This Illusion Must Be Poisonous

Zhou Yue went over the clearing logic once more.

First, reduce his health to two and a half bars by starving himself, then jump down at night to meet the monster-spawning conditions.

This would cause a monster to spawn on the dirt block.

As long as it was a shovel-wielding zombie, he could obtain the shovel.

With the shovel, he could gather snow blocks during snowfall.

Using the snow blocks, he could pave a path along the only dirt block, leading all the way to the destination...

Everything made perfect sense, each step seamlessly connected.

Absolutely flawless!

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. Without hesitation, he started jumping repeatedly in place, just as Zhong Yi had suggested, to deplete his satiation level.

The sky filled with dense streams of comments.

[But still, spawning a shovel zombie isn’t guaranteed, right?]

[Given Senior Brother Zhou’s luck, there’s no way he’ll get a shovel zombie.]

[Even if it spawns, it won’t drop the shovel…]

[And if it does drop, the durability will be practically zero…]

...

"Will you guys... just shut up! Stop copying Old Zhong’s jinxing nonsense!"

Zhou Yue jumped furiously until his health dropped to two and a half bars.

He walked to the edge of the block, looked up at the comments flooding the sky, and raised a fist in protest:

"Watch closely—this is what it means to defy fate!"

With that, he leaped into the abyss.

Not long after falling, he died at a spot relatively close to the platform.

Just as Zhong Yi had predicted, a monster spawned.

The moment Zhou Yue respawned, his vision was blocked by a mass of green.

"Hehehe, let’s see what you’re holding~~"

Zhou Yue was ecstatic and patted the "zombie" in front of him.

"Sss~ Sss~"

The "zombie" turned around, revealing a horrifying face, its body emitting a terrifying white glow.

"HOLY SHT!!! A CREEPER?!?!?!"

"BOOM—!!"

"This damn illusion is rigged!!!"

...

...

Unsurprisingly, Zhou Yue’s trial in the secret realm ended in failure.

For him, spawning a single shovel-wielding zombie within the time limit was harder than ascending to immortality.

Yet, the cultivators who witnessed this challenge were all stunned by the unique charm of "My World."

In a space with nothing but a dirt block and an endpoint, such intricate mechanics could unfold.

And astonishingly, every change adhered perfectly to the rules of "My World."

Truly remarkable!

But what no one knew was that this secret realm challenge was merely the opening act of the wildly popular "Skyblock" survival mode from Lu Ze’s past life.

Obtaining snow blocks was just the first step.

The real challenges lay ahead.

Those would test the limits of one’s understanding of "My World’s" mechanics and theories.

Compared to endgame objectives like [Defeating the Ender Dragon], this secret realm’s [Reach a destination dozens of blocks away] was child’s play.

As word of this secret realm spread across the forums, more and more cultivators began sharing the various mechanics and quirks of "My World."

As a pioneer, Zhong Yi took it a step further—

He began studying Redstone!

In Lu Ze’s past life, Redstone was a variation of real-world circuitry.

But in the cultivation world, circuits didn’t exist.

Lu Ze had put great effort into merging it with the array techniques used in artifact forging.

Of course, it wasn’t a direct copy—otherwise, there’d be no innovation.

With the help of Zhou Qiaoling’s "Fundamentals of Redstone Analysis," Zhong Yi had begun to grasp its principles and was already experimenting with simple contraptions.

...

...

Time flew by.

While Zhong Yi remained engrossed in studying mechanics and building machines, the other three teamed up to explore.

In the [Spiritual Awakening] modpack, the game was divided into three stages.

The first stage was the early game, where players had just begun Qi Refining.

At this point, aside from a barely noticeable spiritual root, there wasn’t much difference from the vanilla experience.

Players stuck to the classic trio: exploration, building, and survival.

Once players gradually accumulated resources, obtained diamond gear, and were ready to challenge bosses,

they could craft the Foundation Establishment Pill.

The moment the first Foundation Establishment player emerged in a world, the realm would enter the second stage of [Spiritual Awakening]—

True Spiritual Awakening.

Plants, animals, monsters…

all underwent subtle transformations.

At this point, combat and adventure elements would take a slightly larger role.

After all, this was the essence of the cultivation world.

Alongside this, farming, animal husbandry, and creation systems also leveled up.

Farmland became spirit fields, beasts turned into spirit beasts, and tools evolved into magical artifacts.

