Tasting the Fruit

Taiyin raised an eyebrow, watching the Block Person hold a bottle-shaped object that looked like a thin plank. With another wave of his hand, the wine in the cup vanished into thin air.

Then, Fang Zheng stared at the bottle that had appeared in his hand and in the Inventory's potion slot, and excitedly began trying to drink it.

After a series of "gulp gulp" drinking sounds, the liquid in the bottle was consumed, but the result left him disappointed. "Still no taste at all."

From what he could tell so far, the substances Fang Zheng had collected in this world seemed to share the same properties as their original counterparts—meaning they should have had flavor.

Yet he still couldn't taste anything. That only meant this indestructible Block body lacked a sense of taste entirely, just as Fang Zheng had no sense of touch.

Though disappointed, Fang Zheng was still happy—happy to be able to communicate normally with a sentient being.

Even if the language barrier remained, he chuckled and said, "Thanks for the drink. Want to try some of mine?"

With that, he flipped through his Inventory, pulled out honey, Golden Apples, Golden Carrots, Cake, and other Minecraft food items, and once again tried tossing them in front of Taiyin.

"Go ahead and taste them, but first see if you can pick them up."

"Oh?" Taiyin looked at the items before him, which resembled paper cutouts floating and spinning on the ground, and hesitated.

He remembered that a few days ago, the Block Person had thrown these things at him.

But back then, he was just a wisp of resentment, without his sanity restored, so naturally, he hadn't reacted.

Now, he swept his Divine Sense over them, yet sensed nothing. He couldn't detect any Dao principles on these floating, paper-cut-like objects, nor could he figure out how they floated or what they were made of.

These things seemed like nothing more than illusory light and shadow...

No! Even if they were pure light, Taiyin could still capture it, but these weren't even light or shadow.

Without hesitation, Taiyin reached out to pick them up.

But as his hand approached, the floating items drifted away, as if an invisible force field repelled anything that came near.

He raised an eyebrow, extending a sliver of Divine Power to form an invisible hand that enveloped them entirely, then contracted.

Yet even so, with all escape routes blocked, the items simply phased straight through Taiyin's Divine Power barrier, just as Fang Zheng could phase through matter, and emerged on the other side.

Seeing this, Fang Zheng felt a bit awkward. "Uh, looks like you really can't touch them."

He lowered his head in thought, then suddenly had an idea.

In the Minecraft world, most blocks weren't affected by gravity. Once placed, they could float in midair even with nothing beneath them.

Only a few blocks—like sand, lava, water—and dropped items were subject to gravity and would fall.

When items were taken into the Inventory and then dropped again, they became miniature versions of the original blocks or items.

Dropped items were different from throwables like Throwable Healing Potions or projectiles like arrows and tridents.

They didn't retain the functionality of the original blocks or items. Only when picked up and used by a player, Zombie, Skeleton, or Enderman—or placed down—would they revert to their original form.

If not picked up, they would despawn after five minutes.

Still, even if direct contact wasn't possible, it seemed the laws of the two worlds shared some common ground. Otherwise, he shouldn't have been able to collect this world's materials in the first place.

So, if he could make them appear in a solid form, maybe he could bypass the issue of not being able to touch them.

Fang Zheng thought for a moment, then opened his Inventory, took out a Chest, and placed it directly on the ground.

He then put the Honey bottle, Cake, Golden Apples, and other unique Minecraft foods and potions into the Chest one by one.

Fang Zheng called out to Taiyin, "Hey, want to try taking something out of there?"

Watching Fang Zheng's actions, Taiyin grew curious.

He stared at the blocky wooden Chest and remarked, "This Chest is truly angular, just like you, Daoist."

Taiyin reached out to touch the Chest, but though it seemed to have gaps, he couldn't open it.

When he applied a force slightly stronger than a mortal's, cracks-like patterns appeared on the Chest's surface. When he stopped, they vanished just as quickly.

Taiyin tried probing it with his Divine Sense, but again found nothing. In his Divine Sense perception, it was merely a Black Domain he couldn't see inside.

After a moment's thought, Taiyin, driven by curiosity, mimicked Fang Zheng's motion and waved his right hand near the Chest.

Suddenly, a strange square interface appeared in the right half of Taiyin's vision—a rectangular panel divided into many small slots, split in the middle, directly blocking part of his view.

As a Supreme Being, Taiyin's Taiyin Moon Pupils could pierce through the starry river below and the Heavenly Tribulation's cloud laws above. Ordinary things couldn't obstruct his sight.

Yet now, the right half of his vision had inexplicably vanished. Even when he secretly channeled his Taiyin Power, causing moonlight radiance to shimmer in his eyes and moon-phase transformations to appear, he still saw nothing—only the square frame made of countless small slots remained visible.

Still, as a cultivator, Taiyin's senses weren't limited to sight. His Divine Sense and other perceptions functioned normally.

He curiously observed the objects in the small slots on the right—crude, blocky pictures assembled from different tiny squares, resembling a few bottles of liquid, a pastry, and two fruits.

With a thought, one of the items in the right-side frame disappeared.

He stepped back, and with a "creak," the opened Chest closed, and the frame that had blocked his view vanished as well.

Taiyin wore a strange expression as he looked at his hand. A golden fruit shimmering with purple light was now held in his grasp.

This Golden Apple wasn't the thin, paper-like dropped item Fang Zheng had held. It was a three-dimensional Golden Apple, still pixelated, like a stack of tiny gold blocks pieced together.

Seeing this, Fang Zheng excitedly walked over and circled around Taiyin.

"It worked! The laws of the two worlds can interact! That means, as long as the conditions are met, people in this Xianxia World should be able to use some Minecraft items too!"

"Quick, taste it! See what a Golden Apple tastes like!"

"Taste what it's like..." Taiyin glanced at the excited Fang Zheng and had already roughly grasped the meaning behind his words.

As a powerful cultivator standing at the pinnacle of a realm, though unable to communicate with Fang Zheng through Divine Sense, Taiyin had picked up part of Fang Zheng's language from his constant babbling over the past few days.

With just a bit more conversation to gather enough linguistic information, Taiyin would be able to fully understand Fang Zheng's language and communicate normally.

Looking at the golden fruit-shaped object in his hand, composed of countless tiny golden cubes and glowing with purple light, he probed it with Divine Sense but still found nothing.

Without hesitation, he brought it directly to his mouth and tried taking a bite.

"This... what a strange sensation."