Yun Jhin flew quickly, looking around the dilapidated houses with his soul will, he tried to find a very weak soul that he could take control of, he needed one human to control so he would be able to infiltrate the sect and get his hands on better materials that he needed to eat to evolve, as for the fortuned caterpillar evolution, where could he find 1000 fortuned people?
Fortuned people were people that the universe loved and they were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, he decided to stop thinking about the fortuned caterpillar form as it wasn't even remotely possible to put his hands on it, technically speaking the fortuned caterpillar was a higher existence compared to the celestial and devilish ones, after all, it would be the most loved caterpillar of the universe.
But the universe was currently directly hating Yun Jhin for how many 'sons and daughters' he slaughtered, how could the system transform him into a fortuned caterpillar he didn't know, was the system above the universal laws? that wasn't right at all.
He shook his head as he stopped thinking about such things, he finally found a weak will enough he could take control of and flew directly into the dilapidated house that was ready to fall on its inhabitant's head.
It was a poor boy that looked to be around 8 years old, he looked sick as his countenance was so pale it was almost transparent, his stomach was grumbling as he looked around trying to see any bug or thing he could eat, suddenly he saw Yun Jhin and jumped directly at him with a weak attempt to try to capture and eat him.
Yun Jhin shook his head as he saw the youths attempt at capturing him, he was too weak from starvation to do anything to him, he entered the youth's ear as a wet squelch was heard, as he entered the boy's cranium and bit into his brain a notification appeared:
[Due to your actions a different branch of the soul-devouring caterpillar has been unlocked, mind-controlling caterpillar!]
[Do you wish to undergo evolution right now?]
Yun Jhin closed his eyes as a cocoon started to form inside the boy's mind, he was pretty much braindead right now, after Yun Jhin bit into his brain, he made it stop functioning, the youth was like the living dead as he collapsed on the ground, however, his stomach kept on growling even though his brain was dead his body was alive, as an evil sect which was proficient in undead Yun Jhin couldn't take control of a dead body, he needed to keep this boy alive, he sent some of his nutrients in the boy's body to keep it alive while he continued his evolution, afterward, he would try his best to get his hands on some food for his new body.
After what felt like days of waiting for the transformation, it was finally was done, breaking out of his cocoon which also enveloped the boy's brain he was now connected to it by a sharp stinger, he could now see what they boy saw but not feel, so he wasn't hungry, but the body still gave him warnings when it would be injured or well hungry. His body shrank to not burden the boy's cranium and his length and width were just a bit bigger than a normal caterpillar now, his rank was reset to 1, the mind-controlling caterpillar was a variant of the soul-devouring one and it could gain rank 7, his soul was already basically devoured after he bit into the boy's brain but his body was still alive.
The boy's stomach continued growling as the hunger was still there, the nutrients Yun Jhin gave him were enough to keep him alive but not sate his hunger. The boy got up from the ground as he looked at his hands. (...)
Finally a familiar body, I thought to myself, even though I will have to discard it in the future it was better than being a caterpillar, fortunately, this system was extremely useful and it gave me what I needed to grow stronger and evolve, at least in instructions.
The boy was emaciated and small from starvation, his brown hair was also very long reaching his waist, he wore nothing but ragged clothes, he was one of the kidnapped people who didn't have a talent for cultivation but this could change now with me in control.
However, first I needed to get this body some food, afterward, I can start cultivating, a notification appeared in front of me:
[Mind controlling caterpillars share their cultivation with their hosts and can absorb it back into their bodies if they wish to leave the host's body]
Very convenient I thought to myself. (...)
Yun Jhin shook his head as he left the dilapidated house and walked around looking for another weak signal of life, he knew what he needed to do to fill his belly, he quickly found another weak signal, it was a little girl around the same age as the boy, her eyes widened in surprise seeing the boy as she said:
"Kintaro, how can you walk? did you get some food?"
Her eyes were hopeful as she looked at him, it seemed the little girl knew the boy named Kintaro, however now there wasn't a Kintaro anymore, just Yun Jhin!
Kintaro smiled at the little girl, as he devoured his soul he gained some of the boy's memories which he was now looking through:
"Yun-Yun I have gained some food, you just stay there quietly as I will feed it to you."
The girl known as Yun-Yun smiled weakly at the boy as she waited, Yun Jhin kept his hands behind him as he walked closer to her, thinking that the food was behind his back she thought that he was going to give her a surprise, and a surprise he did gave her.
Before he entered the house he got his hands on a sharp rock which he immediately sent through her soft skull as he got as near as possible to her, her visage was blocked into the same weak smile as before as her gray matter splattered on the ground, Yun Jhin smiled at his handy work and then quickly went to work with the rock, he cut strips of her flesh and started to devour them raw where he used one of his cultivation techniques to transform them into pure energy that sailed through his body.