This ensured the game didn’t devolve into a mindless grind but retained its "creation" core.

Especially since most resources were upgrades or reinventions of existing ones.

Basic resources remained in high demand.

As for the third stage, it began when players reached the Golden Core realm.

At this point, players were akin to endgame players in the past life, free to do as they pleased in the overworld.

Redstone and architecture would likely dominate…

...

The division of labor among Zhou Yue, Mu Yawen, and Zhou Qiaoling was very clear.

Zhou Yue was in charge of killing monsters to ensure efficiency.

Mu Yawen, with his fire spiritual root, could generate fire to improve the success rate of refining.

Zhou Qiaoling was responsible for finally opening the furnace, like having a divine hand to try her luck.

In the end, as expected, the three of them successfully established their Foundation.

The first thing the three of them did after establishing their Foundation was to come to the village to look for the elusive Zhong Yi.

"Strange, what's that? Such a tall stone pillar!"

Zhou Qiaoling pointed at a dark shadow in the distance and exclaimed.

Zhou Yue shook his head. "I don't know. I'm afraid it's another work of Old Zhong."

"Senior Brother Zhong is really something. Could it be that he's been charmed by some vixen in the village?"

The always straightforward Mu Yawen made a startling remark.

"Junior Brother Mu, how can you think about Old Zhong like that? He definitely isn't such a person..."

Before Zhou Yue could finish his words, he heard a very clear roar not far away.

It was the roar of a zombie.

"What's going on? It's daytime now. How can there be a zombie in the village?"

Without saying a word, Zhou Yue immediately drew out his Vajra Sword and prepared to fight.

The three of them followed the direction of the sound and unexpectedly found a strange device.

High in the air, a zombie was trapped on a wooden boat, constantly roaring.

There was a stone brick on its head, protecting it from the sunlight.

Diagonally above its head, there were three beds.

There was a villager standing on each bed, looking at the zombie in horror.

Obviously, the villagers wanted to escape, and the zombie wanted to eat them.

But restricted by the blocks, they couldn't go anywhere.

And Zhong Yi was below them, watching this scene with great interest.

"..."

The corner of Zhou Yue's mouth twitched slightly.

"Maybe it's better for Old Zhong to be charmed by a vixen. At least he'd seem more human then."

Although he didn't know what Zhong Yi was up to, he was sure it was something very immoral.

Somehow, Zhong Yi's back view faintly reminded him of Lu Ze.

"Senior Brother Zhong, what are you doing?"

Mu Yawen asked curiously.

"Ah, why are you here?"

Zhong Yi turned around in surprise.

Compared with the embarrassment of being caught using villagers for experiments in the past, Zhong Yi now looked calm and composed.

"So, what on earth is this device for?"

Zhou Yue asked puzzledly.

Zhong Yi's answer was just two words: "Iron farming."

"How can you farm iron like this?"

"I've discovered that when villagers are frightened, an iron golem will spawn... If you put a campfire under the zombie, you can directly burn it to death and get iron ingots."

Zhong Yi explained concisely.

After hearing this, the other three were all stunned.

"So... you caught 3 villagers and deliberately scared them with a zombie?"

"Yes, Old Zhou, you're quite quick on the uptake."

"Old Zhong, I'm starting to think you're more and more like a demonic cultivator..."

Zhou Yue said with a worried look on his face.

"However, why don't I see any iron golems?"

Zhong Yi spread his hands helplessly. "For some reason, the iron golems won't spawn after continuous scaring... I'm still trying to figure out how to solve this problem."

"Senior Brother Zhong, stop researching these things and hurry up to level up. We've all established our Foundation!"

Mu Yawen didn't understand these things and urged.

Hearing this, a smug smile appeared on Zhong Yi's lips.

"Level up? Hehe, who told you that researching these things can't help with leveling up?"

"How can researching these useless things help with leveling up? Could it be that you can create a high - level magic treasure that can destroy the heaven and earth?"

Zhou Yue was extremely puzzled.

"That's not possible... The formations and magic treasure components in this game are all relatively basic."

After saying that, Zhong Yi thought for a while and added.

"However, it's hard to say... I always feel that this world is full of infinite possibilities."

Zhou Yue continued to ask, "Then how do you plan to level up?"

Zhong Yi raised his hand and pointed at a towering stone pillar behind the village.

"Look, with that."