On the way to the capital

Yun Jhin checked the map again as he walked on a forest trail, he was quite far away from the capital and even at his fastest speed it would take him up to a month to get to it on foot, Yun Jhin shook his head as he looked at the map and muttered to himself:

"If I had my dragon mount..." If he had his dragon mount he would have arrived at the capital in nanoseconds, but that was just him reminiscing about his past he knew there was no chance to get his dragon mount back as it wasn't even dried bones anymore by now.

Yun Jhin kept running at a quick speed as his surroundings changed around him, the trees became sparser as he left the forest and entered a plain, there he met with a merchant caravan that he ignored and continued on his way to the capital, however, to get to the capital he had to go through a few cities that he couldn't avoid, or else it would take him a long time to get to the capital and Yun Jhin was a caterpillar that didn't dilly dally around.

He wanted to avoid cities due to his monstrous form that he was hiding using a cloak, unless he got to the ki cultivating realm he couldn't use his technique to hide his living corpse features, at the ki cultivating realm experts could start to transform their body using ki making them able to change their physical features, but that was only for the people who got their hands on such cultivation techniques.

Yun Jhin entered his first city after a few days of traveling and looked around, even though it looked better than the one near his sect it was still a pretty run-down city, he shook his head as he quickly looked around and found nothing worth noting of the city and left.

As he traveled Yun Jhin found more similar cities and as he got closer and closer to the capital he realized that the cities got better and better in quality of architecture and the living conditions of the people, the closer he was the more he realized how the empire worked, it was pretty much a normal monarchy where the nobles were kings and the civilians were treated worse than shit.

This was one of his favorite type of empires, most of the emperors of such empires were pretty self-centered and selfish, they would only look out for themselves making it easier to do things outside their bubble if Yun Jhin took a hold of the sects nearby the capital as long as he didn't attack the capital immediately he could grow in power enough to take over the empire by himself.

But he couldn't alert the sect that was fighting with the empire or else there would be problems, after all, the sect wanted to take over the empire unless the king realm expert fought and injured each other he would lay low no matter what, the emperor of the empire was already injured but that didn't mean he would go down when he was going to be attacked, he should have some aces up his sleeve.

Yun Jhin stopped at another city on the way to the capital where he found some plants that he ate with his main body, those plants strengthened his soul mending speed and put him closer to the fourth level of the heavenly realm.

After he looked around the city some more and found nothing else that could help his main body he tried to leave but somehow the city lord got a hold of his location and invited him to his palace.

Yun Jhin didn't refuse as he met with the city lord, just like the former city lord his family name was Long, all city lords were imperials, and the closer they were situated to the capital the more favored they were by the true imperial family.

This guy was quite close to the capital so he must be a quite important fellow to the imperial family, Yun Jhin wondered why he would get invited as he didn't do anything in the city but when he met with the man and heard his words he smiled inside, it seemed he was right.

Long Mansing was your average greedy fatty, he looked oiled up with dark slick back hair, he wore a flowered robe and had an amiable smile on his face, his small goatee and stature enhanced his funny look.

The man smiled as he immediately went to the subject and said:

"Sect leader Sun Sisheng of the Corpse Refining sect, my men heard how your son took over that city south of here, what was it called again? Slums something or whatever, we don't care about such a lowly city but we also heard you have killed the former city lord."

The man smiled as he walked forward to Sun Sisheng, how did he know about what happened was pretty normal, the rogues of the city must have put the information for auction and after it was bought it shared with everyone of importance.

Long Mansing stood up near the window of his office and said:

"You might have heard that the former city lord was isolated there as punishment, you have done a great favor to the right minister by silencing the man, even if you didn't know, I'm not sure why you are traveling to the capital but the right minister is looking forward to your visit, he also said that you can visit him at the palace at any time as he needs people of your caliber on his side."

The man smiled as he slid Yun Jhin a spatial bag that Yun Jhin grabbed and nodded at him, under his hood his red eyes were observing the fatty as he said:

"I might wonder if this city lord has any new information about the capital?"

The fat city lord chuckled as he kept his hands behind his back and said:

"Of course, as my city is quite close to the capital I get news way faster than the others, might I inquire what this sect master needs?"

By the looks of it, the dynasty was pretty desperate if they wanted to rope in sects from all over the counties.

After all, not all patriarchs reached the heavenly realm in such sects, most of them were at the peak of the earthly realm stuck there, even though the place Yun Jhin considered backwater was pretty bad there were worse places out there, Yun Jhin eyed the fat man before asking:

"I have heard the emperor is injured, might I know if he will come out of seclusion soon, I'm worried about the safety of the empire."

