With the slightest movement, the giant clam suggested the power to overturn mountains and shift seas. The ever-changing rainbow aura in the water was instantly obscured by the stirred-up silt and sand, and a dense fog rose across the surface, making it impossible to discern the appearance of the Clam Ancestor within. Gu Cai, relying on the underwater skills of a Long Hu (Water Dweller), used the Shi Mei (Corpse Puppet) to agitate the pearl mother into action. It spread its shells, intending to swallow the profoundly gloomy Shi Mei, creating a vortex as it sucked in the surrounding water currents. Gu Cai was half a step too slow and was caught in the resulting surge. Unable to struggle free, he was pulled deep into the thick, muddy fog stirred up by the clam.

I stared, watching the entire scene unfold. Panicked, I immediately reached for the diving explosives, intending to rush over and pull Gu Cai out. Saving him was paramount now; I forgot about luring the Clam Ancestor out of the deep chasm. But just then, I felt a rush of water impact before me, and simultaneously, Gu Cai wrestled his way out of the swirling mist of mud and sand.

It turned out that after swallowing the boneless, sinewy Shi Mei, the pearl mother couldn't tolerate the deep yin energy within the female corpse. Its shell plates parted, and it expelled the Shi Mei as if spitting out a luminous pearl. While inside the shell, Gu Cai had managed to slice off several chunks of clam meat, which were then flushed out with the current, mixed into the bloody mist.

I quickly grabbed Gu Cai’s arm, steadying him in the turbulent flow. Seeing that he was still shaken, I realized he must have been sucked into the clam’s shell at least three times. Having successfully lured out the Clam Ancestor, neither of us dared to linger. We hauled on the diving rope and swam toward the exit with all our might.

The outline of the Clam Ancestor was vaguely visible. Although the details were unclear, the powerful oscillations in the water were enough to convey its immense size and slow movement as it crawled out from its attachment to the reef, chasing the yin energy emanating from the Shi Mei—it had climbed out from the Pearl Mother Sea.

The practice among the Dan Min (Boat People) of setting out pearl lures in the sea was common. Ordinary lures used materials that weren't even fish pearls, just food favored by clams and mussels. These were mixed with ground meat as bait to coax the shell away from the mollusks so the pearl could be scraped out. However, this Shi Mei, made from human skin, was a technique only the ancestors of the Dan Min would employ.

Neither Gu Cai nor I expected the Shi Mei to be so effective. Provoked by its yin energy, the Clam Ancestor suddenly emerged. We were clearly unprepared and fled in haste, paying no heed to the scene behind us. We only felt as if the space behind us had become a giant maw, the suction force incredibly swift. If we hadn't held tightly to the sturdy diving rope, we would surely have been sucked away by the chaotic currents.

Before reaching the chasm exit, the turbulence at the mouth of the ravine collided with the pulling force of the pearl mother, creating a pincer movement—front and back. Caught within, our limbs felt weak, and the chaotic undertows spun us around, making us dizzy. Combined with the water pressure, my head swam, and an involuntary urge to let go of the diving rope surfaced.

In the moment my consciousness began to blur, I felt an intense chill behind me—a chilling, ghostly sensation that pierced straight to my core. Instinctively, I looked back. Through the diving mask, I saw a woman’s face, vividly featured yet hideously contorted, pressed directly against my lens.

It was the Shi Mei trailing behind Gu Cai, swept up by the currents and entangled with the stillborn infant tied to my own back via the rope. Though I knew that woman's face was merely the expanded form of the waterlogged Shi Mei—its features growing more lifelike the longer it was submerged—seeing the features of that human skin so close, appearing to smirk and wink at me, sent a bone-deep chill through me. My previously hazy mind snapped into sharp focus. A sudden jolt of energy surged through my body, and with every ounce of strength I possessed, I yanked the diving rope, rolling with Gu Cai through the gaps in the currents and tumbling out of the deep chasm that formed the entrance to the Pearl Mother Sea.

Although the pearl mother craved the yin energy in the water, it naturally feared phenomena like "Moonbreak" (Yue Po). Perhaps it had lived for too long, or maybe the fetus in the ancient tomb had petrified over millennia, leaving its heaven-corroding energy almost depleted. While it could scare away the Jiao fish, it proved ineffective against the fully sentient Clam Ancestor. Thus, it ignored the stillborn infant dangling from my oxygen tank, approaching closer and closely following the Shi Mei as it exited the Pearl Mother Sea.

The area near the chasm mouth was littered with bizarrely shaped fossilized coral. Here, the thick mud and fog stirred up by the clam were gone. I felt a dazzling light flickering behind us, bright as day, and in the chaos, I glanced back. There was a giant clam, entirely covered in barnacle-like camouflage—the legendary Clam Ancestor spoken of by the Dan Min. It wasn't the size of a small mountain; it was roughly the size of a truck cab, resembling a rare patelliform pearl oyster. Its wave-like, undulating shell surface was coated with a thick layer of lumpy marine sediment, indicating it hadn't moved in many years.

