Has Brother Zhong also started to lose his humanity

Setting up a server was no simple matter.

Although this had already been discussed and agreed upon with the Tianxuan Sect—as long as they passed the trial of the Heavenly Dao's remnant spirit, the other party would fully cooperate—there was still the matter of arranging formations and making various preparations.

Beyond the basic network functionality, Lu Ze also added a spirit stone recharge feature and a crystal engraving function.

This way, no matter where cultivators were, they could recharge in-game using spirit stones and update the game anytime, anywhere, without having to travel all the way to the Lingxiao Sect to purchase crystal stones.

While Lu Ze and Nangong Yuan were busy with the server's grand formation, Minecraft had quietly gained popularity between the Lingxiao Sect and the Tianxuan Sect.

More and more cultivators began entering this blocky illusion to create their own worlds.

The Minecraft forum was the most bustling among all illusion realms every day.

[Newbie Help: Spawned in a desert, what do I do?]

[Desert’s great! Villages are easier to find there—starting with a village is a dream!]

[How do I fight that white zombie in the village? It’s way too strong, I can’t beat it!]

[Discussing the worst starting spiritual roots—nothing’s more useless than Wood Spirit Root, right?]

[At least wood has some use, and it’s good for farming. Earth Spirit Root’s double dirt is the real garbage.]

[Holy crap, some villagers have innate spiritual roots? Trading with them gives skills! Fellow Daoists, go check it out!]

[Anyone been to the secret realm marked on the treasure map? How was it, hard?]

[Surrounded by special terrain, the demons inside are tough… be careful!]

[Look what I found! There’s a mysterious sect at the highest point of that mountain! [Image]]

[You probably can’t handle the demons up there.]

[Anyone know how to use redstone?]

……

……

Lingxiao Sect.

Zhong Yi’s illusion world.

Since Minecraft launched, Zhong Yi’s personal room had practically never closed.

The four-person squad, who had started out just casually exploring, had unknowingly become addicted.

Though each of them had slightly different focuses.

Surprisingly, Mu Yawen, who usually loved combat the most, had unlocked a special skill for building houses.

Now, he was obsessively constructing homes, and the quality was impressively high.

Lately, he spent every day mining like crazy.

His goal for the near future was to start with Cuijin Peak and gradually recreate the entire Lingxiao Sect in Minecraft.

Zhou Qiaoling, on the other hand, had fallen in love with treasure hunting.

Storage chests in villagers’ homes, hidden treasures in mysterious caves, randomly spawning chests in the wild…

All became her targets.

Even wild boars passing by would get a couple of slashes from her.

It seemed that after her strange encounter in the village, she had developed a taste for the thrill of effortless gains.

Zhou Yue was the grindiest of the four.

Chopping trees, mining, crafting gear, leveling up, training skills…

He did it all.

Sure, he had terrible luck, but he made up for it with sheer determination!

As long as Zhong Yi’s server was online, he was logged in, preparing to improve himself.

Lu Ze had added plenty of demons and bosses in the Spiritual Energy Revival modpack, and this guy had already cleared most of the challenges available at the Qi Refining stage—his willpower was downright terrifying.

As for Zhong Yi…

After that village trip, he became obsessed with studying villages and villagers.

Or rather,

using villages and villagers to study the world’s underlying logic.

In the village, he discovered many fascinating things.

For example, destroying certain blocks tied to professions would cause employed villagers to become jobless.

For example, trading with villagers of different professions yielded different items, and these trades could level up over time.

For example, villagers with a shimmering aura had innate spiritual roots, often offering additional trade options related to cultivation.

For example, the iron golem wandering the village seemed to exist to protect villagers, but not every village spawned one—there was some unknown condition for their appearance.

For example, villagers would chat among themselves, share food and information, and sometimes even have children…

The deeper he dug, the more he couldn’t resist experimenting on villagers.

Right now, he had two adult villagers trapped inside a fenced area.

Outside the fence were two beds placed side by side.

After some tinkering, hearts floated above the villagers’ heads, and a baby villager successfully spawned.

“So that’s how it is. No wonder breeding never worked before.”

Zhong Yi stared at the space above the beds, deep in thought.

“There must be at least two blocks of empty space above the bed, or else breeding fails?”

“Hmm, makes sense. Less than two, and they can’t stand on it.”

“Also, both need enough food?”

Muttering to himself, he recorded his findings on a bamboo scroll.

His lips curled uncontrollably into a slightly manic grin.

The livestream chat exploded.

[??? Has Senior Brother Zhong also lost his humanity???]

[Rumors say Junior Brother Lu is a demonic cultivator using illusions to corrupt minds… seems true!]

[My righteous and kind Senior Brother Zhong, please come back!]

[Must be a new viewer. Senior Brother Zhong’s been studying villagers for a week now—it’s weirdly entertaining.]

[Gotta admit, Junior Brother Lu’s mind is something else. The world’s logic is layered like an onion.]

[If you’re bored, go fight some demonic cultivators outside! Why bully villagers…]

Just as Zhong Yi was happily absorbed in his research, Zhou Yue’s booming voice cut in.

“Old Zhong, check out what I brought back!”

“…Don’t tell me you dragged more demonic cultivators here! I still haven’t forgiven you for getting that innate-spirit-root villager killed last time!”

Zhong Yi paled, eyeing Zhou Yue warily.

Zhou Yue had made massive progress lately.

A full set of diamond gear, a character at Foundation Establishment stage, and even a basic defensive cultivation technique.

His first move after powering up? Hunting down the demonic cultivator squad that had ganged up on him earlier.

After getting his revenge, he returned to the village boasting with a [Mark of Vengeance] buff—only to attract an entire horde of demonic cultivators who raided the village.

Half the villagers Zhong Yi had been studying ended up dead.

“No way… Look!”

Zhou Yue excitedly pulled out a red pill from his inventory.

Zhong Yi’s eyebrows shot up.

This was the key item in the game for advancing from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment—

the Foundation Establishment Pill.