My Journey to Godhood as a Caterpillar

Yun Jhin's meditation time passed quickly as he was interrupted by a knock on his door, Yun Jhin frowned as he got up from the cross-legged position on the ground, his empty room made him easily walk towards the door and open it.

Kong Luo was there with a big smile on his face as he said:

"It's time to go Yun Jhin, I have also got you a present."

He took out an exquisite silver ring and gave it to Yun Jhin, Yun Jhin put it on his ring finger and admired it for a bit, he knew that it was a spatial ring, it was an advanced version of storage compared to the spatial bag, it was smaller than the spatial bag but more things could be stuffed into it due to the exquisite formations at work.

Yun Jhin didn't have time to craft himself a spatial ring so this was a nice present, Yun Jhin made a little bow but Kong Luo stopped him midway as he said:

"There's no need to, as your 'guardian' I need to give you atleast something like this, after all, all of the other young geniuses would have a spatial ring with them, the Emperor said that whatever you find in the forest will be yours to take, danger zones tend to be full of strange herbs that are either beneficial or poisonous or both, I know you have some experiences with poisons from that time I scanned your memories so I don't need you to instruct in what to do."

The man patted Yun Jhin's shoulder as and then took him to the teleportation formation, they would go back to the wall and after that Kong Luo would be the one who will escort the youths to the Demonic Forest.

After a short while the duo arrived at the teleportation formation and they met with another participant there, he was a fat young man and he had a spatial ring on each of his fingers, he looked like the nouveau rich type who liked to waste money, a silver-spoon young master.

The fatty didn't say anything as he was drooling at his maid, the maid was the only one who was currently escorting him but she was an Emperor Realm expert at the least, it seemed some families sent out their own Emperor Experts to guard their prodigies until they reached the Demonic Forest.

Kong Luo and Yun Jhin entered the formation along with the fatty and the maid, after a short while they arrived at the wall but they didn't meet Pei Fong again, it seemed he was currently somewhere else but the guard that replaced him wasn't allowed to say much.

Kong Luo sighed as his party and the fatties were the first to arrive, he needed to wait for the others to arrive before he set out.

After a few hours of waiting another youth appeared out of the teleportation formation, his muscles were easily visible from his gown and he was also quite tall, but his face looked average, he had no one else with him, after he saw Kong Luo he did a small bow and then took a spot near the wall where he waited for the others.

Ten minutes later another light appeared from the formation, this time it was a woman, unsurprisingly it was the Empress youngest daughter Lulu, her face was devoid of emotion as she got near her wall and sat cross-legged, she didn't say anything nor greet anyone as she went to cultivate.

Afterward, more and more people started to stream in from the formation, as Yun Jhin counted he realized that in total they were 75 youths, 20 females and 55 males with him included.

Kong Luo coughed a bit to gather everyone's attention then he said:

"Since everyone is here it's time to go to the Demonic Forest, I see that some of you have your bodyguards so we will join forces to create a flying formation so we can quickly take you to the forest, don't forget that we will wait for you at the edges of the forest to take you back to the capital after you are done with the training."

Kong Luo waved his hands as he created a ship out of ki, he jumped on the ship and the fatty's maid along with another short old man jumped on it, they started to pump their ki into the ship as it became corporeal from its illusory state and Kong Luo invited all of the young geniuses on it.

Yun Jhin jumped at the front near Kong Luo while the others went to the back, the only one who was also invited in the front was the fatty and Lulu.

The fatty was drooling at Lulu's beauty, she resembled her mother quite a bit so even though she was rather young in the future she would be a great beauty, she looked to be around 17-18 years old but with cultivators, it was never known how old they actually were, but from her life aura, Yun Jhin knew that she truly was around the age she looked to be.

He knew that she was eyeing him from time to time and her eyes didn't look friendly at all in the beginning, but as she observed him more her icy look started to change, she thought that all she did was in secret but Yun Jhin knew whatever she did, after all, they were quite close only a few meters apart and Yun Jhin's soul willpower and perception were extremely strong.

