Episode 55: The Giant Clam

  His feet were lightly floating, not touching the ground at all. Li Yan walked slowly along the edge of the underground river path that wasn't particularly dim. For a loose immortal, flying through the void didn't count as a divine ability, but rather an instinctual one. If he hadn't deliberately suppressed his speed to search for the dragon beast, it wouldn't be difficult for him to travel across the Three Mountains and Five Peaks in just one day.

  This underground dark river is very long and large, but it also has deep water areas and shallow water areas like the rivers on the ground. Li Yan is now walking in the shallow water area at the edge, however, he is flying over the void, so the deep water and shallow water don't make much difference to him anymore.

  All the way, I have seen several large fish skeletons, the smallest is also two or three meters long, and the larger ones are even six or seven meters. It can be imagined that the creatures in this underground dark river, under the influence of the dragon beast's breath, have undergone tremendous mutations, and that dragon beast doesn't seem to be an easy one to deal with!

  In front of him, suddenly, a strange color appeared in Li Yan's eyes. His vast primordial spirit instantly captured an extremely dense spiritual energy, and it was not just any ordinary spiritual energy, but the purest pre-heavenly spiritual energy between heaven and earth.

  The so-called pre-heaven and post-heaven, in fact, have many sayings. Some people say that the pre-heavenly spirit was present before the opening of heaven and earth, and after the evolution of the universe, the pre-heavenly spirit gradually dissipated and disappeared. However, this is not the case. The so-called pre-heavenly spirit refers to the spirit emitted by the pre-heavenly spiritual objects that absorb the heavenly spirit, while the pre-heavenly spiritual objects are the spirits that grow and multiply between heaven and earth. Similar to Li Yan's sword, it was forged from a pre-heavenly spiritual object, so it still retains the characteristics of the pre-heavenly spiritual object, and this type of treasure is often referred to as a pre-heavenly divine instrument.

  It is in the cultivation world that one senses the innate spiritual energy, which represents the inevitable presence of innate spiritual objects around them. For any cultivator, this can be considered a significant opportunity, especially on Earth where the environment has been severely damaged, and it's likely that such an opportunity can only be encountered underground with great difficulty.

  However, beneath the ground, there is a great separation of land, let alone Li Yan's current power, which has only reached the second tribulation of scattered immortals. Even if it were the master of seven tribulations, it would be impossible to fully detect. As can be imagined, wanting to search for treasure underground, the difficulty is absolutely beyond imagination.

  Li Yan had already gone over a hundred meters ahead, turned around a bend, and immediately saw a large pile of river clams scattered along the riverbank. The two shells were opening and closing, occasionally spouting some water columns. These river clams were small, no bigger than a bowl plate, nothing strange about them. However, what caught Li Yan's attention was those larger ones, each as big as a tabletop, much larger than the ocean clams.

  As soon as Li Yan thought about it, he immediately understood that these river clams lived in this underground dark river, not like in the ocean, with many natural enemies, plus the dragon beast's aura urging alienation, so they could grow to such a large size. For millions of years, without human footprints, if conditions were suitable, they would naturally grow unrestrictedly.

  The river clam gives birth to pearls, which are good materials for medicine. Especially the pearl that has been stained with dragon's breath is extremely precious. Li Yan knew that this thing could be refined into a Long Spring Elixir, allowing people to maintain their youthful appearance and remain unchanged for sixty years. It was indeed a rare object. He thought it wouldn't hurt to take some back and refine them into medicine for his mother to use. Women all like to stay young and beautiful, so his mother probably wouldn't be an exception either!

  As for those dozen or so super-large river clams, if Li Yan's estimate is correct, these guys have been living for at least tens of thousands to millions of years, and may even be older than the dragon beast. What they nurture inside must be the source of the innate spiritual energy he sensed.

