Yun Jhin's big body flew above the ocean as he looked down at it from time to time, getting to the long empire while flying would be faster than swimming with the water horses but it would still take him almost 7 to 8 days, while Yun Jhin flew towards the empire, the empire was in an internal crisis.
The crown prince had a haggard expression on his face as he kneeled beside another young-looking man, the man's aura engulfed the whole imperial palace as he glared at the crown prince, the man then opened his mouth and said:
"I have finished healing and I even broke through, but you tell me you lost your elite squad and the dragon stone as well? You are very lucky the Heavenly turtle sect hadn't retaliated for your dumb act yet! If they attacked while I was healing the empire would have been done for!"
His aura intensified as the kneeling crown prince fell to the ground, the ground started cracking due to the intensity of the aura and the crown prince's bones started to make crunching sounds as they were breaking due to the pressure. The crown prince wanted to get up and kowtow to his father but he couldn't due to the aura.
Long Huang frowned as he looked at his eldest son and said slowly:
"I even heard you assassinated your younger brother with the help of an outsider that died during the dragon stone recovery mission, I'm extremely disappointed!"
The man pointed at the downed crown prince as he continued to berate him:
"It doesn't matter that you killed that weakling but you didn't even make good use of the assassin either, you even let spies in your party that told me about what you have done, my disappointment is unmeasurable and my happy day is ruined."
The emperor wanted to throw out a banquet for healing and having his breakthrough but the right minister immediately contacted him and told him everything that happened while he was in seclusion, the failures that the crown prince had made soured his mood to the point that he almost thought of killing his son!
His anger subsided as he looked at his son's downed form and remembered about his late wife, even though he had more concubines that gave him children, the crown prince was the most talented and had a chance to follow him into the King Realm even though it was a very low chance.
His aura dissipated as he looked at his son and said:
'Jun'er your father isn't making things tough for you on purpose, you have failed consecutively so many times so I have to punish you."
The emperor shook his head as the crown prince started shaking in fright, he pointed towards him and gave out his final verdict:
"Due to everything that happened up till now, unless you gain enormous merit you will have to be exiled out of the capital, your crown prince title is removed, you cannot come back unless you get the dragon stone back or something equivalent to it!"
The crown prince started kowtowing with tears in his eyes as he was thrown outside of the capital, the man grumbled as he looked down at his feet and left, his eyes wandered around as he found himself in the forest near the capital and he shouted:
"GODDAMIT GODDAMIT, SUN SISHENG HOW COULD YOU HAVE FAILED!"
The crown prince blamed Yun Jhin for everything that happened, he most likely thought Yun Jhin betrayed them and the heavenly turtle sect killed him as well after they made use of him, he couldn't take revenge on Yun Jhin even if he wanted to, he tried to find his family or sect but after some investigations, he found out that the sect was full of weaklings that weren't even at the heavenly realm and his family was dead!
The crown prince fell to his knees as he punched the ground multiple times in anger, his face looked like a malevolent spirit's as it distorted his beautiful features, suddenly he heard a growling coming from the forest.
He ran towards the growling regardless of consequences, he felt that the aura that the owner of the growl emanated was 4 stages below his, as he walked slowly into the forest he found out a long dragon caterpillar with a wound in its sides, near it stood the dragons stone!
The crown prince eye's widened in delight and surprise as his body started shaking and he said slowly:
"Do the heavens want me to become the emperor? this is..."
He examined the injured dragon caterpillar and then the dragon stone, he slowly approached both of them but the dragon caterpillar growled as it started talking:
"Don't come near me human! I will burn you to a crisp!"
Inside the dragon caterpillar's mouth, fierce flames started to appear and he pointed his mouth directly to the Long Jun's body, the flames were so strong that they could even burn his body that was strengthened to the 5th level of the ki cultivating realm, he was even close to the 6th level after so many years of training.
The crown prince backed away from the dragon caterpillar as he looked at it, of course, it was Yun Jhin who made up this act was to try and get close to the crown prince and the emperor in his current new form, they would try to contract with him and make him their pet.
Yun Jhin continued to growl as he looked at the crown prince's small form, his wings started to flutter, but the crown prince slowly got closer and closer to Yun Jhin and he said slowly with a scared look on his face:
"I see you are wounded, please let me take care of you..."
The dragon caterpillar snorted as his big frame moved a little bit showing his wound to the crown prince better, however his mouth was still full of flames if the man decided to attack him while he showed him his weakness he would be burnt to a crisp!
Long Jun backed away as he said:
"I know that most likely a human injured you, but not all humans are the same, please let me help you, I just want to be able to use the dragon stone in your possession."
If he gained any amount of dragon bloodline his imperial father would welcome him back with open arms, the right minister and his party wouldn't be able to say anything as well, and he could even leak the location and existence of the dragon caterpillar while he was at it!