The fatty himself started a conversation as he was bored:

"Your highness Lulu, might I inquire why have you joined this training, aren't you at the 6th stage of the King Realm?"

The fatty was quite blunt and it seemed he didn't care much about etiquette as his saliva dripped everywhere as he googled Lulu's chest, Lulu was ready to butcher the man like the pig he was but the maid from his family intervened as she appeared in front of him and said:

"Young Master Sumo please don't bother her majesty."

She bowed deeply to Lulu as she apologized:

"My deep apologies your highness, my young master can't control himself when he sees beautiful young women he... eeek!"

The fatty known as Sumo grabbed one of her plump cheeks that's why she squealed like that, the maid faced him but afterward another eek was heard as he grabbed her chest, the maid got away from him blushing deeply as she said:

"Young master you!"

Sumo nodded his head like a sage as he said:

"Very firm, it seems your qualities have improved since the last time I checked them."

The maid shook her head as she muttered:

"You have checked them this morning..."

Yun Jhin looked at the amusing scene in front of him but he didn't laugh, his face was an icy cold mask as he thought:

"This fatty should be the first target, he seems the dumbest and the weakest of the group, but I can sense that his crown jewel is full of starlight, he might have used a treasure that he still didn't fully digest, I should be able to get my hands on it..."

Lulu frowned at the Sumo's antics but her eyes strayed to Yun Jhin, Yun Jhin ignored the situation after he glanced around once and then he looked into the horizon waiting to reach the Demonic Forest, he had 2 objectives in the forest, one meet the demon and devour his soul, 2 kill as many geniuses as he could to refine his jewel.

Yun Jhin closed his eyes but he was startled as Lulu approached him and sat near him then she said:

"My name's Lulu, you should have heard of me..."

Yun Jhin shook his head as he said:

"I'm sorry but I didn't you see, I'm quite new in the capital.."

Lulu's face scrunched but she decided to introduce herself fully:

"Song Lulu, 4th princess and daughter of the Empire."

Yun Jhin narrowed his eyes inside as he heard her, it seemed the Empress couldn't hold long with her plans, he knew what she wanted to do, most likely she wanted her daughter to have a child with him to secure his pure draconic bloodline, Yun Jhin smiled inside, this was one way he could infiltrate the Imperial family.

Yun Jhin nodded at her as he said:

"I have heard of the most talented young daughter of the Empress, so it was you?"

Lulu nodded, this was how most men acted when they met her, they would try to act cool on the surface but inside they would jump at a chance to prove themselves in front of her.

Yun Jhin didn't continue the conversation as he continued to look into the horizon, this threw her off, wasn't it the time for him to fawn and try to impress her?

He looked at him and she realized that he started to close his eyes, he was trying to cultivate right now! During their conversation!

Lulu huffed as she got up and left him alone, she was offended by his acts but also intrigued inside, she was a princess who pretty much trained most her life, she was also courted from time to time due to her mother insistence, but all of the young geniuses in the capital seemed like trash to her.

This was the first time a man acted like he didn't care about her and she found it to be 'interesting', Lulu decided to meditate herself as she waited for the ship to reach the Demonic Forest.

The fatty from before was obscenely acting against his maid but no one gave him any more laughs or looks most of them thought that there was a problem with his head as he salivated continuously.

However, Yun Jhin was observing him stealthily, there was the chance the fatty could try to fool the others, feigning to be a pig to eat the tiger.

Yun Jhin put him as an easy target but that didn't mean he wouldn't be on his guard against him, after all, he was one stage above him being at the 2nd stage.

The maid seemed very embarrassed as her chest was played with and from time to time her buttocks would be smacked, even the ship almost crashed a few times as her ki was acting up due to her mental state, finally, Kong Luo couldn't endure anymore and he grabbed the fatty by the ear and put him to reflect on his actions, the other old man sighed as he looked at the fatty and said:

"The Drop clan will end to the dogs with such a young master..."

