Yun Jhin kept his breathing exercises even, one more month passed by and he got his hands on one more allowance from the sect, with it he was now at the 7th stage of the earthly realm, one more allowance and he would either reach the 8th or 9th stage, Chen Ming looked at Yun Jhin weirdly as he kept pacing around the cave, he didn't care the yin energy amount subsided, it happened in the past, sometimes it would increase some time decrease, he didn't know much about it as his knowledge in formations was basic at best, he knew how to keep the formation working and repair it, but anything above that wasn't his domain, after all, the heavenly realm patriarch set up the formation not him.
Chen Ming coughed awkwardly as he looked at Yun Jhin and said:
"Uh, junior brother it seems your growth is quite fast, haha, nothing expected from a man that could externalize his talent, even though you were already quite old when you started cultivating it seems your potential just doesn't want to let you go unnoticed."
Chen Ming's cultivation was at the 6th stage of the earthly realm, elders were assigned the position at the 6th stage and Yun Jhin was already the 7th stage so he was basically outranking Chen Ming already, the difference between cultivation bases was quite huge so even when Yun Jhin was one level below him, he still thought he had the upper hand but the moment Yun Jhin passed him in cultivation he started to wag his tail at him like he was a small puppy who saw some delicious food for the first time.
Chen Ming knew that he would still get the rewards from guarding the corpse for such a long time but he knew he would have to share them with Yun Jhin so that was why he started to pester him and say how much talent he had, how handsome he was and other compliments that he shamelessly spewed with his old mouth.
Most of the time Yun Jhin ignored him but some other times he nodded his head, which made the old man extremely happy, most of the time Yun Jhin would still be the one who protected the corpse king's cave while Chen Ming would still come with the corpses, even though Chen Ming thought that the corpse gathering mission was easier and he wanted to give it to Yun Jhin, however, the body snatcher refused him.
He needed to be near the corpse king when it woke up to control it, if not there was a chance it might truly go berserk due to that paste he fed him a month ago, it did increase the corpse kings growth rate but it also made it unstable, the mind-controlling poison was there to numb him for enough time so Yun Jhin could take control of his consciousness space with his soul technique.
Chen Ming left Yun Jhin alone as he went on corpse scavenging again, even though he couldn't find corpses daily it was his job to search for them every day, so he couldn't laze around, some of the other elders might even talk about his back and report to the sect master, his allowance would be then lowered and he would make less cultivation progress, he knew that he couldn't advance much anymore, so he tried his best to get as many cultivation resources as he could, he thought that if he got enough he might be able to breakthrough.
The man's thoughts were correct but after he broke through the 7th stage he would never be able to go further, the man just wasn't talented enough, Chen Ming was already an old man and he was stuck at the 6th stage, while Chu Mang's body didn't even reach 40 years old and he was at the 7th stage. That was the difference in talent!
Technically speaking as long as Chu Mang got a decent cultivation technique and some of the resources that Yun Jhin got he could have got to the 7th level by himself in the same amount of time. Chu Mang's talent was decent but Yun Jhin found it to be only barely acceptable for a temporary body.
Yun Jhin sighed as he continued to cultivate and waited, inside Chu Mang's cranium Yun Jhin was looking at another notification from the system:
[Evolution towards mind-controlling butterfly stage one available, continue?]
Yun Jhin shook his head, evolving to a butterfly meant the end of his evolutionary state, because once he became a butterfly he would never be able to go back again, and the butterfly evolutions were extremely limited, he already knew which race of caterpillar he needed to achieve the peak so he ignored the words in front of his face. (...)
After I dismissed the notification I looked around the cave then at the corpse king, he was getting stronger and stronger by the day, only a month or so was left before I would turn the formation into a full-throttle that would immediately awaken the corpse king, I only just needed one more stage of the earthly realm, it would be for the best if I directly advanced to the 9th stage as it would increase my chances of possessing the heavenly realm patriarch.
Chen Ming came back after a few days of searching with a few more cultivator corpses that he fed to the corpse king, I continued observing, finally, after another month I left my post and made sure the corpse king wouldn't awaken earlier by slowing the formation as much as possible to the point that Chen Ming even scratched his head in wonder why the cave wasn't wet damp and cold anymore.
I got more resources now that I was an elder, 2 corpse refining pills, 5 spirit stones, and 3 food pills, still a meager amount but enough for me to break through again. I decided to do my breakthrough in the cave after Chen Ming left after he finished feeding the corpse king, he left quickly as if my gaze could kill him. (...)
Chu Mang's body sat cross-legged as Yun Jhin's true body left his head and ate the resources, a dark brown aura engulfed him as he quickly entered back the man's cranium, the brown aura came from reaching the peak of the earthly realm, the earthly realm was called that because of its connection with the earth the cultivation lived on, they used the earthly ki to refine their bodies, afterward, they would connect with the heavenly ki in the heavenly realm, to refine their souls, that was the heavenly realm. the heavenly realm didn't truly connect to the heavenly realm, they would use the sky ki to refine their soul which was pretty much wind ki, however, it was called heavenly realm because the sky was the heavens for those who didn't venture into it.
Yun Jhin's caterpillar form shredded its skin for the last time as his body now was so though even other peak earthly realm practitioners couldn't break through it, since there weren't internal organs, bones or muscles to strengthen in a caterpillar all the cultivation energy went to strengthening his exterior carapace which made him pretty much unpenetrable unless a heavenly realm patriarch attacked his soul, but unlike a normal caterpillar his soul was extremely strong, so strong the heavenly patriarch would get backlash from attacking him unless he was at the 9th level.
Even if he couldn't achieve the full potential of his soul power the defense of his soul wasn't something measly heavenly realm bugs could touch.
Yun Jhin used Chu Mang's body to look like he stretched, popping sounds could be heard as the bones of the body started to strengthen, he finally reached the last phase as his skin sizzled and turned a deep red, after finally finishing with the bones and muscles his skin started to strengthen, the bags under his eyes were removed and his skin turned a deep pale color that then started to turn bronze.
Yun Jhin looked at his host's arms as the muscles now were big enough to crush Chen Ming's head with the biceps alone, he chuckled as he would imagine the man's expression when he saw him next.
Suddenly below a moan could be heard from the hidden hatch, even with the slower formation the corpse king woke up, it seemed the paste combination was a bit too strong, Yun Jhin narrowed his eyes as he thought:
"I think I gave him too much, whatever I'm stage 9, time to enact the plan."
He quickly walked down as he used his soul to immediately trigger the poison that should have made it's way to the corpse kings consciousness space, there the poison started acting stopping his moaning and mumbling as he woke up, as he was at his weakest, Yun Jhin directly sent his soul will into his consciousness space as he imprinted himself there, however, the consciousness space was stiff and hard, but Yun Jhin knew what to do in this situation, he transformed his soul will into a knife form that carved his control center inside the consciousness space, finally after a short while Yun Jhin finished his job and looked up as he felt that Chen Ming was swimming down to the cave.
Right at the best time, Yun Jhin thought to himself he immediately shouted as he put an excited look on his face:
"Elder brother Chen Ming, the corpse started moaning, go get the sect master, the corpse king is waking up!"
Seeing the excited look on his face and how he could also hear some slow moans from below, Chen Ming started swimming upwards like his ass was on fire as he then started running towards the inner palace of the sect where the sect master meditates.
Yun Jhin chuckled as he felt the will of both the peak 9th stage earthly realm and the heavenly realm patriarch stir at the news, they were quickly running towards the location as if their lives depended on it.
It was time for a show, a show which would decide the future of the Corpse Refining sect!