Yun Jhin kept his body steady as he flew at his fastest speed towards the imperial capital, as he flew he thought on how to use the corpses, he shook his head as he realized that he couldn't make in time, they would lose too much ki.
Yun Jhin dropped to the ground in a nearby forest as he took both of the corpses out of his spatial bag, he needed to turn them both into sarira beads so they wouldn't lose more ki, his eyes narrowed as his draconic flames turned green.
His green flames engulfed both of the corpses as they started to melt and contract into two deep red sarira beads, this was basically like pickling them so they would last longer, Yun Jhin grabbed both of the sarira beads with his claws and attempted to chew on them again, but unfortunately even though the bodies have been melted his teeth still weren't strong enough and if he swallowed the beads it wasn't known if his digestive system could melt them.
Yun Jhin kept the sariras in his spatial bag as he resumed his flying to the capital. However at the capital, things weren't that good, the left and right minister made an emergency meeting the moment the Emperor's life crystal broke, their ruler was dead!
That meant they would die soon as well if they didn't surrender to their invaders, the left minister frowned as he said:
"We cannot do anything anymore, if the emperor died his son should have as well, after all, they left together on the dragon caterpillar, we must surrender even though it's shameful, atleast the empire will continue to exist."
The right minister didn't say anything, he was a man of few words and it seemed that he agreed with the left minister's words, the military minister had no army to lead anymore so he kept his mouth sealed, the other officials were of a lower standard than those three so they couldn't butt in this conversation as well.
The princess was cleaning her cheeks of tears, hearing that both her father and big brother died made her extremely sad but now she was the only imperial alive that was also old enough to lead, there was also her smallest brother but he was a baby!
Technically speaking she was the last in line to inherit the throne in the future when her little brother grew up a little, but now she had to become empress!
The left and right ministers supported her as the new empress as they said:
"Empress Mumu, you will have to lead the peace talks with the patriarch of the heavenly turtle sect, I heard he is an understanding man when it comes to the fairer sex.", The left minister winked as her as he waved his hands.
Mumu frowned as she looked at the men inside the meeting place, they were all eyeing her and thinking how they could use her to save their hide.
Suddenly a woosh sound could be heard as the doors of the palace opened, but there was no one there...
The left and right ministers were thoroughly scared by what happened, and the military minister looked around the palace but he couldn't find anything.
Yun Jhin was basically in their face as he laughed at them, he shrank to a size of 1 meter long using his body ki manipulating technique and waved slowly at them as he walked towards the treasury room.
The Long Empire's treasury was pretty rich considering they took taxes from 95% of the population, the 5% consisted of nobility that didn't have to pay taxes.
The treasury was full of herbs, spirit stones, armors, weapons, scrolls with techniques and other unique things, Yun Jhin ignored everything around him as he walked further inside the treasury.
The things he needed weren't those flimsy things, as he walked further into the treasury, the mountains of spirit stones herbs and other things started to thin, in front of him appeared a giant skull of a dragon!
The Long Empire was founded when the ancestor of the Imperial family found the skull of a dragon, with the help of a forbidden technique he extracted the last semblance of the bloodline from it and bestowed it upon his descendants, however, such a long time passed that the bloodline thinned out to the point that they wouldn't realize they got one. However this was where the dragon stone intervened, for the royal family it didn't grant them the bloodline, it refreshed and activated it!
This is why the Emperor wanted to get his hands on the dragon stone so bad, in the end, his bloodline was activated, but not at a fortunate moment.
Yun Jhin took a good look at the skull, this should help him advance further into the dragon caterpillar race tree. He walked towards it and easily disarmed the formation that was protecting it, then he opened his maw as an attracting force sucked the skull inside Yun Jhin's body.
Crunching sounds could be heard from his body as the old dragon skull disappeared from existence, it wasn't known at what realm it was when he lived but with so much time passing by it didn't matter as it became weak enough for Yun Jhin to digest.
The system made clear that it didn't disappear as a notification appeared in Yun Jhin's face:
[Eat 3 more dragon skulls, if the host cannot gain more dragon skulls, to evolve further, the host would need to eat 50,000 more humans with dragon bloodline, their cultivation should be atleast at the 1st stage of the ki cultivating realm.]
Yun Jhin looked at the system notification as he asked it:
"What if I ate 2 King realm sariras at the 2nd stage?"
The system took some time to respond as another notification appeared in front of him:
[Host would still need to eat atleast 5,000 more humans based on the ki intensity remaining in the sariras.]
Yun Jhin nodded his head as he dismissed the notification, he was getting closer and closer to his goal of reaching the peak of the draconic race tree, however, this wouldn't be the peak of his evolution, he wanted more and more, but he first needed to increase his cultivation for that...
The dragon head was consumed and even though his cultivation didn't reach the 3rd stage, with some help of the herbs inside the treasury he could still get there.
He made sure to get his claws on the rarest types that were beneficial to him and he made a pill that he immediately ate, with the pill in his body his cultivation was ready to break through to the 3rd stage.
He closed his eyes as his body filled up with ki again, this ki was purer than the last stage and the increase was substantial, he could feel his ki pathways strengthening along with his body, his soul was also engulfed in ki as it was purified and mended further. Yun Jhin could control the breakthrough to strengthen all of his attributes but if he did that it would take him long to finish.
But he didn't care as he would be extremely safe inside the treasury, no one would enter for a long while as they would be too scared of the retribution of the Heavenly Turtle sect.