As he finally finished the young girl's body and cleaned the area with her clothes he could feel the strength within himself, it was the first stage of the earthly realm, organ tempering! to be able to sustain the other temperings the body would first strengthen the organs before moving to bones muscles and lastly skin.
Yun Jhin's human skin started to itch but he chose to ignore it, but he couldn't ignore his caterpillar body as he thrashed a little inside the brain, dead skin left his body as he threw it outside the head, form the ears of Kintaro's body a bunch of dead skin appeared which he picked up and ate.
Yun Jhin nodded his head as he checked his inner situation properly, he was at the first stage of the earthly realm and his internal organs were changing, a caterpillar didn't have many internal organs so he skipped directly to skin tempering, however technically speaking he was still a stage 1 practitioner.
He used the Devil human devouring cultivation technique combined with Kintaro's body he easily achieved stage 1 and he was ready for stage 2, he only needed to devour more bodies to reach that stage.
Yun Jhin's smile appeared on Kinator's body it was a scary smile someone wouldn't want to see even in their worst nightmares, something so vile that couldn't be explained with words alone, it was the smile of an apex predator ready to hunt.
Then he shook his head as he felt Kinataro's body shake as he coughed up a mouthful of black blood, these were the impurities that made his body unable to cultivate, he cleaned his mouth as he looked down at the black blood and left the dilapidated house, no one knew what he did here, the official apprentices wouldn't bother themselves checking the house of slaves.
Speaking from experience, kidnapped people who couldn't cultivate would be either enslaved or thrown to the beasts that the sect reared, Kintaro was lucky and unlucky at the same time as he was sent to die slowly in these houses that were almost ready to fall on them, as Yun Jhin looked at the body's former house, it finally fell after he breathed towards it a bit too hard.
Yun Jhin shook his head as he looked at the house, now that he could cultivate he could join the sect officially, it was a thing he didn't really like, him the greatest leader of the throne of blood, to join a backwater sect that held only one heavenly realm expert?
But he immediately strangled his pride as he walked towards an apprentice who was supposed to watch the slaves, he was there to make sure no one ran away and properly died in their homes so they could be thrown in the cemetery to create more zombies, those zombies based on quality would either be taken back or a patrol would come to exterminate them, however, 95% of the time they would be exterminated.
The apprentice's eyes narrowed as he looked at Yun Jhin and said:
"Halt where do you think you are going, slave!"
Yun Jhin shook his head as he creates a small flame in his palms and then faked that he collapsed, the apprentice eyes widened in surprise, a slave cultivated to the earthly realm? this never happened before!
He quickly carried Kintaro's feeble body away towards the sect medicine hall where he told the doctor what happened, the doctor was an old man with a blind eye who wore a white gown and brown sandals, he looked at Yun Jhin's body and checked his pulse as he said:
"Yes, hmm, yes the first stage of the earthly realm, newly entered his body is over exhausted and starved, he needs to eat, as a cultivator we need to at least give him the bare needs, unlike those trash slaves, get him some food and some robes, you will take care of him until he wakes up."
He carried me towards his house which was only a little better compared to the dilapidated house that Kintaro lived before, Yun Jhin shook his head as he looked at the house with his eyes narrowed, he waited for the man to give him some food and water before he woke up, the man walked up to him with a friendly gaze as he said:
"Hello there junior brother, you gave me a scare back there, who would know that a slave could learn how to cultivate by themselves?"
This was something that never happened before in their sect but it did happen in some nearby sects so the medicine hall elder didn't investigate, after all, it was only a lowly disciple who broke through the first stage of the earthly realm by luck. (...)
I got up from the bed and weakly smiled at the man as I said:
"Might I know your name elder brother?"
The man laughed as he said:
"My name's Chu Mang, what's your name junior brother? Just so you know I was assigned by the medicine elder to look after you till you get better, I also got some robes for you."
He pointed near the bed where a black robe made for my small size was neatly arranged, I faked a blush as the man turned around and put the robes on my body, it looked just like the other apprentices, I nodded to myself and said:
"You can turn now elder brother Chu Mang, I'm done changing, also my name is Kintaro."
The man heaved a chuckle as he said:
"Ok then, if you feel better we can go to the mission hall to get you registered what do you say?"
I nodded my head at him but suddenly faked a tumble as I fell from the bed, the man quickly caught me before I could fall and put me back in the bed as he said:
"It seems you aren't ready yet, go rest for a while, I will come with some food so you can recover your strength, after all, I know what you went through."
A dark light went through Chu Mangs's eyes as he said that, it seemed he was a former slave himself.
I looked at his back as he left the house and thought:
"I cannot kill and devour him for my cultivation, they would investigate, it's not like he is one of the slaves, I would need to stealthily go back and eat more slaves, but if I eat too many they would realize... I need to get the job of a corpse disposer." (...)
Yun Jhin knew that most of these types of sects had a corpse disposer, one of the weakest disciples who were the ones that had to carry the corpses to the cemetery, he needed to get this job so he could eat them to further his cultivation!