Chapter Twenty-Three: The Great River Basin

Among human society, a myth has long circulated. A hundred years ago, in the block world, aside from land, there was only the Dead Sea, dead lakes... The waters were barren, devoid of creatures or plants; not even monsters could spawn there—it was a forbidden realm of life. In the vast dead waters, only gray-black gravel lay beneath; in the smaller ones, mere mud...

Then, one day, the world underwent a violent tremor, and all the water transformed into a writhing, white "organism." This white mass resembled some unknown lifeform gathering together, dense and countless. No one knows how long it lasted, but when the waters returned to their transparent state, the block people discovered, to their surprise, that the oceanic world had changed.

The seas grew vibrant, teeming with all manner of strange creatures, mysterious underwater wonders, and beautiful deep-sea landscapes. Yet they became more perilous, too: drowned corpses, sentinels... Various ocean monsters appeared out of thin air, attacking humans or assimilating them into their ranks.

This was not the work of the gods. People had no explanation, but faint voices from beyond hinted that this was the "Ocean Update." Some legends claim the update bestowed gifts upon certain king-level creatures with immense authority or influence among marine life, granting them the world's power.

As for the earlier parts, Mo Fangyuan understood well—he had crossed over during the Nether version of "Minecraft," just before the Cave Update, so he naturally grasped the concept of updates. Yet he scoffed at the latter claims; if the myth held true, why had no "king" level figures emerged among the block people?

"A story is just a story—there'll never be a Snow White or a hero slaying dragons..."

Stowing away the "On Creation" he had casually brought from the kingdom, Mo Fangyuan and his companions began their day’s exploration. This time, their destination was a small lake formed by the northern river's wash—a region where villages were most densely clustered along the riverside.

Mo Fangyuan refused to believe that not a single village could have survived here.

"Let’s set out!"

The great river originated in the northern mountains of the plains, winding southward into the unknown depths of the Black Forest. It linked the north and south of these vast plains, its gentle terrain ideal for waterborne transport...

"This river is truly valuable..."

Mo Fangyuan desired to extend the kingdom’s influence westward beyond the river, but lacked the means to achieve it, so he could only let the thought go.

"Your Majesty, we're nearly at the target..." Zhang San unfurled the map, pointing to their approximate location.

Ahead lay a village recorded by the block kingdom five years prior—a river village, populous then with around fifty residents, and influential in the region.

This was why Mo Fangyuan brought Zhang San along; he was among the few in the kingdom with criminal experience—no, rather, with a talent for reading maps!

Not far ahead, the outline of houses quietly emerged in Mo Fangyuan’s view.

They had reached the village.

"If it's a human settlement, we needn't hide—doing so would only arouse suspicion..."

Mo Fangyuan and his companions straightened their attire and strode boldly forward. He had said before that humans in this era were relatively united; generally, any human gathering would respond to outsiders.

If not...

Unless—the villagers were not human!

"This... this..."

The village was deathly silent, its buildings draped in spider webs, moss, and vines...

"What’s going on?" Lin Ye and Zhang San, accompanying him, had never encountered such a sight. Villages overrun by monsters typically weathered away within a month—a lesson learned from their elders.

But this phenomenon, where plants "occupied" the settlement, was something they had never seen.

"This is... a zombie village!" Mo Fangyuan clenched his teeth. There was one kind of monster-taken village that did not vanish—a zombie village.

Zombie villages formed under extremely harsh conditions: every inhabitant had to be infected by zombies.

The infection process was agonizing—zombies, to ensure success, would torment their victims until exhaustion, then slowly gnaw away all their skin and organs to allow the poison to invade, finally consuming at least half the brain to kill the nervous system...

To block people, this was unimaginably cruel and disgusting.

After a zombie village formed, the spawn rate of zombies nearby increased sharply, and attracted zombies would gather i