“No Alchemy Wood, nothing else either.” Zhang Yan heaved a sigh of relief and returned to the boat.

Qingniu smelled the air, utilizing his rich experience as a doctor. He could instantly smell the scent if there was any Alchemy Wood around. There was nothing but the scent of mud.

“No Alchemy Wood here.” He firmly concluded.

All eyes shifted towards Li Qiye; everyone could see the outcome.

“There really isn’t any.” The young cultivators quietly talked among themselves.

Some were regretting not joining in earlier for an easy win. 

“There might have been some in the past but were eaten already by these termite lice.” Another speculated.

“You have lost.” Qingniu stared at Li Qiye and uttered coldly: “There are none here now, one wrong guess, lose everything.”

“We’ve won so it’s time for you to eat some mud.” Zhang Yan was ecstatic and told Li Qiye.

“The doctor is still the best, capable of seeing through everything.” One youth decided to flatter Qingniu. After all, the cultivation world was dangerous, he might need the guy’s help one day.

“Ha, Doctor Hu and Young Pill King are extraordinary, winning so easily.” One more sneered: “If the mud doesn’t taste good, I guess he can drink the lake water to swallow easier. This water comes from above and also has the taste of Alchemy Wood.”

Many had a gloating expression while staring at Li Qiye, stemming from their jealousy earlier. So now, they wanted to see him do this humiliating act.

“Haha, that’s a good combination for a meal.” A different person chimed in.

Li Qiye simply chuckled and continued to drink his ginseng tea, not in a rush at all.

“It’s useless to delay this, you have lost so fulfill your promise.” Zhang Yan snorted.

He felt quite good and proud to shame this guy before the two beauties.

“All of you are still too young with shallow knowledge, but that’s understandable. The lack of critical thinking is the issue here, yet you still dare to come out to the real world.”

“We’re not here to hear you preach, just to watch you eat...” Zhang Yan sneered.

Before he could finish, water gushed out from the mud. Something seemed to have been opened underground, resulting in this current.

“Boom!” The thing finally opened fully and emitted mist.

“What is that?!” Everyone looked over and saw a large clam. 

The mist stemming from it had the smell of wood. Everyone felt as if they were deep in a forest and basked in this scent. It was as tantalizing as the smell of fine wine.

“Alchemy Wood, the best kind!” Qingniu blurted out in astonishment.

A resplendent green glow came from the clam, bringing out endless life force like the opening of a new world.

The crowd saw the thing inside, the real source of the glow. It has been swallowed by the clam for who knows how many years?

This looked like a piece of wood since one could see the tree rings on the sides. However, because of the current then the clam, the broken sections were very smooth now. It had turned into jade, no longer carrying the original characteristic of wood. It was around three feet long with an amazing scent.

“Superb, this can be called the best of the best Alchemy Wood.” Qingniu started salivating.

Li Qiye came and grabbed this piece of wood: “Indeed, this is a main root of the divine tree. After countless years of accumulation, it almost has its own sentience. A rotten piece of root turning divine? Quite unbelievable.”

“We have one, not as large as this one, only one foot long back in our valley. The ancestors greatly cherish it and use it to help them recuperate.” Mu Yalan was shocked too.

The rest of the crowd felt the same way. As members of Longevity Valley, they were aware of the various ranking of Alchemy Wood. They could see that this was at the very apex, truly priceless.

Alchemy Valley had plenty of finest materials due to its peerless treasuries accumulated by its founder. No other sect in could match it in this regard. However, it only had a smaller one, far inferior compared to this one.

The initial shock eventually turned into desire. One youth even drooled all over his robe before realizing and wiping it off.

Though they came from an amazing background, obtaining this piece of wood would make them wealthy. Handing it to their sect would result in a gigantic reward, or they could just keep it for themselves.

“Pure Grand Clam.” Shaoyao, unlike the others, was more impressed with the clam: “This is also a divine type, very rare.”

“Correct, Shaoyao is quite knowledgeable.” Li Qiye said: “It had swallowed this main root for many years. The Wood Lice came but couldn’t handle this clam so they built nests here in the mud to wait for the right time.”

“If we boil it, it will make some supreme medicine.” Qingniu realized after hearing this name. He didn’t pay attention to it earlier but was now aware of its value.

Li Qiye began cutting the meat of the claim with wondrous dexterity and precision like an experienced butcher. People had a hard time following.

He also took out another item inside the meat. It was actually a golden pearl with a blinding light, resembling a sun. 

“Pure Grand Pearl!” Shaoyao was shocked for the second time: “Rumor has it that only one out of one thousand clams would have one, this is even more incredible, our ancestors want one so bad but can’t find it.”

Zhang Yan was stunned and murmured: “Our ancestor has one the size of a thumb from an Eternal. He traded it for a bottle of Longevity pills.”

He was referring to the Pill King whose Longevity Pills were very desirable. Just one pearl was enough to trade for a full bottle? One could see its value from this trade.

But now, Li Qiye’s pearl was the size of a pigeon egg. It was naturally far more valuable.

Just the highest-grade Alchemy Wood was astonishing enough but this pearl on top of that? Two birds with one stone for sure. No wonder why he was digging in this place.

He then recalled the yang gourd and its abilities. With that, the clam immediately closed its mouth and ran into the lake again.

This took the crowd by surprise. They didn’t know that a clam could escape so fast.