Yun Jhin started to give out orders to the zombies making them spread out so they wouldn't all catch on fire by a lucky strike from the apprentices from above, they were now huddled together back to back trying to see any movement below, waiting to strike again with a fireball. Yun Jhin chuckled as he looked at the four people outside and he suddenly threw out a wave of soul power-infused attacks immediately rattling the apprentice's brains.
Another hand popped out of the ground dragging another fellow down into the catacombs, the zombies swarmed him like a horde, his soul left his body as Yun Jhin absorbed it quietly delighted at the taste of the soul of a cultivator which was way tastier to him compared to normal souls.
He would have licked his lips if he had a tongue and for the matter lips as well, he did the same thing as before, however, unlike before a fireball suddenly hit nearby almost hitting Yun Jhin head-on and ending his reincarnation cycle forever, cold sweat appeared on his soul form as he looked up and sensed the people above.
They were all scared and one of them randomly threw a fireball that almost ended his life! Angry at his complacence and the other party's luck he immediately sent out his most powerful soul wave stunning the trio, dragged underground while being stunned they were light work, the souls devoured, strengthening Yun Jhin's soul and with the medium souls he acquired he even was ready to rank up as the system notification appeared:
[Ready to rank up to soul-devouring caterpillar Rank 2]
It would be quite sometime before another patrol party would come up to give themselves on a silver platter to the overlord caterpillar so he decided to take the notification seriously and he started his evolution process directly while being guarded by his new zombies, he already used his soul technique to enslave the other would-be zombies and ghouls.
After 6 days of incubation Yun Jhin finally broke through again reaching the soul-devouring caterpillar rank of 2, he could feel his soul mending at a quicker speed as he grew stronger and bigger, his wings turned transparent and his 'eyes' glowed with a deeper purple color, his body color also changed to a deep dark blue, his length increased to the length of two adult fingers, his width that of a kids palm.
Yun Jhin wasn't interested in his outer appearance as he looked at his newly risen slaves and nodded to himself, with the boost from being rank 2 he would need fewer souls to fix his soul and he would also devour them faster, the power of the soul-devouring caterpillar was useful for him now but in the future, after he fixed his soul leakage he would immediately abandon it.
He couldn't start cultivating either, he needed the body to be at the peak of its cultivation capability before he started, that meant rank 6 but if he changed his race his progress would be reset and he would need to rank up again, he didn't know if his cultivation would reset as well, he first needed to get to rank 6 and cultivate a bit before he changed his race to know what would happen.
Fortunately for Yun Jhin the patrol team this time came in the tens, but it obvious these people were all people who just started to refine their bodies, they were cultivators but they were the weakest of them all.
None of them took Yun Jhin's attention they were all weaklings, he immediately gave some orders to the zombies as he now sent out his soul waves at a certain group of three people who were huddled together, immediately they were dragged down and devoured by Yun Jhin, the others were scared like chickens, only one of them looked down and seemingly saw Yun Jhin's form in his pupils as he muttered:
"Soul devouring caterpillar?"
When Yun Jhin heard the teen's voice through his mental network he immediately became interested, he sent out a few mental waves towards the teen and his brain shook as he fell to the underground.
The teen wore the same dark outfit as the others, his dark green hair was peculiar as his gray pale orbs, he wasn't handsome by any other case but he looked quite different due to the uniqueness of his hair color and eyes. Suddenly he got up and a fire started to immolate the nearest zombies, fortunately, they weren't the ones made from cultivator corpses, it seemed him falling was a feint, he used this to make himself look vulnerable before counterattacking!
Yun Jhin narrowed his eyes as he observed the green-haired youth better, could there something different about him? he was in the earthly realm that was for sure, not that high either, at most the 3rd refining, he must have learned how to create flames just recently, there was something strange about him that made Yun Jhin attracted to him, like devouring him would give him a huge boost that would give him a big difference in his future evolutions, did the kid have a special bloodline or physique? (...)
I looked at the kid with narrowed eyes as I controlled the cultivator bodies to attack him when suddenly from above some fireballs dropped directly on a few other zombies and one even almost hit me as well, I flew deeper into the catacombs as I gave orders to the remaining zombies to kill the green-haired youth, I made them take a circular formation and hug him at the same time if he tried to immolate the zombies he would burn himself as well!
