Unable to contain his curiosity, Friedrich stepped forward.
Just in time to see Liu Di squeeze out the pearl!
The pearl was as large as a mountain apricot and perfectly round!
But.
Its color was dark yellow and murky. One glance was enough to tell that its quality was utterly terrible!
Friedrich, who had just shown a trace of interest, immediately drooped. "At that size, it should be worth a bottle of whiskey. But judging by the quality, it'd be good if it could fetch even a small glass!"
"What do you know?"
Liu Di turned the bead over in his hand. "Pearls form when a foreign object invades a river mussel. The mussel secretes nacre to wrap around the object, and over a long period of accumulation, pearls of varying sizes are formed."
"If what gets wrapped is a microorganism, then the pearl will most likely be free of impurities."
"In later generations, people even used fragments of existing pearls to stimulate mussels into wrapping them. That ensured uniform material and even fewer impurities."
"But in very rare cases, a pearl may contain a large object."
Liu Di smiled and raised the pearl in his hand toward the sunlight.
A strange sight appeared.
Under the sunlight, a dazzling golden gleam suddenly shone from the pearl's center. Within its core seemed to lie a lump of glittering gold, and that gold was also smooth and oval in shape!
It was as though a golden eye had grown inside the pearl!
Liu Di smiled and declared, "As the saying goes, one may have eyes yet fail to recognize gold-set jade. What we have encountered today is a pearl that swallowed gold!"
Friedrich's eyes went wide.
He was completely stunned!
This had to be worth a fortune!
"Heh heh."
Liu Di crouched