The fatty snorted as he looked at Yun Jhin's hood that was covering his face and said:

"Our emperor was injured due to the traitorous actions of one our generals, but he was already executed, as for his injuries he should heal himself soon enough, by that time the people who threaten our empire should be dealt with."

The man was full of bullshit, from what he could hear in his tone he was trying to force himself to think that it was true, from his tremblings lips it seemed that the emperor was injured quite lethally, Yun Jhin nodded to himself, the harder the fall of the emperor the harder he would hit the aggressor back when he would come to execute him.

Yun Jhin was ready to take his leave as he cupped his fists to the city lord, the city lord smiled and did the same gesture as he waved to Yun Jhin and let him leave as he muttered:

"To think that the empire fell so low we have to recruit this savage patriarch's from these lowly sects without even a ki cultivating realm expert *sigh* will the empire fall?"

Unknowingly to him, Yun Jhin heard every word that he muttered, Yun Jhin left the man's office and then the city as he shook his head, it seemed it wasn't going to be easy to eliminate the emperor and the other party, as he thought about it he realized that the emperor might not be the only king realm expert of the empire, however, he didn't have any further information, the only way to get more would be to join a faction in the capital.

Yun Jhin wasn't against joining factions, as he could leave them whenever he wanted, even if his temporary body would die he could just onto another one, but for now he would need to get more materials to evolve his mind-transforming caterpillar into a higher tier of the same race.

There were still some types of mind caterpillars that he could reach but he needed special material's such as white soul ginseng, death water of middle quality, and some eyes of a spiritual creature.

Those weren't rare materials but considering the location, he was in they might as well be extinct to him.

Yun Jhin frowned as he left the city and looked on the map, only a few more days before he would reach capital!

He walked through plains, he walked through some mountain zones and some other forest trails until he finally reached the capital.

The capital wasn't that beautiful but it exuded opulence, the giant gates that were open as they weren't in war times officially, Yun Jhin shook his head as he observed the opulence of the capital, with the money and resources they wasted to beautify the capital they could have created some more experts!

He looked around as he counted the materials used, golden sand, soul marble, dainty ice, dragon scales rock.

The gates were painted with two dragons intertwined, one was red and one green, they looked like they were fighting and embracing at the same time, Yun Jhin wasn't sure what did they signify as he didn't research the history of the empire.

After a while of traveling, Yun Jhin finally reached the capital!

Coincidentally as soon as he reached the capital he met with an allay of people who were carrying a sedan chair with an extremely beautiful woman on it, her white baby clear skin, blue eyes, and long flowing blonde hair made her look sexy and innocent at the same time, Yun Jhin stopped a nearby netizen of the capital and asked him about the event:

"It's the main princess, Long Mumu, the one that the emperor dotes the most on, ah, just look at her beauty, it says that after her mother died the emperor went into such grief that he almost killed himself, but when she smiled at him all his grief went away and he returned to being the same emperor as before, maybe even more benevolent!"

Yun Jhin shook his head, what a good way to brainwash the citizens he thought, then he eyed the allay that was going deeper and deeper into the capital and approached the main palace. Yun Jhin's eyes sparkled as he thought about a plan to get inside the palace faster, this was one of the former abilities that lead him through hard times when he was weak.

But with his current body's appearance he couldn't do it, he needed to first break through the ki cultivating realm, after he made sure he memorized the layout of the capital he walked towards a shop that sold information and asked:

"I would like to know about the nearby sects, would this brother be so kind."

He waved a spirit stone in the air and the man at the desk nodded his head as he said:

"Well there are 5 sects that are nearby the capital, as for this brother's heroic aura I would recommend the Divine Feather's sect they are the strongest sect nearby and they have a patriarch at the 5th stage of the Ki cultivating realm."

That took the Divine Feather's sect out of his list as he couldn't attack the sect, or his body might get destroyed, he couldn't deal with a ki cultivating expert at the 5th stage.

Yun Jhin continued to look at the man as he waited for the information of the 4 other sects, the man continued by saying:

"The second sect would be The righteous sword sect their patriarch is at the 4th stage, then the beast taming sect, 3rd stage patriarch, the reliance sect with a patriarch at the 2nd stage and most lastly the dragon eating sect, this one of the sect's that I wouldn't recommend this brother to join."

Yun Jhin's eyes narrowed at the name, dragon eating, that meant the sect was directly going against the imperial family, quite an interesting thing.

As Yun Jhin inquired about the sect's name the shopkeeper was ready to tell him the story as he eyed the spirit stone and said:

"This friend would have to pay the whole spirit stone for all the information."

Yun Jhin nodded at him and threw him the spirit stone, then the man cupped his fists and started his story.