The Clam Ancestor’s shell structure was unique. It wasn't a simple bivalve or a coiled shell, but rather possessed six hinged valves that could open and close both vertically and horizontally. Inside were exceptionally developed foot and muscle plates. The shell opening and closing was so violent that even if the sister of a Yue Tou Tie Fen (Iron-Beaked Bird) were caught, she would be crushed as if by a shearing blade. The fact that Gu Cai was sucked inside moments ago and emerged unharmed was likely due only to the lightning-fast maneuvering capabilities of a Long Hu.

I looked back only briefly before my eyes swam with spots of light. The Clam Ancestor was vastly different from common mussels or oysters. Its pearl sac was enormous, and when its valves opened and closed, pearlescent light flashed out. Refracted by the water, this light created auspicious, rainbow-hued energy that captivated the eye and stunned the spirit. The pale blue, ghost-light waves of the surrounding deep-sea phantoms dimmed in comparison. The entire fossilized coral structure was enveloped in the radiance of the hundreds of pearls hidden within the Ancestor’s shell. However, because the Clam Ancestor was habitually hidden from the true moonlight beneath the sea, the yin, cold, and clear energy of its nurtured pearls was far more profound than that of the ordinary bright pearls found in the spiral coral seas. The six massive valves opened and closed rhythmically, causing the thousands of rainbow energies to flicker in and out of sight.

I hadn't expected the pearl mother to pursue us so closely. Looking back, the brilliant white light was blinding. Instantly, the cold yin energy and the suction of the currents increased dramatically. The giant clam’s hard shell burst open, and both Gu Cai and I were enveloped by the sheer force of the opening and closing valves. If the clam’s six heavy plates clamped shut around us, we would be sucked into its pearl sac, even if we weren't crushed outright.

Gu Cai, who becomes ferocious and bloodthirsty underwater, wanted to try his old trick: using retreat as an advance. He tried to shrink himself inside the shell, planning to stab the ancient, sentient clam several times while the valves were closed.

However, after watching the Clam Ancestor ingest the Shi Mei twice, I noticed the resentment within the human-skin corpse was gradually fading. I feared that if it were swallowed again, the yin energy generated by the skin and the pearl lining would vanish. The pearl mother would likely encase it directly into the pearl sac and never release it easily. Given the limitations of Gu Cai's short blade, I doubted he could successfully kill such a giant clam from within the shell. We couldn't risk a death-defying fight now. This thought flashed through my mind just as Gu Cai lunged back towards it with his drawn knife.

I frantically reached out and grabbed him, but underwater, Gu Cai was as slippery as an eel and moved like a black fish. My hand gripping his arm felt like holding onto an exceptionally slick water snake; I couldn't maintain my grip, and he slipped free. Fortunately, I managed to snag the rope binding the Shi Mei to his back and immediately pulled forward with force, dragging Gu Cai into a half-circle through the water.

At that precise moment, the pearl mother’s heavy, hard shell slammed shut, missing Gu Cai’s feet by less than half an inch. The Shi Mei, trailing behind him like a kite in the water, was already swallowed into the clam's shell. Gu Cai and I were entangled by the rope attached to the Shi Mei and struggled to pull free. Having consumed the lure, the pearl mother immediately sealed its hard shell, becoming unmovable as a mountain. Its great valves trembled slightly, as if savoring the resentful energy from the corpse skin.

I braced one hand against the tightly interlocked, fang-like valves, and with the other, I drew my water-parting short sword and severed the rope entangled on my back. Only then did Gu Cai and I pull ourselves free. By this time, Irley Yang and the others, watching from beneath the coral trees, were visibly shaken. They wanted to swim over to help, but the event happened so suddenly that in that split second, they couldn't react in time. Fortunately, no one was harmed, and we had succeeded in drawing the old clam out of the Pearl Mother Sea. They quickly rushed over to surround the pearl mother.

The Pearl Mother Sea is also known as the "Ying Hai" (Ying being an ancient term for the mythical immortal mountains in the sea, also meaning fairyland). In reality, the Dan Min use this term for underwater pearl pools or caves. In the study of Feng Shui, the "Ying Hai" or "Ying Tree" represents a place of supreme goodness where life energy never dies, and where the sea's vital qi is most concentrated. The pearl mother itself is inseparable from the "Ying Hai." Hiding within this sea, it refines itself by drawing in the yin essence qi of the water, allowing it to survive for an extremely long time. Folk sayings often claim, "A thousand-year turtle, a ten-thousand-year tortoise," but while ancient sea turtles living for ten millennia might exist, the oldest verified age recorded is only eight hundred years.

