Chapter 44: Lack of information
Yun Jhin frowned as he thought about the artificial celestial caterpillar and shook his head as he realized that his memories contained no information about such a thing!
He looked at the notification screen as it dissipated and thought about the new form that he gained knowledge off, he ignored the half-destroyed palace as he pondered about the new form, the system said that it could reach the 10,000th rank which meant it could grow to have the potential of a fortuned caterpillar.
Fortuned caterpillars were very peculiar to the point that Yun Jhin didn't know their appearance or powers, he just knew they were one of the most loved insects in the universe when they evolved into their fortuned butterfly form, the universe would cheer them on and open so they could leave and ascend.
He didn't know anything about the artificial celestial butterfly so he wasn't sure if he wanted to follow this path in the future, Yun Jhin stopped thinking about such a thing as there was no way he would be able to eat so many dragons/tortoises/vermillion birds/azure tigers so that he could evolve into the A-C-C.
To begin with, there weren't that many pure-blooded sacred beasts and their descendants, secondly, pure sacred beasts were born at the Sage Realm and Yun Jhin wasn't even a king realm expert yet, a sacred beast cub could breathe in his direction and he would disintegrate, thirdly he would need to eat atleast 2 pure-blooded sacred beasts to transform into an A-C-C, there was no chance he could do that.
Most sacred beasts had a connection to their kin so if one of them died by someone's hands they would know who did it unless the one who killed their kin was of a way higher cultivation base than they were, that would just make them vigilant and they would do their best to hide.
Finally, Yun Jhin didn't want to make enemies with the 4 planets unless it would be his last standing, besides the sacred beasts themselves, they had human counterparts that they blessed with their bloodline at the God realm, even if Yun Jhin could take care of the beasts themselves that didn't mean the humans wouldn't intervene, even if he was at the peak God realm, back in his previous life he didn't want to fight these planets and their sacred beasts.
They were also quite vengeful. Yun Jhin started looking around the palace as he cleared his head, he had killed a spy from the Black Turtle planet, that was both a good thing and a bad thing, the good thing was that he took care of a variable that could have hit him hard in the future.
The bad thing was that he got the attention of the one's who sent out the spy, however, they couldn't invade the dragon planet willy nilly, after all, the true imperial family that lived in the upper continents had a one or two god realm experts themselves, let's not even talk about the other sects that lived in the upper continents.
Most dragons were free and liked to live to the fullest, they all came from the same imperial family on this planet, they were all related but that didn't mean they were all friendly with each other, most of them took diverging paths, while others decided to live normally as their ancestors did, this is what Yun Jhin knew from his previous life and he wasn't sure what happened now, he needed to move to the upper continents to learn about it.
However it wasn't time yet, he would need to be atleast a King Realm expert first. Yun Jhin made use of the deaths of the Emperor and his family to take over the empire, he did it slowly but surely, as he was a dragon caterpillar and now the only strongest person in the empire, considering the others died in the war with the heavenly turtle sect and he had a dragon bloodline the population decided to abide by his rule.
Yun Jhin lent the dragon stone to the population just like in the Earth Kingdom, he created the same formation as before and let it in a public place in the capital so people could visit and touch it to gain the draconic bloodline. After he finished everything he made sure to let some of his new subordinates take care of the empire while he left to subdue the Heavenly Turtle sect as well.
Yun Jhin flew in the ocean as he approached the sect grounds of the Heavenly Turtle sect after a while of swimming, he easily broke through the formation that protected the sect and started a rampage in its ranks, the new patriarch and sect master tried to stop him but easily took care of them and enslaved the sect. No hidden experts or anything was protecting the sect, only the weak members remained after Yun Jhin took care of their elites and leaders.
Just like the empire the sect slowly slid into Yun Jhin's control, but Yun Jhin didn't let them stay in the sect grounds, he took the treasury with him using multiple spatial bags and relocated all of the people inside the empire!
With all of the people from the Heavenly Turtle sect that were relocated to the empire's land the empire got a huge population influx, but with Yun Jhin's abilities he easily quelled any unrest due to the population influx, he gave food herbs and spirit stones out of the treasury to the needy and made his public image to be pristine.
With the help of some special underwater herbs from the Heavenly Turtle sect treasury, his body adapted to the 3rd stage of the ki cultivating realm at a quicker pace, and in a few weeks, he would be able to eat the sarira beads created from the two King Realm experts.
Yun Jhin looked at the capital from his spot atop the palace, he created a room big enough to house his body with the help of his new subordinates and now he was at its balcony overlooking the capital with his soul willpower, his eyes were closed as he muttered:
"With enough time, everyone should be able to gain the draconic bloodline, however, the dragon stone seems to be reaching its limits, this is strange, wasn't it supposedly indestructible?"
