taking a penny. Later, I met that adventurer again. He was fighting another adventurer in the arena. Even though he won, he didn't kill his opponent. Instead, he helped him up and we accepted the audience's salute together. From then on, I felt that the life of an adventurer was always full of justice, freedom, and glory. So I kept telling my father that I wanted to be an adventurer, but he disagreed. So I secretly ran away from the mansion and made many like-minded friends to go on adventures together. It wasn't until I met my master that I stayed home and behaved myself for a long time. It was also because of my master's support that I was able to become an adventurer, but I still have to come back regularly to report that I'm safe. Otherwise, my father would never agree to let me join the Black Whale Squad."

"Oh, there's such a story? Then what did your father say about you being kidnapped by some unknown kid to become an adventurer? Who is that unknown kid?" Lin Anlan continued to press.

“That unknown kid is Luan Sward, the second son of Earl Luan. I only agreed to join the Black Whale Squad at his invitation, and my father has been targeting Earl Luan’s family for that.”

Hearing Lena say this, Su Yang remembered someone like this. He recalled that when they were on the island, this Sward was a water elemental pioneer. At that time, he seemed to have a rather fiery temper and did not allow anyone to approach Lena, not even Lena herself.

"Oh? Mr. Su Yang, since you mentioned my master, how about I give you his belongings tomorrow?"

"Uh, okay, no problem, I'll do as you say."

"But I have a question. From what I overheard you two talking earlier, why is your father called the Hand of the Duchy?" Su Yang expressed his confusion to Lena.

"This all started with my father's position. He was the Minister of the Interior, in charge of the Duchy's finances and economic lifeline. Before he took this position, he was just a staff member, and my grandfather was just a minor minister in the Ministry of the Interior with little say. The turning point came when the island dispute ended inconclusively and a joint conference was formed. The Duchy of Paisen originally had nothing to do with the joint conference, but my father saw a business opportunity. The islands were very close to the Duchy of Paisen, and other countries wanted to transport supplies back from the islands, but sea transport was too far. Most of them had to go to the Duchy of Paisen first and then transport them back to their homeland by land. My father wanted to build a super-large port in what is now Nanwan City to monopolize all merchant ships coming from the islands and make a profit from it. My grandfather also agreed with my father's idea. So my grandfather made a very bold decision. He bypassed the Minister of the Interior and directly advised the King. Fortunately, His Majesty the King was quite enlightened, otherwise my grandfather would probably have died for overstepping his bounds. After this, my master came and helped my father overcome many problems in the Ministry of the Interior. That's why he was known as the Hand of the Duchy."

"Oh, it seems your father is quite talented and capable, otherwise he wouldn't have made such a constructive suggestion." Lin Anlan admired Lena's father after hearing this. After all, in the Principality of Paisen, as long as you can seize business opportunities, you will definitely be appreciated. This is an indisputable fact.

However, did the Principality of Paisen really use all its wealth to build the country? Perhaps some of it was used for that, but no one knows for sure what the rest was used for.

At this moment, in a secret chamber beneath the royal palace of the capital, seven humans dressed in white robes stood in small arrays. Upon closer inspection, outside the small arrays of the seven, there was a larger array. The light from all the arrays had slowly faded, indicating that the arrays had ceased operation. The seven white-robed individuals slowly opened their eyes, went to a room outside the secret chamber, and sat down on a sofa to rest.

"The All-Seeing Eye has been activated at just the right time. Why didn't we detect this in previous years?" a man in white robes asked as he sat down.

"Perhaps it happened sometime during this year, but it didn't happen when the All-Seeing Eye was activated last time. How should we handle this?" The white-robed man who answered looked at the last person to come out of the secret room and asked.

"Well, let's sort out the situation. Tomorrow we'll go to the palace to see His Majesty the King, explain the whole story, and then request His Majesty's permission to mobilize the army. We'll find an excuse to send troops into other countries for a secret search, and strive to complete the collection of these stones as soon as possible." The white-robed man who finally emerged from the secret room spoke with a slightly aged and slow voice, but without a hint of wisdom.

These white-robed figures were the Mingguan, the guardian organization of the Duchy of Paisen that Lena had mentioned earlier. The "Eye of Omniscience" they spoke of was a large-scale detection array activated once a year. It required the simultaneous consumption of the different elemental powers of seven Mingguan to maintain the Eye of Omniscience for one hour, in order to detect things in the world that threatened the Duchy of Paisen and changes in the world. It was with the blessing of the Eye of Omniscience that the Mingguan successfully detected the change of the Immovable Stone's displacement, and at the same time learned about the existence of the seven elemental stones and their power.

The leader of the white-robed figures plans to use the identity of a neutral country to secretly track down the whereabouts of the Immovable Stone and the other six elemental stones, and then seize the elemental stones to rule the entire Dragon Continent.

The Duchy of Paisen amassed immense wealth, which secretly fostered numerous armed organizations. When the Duchy declared neutrality, other nations prohibited it from participating in wars, but did not forbid it from possessing an army. Thus, through years of accumulation and with the help of its vast wealth, the military strength of the Duchy of Paisen could be considered stronger than that of other nations. This is why the officials hoped that Pact would allow them to mobilize their troops. If the army could participate, the investigation and seizure of the Elemental Stones would be more certain.

The next day, the Ming officials arrived at the palace hall early to wait. When the guards announced their arrival, Pact had just gotten up and slowly went to the study to meet the Ming officials. He then asked about the reason.

"Distinguished officials, has the All-Seeing Eye discovered something that has summoned you all to the palace to see me so early in the morning?"

"Your Majesty is wise! Your Majesty, the opportunity for our Principality of Paisen to completely rule the continent has arrived!" The white-robed man at the head of the group was so excited that he coughed a few times.

"Don't get excited, tell me slowly, how did the opportunity to completely rule the continent come about?"

"Your Majesty, yesterday we activated the Eye of Omniscience as usual, and unexpectedly, we discovered the origin of the world!" The man in white robes was about to get excited again, but he quickly calmed down.

"What is the origin of the world?"

"There are seven stones, or more precisely, seven elemental stones. They work together to maintain the stability of the world and possess boundless power. Once we can gather all seven elemental stones, no one in the world will be a match for our Principality of Paisen!"

"Hmm... Is it really that amazing? What are your suggestions?" Pact pondered for a moment, then asked with a sharp look in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, we propose that Your Majesty grant us, the officials of the Ming Dynasty, the authority to mobilize the army. The military should be uniformly placed under the management of the Ming Dynasty officials. Under the pretext of the loss of national treasures, we can send troops to be stationed in various countries and regions. Ostensibly, we will search for treasures, but in reality, we will search for elemental stones. As long as the army is involved and we are in charge, I think obtaining all the elemental stones will not be difficult at all."

"But will other countries believe us if we do this?" Pact was somewhat troubled. It was practically impossible to do these sneaky things under the noses of other countries. Once the troops sent there were found to be acting suspiciously, they would be immediately put under surveillance.

"Your Majesty, rest assured, there is no need for a large-scale deployment. We will carefully select and form small teams of about fifty people. This way, other countries will not care about such a small number of troops, and it will also be convenient for operations. There is no need to station them in a fixed place. In as short as one year or as long as five years, we will definitely receive news of the vacant Immovable Stone."

It was only then that Pact realized that the first missing elemental stone was actually the Immovable Stone. After learning about the powerful energy of these elemental stones, it would be a lie to say he wasn't tempted. What king wouldn't want to rule the world? Who wouldn't want to unify the continent? After much deliberation, and with Ming Guan's constant encouragement, Pact slammed his hand on the table and steeled his heart: "Let's do it!"