Yun Jhin's body started shaking in pain as his wound opened up and fresh yellow blood started to pour out of it, however, he kept his dragon face serious, the crown prince approached his body and started to tend to him, Yun Jhin kept his mouth aimed at him the whole time.
The crown prince didn't lie as he started to help him to heal, even though he didn't need it, it was just an act to get near the crown prince, after a few months Yun Jhin was as good as new, but he sneered inside as he looked at the giddy crown prince and he lent him the dragons stone.
The dragon stone glowed a deep yellow light as it engulfed the crown prince, the higher the cultivation the better the effects, after a few hours the dragon stone stopped glowing and out of the light came the crown prince who broke through the 6th stage of the ki cultivating realm!
The crown prince laughed as he patted Yun Jhin's big body and he said slowly:
"What's your name dragon friend? would you mind if we made a contract?"
Yun Jhin kept his pitch-black eyes narrowed as he looked at the crown prince and said in a distrustful tone:
"What kind of contract?"
Cultivation beasts could make contracts with humans to get what they needed peacefully, however, most of the cultivation beasts would never let their pride down to accept such contracts, but Yun Jhin made himself look more humble because the crown prince 'healed' him.
The crown prince Long Jun smiled as he looked at the dragon caterpillar and thought to himself:
"I helped him heal, he should trust me enough, for now, I should be able to come back to the capital with the dragon caterpillar and stone in tow!"
The man approached Yun Jhin's body as he used his soul willpower to transfer the contract to Yun Jhin's consciousness space, there Yun Jhin looked over it and he sneered inside, even though on the surface it looked like a contract that would benefit both parties, there was a hidden clause that would make him a slave if it was broken!
Yun Jhin smiled inside as he looked at the contract, with his proficiency in soul manipulation he could easily change the contract in such a way that the other party wouldn't realize, after he finished changing the contract to his liking he signed it!
The contract returned to Long Jun's consciousness space as he looked over it, seeing nothing wrong with it he signed it as well as he smiled devilishly inside, then he patted Yun Jhin's body as he said:
"Your name is Yun Jhin, right? The soul contract showed me your true name."
Yun Jhin leaked his name to make him more trustful, but it didn't matter, he never used this name in this life besides in the Earth Kingdom, and they wouldn't link a gigantic dragon caterpillar to a now-dead human, besides where would they get the news of what happened in the Earth Kingdom? The heavenly turtle sect would surely not leak those type of news.
Long Jun jumped on Yun Jhin's body as he said slowly:
"Let's make a great entrance, to the capital, my new friend!"
Yun Jhin complied with his order as he started flying directly inside the capital, the capital wasn't that far away so they got there very quickly, Long Jun had the dragon stone in his hand as he made Yun Jhin fly above a certain courtyard of the palace and land there.
After a very short while the Emperor quickly walked inside the courtyard as he looked at his son with wide appreciative eyes, he walked forward as he patted Yun Jhin's thick body and then looked at the dragon stone in his son's hand, he thought that his son might never come back into the capital again, after all, how could a young man below the King Realm invade the heavenly turtle sect to get the dragon stone back?
However, it seemed luck was on his son's side as he found not only the dragon stone but a guardian beast for the Empire, The dragon caterpillar!
The emperor appreciated Yun Jhin's big thick body as he looked at it up and down and then he took the dragon stone from his son's outstretched hands as he ruffled his hair and said:
"The other's can't say anything about your failures anymore son, actually you should be rewarded as you came in with something extra!"
Yun Jhin's voice was heard after the duo finished talking:
"I was promised cultivation resources."
The emperor laughed as he patted Yun Jhin's body again as he said:
"Of course my draconic friend, we need you to be strong to be the guardian beast of the empire, in future invasions we will need your help, and that might be quite soon, fortunately, I have some draconic herbs that would agree with your bloodline perfectly!"
Even though the draconic herbs were meant for him, a dragon caterpillar had a better battle power than most humans, if he increased his cultivation quickly he might even be able to fight peak human experts that were at the 4th or 5th stage of the ki cultivating realm!
The emperor left leaving Yun Jhin and the crown prince alone, Long Jun looked at his new friend as he started to pat his body fondly while saying:
"You have done great Yun Jhin, I'm very happy that I found you, my father should come with those herbs sooner or later, actually if I look at you more, you are even cute, you might be able to soothe the broken heart of my little sister."
Long Mumu became brokenhearted when she heard that her sweetheart Sun Sisheng died in the retrieval mission and she hid in her room ever since.
Now with Yun Jhin's arrival, the crown prince wanted to use him as a pet to help her out of her depression.
Yun Jhin didn't say anything but he narrowed his eyes inside, he didn't like that woman very much, but until he reached atleast the 8th stage of the ki cultivating realm he would need to put up with the imperial family's antics, after all, he was here to advance his dragon bloodline.