My Journey to Godhood as a Caterpillar

Mingo and Yun Jhin walked towards the training grounds of the family, there were some formation dummies and logs made so the young geniuses of the Zhu Family could test out their destructive techniques without problems.

Yun Jhin eyed the formations and realized that they were quite strong as they could handle attacks up to the 2nd stage of the Emperor realm, this also inadvertently showed that the highest cultivation of the youths of the Zhu Family was at the 2nd stage of the Emperor realm.

Yun Jhin and Mingo waited on the training grounds and soon more people started to fill the place, most of them eyed Yun Jhin and Mingo with competitiveness, while very few looked at them with fear.

Suddenly there was a commotion as two youths entered shoulder to shoulder, both of them were very similar in appearance and had the same cultivation base, around the 8th stage of the King Realm, they were both very close to the peak of the king realm as they needed only a small push to reach the 9th stage.

Suddenly another person entered and appeared in front of the twins, he had a head full of red hair and wore a dark suit that covered his whole body, he had a small mask on his face that covered his eyes, from the looks of it he was trying to emulate the man who took Yun Jhin to the Zhu family, he could be a relative of his or he might just be openly admiring the man.

The red-haired youth didn't say anything but he walked in front of the twins then ignored them, showing them that he couldn't bother with the duo, the twins became angry and they were ready to attack but a formation activated that paralyzed the both of them as the voice of the head of the house was heard:

"No fighting before my announcement!"

The twins glared at the red-haired youth and said in unison:

"Just you wait Zhu Du Fei, We will make sure you will respect us after this training tournament!"

Zhu Du Fei chuckled as he looked down on both of them and said:

"Let's see how will that happen!"

Yun Jhin didn't know their story nor did he care but Mingo started to tell him:

"These three were good friends in their youths, but since Du Fei started to idolize our grand elder they started to become distant, I'm not sure about the inside information, but I think these twins might be..."

Yun Jhin stopped him from talking, he didn't care about them, even though they were a bit too strong for him to defeat in open combat right now, that didn't mean he couldn't beat them using tricks, after all, after he assimilated the ying-yang stone, he could guarantee that there was a very high chance that he could defeat a peak king realm expert in a 1v1 situation, however, more than 1 and he would have to run, 10 people would even make him unable to escape unharmed and if there were, even more, he might even lose his life...

Yun Jhin sighed as he waited for more people to arrive, unlike the other three, most of the people had cultivations around the 5th to 6th stage, very few were at the 7th stage, and only those three were at the 8th stage.

A lazy looking man entered the training grounds as he yawned and walked towards a tree, then he sat on the ground and immediately went to sleep. Mingo whispered to Yun Jhin:

"This guy is known as Zhu Sumen, he is at the 9th stage of the King Realm and his strength isn't something that the others would look down upon, even though he looks lazy once he enters a fight... he is still lazy even when he fights, but it's very infuriating to fight him."

Mingo continued to introduce people that entered but Yun Jhin only remembered the information of those above the 7th stage, after all, he could defeat the others quite easily unless they had special techniques or constitutions, but those were very rare and from what he could see in this crowd, there were only around 3 people who had strong constitutions and were below the 8th stage.

Yun Jhin eyes narrowed as he felt a power that easily dwarfed his entering the training ground, Yun Jhin's body wanted to instinctively bow towards the power that appeared, it was the Emperor realm expert, he was fully unleashing his aura and engulfing everyone with it, and his cultivation wasn't at the first stage, but at the 2nd!

It was the strongest youth cultivator of the Zhu Family!

Finally, the youth revealed himself, he was around 25 years old with green hair and he wore normal white robes that showed his strong chest, he had baggy pants and sandals on his feet, his pupils were yellow slits and his bloodline aura was through the roof! He was 100% a purebred dragon, even though all of the others were also full descendants of the dragon race and they weren't mixed blood that didn't mean all their bloodlines were pure.

Just like how Yun Jhin's bloodline was stronger than Zhu Lings even though he was a halfling, the purity of bloodline meant how close you were to the origin of bloodline, Yun Jhin's system would allow his body to reach the highest bloodline possible considering the things he ate to fuel the system's power.

Even though he ate what could only be considered trash in the upper continents, all of the bloodline chains that he extracted from their bodies were fused by the system inside his body then purified by thousands of times over and over before they fully installed themselves in his DNA helix code.

The Emperor realm expert was called Zhu Cheng, his eyes scanned over the whole crowd and his eyes narrowed as he watched Yun Jhin hold fast under his bloodline and cultivation pressure, he was interested in him but unfortunately, since he was at the Emperor realm he wouldn't be able to fight him in the upcoming tournament.

He only came to see if there was a chance for those at the 9th realm of the King Realm to break through the Emperor realm but he was quite disappointed, none of them gave out the aura that they reached the peak of the 9th stage, he still had to wait for quite a while before the actual tournament hosted by the Emperor began and he would be able to fight with those around his cultivation base.

Zhu Cheng sighed as he walked towards one of the training logs and he leaned on it waiting for the fights to start.

Another 9th stage cultivator entered then the voice of the head of the house was heard:

"You might not all know why you were all summoned because you just came back from training outside, 3 months from now the Emperor will host a tournament to decide which house will be able to enter the Imperial tombs, you should know what the Imperial tombs entail so I won't explain."

