Chapter 1: Can I die again?
Yun Jhin was a man of many talents and titles such as "evil overlord of the blood throne", "crazy maniac", "perverted old fool", and many more that I wouldn't have time to list.
His universe one of the many that exist in his world was just like all of the other cultivation worlds out there, strong eat the weak, famous young masters who will throw you out because you looked at them for a nanosecond, and others such miscellaneous things.
Yun Jhin himself thought that the more someone cultivated the dumber they become, fortunately for him, he removed this problem by fusing with all of his former reincarnations, he was a man with no scruples when it came to victory and with his wits and skills.
He took the leadership of the throne of blood, the greatest evil organization known to man in his universe.
He drained the blood of countless virgins in his ying-yang activities and made them his concubines, even the greatest women of the celestial sects bowed down to his greatest little brother, to him life was going so well he thought that nothing would make him unable to achieve eternal life.
But like always the man plans and heaven disagrees, the universe wouldn't let a mortal become its equal, try as he might Yun Jhin just couldn't achieve eternal life.
He extended his life using multiple methods until he became nothing more than a fossil, he tried all of the cultivation techniques he gained through his whole host of reincarnations, he tried everything he could, elixirs, stealing constitutions from fortuned people.
Be they just born or already have reached the peak, but all they did was prolong his lifespan, he thought that after so many failed reincarnations where he either fell before he could reach his full power or just died like now by this time he would have been able to reach eternal life!
Unfortunately for him, the universe he was currently in would never let him achieve his dream no matter how many more times he would reincarnate, even though he reached the peak of cultivation he still wasn't at the true at the end of the road if we would put it in percentages he would be in the top 20%.
There were still people out there that were stronger than him, however, these people weren't restricted by the universe they were in, Yun Jhin was restricted by his home universe, he was just an unlucky guy in the end.
Now as an old man who outlived all of his descendants, wives, and concubines he stood in his great palace all alone, dying on his bed that was created with the softest silk ever known to man, beast, or hybrid.
His breathing was roughed as his skin was pretty much falling from his bones, he was so old you couldn't recognize him at all, you would think he was a patch of skin instead of a human, you could see his sickly white bones sticking out of his putrid skin, suddenly the prone form of the strongest man known in his universe started to cough as blood dripped down from the corners of his mouth.
Old age combined with all of his attempts at gaining eternal life wore down his body to the point he wasn't practically 'human' anymore, his days were numbered that was for sure.
Above his head, the sands of time were wearing down in a clepsydra made of silver, this was the time he had left on the mortal plane before he would be taken back to the spirit plane and reincarnated for the hundred thousandth time.
As a man with extreme experience in reincarnation he wasn't that sad he was dying but he was disappointed as he muttered to himself with the last vestiges of his strength:
"One more time? maybe one more time will I reach the peak then?"
That's what he told himself every time he reached the end of the line, one more time, would he reach the peak then? But he failed, and failed, and failed so many times he didn't know. His intelligence and wisdom were just a drop in the ocean compared to his inexperience.
He never thought that the universe itself was shackling him down, he always thought that a better bloodline would help him, a better cultivation technique, a better physique.
In the end, everything failed. Yun Jhin coughed out one last time before his spirit left his body and entered the reincarnation cycle for another time. However, something different happened to his spirit this time around. A fat jolly bald man who wore a kasaya robe and prayer beads around his neck took a hold of his spirit and examined it and said:
"Such evil putrid karma, reincarnating as a pig or a dog would be something that would be too good for you."
He was one of the experts that achieved cultivation above Yun Jhin, he was the peak of righteousness and light the ascended being with the perfect moral compass: the Buddha!
Suddenly behind the Buddha, a man ensconced in the darkness appeared as he tried to take Yun Jhin's spirit back from the Buddha but the Buddha clapped his hands together and pushed the shadow back.
The man cursed as he swore:
"You dumb fatty what do you think you are doing with my champion?"
Buddha looked at the spirit in his eyes then at the man who tried to assassinate him and laughed joyfully:
"Oh, Hades? He is your disciple? Why don't I see anything like that in his memories?"
Hades grumbled under his breath, well after so many reincarnations he thought Yun Jhin would make a good disciple, he was finally going to teach him the way to break through the Universe's borders and ascend, he needed a helper anyways and Yun Jhin would make a good right-hand man for Hades or so he thought.
The jolly Buddha shook his head repeatedly as he pushed the spirit down in his palms, Yun Jhin knew something was wrong with the reincarnation process as the eyes of his spirit opened wide open as he saw the giant palm starting to squish him.
Suddenly he transformed into a small being, a being so small he wouldn't even look at, Buddha laughed as Hades tried to stop him but the Buddha threw him down from the spirit realm to be reincarnated again, forcefully and earlier than intended!
No blood nor anything was felt around Yun Jhin, he could feel only heat and darkness, what was this feeling? Was he going to get reborn so soon? Was the bald fat giant just a fever dream created from the reincarnation cycle? This never happened before Yun Jhin felt something wasn't right, he felt so small so weak, so hungry...
Suddenly he felt something break, his long green body broke through the layers of a humid but weak flesh trapping, he immediately looked around and the site in front of him made his nonexistent eyes widen, a bunch of small eggs so small they couldn't be seen with the naked eye were all around him.
He was the first to hatch, but what kind of creature hatched from such big eggs, what was I reincarnated into? Yu Jhin thought, however, the eggs weren't that big, they were actually very small, they just looked big due to his size.
Suddenly in front of him, a blaring green screen appeared which said:
[Caterpillar system activated.]
[Host is advised to eat leaves to restore strength.]
Did I become a caterpillar? Yu Jhin said the following words after his thoughts:
"Can I die again?" But out of his nonexistent mouth came no sound as he was a caterpillar only a few pews were heard.
And so the story of Yun Jhin started, as a normal tree caterpillar with no cultivation powers, he was going to be an easy target to the birds of prey.
But this wasn't going to happen anytime soon, right now Yun Jhin had to put his pride down and do something he would never have thought to do before, eat leaves!
There were multiple leaves down on the ground left by the mother of the bunch of larvae, Yun Jhin felt especially weak as he was forcefully reincarnated and he started to eat and eat, till he ate all of the leaves down, he became as full as he could, transforming from the small shape that he was formerly into a fat caterpillar that could barely move because of its weight.
Suddenly some words appeared in front of him which said:
[Host consumed many leaves and is advised to begin the first evolutionary phase from his larvae form to his child caterpillar form.]
As much knowledge as he had from his previous lives Yun Jhin knew that caterpillars had very few growth phases and the last one made them into a butterfly finally cutting off their evolutionary path.
Yun Jhin looked around himself and realized that he couldn't do anything, he was too weak, he needed to gain strength before he could leave the nest, and as a larva, he couldn't.
He would need to reach the last phase of being a caterpillar before he found himself to be strong enough to leave the tree and see where he was situated.
He decided to use this system he acquired to his advantage, he cultivated countless strange techniques before and he wasn't going to inquire much about the system, after all, he had similar experiences in the past but they were either weaker or hallucinogen involved.
But for now, the system looked pretty solid to him.
Yun Jhin laid down his fat caterpillar body and started to sleep, this was what his body told him to do so he could evolve the last words he saw before his consciousness faded were:
[Host begins the evolutionary process of Larva > Caterpillar Rank 1]