Water Bead Grass and Gold Sand

At the bottom of Ink Pool, eight zhang down, cracks lay hidden among the mud. When stirred, bubbles rose; those containing jade beads were Spring Essence Jade.

Of course, not every bubble contained jade beads, nor did bubbles rise with every stirring, much less could every rock crevice yield Water Bead Grass.

There were quite a few such Void Rifts between heaven and earth. A small number were valuable, such as the Void Rifts in the various grotto-heavens. Some had slight but insignificant value, such as the rock crevices here at Ink Pool. Most, however, had never been discovered—or, once discovered, no one knew how to mine them.

After mining here for many days, the Ye family had only found two cracks capable of producing Water Bead Grass. Liu Xiaolou had crouched nearby for ages without seeing any, so he simply went ashore, drank tea, and waited leisurely.

Not until evening, when the sky had darkened, did the Ye family members changing shifts beneath the water surface excitedly emerge and cry, "It's coming out!"

Liu Xiaolou and the others went underwater again and arrived beside the crack on the left. There, they saw a thumb-sized clump of green aquatic grass, like a fuzzy ball of green moss, growing out from the crack and striving to "stick" its body outside.

The Ye family used a constantly wriggling little worm to lure the Water Bead Grass. The Water Bead Grass squeezed itself outward even more desperately, wanting to swallow that little worm in one bite.

After a while, the Water Bead Grass finally squeezed free of the stone crack. With a sudden struggle, it wrapped around the worm. It now resembled a droplet of green jade, and the Ye family member collected it in a box.

The harvesting process unfolded before Liu