Mingo started explaining to Yun Jhin, the Imperial tombs were where the former Emperors of the Luo Empire were buried, most of the Emperors were buried with quite a lot of treasures ranging from pills and herbs to weapons and techniques.

The Imperial tombs would open by themselves once every 10 years and the Emperor would host a tournament to give quotas to the top 10 houses of the capital, depending on what rank those houses would attain they could get a max or 3 quotas, and only the top 5 were awarded quotas.

Top 1 was awarded 3 quotas, Top 2 was awarded 2 quotas, and from there to the 5th place, only 1 quota was awarded.

The special thing about the Imperial tombs was that those who won in the tournament could allow one elder to come with them, they made the younger generation fight in a tournament because anything else would break the fragile balance between the houses and instigate an internal war between the houses of the Empire. This wasn't a thing the Emperor wanted to see as the Bumi Empire was watching over them like a hawk would their prey, they were pretty equal in power but anything could break the balance of power at this point.

Yun Jhin waited as the head of the house continued his speech:

"To help all of you get a better chance at winning a spot for our house I decided to do our little tournament with prizes that could help you break through further in your cultivation, and don't worry Zhu Cheng is forbidden from participating as he gets his rewards just for being at the Emperor realm at such a young age."

No one said anything, it was Zhu Cheng's ability to reach such a high cultivation base while being so young, him getting rewards for that alone wasn't a thing that any of them could question.

Yun Jhin looked at Zhu Cheng from the corner of his eye, he knew that he must have had a very good cultivation technique paired with his bloodline to get himself so far in cultivation so early in his life, he would have also used quite a lot of resources of the family, Yun Jhin made a mental note to be on his good side in the future, he didn't want needless trouble inside his faction.

The head of the house crisp voice was heard as he announced that the tournament would start shortly, everyone was made to draw lots and then a metal arena popped out of the ground.

Yun Jhin drew the lots for fighting group F and he was paired against the lazy looking youth called Zhu Sumen.

Yun Jhin looked at the man who slept under the tree and he didn't know what to make out of him, he tried to send some of his soul willpower to investigate his opponent but his soul willpower was repelled!

The man had a defensive aura around him that repelled all soul willpowers that tried to investigate him while he slept, Yun Jhin realized one thing after this endeavor, the lazy youth was quite smart. Smart people were annoying, Yun Jhin would rather fight a hot-blooded justice induced dumb person rather than a smart lazy person, but since he drew the lot he had to give his all and win, the rewards of the tournament were quite attractive to him.

Some of the rewards could be used so he could maybe reach the peak refinery of his 3rd stage King Realm cultivation, others would be useful in the future.

Unlike normal tournaments, this tournament awarded rewards the more people you beat, so Yun Jhin didn't have to get to the top 10 to get rewarded. One of the reasons was because the more people the Zhu family enlisted in the tournament, the higher the chance for them to get an extra quota, so they gave their all during this training tournament.

Before the matches started the head of the family's voice appeared again and said:

"Everything is permitted in matches besides killing and crippling your opponent, now we will start with group A's fights!"

Yun Jhin watched group A fight, then Group B, Group C... finally it was the time for his Group F, however, he wasn't the first in the group, it could be either called a coincidence or being unlucky, but Yun Jhin's group had all the 9th stage King Realm experts, the first fight was between the twins!

The twins knew that the head of the house would cancel their reward if they didn't fight so they went up to the arena.

Yun Jhin watched them fight but he was disappointed, they were mostly putting up a front so the reward of the one who won wasn't canceled, finally one of them won after a while of fighting and he was rewarded a bunch of Emperor moonlight ladybugs.

Yun Jhin watched as the twin high-fived his brother and both of them left the arena and waited below for the next fight.

Yun Jhin looked on as the next fight was between the red-haired masked youth Zhu Du Fei and Mingo!

Mingo wasn't strong nor important in the family he was only around the 4th stage of the King realm, he was one of those people who feared the strong and bullied the weak, he only became true friends with Yun Jhin after he saw how he took care of Zhu Ling, he was more like Yun Jhin's underling right now.

Mingo didn't want to get beaten too badly so he gave up after Du Fei almost pushed him out of the arena with the wind created from him punching the air.

Finally, it was Yun Jhin's turn to get on the arena, he jumped directly on it as Zhu Sumen woke up and groggily got up on the arena by himself.

Zhu Sumen gave out a dry cough as he took a jar of water from his spatial ring and drank it all in one gulp.

The referee of the fight knew about Zhu Sumen's quirks so he didn't say anything as he looked at Yun Jhin then at Sumen and said:

"If both parties are ready, we can fight! 1,2,3 GO!"

Yun Jhin entered into a defensive stance as he waited for Sumen to start the fight, Sumen scratched the back of his head as he muttered:

"So troublesome."

Yun Jhin felt something wasn't right as his eyes wandered to his feet and he saw his shadow turning into spikes and attacking him!

Yun Jhin couldn't have dodged the attacks if he didn't get his hands on the ying-yang stone but now this was a different situation. He channeled some yang energy in his shadow and made it disappear!

Sumen eyes narrowed as he saw Yun Jhin's shadow disappear and he said:

"You are an interesting opponent, but can you get rid of every shadow that exists in this area?"

Yun Jhin frowned, his cultivation base was too low so he couldn't do that yet, however, he had other aces up his sleeve.