Kong Luo heard that and shook his head as he didn't comment, they were getting nearer and nearer to the demonic forest and he needed to control the ship or the demonic energy from the trees might invade it and make them crash.

Yun Jhin breathed in slowly as he could feel the smell of demonic energy, it smelled like cinnamon, he wasn't a fan of demons and devils, in his last life even though he was 'friends' with them, he was also trying to kill them at any point, just like they did to him, however, on the surface, he had to play nice or else they would invade his sect, both of their organizations made them unable to act against each other, that was also around the time that the demons started to be marginalized by the devils, unfortunately, Yun Jhin couldn't intervene back then as he was too old at the time.

Yun Jhin looked down as Ebony black trees appeared in his sight, it was the Demonic Forest, quite a simple name but it showed what it was, truly a demonic forest, the plants looked normal but if anything got too close to them they would eat you, Yun Jhin watched a devil fly landed on a plant and was eaten, suddenly the plant exploded into a bunch of pieces as the fly morphed into a bigger version of itself with a maw and then started to eat the plants remains.

However, the mutated fly died soon after as it became purple and transformed into a pile of goo.

Yun Jhin watched with interest, he knew what kind of plants they were but they seemed to have mutated even further since his times, after all, 500,000 years passed since then.

Kong Luo dropped everyone on the ground at the entrance of the forest and shared a map with each genius then said:

"You will all enter alone and you are allowed to make team when you meet with each other, it doesn't matter as long as you live in the forest for 6 months and can get out by yourselves you have passed this training and you will be able to join the Imperial Army that the Emperor will create soon..."

The geniuses started to talk with each other, most of them were here for the chance of applying to the special unit created by the Emperor, Yun Jhin heard about it on the way to the demonic forest but he wasn't that interested until he heard that even the lowliest positions in the special unit would have higher political power and say in the empire even compared to the normal generals.

Yun Jhin wanted to infiltrate the Empire and became a high ranked official or army commander so he would be able to start eating pure dragon's without them realizing, and even if they realized they wouldn't do anything to him as long as he didn't touch anyone important, that was the power of political immunity!

Yun Jhin skipped this things in the lower continents and the middle ones as he had enough strength and he could also fool them well enough, but he wouldn't be able to do the same in an Empire that had 2 God Realm experts and maybe even some hidden reserves, there was no way the Empire would be so feared with only 2 God Realm experts, Yun Jhin guessed the other nations will try to poke around soon enough to see if their hidden reserves were still available.

Kong Luo cleared his throat as he continued talking:

"You can forfeit the training by coming out of the forest before 6 months, there are high chances you could die in the forest so if you want to give up now just come and stay here, you will wait with us.", He pointed towards himself the maid and the old man.

Yun Jhin watched as no one forfeited their chance at joining the new Imperial unit, then Kong Luo waved his hand and said:

"Ok then, since everyone is ready to go into the forest, I will make sure you guys get a head start."

Kong Luo created a gigantic palm that scooped the young geniuses then threw them at random inside the forest, Kong Luo made sure that even though they were thrown randomly he wouldn't choose the regions infested with very strong demonic beings, only those that were only deadly fatal, and not a 100% death factor.

Yun Jhin was grabbed by the palm and thrown into the forest like the others, he rolled like a ball as he impacted a tree making it shake, a brown snake dropped on his head and immediately went to bite his neck but Yun Jhin opened his maw and ate the snake whole.

He puked out black blood that came from the snake's poison and cleaned his mouth then stretched out his soul willpower and frowned:

"The radius of my soul willpower is a bit shortened due to the interference of all of these Dark Ebonite trees... but I can make sure I find the lair of the demon."

Yun Jhin knew that the demon must use some formations around his lair so he started to walk towards the direction with more natural ki, the more natural ki the better and sturdier the formation would end up, the same could be applied to demonic formations as well.

Yun Jhin's silhouette disappeared into the forest as he walked towards the highest concentration of Demonic natural ki that he could sense...