Yun Jhin frowned as he felt the condition of the dragon stone, it started to crack here and there as it's dragon bloodline started to leak out of it, people would get influenced by it easier, they thought that it was a blessing but Yun Jhin knew that leak was due to overuse, the stone could heal itself if left alone.
However, the stone was used every day by thousands of people that meant no matter how indestructible it was it still got exhausted, as long as it was used in moderation it could be used an unlimited amount of times.
Yun Jhin chuckled as he shook his head and said:
"Let them use it more, the explosion should create radiation that should create even more draconic bloodlines and even of a purer range than this one, even though I would lose a lot of meat because of it, it doesn't matter much."
Yun Jhin opened his spatial bag as he eyed the two beads, his mouth unhatched like a python ready to swallow his prey as his teeth broke through the hard layer of the beads, dark blood red seeped out slowly of the beads that Yun Jhin drank merrily.
Changes could be seen on Yun Jhin's body, he grew smaller and more compact as his fat turned into streamlined muscles, his dark eyes started to change color into a deep red as his draconic horns changed from their original color into an indigo color.
It took him almost 2 weeks to finish one bead and afterward he opened the second one as he started with the shell... another change happened to his body as his bloodline evolved, he could now reach rank 5,500 even though his bloodline didn't finish evolving, the benefits of eating two experts at the 2nd stage of the king realm with a draconic bloodline were very visible.
Yun Jhin clenched his claws as his muscles started rippling, his skin turned a deep azure color as his cultivation was ready to do a breakthrough in the 4th stage whenever he wanted, but he kept his body soft as he didn't attempt a breakthrough.
He needed to fully assimilate the benefits from the two sariras before he broke through, Yun Jhin closed his eyes as the remaining bits of energy from the sariras washed his whole body and ki pathways, strengthening them further increasing their durability and purifying the body, until the Sage Realm there would always be impurities in the body that could be extracted using techniques or cultivating, those impurities would limit the potential of the body.
While Yun Jhin was cultivating in his new room, the population of the empire was praising Yun Jhin as a benevolent emperor who put the citizens before himself! Even though they knew he was a cultivation beast they thought that he was a better human than the former emperor who only thought about himself and the imperial family!
Yun Jhin didn't truly care about the public sentiment as he would hate to eat a lot of them in the future, but now he had to wait for them to mature, so if he was seen as a good emperor the better for him.
In an alleyway near the dragon stone location a child that stood at the height of 1,45 meters clutched the hem of his shirt as he slowly closed into the dragon stone location, he thought that the emperor said that everyone could touch the dragon stone to get its blessings so he wanted to try his luck.
The small child didn't look special at all as he got closer and closer to the dragon stone location when his hand touched the dragon stone nothing happened seemingly as if the dragon stone didn't want to bless the little guy with its special powers.
However, after a few seconds when the child wanted to leave with a disappointed look on his face, the dragon stone started to turn a deep red color!
After so many people touching it, the dragon stone finally reached its limit as it started to power up, the dragon stone red exterior started to burn with bloodline flames.
The bloodline flames started to engulf the child as he cried out in pain and fright, then the flames started to spread around the dragon stone's surroundings, the stone started shaking, seemingly as if it was angered by the overuse the humans put on it, it endured the abuse in the Earth Kingdom but the difference in population between the kingdom and the empire was too big!
The dragon stone shaking intensified as the cry of a dragon was heard, it was crying howl of a desperate being that was on its last throes, a death cry of a warrior on his death bed. Suddenly the dragon stone exploded into a shower of pieces that took the child along with half of the capital along with it!
Yun Jhin made sure the dragon stone wasn't the imperial palace so he didn't feel anything besides the tremor and the sound of the explosion.
Yun Jhin opened his eyes as he looked at the red radiation at the location of the dragon stone near the slums, the radiation spread among the still-living people, some had missing limbs but they were still breathing.
Some of them started to grow draconic limbs out of their stumps as they cried out in pain, some of them grew dragon eyes or tails, the radiation was so strong that it mutated their outer appearance into half draconic beings.
Yun Jhin laughed as he watched everything happen outside and said:
"You want to cultivate so I let you cultivate, you wanted a draconic bloodline so I gave it to you, now you have even been blessed by the shards of the dragon stone, aren't I a benevolent ruler?"
He ignored the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of people that lived in the capital as he looked at the living people in the slums, they were the future nutrients that would help him evolve on the draconic tree!
The dragon caterpillar went back to cultivating as he stopped looking outside, it would be quite a long time before they matured enough for him to consider them snacks.