  At this moment, Li Yan walked forward, and with a flicker of his mind, the aura instantly enveloped all the mussels around him. Except for those dozen or so super-large mussels that exceeded the size of the table, all the other mussels were controlled by his scattered immortal spirit. The shells of these mussels automatically opened one after another, and the white, pink, or black pearls inside automatically detached from the mussels and flew towards Li Yan.

  These colorful pearls, the small ones have a diameter of about 10 centimeters, and the large ones are as big as a fist. Each color is bright and beautiful, and to the touch, they are warm and smooth. They are absolutely top-grade pearls. Not to mention using them for medicinal purposes, even if you take them out to sell as ornaments, their value would be worth a fortune!

  Li Yan didn't care about these pearls, although they were precious, but what really caught his attention was the dozen or so super-large river clams that might be pregnant with innate spiritual objects.

  As he stepped forward, he gently tapped the super-large river clamshell with his hand. The big clam slowly opened its tightly closed shell. Li Yan followed the innate spiritual energy and soon discovered two giant pearls as large as basketballs. These huge pearls were milky white in color, crystal clear, and radiant with a warm glow.

  Li Yan took it in his hand, and in an instant, he could clearly perceive that this pearl seemed to have a very strong spiritual nature, slowly absorbing the free heavenly energy between heaven and earth. This made Li Yan suddenly feel extremely surprised, after all, a living pre-heavenly spirit object was much more precious than one that had already taken shape.

  His primordial spirit dispersed, following his hand, and entered the interior of the giant pearl. In an instant, Li Yan had sensed a very dense pre-heavenly spiritual energy. Although it was still unable to compare with the lifelong efforts of Tian Shi Zhong Kui's four dispersals as a xian in the Three Lives Stone, it had absolutely reached the boundary point of a dispersing xian and should not be underestimated.

  Especially, the innate spiritual energy in this giant pearl, after being tempered by the pearl itself and the passage of tens of thousands of years, has become extremely pure. Whether it is used directly for absorption or taken to refine a magic treasure, it is an excellent choice. If used as medicine, Li Yan was confident that he could refine a Longevity Pill that could increase his lifespan by hundreds of years, which would be no problem at all.

  This gigantic pearl, no matter where it is or what it's used for, is absolutely an extremely precious treasure with a huge value that can't be measured by money.

  Especially for a loose immortal like Li Yan, who is on the earth with thin spiritual energy, even tens of billions of wealth can't match this giant pearl.

  "What good luck!" With a flick of his hand, he picked up the giant pearl and immediately, according to law, took out all the pearls from those dozen or so giant river clams.

  Perhaps because these large clams have lived in the underground dark rivers for too long, and no one has come before, each of them has bred precious pearls. Some have only one or two, while others have as many as three to five. After searching through a dozen large clams, Li Yan unexpectedly found thirty-nine basketball-sized giant pearls, as well as thirteen smaller ones. This was truly an unexpected delight.

  After all, this innate spiritual object is rare even in the major star fields of the universe. Moreover, wanting to obtain it often requires a considerable cost. Now, these are all picked up for free, which can be considered a great opportunity.

  He changed his mind and looked around, seeing that these giant clams that produced huge pearls had also gained some spirituality after thousands of years of growth and absorbing the dragon's breath. He decided to collect three or five more giant clams and put them in the Mustard Seed Space. Fortunately, thanks to Li Yan's previous absorption of the pre-heavenly spiritual energy from the Jue Xian Sword, his powers had greatly increased, and the Mustard Seed Space had expanded to a hundred meters in diameter; otherwise, it would have been difficult to fit them all in.

  The primordial spirit dispersed, and he sensed that there were still many river clams in the depths of the water. Unfortunately, it seemed that those large clams as big as a desktop had disappeared. This made Li Yan's heart slightly disappointed, but soon, he couldn't help but laugh at himself, silently lamenting: People are like this, always greedy and never satisfied, even someone as godlike as him was no exception. It can be seen that even immortals, after all, still have the character of a "person".