My Journey to Godhood as a Caterpillar

Chapter 2: Fratricide is the new leaf

In his sleep, Yun Jhin saw scenes that happened in his former reincarnations, at first he was a young handsome teen who was strutting around a huge palace, in another one he was a poor beggar with a glint in his eyes that showed he wasn't that normal, and there were some he wasn't even human, with help and cultivation techniques he evolved to the point he became akin to one, but in the end, he was never something so weak as a caterpillar, all the times he wasn't a human he was still considered a beast capable of cultivating and not a weak insect such as a caterpillar.

Technically speaking not all beasts could cultivate just like not all humans could, humans needed a physique or talent to learn how to cultivate while beasts needed an adequate bloodline which caterpillars lacked, of course not all caterpillars couldn't cultivate but from what he inferred when he looked around the size and consistency of the eggs Yun Jhin realized that he was just the most normal caterpillar type that ever was.

In the end, the evolutionary process of a caterpillar would end at the butterfly and so the talent of his current life was extremely weak, Yun Jhin was considering suicide he didn't want to bother himself trying to evolve from a caterpillar it was too much work!

Suddenly he woke up as his skin started to molt and he grew up from his larvae form to a little bigger and stronger form, now he could move around instead of just staying on the same spot, he saw some new leaves were added on the ground and he immediately went to eat them not leaving anything behind for the future larvae. Yun Jhin could care less about some weak caterpillars he was a peak cultivator and he would eat as many leaves as he wanted!

Suddenly some notifications appeared in front of him from the system:

[If the host dies he won't reincarnate again]

[Host is full again, eat 5 more times to reach Caterpillar Rank 2]

[Caterpillars have 3 ranks and afterward, the host will have to evolve into a butterfly unless certain conditions are met]

Yun Jhin's nonexisting eyes widened as he read the system notifications as he thought what do you mean no more reincarnations? what the hell was this bullshit? I have reincarnated countless times with no problems this was the first time I was getting denied!

He wanted to ask the system whatever it meant but it didn't respond at all, seems like he didn't have any control over it or he just wasn't strong enough to make it respond to him.

Nothing happened as he waited for more leaves, Yun Jhin felt like he wouldn't survive outside without reaching the max rank of a caterpillar he needed to eat more to evolve!

Evolution, evolution just like in his past lives all needed to be done by evolution, Yun Jhin thought hard about some of his past information, non cultivating animals were things that he didn't care much about so, he had almost no information about them, but there was a chance for normal animals to gain cultivation talent, they needed to eat a cultivation treasure and be lucky enough to not explode from its power.

Yun Jhin didn't have many skills he could use in the body of a caterpillar, his soul got thinned and weakened from the reincarnation process so if he overused it in the caterpillar body it might even explode!

He needed a strong enough body to be able to use his soul powers properly, and now that was the thing he lacked the most if he would put the humans at 1 he would be -1 in terms of strength agility, and vitality, however, his intelligence was top notch! but what use would be the intelligence without any power to use it? he would need to have at least a 1 in vitality before he could use his soul power properly.

Yun Jhin sighed as he looked around, there wasn't anything he could after he ate all of the leaves, but he looked at the egg sacks that haven't hatched yet, it wasn't the first time he would have done cannibalism, would the sacks help him evolve?

He tore down on the sacks and started to eat them opening up his small mouth and taking bites out of the egg sacks till none were left, his body felt full and disproportioned as a notification appeared in front of him:

[Host has eaten it's brothers and sisters and directly skips all other evolutionary processes to reach Rank 3]

Suddenly Yun Jhin blacked out for what felt like hours on end as memories started to play again in his mind when he woke up he was now a proper adult Caterpillar, he directly left the nest and started to walk slowly on the tree's surface, as he looked around he realized that he was in a cemetery!

Some humans who wore dark gowns were talking under the tree near a tomb:

"The sect master gave us such a shitty job, why do we have to kill the revenants, shouldn't that be the job of the newbies?"

The other human said in a high pitched tone of voice towards his companion:

"You shut up, we only got in this problem because you couldn't keep your d*ick in your pants when you saw Hall Master Yuria."

The man chuckled awkwardly, he was caught beating the meat near Hall Master Yuria's place, and unfortunately for his friend who was coincidently walking by he got implicated by the pervert.

Yun Jhin listened deeply to what they were talking about, it seemed there was a sect situated nearby, and from the looks of it, it wasn't a friendly one as it dealt in death decay, and necromancy. But this was just like home for Yun Jhin, well he had many lives where dealt in such practices and it could be said he enjoyed the evil branch of cultivation the most, after all, the evil cultivation was superior in his opinion.

