My Journey to Godhood as a Caterpillar

Chapter 9: Corpse King

As Yun Jhin started to navigate through the ocean of corpses he easily identified the elder's location as he followed him down, he knew where the elder wanted to go, he was going directly to the deeper ends of the mountain of corpses where the core of the formation laid.

Chen Ming decrepit form could be seen quickly navigating through the corpses like he was a slippery eel, Yun Jhin followed behind him while putting up a front that he was disgusted and nauseous, after all, Chu Mang wasn't known for having an easy time with corpses. Chen Ming snorted as he looked at Yun Jhin, he thought that if he couldn't even resist this test he would throw him out of the sect and make him join the corpse pile!

Yun Jhin ignored the old man's gaze and followed him directly, after a short while of 'swimming' they finally dropped from the ocean of corpses into the cave that stood below them, a gray-colored formation engulfed the whole cave as dark energy seeped out of the ground directly into the corpses, some of the corpses at the bottom of the mountain would sometimes drop down and start moving, being controlled by the formation they would enter a corridor that led them to the catacombs under the cemetery.

Chen Ming eyed Yun Jhin for a little while before saying in a hoarse voice:

"You have to protect the formation and fix whatever damage will be inflicted by the overuse of the dark energy, here I will teach you how to do the fixes."

Chen Ming walked closely as he started scribbling on the ground the way on how to fix the formation, Yun Jhin nodded his head occasionally as he explained his insights which made Chen Ming nod his head approvingly as he said:

"That brat from before was right you have some talent in formations, very good I will let you take care of the formation while I will go to get some more corpses, I have heard the Sword Devil sect threw out some good 2nd stage earthly realm corpses, wait for me, I will have to show you something when I come back."

Chen Ming jumped into the ocean of corpses and started to swim up and out of it, Yun Jhin chuckled as he looked at the receding figure of the decrepit old man and said to himself:

"You don't have to show me anything you dumb old man, I already know what the sect is preparing to do here, and I'm even going to give you a boost!"

Formations didn't need soul power or high cultivation as long as they were inscribed properly only the location mattered, the better the location with more spiritual energy, the better the formation would behave, the formation of the Corpse sect was complete trash in Yun Jhin's eyes but he could make it a low-level formation if he wished so.

The Corpse sect wanted to use the formation and the ocean of corpses to create a toxic corpse king, one of the few corpse puppets that could reach the heavenly realm, their body was extremely though and poisonous, one-touch and even someone at the 3rd stage of the heavenly realm couldn't escape, there shouldn't even be a mention about people under the heavenly realm.

It also didn't have the normal weaknesses of ghouls and zombies such as fire and ice, it was a perfect puppet that could be controlled regardless of the cultivation of a heavenly realm cultivator as long as he was in that realm.

Yun Jhin started to look around the cave as he tried to identify the hidden place where the corpse king was manufactured, as he looked around slowly he used his soul will to search through the cave and quickly found out an empty place under the cave where he found a hidden trap door which he opened, there he found a corpse with no facial hair as he looked to be freshly shaved, it seemed before his last fight that leads to his death he shaved his beard, he wore a dark red samurai armor, the corpse also had a katana at his waist and no eyes, his white short hair was done in a top knot.

Yun Jhin observed the corpse and then he shook his head as he muttered:

"Not even 30% done, it would take up to 500 years of refining to activate this corpses potential, a waste of time and resources, this formation is truly the lowest grade of trash."

Yun Jhin started to redraw some of the formations on the ground in such a way even if Chen Ming came back and he looked he wouldn't see any difference but the lines and scribbles on the ground were way more complicated and longer than before, however, to the eye of an apprentice such as Chen Ming there would be no difference, he would just think that the formation was working at a faster speed due to the increased energy in the area. After all, this area was extremely concentrated in Yin qi which was very useful to the corpses, combined with the ocean of corpses above it was the best situation in creating a corpse king.

Yun Jhin finished altering the formation just before Chen Ming came back with a few other corpses slung on his back, the corpses wore white gowns with a devil and sword etched on the back of the gown, he slowly approached Yun Jhin and looked him up and down as he said:

"No Yin poisoning? very good it seems you know what to touch and what to not touch, you will stay here for a long while from now on, once a month you can go and get your allowance from Ming Shan, he is the young man who checked out your cultivation, that day you get your allowance is also your only free day of the month, now let me show you why I have taken this corpses down here instead of throwing them in the mountain up there."

Chen Ming slowly walked directly to the same place that Yun Jhin investigated and opened the hidden hatch, Yun Jhin put a serious and inquiring expression on his face as he looked at the hole in the ground, Chen Ming chuckled darkly at Yun Jhin's expression as he threw the two corpses down, sizzling sounds could be heard down there as suddenly the armor wielding corpse unhinged his jaw and immediately engulfed the two bodies immediately devouring them both, then the corpse stopped moving as it stood there stiffly.