Although marine life generally lives longer than terrestrial creatures, claims of ten thousand years are usually exaggerations stemming from the difficulty of accurate aging. The lifespan of the Clam Ancestor is likely around three to four thousand years. Once it leaves the Pearl Mother Sea and loses the concentrated field of life energy, it becomes like a candle flame in the wind at dusk—it won't die immediately, but it loses its vitality. Its flesh will collapse and wither, and after exhausting the essence of the bright pearls within, it will begin to perish.

The Clam Ancestor we lured out, after swallowing the Shi Mei, sealed its shell and rested motionlessly, appearing almost slumbering. It was no longer as fierce and savage as it was in the "Ying Hai," posing no substantial threat to the frogmen or the Dan Min.

I moved behind the giant clam and stroked its shell, thinking: "The Clam Ancestor is a spiritual creature of the South Sea, nourished by the sea's essence. With resources over-exploited globally now, natural seawater pearls are exceedingly rare. I doubt there are more than three or four living pearl mothers left in all the seven continents and eight oceans combined. The combined age of our group probably doesn't equal a fraction of its own. Though I’d prefer to spare it, there’s no other way to harvest a pearl from such a massive, living clam underwater. It seems I must be ruthless this time." I made a cutting gesture, indicating that Uncle Ming, Gu Cai, and Duo Ling—the three Dan Min—should proceed. Specialization is key; butchering a clam for its pearl is naturally the specialty of the Long Hu pearl divers.

Uncle Ming waved his hand dismissively, suggesting it wasn't necessary to kill the Clam Ancestor. He proposed using the secret artifact passed down by the Yu Zhu (Fisher Lord) to scrape the pearl directly, letting the old clam live or die on its own. He then took the water-parting ancient sword from my hand, and together with Duo Ling and Gu Cai, they began to scrape away the sea-eroded deposits on the shell layer by layer with the blade edges.

In traditional sea pearl harvesting, sometimes the entire old clam is brought ashore. After the pearl is taken, the meat is not wasted; it's gouged out alive from the shell using a carving knife—a process called "scraping the clam" (gua bang). However, the ancient Dan Min method of pearl harvesting involved a different definition of "scraping the clam." The ancient Dan Min used bronze scraping tools. Dragging the bronze blade back and forth across the wave-like shell would cause the mollusk inside to experience a specific vibration.

This vibration was highly peculiar, similar to the "gold sprout" used by ancient gold miners, who had to chant spells when they found a vein, lest the mineral deposit shrink. The clam-scraping technique seemed like such an ancient spell emitted through the bronze implement. Only bronze blades inscribed with fish and dragon totems could effectively intimidate the old clam. The older the bronze blade used, the more pronounced the effect. When the pearl mother’s shell was scraped, it reacted as if terrified or deeply anesthetized; the muscle strength within would dissipate, the shell would loosen, and the clam would offer no resistance or struggle even as the Dan Min harvested the pearl sac.

Fatty, Irley Yang, and I had no insight into this secret. We could only watch as Uncle Ming performed the "clam scraping." Though I usually considered Uncle Ming, that old rogue, prone to bragging and posturing—a shameless gambler and cheat—he certainly possessed unusual expertise. His experience with maritime affairs and handling the deceased was vast, and his knowledge of the lore and strange tales surrounding pearl harvesting was exhaustive. Since these ancient bronze swords were secret relics, there was no need to pay homage to the Yu Zhu. With Uncle Ming’s uncanny technique, it took little effort for the Clam Ancestor’s multicolored shell to be exposed. The shell surface was covered in dense, bright-red, inverted bone spurs, resembling a massive, colorful coral reef. As if hypnotized, it began to tremble, opening a slight gap in its shell.

Brilliant essence light poured from the shell opening, illuminating the area like daylight, drawing the attention of the Jiao fish lurking in nearby coral caves. However, they feared the three deformed fetuses and only dared to peek from a distance, keeping at least half a foot away. But we began to worry about how long the fetuses could effectively deter the vicious Jiao fish. These deformed embryos, damaged by the Moonbreak, had been submerged in this humid environment for too long, and they hadn't been preserved. Their stability relied entirely on the lingering chill emanating from the jade stuffed in the mouth and the pearl contained within the female corpse's abdomen.

After being submerged twice, the embryos' features had blurred, and their bodies no longer possessed the soft jade-like texture they had when first discovered. They seemed on the verge of dissolving into the water. If anything went wrong and the Jiao fish swarmed them, we would be stripped to bare bones within minutes. Furthermore, while watching Uncle Ming and the two other Dan Min scrape the clam, I noticed the Jiao fish in the coral caves were closing in, gathering into a dense, swirling black vortex that encircled a cool, pale spot of moonlight. Fatty, myself, and the others instantly felt our hearts leap into our throats. We gripped our diving daggers tightly, bracing for a fierce, desperate battle.