Testing the Green Pearl's Powers

Inside the Cave Abode.

Xu Yan sat cross-legged on the bed, his expression solemn.

Before entering the Cave Abode, he had used his magic power to move several enormous rocks over and seal the entrance completely, preventing any unusual phenomena from escaping outside while he studied the Green Pearl treasure.

With these preparations complete, he calmed his mind and slowly extended a strand of Divine Sense toward the Green Pearl in his Sea of Consciousness.

As his Divine Sense approached, he soon saw the Green Pearl's condition within his Sea of Consciousness.

The Green Pearl was now the size of an egg, suspended in the center of Xu Yan's Sea of Consciousness. Its entire surface radiated a soft green glow, making it look especially wondrous.

The Green Pearl's surface had originally been perfectly smooth, but now fine lines crisscrossed it, seemingly imbued with a special Dao Rhyme.

As the Green Pearl slowly rotated, streams of magic power were drawn toward it and silently sank into its body.

When Xu Yan saw where this magic power came from, his expression shifted slightly before understanding dawned on his face.

"So that's why my cultivation has been so slow. This Green Pearl has been absorbing my magic power from time to time." Xu Yan recalled when he had first begun practicing the Spirit Guiding Art. Only because the Green Pearl had fed energy back to him at the final moment had he succeeded.

"Just as I suspected, the Mysterious Green Pearl has the power to devour things. It swallowed all of the Golden Light Daoist's magic power and the medicinal power of that entire cauldron of spirit medicines. It also swallowed the deadly poison in my body."

Precisely because of these considerations, Xu Yan stopped his strand of Divine Sense several dozen feet away from the Green Pearl. He feared that it could devour Divine Sense as well. Losing this strand would leave him seriously injured and might even damage his foundation.

His Divine Sense circled the Green Pearl, examining it for a long time. When it showed no unusual reaction, he gradually grew bolder. He had an instinctive feeling that the Green Pearl would not harm him.

Without sending his Divine Sense into it, he could not control the Green Pearl at all. It left him feeling as though he stood before a mountain of treasure with no way to claim it.

For safety's sake, however, he would not send the entire strand inside. He would first separate a wisp of Divine Sense to test the effect.

With this thought, Xu Yan peeled a wisp from the strand of Divine Sense and sent it toward the Green Pearl.

The wisp soon entered the Green Pearl. He felt only as though his Divine Sense had passed through a thin membrane, with no other sensation. The wisp had not vanished; it remained inside the Green Pearl.

He waited a long time, and the wisp of Divine Sense still remained.

This finally put his mind completely at ease.

He immediately decided to send the entire strand of Divine Sense into the Green Pearl.

Xu Yan felt as though he had entered a boundless gray world, its entire expanse filled with hazy gray currents. Once his Divine Sense entered, he felt a sense of control, as though he could now activate the Green Pearl.

He then gave it a try.

At a mere thought, the Green Pearl silently appeared in his palm from within his Sea of Consciousness.

Seeing that the Green Pearl had indeed appeared in his hand filled him with excitement.

He suspected that this treasure's grade was extraordinarily high. At the very least, there were no records of such an object in the current cultivation world.

His father had passed this Green Pearl down to him before his death. Who could have imagined that it was a heaven-defying treasure?

Along with the Green Pearl, Xu Yan had inherited a Fish Intestine Short Sword. According to his father, both objects had been found together inside the belly of a large fish.

This stirred something in Xu Yan's mind, and he took the Fish Intestine Short Sword out of his Storage Bag.

The Fish Intestine Short Sword in his hand was only as long as his palm and as wide as his index finger. Black all over, it looked like ordinary iron, with nothing miraculous about it. Its blade had not even been sharpened, making it look more like a Sword Blank. Its only unusual feature was its extraordinary toughness: even with all his strength, Xu Yan could not snap it.

He vaguely felt that the Fish Intestine Short Sword must also be something beyond the ordinary. Yet whether he poured magic power into it or tried to refine it with his Divine Sense, it showed no response whatsoever.

It seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary weapon. After examining it for a long time without finding any clues, he put the Fish Intestine Short Sword back into his Storage Bag.

Afterward, Xu Yan took several more items out of his Storage Bag: a Low-Grade Spirit Stone, a low-grade Qi Gathering Pill, a poison pill, and his last drop of Hundred-Year Earth Spirit Milk.

Naturally, he had taken these things out to test the Green Pearl's powers.

Under the control of his divine sense, the Green Pearl soon approached the low-grade spirit stone. A devouring force emanated from the pearl, and the spiritual energy within the stone rapidly drained away, all of it swallowed by the Green Pearl.

With a crack, the spirit stone crumbled into a heap of powder.

Xu Yan's eyes brightened slightly at the sight. While the Green Pearl had been devouring the spirit stone, his Divine Sense had perceived the entire process clearly. This gave him the feeling that he could control the devouring process.

However, the low-grade spirit stone had contained little spiritual energy, and the Green Pearl had consumed it very quickly. By the time the thought occurred to him, the process was already over, leaving him no chance to test it.

This time, he intended to have the Green Pearl devour the drop of Hundred-Year Earth Spirit Milk, which contained dozens of times more spiritual energy than the low-grade spirit stone.

Under the control of Xu Yan's Divine Sense, the Green Pearl silently approached the drop of Hundred-Year Earth Spirit Milk.

The same devouring force immediately emanated from the Green Pearl, and streams of spiritual energy drained from the Hundred-Year Earth Spirit Milk.

"Stop!"

Xu Yan tried to control the Green Pearl with his Divine Sense. At his mental command, the devouring force emanating from it indeed disappeared. However, after using his Divine Sense to stop the Green Pearl, he felt weary. This was because his Divine Sense was still too weak.

Delighted that he could successfully control the Green Pearl, he stopped restraining it. A devouring force once again emanated from the pearl, consuming the drop of Hundred-Year Earth Spirit Milk completely.

After repeatedly controlling the Green Pearl, Xu Yan felt a wave of fatigue. He returned it to his Sea of Consciousness and slowly began circulating his cultivation art.

Only after six full hours did he stop circulating his cultivation art and gently exhale a breath of stale air. Those six hours of cultivation had restored him to a state of full vigor.

He immediately used his Divine Sense to send the Green Pearl flying toward the Qi Gathering Pill. Just as before, the pill was soon drained of all its spiritual energy, leaving only fragments scattered on the ground.

Looking at the final poison pill, Xu Yan's eyes flashed.

Ever since learning that the Green Pearl could devour deadly poison, he had had an idea: he would test whether it could consume the toxins within this poison pill while preserving its original spiritual energy. If he succeeded, then he had a bold plan in mind.

The pill before him was a First-Tier Low-Grade Poison Pill, refined from First-Tier Spirit Herbs. Although it was a poison pill, it certainly contained the herbs' spiritual energy.

In other words, the poison pill contained two kinds of energy: toxins and spiritual energy.

Under the control of Xu Yan's Divine Sense, the Mysterious Green Pearl slowly approached the poison pill.