A scared expression appeared on Yun Jhin's pale face that still had dark bags under it, Chen Ming walked towards him after he closed the hatch and said:

"Don't ever walk close to that Corpse, unless you have to feed him, let me tell you one thing Chu Mang, that corpse is like our future sect master, as long as he will continue growing and eating we will have another heavenly realm powerhouse on our side and then we could go and conquer the sword devil sect and the ice fairies sect!"

A peculiar light appeared in the man's eyes as he said the words ice fairies, Yun Jhin shook his head inside, another fool that was controlled by his carnal desires, even though he had so many concubines and wives in his past lives he only acquired them after he reached the peak of his cultivation, carnal desires were so low on his list that they almost disappeared from his vocabulary as he would never talk about them.

In the end, he only used the women as his toys to release some pent up stress from not acquiring eternal life, to him they were only tools that he could use or toys he could play with, his descendants never achieved anything much either even though he gave them the best cultivation resources techniques and environment, they were all trash so he pretty much gave up on siring descendants, he could reincarnate endlessly before but now a problem came up to him.

He was a caterpillar and even though he could self reproduce there was no need to even in the future he knew that he wouldn't ever use those functions of his body, all cultivation caterpillars didn't need mates as they could create egg sacks regardless if they were male or female.

Yun Jhin shook his head as those strange thoughts wandered in his mind, he became a bit melancholic as he saw the corpse king, when he was 3 years old he created his first corpse king and he wandered down memory lane which also triggered some information that regarded his current situation.

As Chen Ming left Yun Jhin behind he left him with a few more words:

"Don't forget every day the corpse needs to eat at least 2 bodies."

Yun Jhin didn't say anything until the man left but then he said slowly in a whisper:

"Of course I won't forget, from now on he won't eat only 2 bodies, by the end of the year the sect will have their corpse king, of course, it won't be yours but mine..."

Yun Jhin went back to work on his cultivation as he sat cross-legged in the cave, sometimes he would unhinge his jaw and devour a corpse that fell from the mountain above, even though they weren't as useful as fresh corpses the meat and bones would still help him no matter how dry and old they were, it was better than nothing, also he could employ some more cultivation techniques because Chu Mang's body had better talent than Kitaro's he could even discard the devil corpse devouring technique and train in something else. (...)

I looked down at my hands as I clenched them, the fourth stage of the earthly realm was already in my grasp after one month of fully cultivating in the cave, I already switched from the devil corpse devouring technique as I didn't want to discard Chu Mang's body yet, it was useful, even though it would be hard to break through to the heavenly realm with the body it was still doable, especially that my main body as a caterpillar needed to reach it's maxed rank before I could achieve the heavenly realm.

I reached rank 4 and my body changed by quite a bit, however it was the same size, I wasn't sure what changed to it as I didn't have any mirrors or reflective surfaces insides Chu Mang's cranium but I felt that my stinger was sharper, my 'eyes' changed and I also felt that my skin toughened up a lot. (...)

As Yun Jhin pondered his transformations, Chen Ming came down from the mountain of corpses as he looked at Chu Mang and said in a short and concise tone:

"Your free day has come, go get your allowance and do whatever you want with it, however, don't forget to come back, I will need to quickly leave later as I heard there was a fight between the ice fairies sect and the sword devil sect, hehe it's been such a while since I have gotten my hands on a fairy corpse, so don't make me wait."

From the vile smile on his face, Yun Jhin already knew what the old man was going to do with the corpses and it wasn't feeding them to the future corpse king.

Yun Jhin nodded at the man and started swimming out of the ocean of corpses, he wondered what he would gain from the 'allowance' the sect gave him, maybe it could be something useful that his main body could devour so he had a future evolution ready when he needed it.

Yun Jhin slowly walked towards the middle area to the big pavilion where Ming Shan the young man that checked his cultivation was stationed.

Ming Shan's eyes widened in surprise as he saw Yun Jhin and said:

"Damn you aren't dead yet? Yin poisoning is a big problem with most disciples who are sent to the cave, it seems you are quite lucky."

Yun Jhin shook his head as he said:

"I might have a Yin constitution who knows?"

Ming Shan nodded at him, Yun Jhin's words made sense to him, yin constitutions weren't that useful but they could endure the yin energy easier and they wouldn't be poisoned by overdosing on it. He pulled something from his robes as he walked towards Yun Jhin, it was a green sack, Ming Shan opened his mouth as he said:

"A corpse refining pill, 2 spirit stones, and a food pill, you should know what these do already, I will go back inside now, I have to wait for other disciples to get their allowance and I need to get theirs from the storeroom."

Ming Shan walked inside the pavilion and left Yun Jhin outside, Yun Jhin weighed the sack inside his hands and left towards Chu Mang former's home, he would see what he would do with the items there.