The youth smile disappeared from his face as I made the zombies bite into his flesh and drag him towards me, it seemed the mental connection he had with his teammates broke off as no more fireballs were sent down, either that or they ran out of energy. (...)
It was a bit strange considering they hit so many zombies accurately, the teen must have a treasure on him that was for sure, there was no way an earthly realm fledgling had such a strong soul that he could communicate with others, this could only be done at the heavenly realm and above.
Yun Jhin slowly approached the teen as he flew near him when the teen's voice entered his ears:
"Caught you."
Suddenly a bunch of fireballs fell from above almost immediately engulfing Yun Jhin's frail caterpillar form!
Almost dead and burnt to a crisp Yun Jhin sent his orders angrily at the zombies killing the green-haired youth, as fast as his little body let him he devoured the man's soul and body, leaving behind only a special type of conch shell, fortunately, he already reached rank 2 and his body was sturdy enough to survive the fireballs, however, if anything else hit him right now he would instantly die, he needed to recover, he left the zombies behind as he crawled away not caring if they were annihilated or not.
[Host situation is critical, host devoured a special kind of body and a soul artifact, due to the soul artifact your soul can be mended, the special fortuned constitution is added to the collection, devour 1000 fortuned ones to become a fortuned caterpillar, the system recommends to the host to find a hidden place to recover the host's physical strength and mend his soul!]
Yun Jhin already knew that he didn't need the system to remind him, he knew he felt something strange coming from the teen's body, that was the fortuned energy!
Fortuned people were extremely rare people that were loved by the universe, they tended to go pretty far in their cultivation if they weren't found out, however, most of the time old monsters like Yun Jhin would find out they have fortune energy in their body and try to assimilate them for themselves, but Yun Jhin tried this many times before but he couldn't just take a hold of the energy it would always slip between his fingers, as the universe's hatred for him increased every time he has slain one more fortuned person, maybe that was also one of the reasons he couldn't breakthrough.
He could hear the zombies moan behind him, they were becoming undead effigies as they burnt to the ground due to the efforts of the apprentices, he couldn't control them anymore and he let them do as they saw fit, even though a lot of them died almost 18, they still brought down 2 other apprentices, however, that left Yun Jhin to deal with at least 17 more. Yun Jhin knew there was no chance he could deal with them by himself and he already gained what he needed.
Now he needed to find a quiet place where he could undergo his soul mending and recovery of his physical strength, being a caterpillar with wings he was quite fast as he drilled down into the earth then he hid as deeply as he could rolling himself into a ball and starting the healing process.
He could hear footsteps above him, the disciples didn't look down as they started to run rampant in the catacombs, Yun Jhin frowned he won't be able to use the same strategy as before as it seemed they were ready to destroy all of the remaining corpses in one fell swoop!
He didn't need their help anymore, now he just needed to find another evolution he could hang on to after he mended his soul.
Yun Jhin closed his eyes as he used the artifact and the soul of the fortuned green-haired youth to mend the hole in his soul, slowly but surely his physical strength and mental one was restoring themselves at a quick speed, after he woke up he could feel that his powers were back to normal, his soul wasn't leaking memories anymore, fortunately, he only lost some of his earliest reincarnations that weren't that useful, even though he also lost some knowledge about some type of caterpillars it wasn't anything big.
Yun Jhin sighed as he got out of from the ground and looked around, he didn' see any zombies as he flew around, only smoldering ashes were left behind, the bodies of the cultivators were of the same state as the zombies, it seemed they knew there was something below the ground that was more terrifying than the zombies, Yun Jhin knew that he couldn't stay under the catacombs any longer or else the higher-ups of the sect might come to investigate and he wasn't ready at all for something like that!
Yun Jhin drilled out of the ground and flew away from the catacombs, as he looked around he saw the sect that stood nearby the cemetery, it was full of dull black painted houses that were almost ready to fall, they looked like the houses of commoners of the lowest rung lived in.
But those were only the one at the outskirts of the sect, there were also better houses and even a palace in the middle of the sect, the palace was painted brown purple and Yun Jhin could feel the power of a peak earthly expert living in there, hidden he could even feel a heavenly expert.
Yun Jhin sighed as he looked around, maybe he could hide inside the dilapidated houses, with some luck he could find a starving disciple that he could enslave with his soul will.