My Journey to Godhood as a Caterpillar

Yun Jhin's steps were steady and his gait strong as he walked through the empty universe, the only thing that was lightning up his path were the starlight beams that were trying to disintegrate him into ashes just like Yuan Fang had been.

But Yun Jhin's body and cultivation were way higher, no matter how hard the pressure was attacking him he endured it as he walked further and further, with every step an incalculable distance was traveled.

The more he walked towards the center of the universe the more starlight approached him to destroy his body and soul.

However nothing changed, Yun Jhin continued to walk forward with a serious expression on his face as if his body wasn't his, it was like he couldn't feel anything, as if the torturous attacks of the body and soul burning starlight weren't even mosquito bites to him, he didn't even flinch as he walked forward while he muttered:

"One more step... just one more step."

It was as if he was possessed, the more he walked the quicker he became, the starlight even started to deviate as his speed increased to the point that the starlight couldn't touch him anymore.

"One more step, one more step!"

Step by step he walked forward and finally he reached his destination. In front of him stood the center of the universe, the place where the universe originally started from, the place that let all the living beings in existence appear.

Yun Jhin wasn't mesmerized by the sight nor was he interested in anything else as he continued to walk forward, the surroundings were rather dreamy with blue-colored nebulae surrounding him but he ignored everything.

The closer he walked to the core of the universe the more he could feel that his surroundings were shaking, it wasn't him nor his vision that was acting up, the surroundings were truly shaking.

The universe felt threatened by Yun Jhin's presence, it was the first time a mortal had arrived near its core and it knew that it didn't come with any good intentions, while it didn't have human-like intelligence it had beast instincts that told it when it was in danger.

However, no matter how hard his surroundings shook Yun Jhin's gaze or footing didn't change, he walked slowly towards a nebula that looked the same compared to all of the others and put his hand inside of it.

A crunching sound could be heard the moment his hand was inserted into the nebulae, it was almost as if his hand entered the mouth of an apex predator, his pain sensors flared up as he felt his hand being disintegrated quickly.

But he ignored the feeling as he started to insert his whole arm through the nebula, then his whole body!

The pain was excruciating to the point that he almost blanked out even with his current pain endurance threshold and immense cultivation, however, he held onto his consciousness and entered the nebula with his whole body.

After he entered the nebula he couldn't see anything anymore, he couldn't feel anything, everything around him was as dark as the start of the universe.

But his memories were still there, his life was still there, he didn't die but he felt as if he was dead at the same time.

However this feeling quickly disappeared as in the darkness a white globe appeared.

Yun Jhin took a few steps through the darkness and reached it, the globe had countless images going through it, from the birth of a baby to the death of an old man, from the creation of a sect and the destruction of the said sect, life, and death, a continuous cycle that would never stop in the universe regardless in which realm you lived. Be it either Hell or the former celestial realm, everyone experienced death!

The difference was only that some people lived well during their lives, they had fulfilling lives, they did what they wanted when they wanted, their lives were something that they enjoyed and they left the world content.

However Yun Jhin was never content, he never knew when to stop, he wanted better, every time he wanted better he failed and fell on his back to realize that he had overexerted himself in a situation that he could have lived very well with what he got.

He knew that his behavior was self-destructive, at one point he thought that he wouldn't be able to live through the reincarnation process again, he wanted to see what the otherworld was like but he was scared of what type of tortures he would go through for all of his sins. In the end, no matter how much he controlled his emotions in the face of absolute strength he couldn't do anything else besides begging.

However, Yun Jhin's claw-like hands grasped the white globe, it was melded into the surrounding darkness but with Yun Jhin's strength, he removed it after a long time of trying to drag it towards him.

Time passed by so quickly that Yun Jhin didn't realize when his hair turned white, his shaking hands were holding onto the globe and as he saw his reflection in it he realized he had grown old, a chuckle came out of his mouth:

"So you are still trying to get the upper hand even in this situation? Playing the same cards, again and again, you thought that if you held out to the point that I would have died of old age you would win?"

Yun Jhin's body was slowly transforming into dust as his old age caught him, it took a very long time to remove the globe from where it was situated but Yun Jhin succeeded in the end, however the moment he succeeded he realized that he was also on the death bed!

"Thinking that old age would do me in again?"

Yun Jhin chuckled as his legs disappeared leaving only his torso, arms, and head, his arms also slowly started to disintegrate as the globe floated in front of him, his torso was next and only his head remained.

However, the last second before his head disappeared forever, he opened his mouth and an immense suction force took the globe into his mouth.

The globe shattered inside Yun Jhin's mouth as immense energy that he had never experienced before entered his head, he closed his eyes as his age slowly started to revert to his prime, a new torso arms, and legs grew out of his head.

He opened his eyes and they were black with silver pupils, his body was unlike before, it was scrawny and looked extremely weak it was just like a person's who would die of malnutrition.

However, the moment he clenched his weak skinny arms his whole surroundings started to crack and break, the space that was confining him exploded like fireworks.

He could feel some presence behind him as he moved his whole body to look who was behind him he saw the silhouettes that he saw in his vision when he was comprehending his breakthrough in the celestial realm.

The moment his eyes met with those dark ones he realized that it was the person that helped him and gave him the system.

Hades took a few steps forward as he bowed from the waist down and said:

"Welcome to the True Realm, or better known amongst our people, The True God Realm!"

Yun Jhin took a few steps forward and looked directly into Hades's eyes as he asked:

"So this is what true godhood feels like?"

Hades laughed, his eyes filled with hellfire and his flowing beard moving alongside his laughter as he said:

"Not what you expected right? You have just destroyed the universe that you came from, go on take a look behind you."

Yun Jhin moved his head to look backward and saw a small granule-sized speck of dust disappearing from his sight, there were an infinite amount of such granules as he looked down and he realized that none of them were breaking like his, all of them were steady and strong looking and as he took a second look that focused on one of the granules he saw countless cosmoses and galaxies roaming around full of living creatures of different races.

His sight returned from the focused state as he looked at Hades and asked again:

"These are all your creations?"

"Mine? No."

Hades shook his head as he waved his hand behind him:

"They are our creations."

Countless characters appeared behind Hades as he said that, one of the most important ones that he recognized was the fat jolly man with a unique light aura, Buddha!

Yun Jhin shook his head, as he ascended he realized that fighting with Buddha for his reincarnation wouldn't bring him anything, at this point he reached the ultimate enlightenment and realized there is no more to do.

Hades looked at Yun Jhin with a grim look as he said:

"Hey don't go to sleep the moment you arrived, you have reached the peak and you are already bored of it? Atleast leave behind a universe before you go."

Yun Jhin looked around, the spirit realm, the realm that all practitioners would reach when they achieved the ultimate enlightenment and broke through to the True God Realm... it was blank, besides the granules of dust that were covering an infinite amount of space below him there was nothing else.

Most of the characters behind Hades had their eyes closed as they didn't say anything, only Buddha gave him one glance before he closed his eyes as well.

Hades was the only active person.

Yun Jhin turned towards Hades, he had many questions that he wanted to be answered.