However, he decided to retreat to a higher vantage point as there was nothing he could do he was a caterpillar with no power, all he could do was try to eat new things and see if he could evolve into something else besides a normal butterfly, He evolved faster due to eating his unborn siblings, he tried to eat some leaves and got the following notification:

[Eat 100 more leaves before you can evolve into a butterfly.]

Eating more leaves was out of the question for Yun Jhin now, after all, he didn't want to become a butterfly with no future, he needed something else, but what else could he eat? he needed to eat something, he tried some tree bark and after a long time he finally ate some and he gained another notification:

{Eat 100 more tree bark pieces to evolve into a tree butterfly.]

Tree butterflies were a variation of normal butterflies still not being cultivation worthy, he needed a variant that he could cultivate with, as long as he could get his hands on one such variant he would be able to find a cultivation technique, after all, with so much time passing by and so many reincarnations he got too many cultivations techniques, he could find one for even the lowliest beings that could cultivate, unfortunately, he was in a body that couldn't cultivate!

Yun Jhin sighed inside as he looked around and he couldn't see anything else that he could eat, what could he do, in the corner of his unexisting eyes, he finally saw the duo move as a withered arm started to get out of the tomb nearby them breaking through the cement and trying to leave it's resting place.

Maybe eating some undead could help, in his memories, Yun Jhin remembered a caterpillar known as corpse eater, it could cultivate, but he couldn't get near the undead unless it wouldn't move, there were also the maggots inside the body of the undead that were stronger than he was.

What could he do? normally disciples would thoroughly destroy the body to get rid of such cases...

Yun Jhin thought a bit about it and his small body started to move down the tree he quickly got to the earth and hid as well as he could, the disciples made quicky work of the corpse and were ready to incinerate it when Yun Jhin suddenly made a strange sound that seemingly came from the tree, he used his soul to send out a wave that made the apprentices think that there was a sound coming from the tree.

Almost exhausted to death Yun Jhin crawled towards the corpse while the apprentices started to look at the tree and inspected it, this was a sound they never heard in their lives and different from the grunts and moans of the undead.

Yun Jhin took a quick bite of the corpse and his body froze as he looked at the notification in front of him:

[Eat a whole corpse before you can evolve into the corpse devouring caterpillar.]

This was practically impossible! Yun Jhin retreated as the apprentices came back and they thoroughly destroyed the undead corpse then left the area disappearing in the bunch of tombs to find a new target.

Yun Jhin thought that it wasn't practically possible to eat a whole body, he only took a very small bite that wasn't even worthy of an ant bite and he needed to eat a whole adult body to become a corpse devouring caterpillar.

The only way to do that would be to distract the disciples from a body for days or even weeks even maybe months.

Yun Jhin got a headache, in his previous lives everything was extremely easy for him, he got his hands on the best cultivation resources as long as he showed his talent no matter the sect he was in, as long as he got a good to use body he would pump it with the highest quality cultivation technique till it became a worthy physique to him.

But now he needed to use his brain more than before! even though he had a lot of information and 'wisdom' he never used more than he needed because everything fell in his palms at the first moment he showed his talent or the moment he cultivated for a good enough while.

And for now, he would have to create a good enough plan to divert the attention of the corpse cleaning apprentices for months? This was what the grunts he had did for him or else they died.

Yun Jhin sighed as he started to think, the best way was to create a fake treasure and make them look for it but how? Then a lightbulb lit up in his mind as he said to himself:

"Even though I would tire myself to almost die every time I do it I should be able to use that technique albeit barely, I would need to do it many times but in the end, it would be worth it."

Yun Jhin knew what he had to do and immediately went to work, of course only after he ate enough and slept to restore his weary caterpillar body, his soul was weaker than before but it could recover with time however no matter how strong the soul was it couldn't be used at its full potential without a strong enough body.

[Host needs to engage in the evolutionary process himself even if he eats the required amount of materials.]

This was what Yun Jhin wanted to hear as he already quite a lot of leaves, he made a gamble, after all after eating and resting his body would feel refreshed and like new, this might have been another effect of the system.

Yun Jhin looked down from the tree as the apprentices appeared again and sighed, he needed time to enact his plan so he could only start when these guys left.

But suddenly the apprentice threw his clothes away and pinned the other apprentice down on the ground, Yun Jhin took a better look and realized that the other apprentice was female.

Yun Jhin sighed as he looked down at his caterpillar form, he now had no little friend down there and that made him sad as he remembered his former glory days.

He decided to go back into the nest and ignore the people down. He thought he would have his fun in the future.