After transmigrating into the body of the protagonist's childhood friend, he was targeted by a

Bai Ya led the two of them back to the formation.

The incomplete protective array still hovered in the center of the cave, showing no signs of improvement compared to yesterday.

The temporary defensive barriers set up by Lin Zhixu and his group were still in operation, with pale golden spiritual light slowly flowing around the outer perimeter of the formation, barely protecting the weakest points of the formation.

Yu Linzhou stood with his hands behind his back in front of the array, looking up and scanning the intricate array patterns from top to bottom. His lazy expression had disappeared, replaced by a serious one.

He suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question: "How many members of your clan can still transform into human form?"

Bai Ya was taken aback by his question, then answered truthfully, "Less than a hundred people."

Yu Linzhou then asked, "Is there any black chalcedony left in stock?"

Bai Ya immediately replied, "Yes, and it's very well preserved. Although the great formation has been wearing down over the years, the clan has never used those materials."

Yu Linzhou nodded, stepped over the glowing array patterns on the ground, and squatted down in front of the crack at the core of the array.

I reached out and touched the cracked patterns, my fingertips getting covered in a fine layer of dust.

He rubbed the ash and frowned, saying, "The formation has been severely damaged for a long time, causing the spiritual energy in your territory to leak away. Over time, this has led to fewer and fewer members of your clan being able to take human form."

Bai Ya froze on the spot, her expression changing slightly: "But no one in our clan feels that the spiritual energy is being lost."

Yu Linzhou stood up, dusted off his hands, and said, "Spiritual energy doesn't disappear in a day. It's lost little by little, and it takes tens of thousands of years for it to leak away. Of course, you can't feel it."

"Has it become increasingly difficult for younger generations to transform into human form, and for cultivation to become more strenuous, over the past thousand years?"

Bai Ya nodded blankly.

She always thought that the younger generation was not as hardworking as before, and she had privately lamented to the elders several times that each generation was worse than the last.

I never imagined the problem would actually lie in spiritual energy.

"What should we do then?"

Yu Linzhou withdrew his gaze. "Let's stabilize the formation first, and then we'll figure out how to replenish the spiritual energy."

Bai Ya nodded and called over the other elders.

Yu Linzhou spread the array diagram on the ground and began assigning tasks.

He repaired the core array patterns himself, while several elders guarded the four array eyes, and Bai Ya assisted him in mobilizing spiritual power at the array center.

Lin Zhixu couldn't offer much help, so he consciously retreated to a corner.

The repair process went more smoothly than expected.

The black jade marrow was ground into powder by spiritual power and mixed with red saltpeter to fill the cracks in the array patterns. Spiritual pattern cloth wrapped around spirit stones was placed on the outside, layer by layer tightening the array eyes that were on the verge of collapse.

The elders were all seasoned veterans who had lived for tens of thousands of years, and they worked together seamlessly.

In less than an hour, the deepest crack at the core of the formation had been mostly repaired.

The flickering spiritual energy within the remaining array gradually stabilized and began to flow slowly along the array patterns again.

After the last key point of the array was reinforced, Yu Linzhou stood up, stretched his stiff wrists, and gestured with his chin toward Bai Ya.

"Alright, it's stable now. I've made a slight modification to the formation. You can reinforce it yourselves with black jade marrow every hundred years, and there won't be any problems after that."

Baiya and several elders bowed gratefully in thanks.

Yu Linzhou waved his hand, then suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Bai Ya: "By the way, did my disciple leave Xiao Hei here? Where is it now?"

Bai Ya glanced at Lin Zhixu subconsciously, never expecting that he was actually Yu Linzhou's apprentice.

Just as Bai Ya was about to answer, a series of faint howling sounds suddenly came from the cave entrance.

The crowd looked in the direction of the sound and saw a small black ball tumbling and crawling down the stone steps, its four short legs barely able to keep up.

Running too fast, the baby couldn't stop in time and rolled all the way to Lin Zhixu's feet.

The little guy rolled over and sat up, looked up and saw Lin Zhixu. Its tail wagged like a windmill, and it pounced on his legs, howling.

Lin Zhixu bent down and scooped it up. Little Black immediately buried its head in his chest and made a pitiful whimper, as if accusing him of taking so long.

Yu Linzhou grabbed Xiao Hei by the scruff of its neck and brought it close to his eyes to examine it for a moment.

The little guy's four short legs were flailing futilely in the air, its tail tucked tightly between its legs.

He clicked his tongue, his face full of disgust: "How come you've changed so much in just one day? Were you being bullied here?"

The faces of the elders standing nearby froze simultaneously.

Bai Ya quickly stepped forward and explained, "No, no, absolutely not."

"After investigation by the elders, it was confirmed that the child is indeed of royal blood, but his bloodline has not yet awakened. Seeing that his physique is too weak, the elders thought that while he is still young, they should train him a little."

"I didn't expect that it hadn't gone through any of this since it was a kitten, and instead of persevering, it got scared."

Lin Zhixu stood to the side, silently touching his nose.

It's his fault. He's always kept as a pet on Qiyue Peak. All he does every day is eat and sleep. Occasionally, Yu Linzhou takes him to practice backflips, which is considered his most strenuous activity.

He never thought about training it, much less sending it to the battlefield.

But now it seems that Xiao Hei is, after all, a royal descendant, and preventing it from becoming powerful is actually harming it.

He reached out and took Xiao Hei back from Yu Linzhou's hands. Xiao Hei immediately shrank into his arms, its two front paws clinging tightly to his clothes, refusing to let go no matter what.

His pitiful appearance was so striking that even the elders couldn't bear to look at him.

This is the most noble royal bloodline in their clan, how did it end up being raised as a spoiled brat!

Baiya said, "Benefactor, we'd like to talk to you about its parents."

Yu Linzhou's eyes suddenly looked guilty, and he hummed in agreement.

Bai Ya led the group to a quiet treehouse.

She took a delicate wooden box from the shelf, inside which were several luminous toy cubs, and casually handed it to Little Black.

The little guy was immediately attracted by those shiny little things. He picked up one of the glowing beads and ran to a corner, where he lay sprawled on the ground, hugging the bead and nibbling and kicking at it.

Looking at its carefree appearance, Bai Ya's eyes showed a complex expression.

She turned her gaze to Yu Linzhou and asked, "Benefactor, regarding this child's parents, are they the two who secretly ran away from the clan back then?"

Yu Linzhou paused for a moment as he picked up his teacup: "...Hmm. This is also my fault. If I hadn't destroyed the barrier back then, they wouldn't have been able to escape so easily."

Bai Ya sighed softly, "As expected."

"Actually, you don't need to blame yourself. The clan has already reached a conclusion about what happened back then. The reason they were able to escape successfully was because someone in the clan was secretly helping them. Even if you hadn't destroyed the barrier back then, they would have found another way sooner or later."

She paused, then said, "My benefactor, I don't want to bring up the past, but I want to ask about Xiao Hei's future."

Lin Zhixu raised his head.