My Journey to Godhood as a Caterpillar

Chapter 161: Skeleton battle royale

The eye-less gazes on Yun Jhin's skeletal frame made him frown inside, it seemed that as a newbie he would be the first one to be targeted, especially because they didn't know who he was or where he was from.

An outsider would be an unknown factor in the minds of these 4 people so they immediately launched themselves at him, but due to the higher amount of time that they sat in the fire they were more weakened than him, also Yun Jhin's soul was way stronger than theirs at this point, after all, it was the soul of a previous peak God Realm expert, while they were only early Gods.

Yun Jhin could endure way better than them even though his soul was certainly weakened by a huge extent at this point.

Yun Jhin hardly dodged the charge from their attack when one of them used his flaming bones to try and crack Yun Jhin's skull.

Yun Jhin wasn't entirely sure what would happen when his body turned into dust, after all, that part only happened when he finished the first trial and he got resurrected near the entrance to the sea of fire... would he be thrown back at the entrance of the sea or would he be ejected from the trial?

He didn't want to find out!

Yun Jhin dodged the flaming bone by rolling his bones on the magma seafloor which melted most of his chest bones and backbones making his bones almost fail to cling to each other anymore, in this type of situation his skeleton wasn't really normal as a normal person's skeleton wouldn't have been able to endure such a high amount of heat without melting and transforming into dust.

While he had no cultivation Hell's willpower found it boring for them to die fast so he enhanced their skeletons to endure all of the fire while most of the damage went to their souls.

Yun Jhin's burning soul pain was making him almost go mad as flames started to appear in his empty eye sockets.

The other four people couldn't move properly due to the immense pain their souls were in and that meant their movement speed was quite low, Yun Jhin's speed was a little bit faster as he tried to get away from them, fighting in the middle of the sea didn't mean they would complete the trial, Hell's willpower indicated that the first who left the sea would have completed the trial so they didn't have to fight to the death... but the others knew from Yun Jhin's speed of arrival that he would be the first one to leave if they didn't interfere with his progress.

Even though Yun Jhin arrived last, he did complete the other trials faster than them, and it wasn't because he was more talented, his will was just more tempered because he had lived through more hardships than anyone in existence in the mortal and hell realms at this point... excluding Hell's will which was older than him, but technically speaking he did have more hardships than it too!

Yun Jhin's bones creaked and cracked as he took one hit from the other skeletons, it couldn't be helped. In this type of fight, Yun Jhin was alone versus four opponents and he was exhausted as well, while the others were also pretty weakened they were more in number thus more confident in their abilities to take Yun Jhin down.

Yun Jhin didn't have any techniques to rely on, no abilities, no bloodline, and no cultivation explosion, he was a normal person's skeleton only enhanced to endure the fire around him... all he could do was either try to run away or fight it out with them using his higher amount of experience in fighting.

But no matter how much experience he had he couldn't fight a 1v4 situation while he had the same body strength as the others.

He tried to run away and he staggered as his left foot bone was burnt to cinders, as they fought they also moved further in the sea towards the location of the exit and the fire around them increased in temperature and intensity.

Yun Jhin could feel that the others couldn't withstand the heat much anymore, their eye sockets were moving as they analyzed him, they needed to use their zen-state to endure the pain from the fire and the increasing injury on their souls... it wasn't that Yun Jhin could endure more at this point, his soul was literally in flames and since he was this far he would go through it till the end... he just hoped that Hell's willpower would heal his soul after he finished the trial.

The others didn't know what to do in this situation, they could barely move anymore and they couldn't touch Yun Jhin anymore as the distance between them got bigger and bigger, the more steps they took the more pain they endured and their flaming souls made them reluctant to continue.

However, Yun Jhin's soul was a little bit more damaged compared to theirs and he was still going strong regardless of the injuries amounting to his soul.

This showed that his willpower was superior to theirs!

Yun Jhin's silhouette started to disappear in the sea of flames around them and they cursed under their breath as they realized that they had lost the chance of getting their hands on the inheritance of the 7th layer!

Their bones were cracking under the flame's heat around them, they couldn't endure any more!

Their bones turned into the dust which disappeared into the sea of fire and their bodies were ejected from the dark pagoda back into the wilderness of the 7th layer... which was pretty much a wasteland.

The sage realm experts that came from the 7th layer and the 8th layer to try their luck but couldn't get their hands on a piece of multicolored rock were still standing around waiting for any news about the inheritance when they saw 4 pale God realm experts being thrown out of the pagoda made them rather panicky, if Gods couldn't pass the trail then who could? But considering they couldn't even enter they actually felt quite glad that those 4 didn't get the inheritance as well.

Vanzuel frowned as he felt his soul quickly recover after he was thrown outside, it seemed that the damage to the soul wasn't permanent and Hell's willpower wasn't shameless enough for it to not heal their souls after the trial ended.

The other three just looked on with a bitter gaze as they said in unison without waiting for Vanzuel's opinion:

"We shall wait here for that unknown person to leave the pagoda... and snatch the inheritance from his filthy paws!"

Vanzuel couldn't see what kind of cultivation that person who one-upped them had so he was quite reluctant, the other 2 devils were rather mad so they didn't think about the consequences if the person who beat them had higher cultivation than them but Vanzuel did, as a devil who was both smart and cunning he didn't want to offend someone who he shouldn't so he tried to persuade the others:

"Guys... hear me out on this one, but what if the person who went ahead of us had higher cultivation? Due to the test, we don't know what type of cultivation he had but only those in the 9th layer can get multicolored rocks... I doubt those two people would have had the guts coming here knowing I would be on my way here."

What Vanzuel said made sense but the trio was still rather angry due to the situation... they wanted to fight it out with each other in the tournament and see who would get the inheritance that way, after all, while they were backstabbing fiends of hell, in this situation when they wanted to play nice but then one person made them unable to!

This left a bitter after taste in their mouths but they considered Vanzuel's words and decided to add their two cents:

"If he is stronger we will just leave him alone while we hide here, but if he is weaker we should gang up on him and steal the inheritance!"

Vanzuel knew that they were right as well... he was quite scared of the prospect of being devoured by a senior devil in this situation, he had cultivated for a long time to reach his current power and he didn't want to die for the inheritance, the others had lower cultivation bases than him so they were a little bit more desperate to close the gap between them as they hadn't realized the cruel truths of the 9th layer yet, they were basically newbies as they didn't go very far in the 9th layer due to their fear of their 'seniors'.

Vanzuel did go when he was younger and those experiences remained imprinted in his soul which made him more apprehensive and fearful than others.

But they were also four and he was one so he decided to wait and see just like the others said.

Inside the Pagoda Yun Jhin's skeleton returned to its normal form... his azure long hair, his perfect body, and his robe appeared again. Yun Jhin sighed, it sure did feel well to be back into his own body!

What Hell's willpower did when he went through the trials was create a cultivation-less clone that he stuffed his soul into but now he was back into his original body which made him feel as comfortable as ever, his soul was also restored to its normal parameters, which made his gamble worth it!

Yun Jhin waited for a short while before Hell's voice entered into his consciousness again, it was time for the reward he so hardly sought!