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

As Qin Meng had expected, many of the adventurers participating in the hunt were familiar with spirit beast contracts. Most of them were fifth-tier, second or third-level elementals with some adventure experience, but they had not yet been able to successfully sign a spirit beast that satisfied them. Therefore, they all had their eyes on this newly grown spirit beast, which was clearly of a high rank.

The pursuers surged in from all directions of the eastern city, gradually forming a tacit encirclement. Seeing the encirclement complete, Qin Meng immediately ordered the soldiers inside the barbican to pour out and surround the encirclement. However, they did not block the retreat routes of the Tiger Might Army and the Criminal Court; instead, they blocked the retreat routes of the other elementals and adventurers.

According to Qin Meng's plan, once he discovered that someone was trying to take advantage of the chaos, he would immediately capture them and then present the captured S-level spirit beast to His Majesty the Emperor, which would be considered a great achievement.

Su Yang was still in a state of panic. He thought that with the cover of the fog, the enemy would not be able to detect them, but he did not expect there to be so many of them. Helpless, he could only release a large amount of fog for a long time. When the detection radar still showed countless points of light approaching his position, Su Yang was ready to use flight.

Then a turning point appeared. The black beam of light came to an abrupt halt. The originally thick beam of light instantly shrank into a thin line in the air and then disappeared. The little stone flower in Su Yang's arms also changed. Its body began to expand continuously, its stone skin peeled off, and a magma-like substance flowed out from its body. Su Yang was so frightened that he quickly put it on the ground.

The scorching heat instantly engulfed the surroundings, evaporating the mist released by Su Yang. Seeing that he was about to lose his cover, Su Yang had no choice. In the current state of Little Stone Flower, he definitely couldn't take it away by flying. This time, he might completely expose the truth that he and Lin Anlan possessed an S-level spirit beast.

Fortunately, Lin Anlan had a flash of inspiration. While she kept calling out to the little stone flower with her mind, she also had Su Yang continue to release the mist. After calling out again and again, the little stone flower finally responded: "What's wrong, Master?"

"Don't get too cocky, the enemy is about to discover you," Lin Anlan said anxiously.

The little stone flower seemed to have just woken up, still dazed and confused. But it followed Lin Anlan's instructions and tried its best to control its expanding body. However, the negative effects were also very obvious. More and more magma was flowing out of its body, which not only accelerated the evaporation of the mist, but also caused the little stone flower great pain.

Lin Anlan could hear the little stone flower's restrained voice, but did not understand what it meant. With the little stone flower's best efforts to restrain itself, it finally stopped the outflow of magma material before Su Yang was about to exhaust the power of the fog element. The magma adhered to the surface of the little stone flower's body, and then its size began to shrink exponentially.

However, even after its size shrank, the magma attached to its body did not cool down. Instead, it continued to swirl around Little Stone Flower's body. When it finally extinguished, it left behind a bright red fire pattern. Little Stone Flower seemed to be unharmed. Su Yang was overjoyed and quickly led Lin Anlan, Tang Wan, and Little Stone Flower to retreat. At the same time, he released all the remaining power of the mist element and escaped the encirclement with the help of the pervasive mist, heading straight for the inn.

In the thick fog, the Tiger Might Army and the Criminal Court were searching and advancing, while on the other side, the adventurers' team was also exploring. The two groups gradually approached each other, and the closer they got, the more intense the tense atmosphere became in the fog. Both sides subconsciously raised their weapons and moved forward cautiously.

"hiss"

With a slight scraping sound, both sides stopped moving simultaneously. As if by unspoken agreement, they paused briefly before the deafening sounds of battle erupted. Neither side had seen Su Yang before, so they assumed the other was the one who had produced the black beam of light, and a chaotic battle ensued.

But how could adventurers lacking combat discipline and teamwork possibly be a match for the well-trained Tiger Might Army? When the fog lifted and visibility returned, both the Tiger Might Army and the Criminal Court were dumbfounded. They saw groups of Tiger Might Army soldiers scattered around, each holding several adventurers captive. The Tiger Might Army leader, thinking he had completed his mission, prepared to order all the adventurers to be taken back. It wasn't until Qin Meng caught up that he realized these people were just adventurers and did not possess the potential to become S-rank spirit beasts.

However, given that these adventurers had impure motives and had directly clashed with the Tiger Might Army, Qin Meng suggested that they be handed over to the Criminal Court for trial, which finally quelled the incident.

"Minister Qin, I will report this matter truthfully to His Majesty. S-rank spirit beasts are a significant asset to the Imperial Army." Chen Huoye, who was leading the Tiger Might Army this time, said this to Qin Meng expressionlessly, and then led the remaining Tiger Might Army away.

Qin Meng stood there speechless, only able to direct his men to clean the streets and appease the people. At this moment, Qin Xiyun walked over and asked worriedly, "Father, Commander Chen went to report to His Majesty. Will that affect you?"

Qin Meng shook his head and said, "It's alright. But it will definitely be one more task."

"Why is His Majesty so determined to strengthen the army since the incident of the Duchy of Paisen spying on him? Is war about to break out again?"

After hearing Qin Xiyun's question, Qin Meng looked up at the lingering mist without saying a word, and after a long while let out a long sigh: "Sigh, I don't know either..."

He then turned to Qin Xiyun and asked, "Yun'er, how did you do with the task I gave you earlier? How many academies did you contact?"

"Yes, we've contacted most of them. Now we just need to wait for the Qinwang Academy's martial arts competition to end in the next few days before we can complete the final selection."

"Yes, after this first batch of people enters the military headquarters, they will first be sent to the Shence Army for training, and then they will be assigned to other armies."

"Yes, father."

While the Qin father and daughter were chatting, Su Yang and the other two had already returned to the inn safely. The three of them were looking at the little stone flower from all angles, but they couldn't figure it out. Su Yang thought of Die'er and quietly asked in his mind, "Die'er, what's wrong with the little stone flower today?"

Upon hearing Su Yang's question, Die'er immediately poured out all the words she had been holding back for so long:

"You guys are just thinking things through. Although I don't know why, the Rock-Beast is breaking through to adulthood today and is reshaping its body and breaking through its limits. How could you force it to shrink its body? Fortunately, nothing bad happened. If the Rock-Beast had lost control, it would have risked exploding and dying. At that time, it wouldn't just be a matter of sacrificing an S-class spirit beast. The entire Huaijing would probably have been swallowed by lava."

"Huh? It's that serious!?"