While Yun Jhin was cultivating inside the treasury, outside things were in a pandemonium, Long Mumu's fair skin was bloody as the left minister held her hostage, the right minister had a smoking pipe in his mouth as he narrowed his eyes at the other older man and said:
"You want to escape with her highness? Such a sudden betrayal from you, the lackey of the crown prince, and the most supportive of the imperial family."
The left minister laughed as he watched the right minister movements, ready to retaliate and even kill Long Mumu if the man got closer to him, he looked at him and opened his mouth to say:
"Don't give me that bullshit Fuo Song, I know you wanted to kidnap her the moment you heard the Emperor fell, I saw it in your eyes, I just got to her first!"
The left minister thought that he could curry favor with the Heavenly Turtle sect if he gave them the most important current living imperial. The right minister shook his head as he looked at the left minister and said:
"I'm sorry Mumu."
His pipe grew to a length of 1 meter as it transformed into a sword going through both the left minister and Long Mumu's heart, he looked down at them as they both fell to the ground in a pool of blood and said slowly:
"It doesn't hurt to tell you this now, I have always been a spy from the Heavenly Turtle sect, and I'm disappointed to say that both the patriarch and your emperor fell in battle, I'm not sure who did it but both sides were fooled, however, that doesn't mean I will have to let the enemy live."
The left minister coughed mouthful of blood after mouthful of blood he wanted to say something but his eyes turned grey and lifeless as he took his last breath.
Fuo Song shook his head as he looked at the grisly sight in front of him and he took the sword out of his mouth as he pointed it at the downed bodies and incinerated them with a fireball that shot out of the tip of the weapon.
Unknowingly to him, while he finished the ministers and the other's in the imperial palace, Yun Jhin was quickly finishing his breakthrough, even though it took him longer than normal, it wasn't a breakthrough from a realm to another so it wouldn't take days or months, however, with the amount of time he used to finish his breakthrough his body still needed to adapt to the stage he was in for quite a while before another breakthrough.
He opened his dark eyes as he looked around and used his soul willpower to feel what happened around the palace, his willpower saw how the right minister finished the last official, Yun Jhin chuckled as he looked at the man and immediately realized that he was a traitor, how else would the sect know where the dragon stone was located?
Yun Jhin took his body out of the treasury as he stealthily walked towards the right minister, however, the man shook his head as he looked directly at the place Yun Jhin was and he said:
"I know where you are, dragon caterpillar, I'm not sure how you got back to the capital and why you have such a strong stealth technique on you, but I guess you will tell me later."
The man unleashed his aura which put him at the 9th stage of the ki cultivating realm, but there was also something strange but similar in his aura, his bloodline reeked of the tortoise smell, that's what Yun Jhin thought, he smelled like a tortoise!
It was impressive he could see through Yun Jhin's stealth technique, only those who cultivated the 4 beast's eyes or similar technique could see through his stealth, and that was because he wasn't at his full potential.
Yun Jhin chuckled as he looked at the man, his shorter body immediately expanded to its full length as he looked at the right minister and said:
"Well aren't you special, seeing through my stealth technique, are you descendant of the Black Tortoise?"
The man decline in saying anything as he observed Yun Jhin and said:
"Your dragon bloodline isn't that thick but it's consistent, a dragon caterpillar is a rather rare creature, I would like to know why would you put yourself in service to this pitiful empire, doesn't your pride stop your from doing that?"
Yun Jhin shook his head as he looked at him and said:
"The cycle of life and death continues, I will live they will die."
The man frowned as he looked at Yun Jhin and tried to understand what he meant by that, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dark claw that immediately clutched him!
Yun Jhin used the same formation as before, summoning a devil to do his bidding, he used all of the corpses that the man didn't bother to dispose of, of course with fewer corpses meant a weaker devil accepted the contract.
The man broke through the claws constraints but it was too late, Yun Jhin aimed a breath attack to him which hit him head-on, but Yun Jhin failed to kill him.
The man breathed hard as he fell out of a water defensive technique which took the form of a bubble, the devil seeped him of his ki when he clutched him in his claw, this was a natural talent of the devils, if you made physical contact with them, they could seep your ki and use it for themselves.
Fuo Song frowned as he felt his internal condition and decided he had to flee! He didn't live for such a long time to be killed here! He got baptized with the black tortoise blood and became an inheritor of its will, he couldn't die here!
However, Yun Jhin would never let pray to escape from him, his claws formed a few other handseals as the formation of the palace was triggered, but it wasn't the same as before, it was slightly modified.
Strong gravitational pressure applied to the right minister's body as Yun Jhin slowly got close to him and said:
"You should understand my previous words now right?"
The man chuckled then shook his head as he laid down on the ground, he accepted his death.
Yun Jhin smiled as he opened his mouth and ate him in one big mouthful.
The man tried to trash or even attack Yun Jhin's insides but unfortunately for him anything that entered in Yun Jhin's body wouldn't be able to leave.
Another notification appeared in Yun Jhin's face as he finished digesting the man:
[Black Tortoise bloodline found, Dragon bloodline found, lacking Vermilion Bird, White Tiger and Azure Dragon bloodline, the artificial celestial caterpillar can be created when all bloodlines are united! Artificial celestial caterpillar can reach rank 10,000 as long as it keeps consuming fully bodied members of the 4 sacred races.]
Yun Jhin frowned as he looked at the notification, he didn't know about this!