"They thought they could push us around whenever they wanted, then leave whenever they pleased."
After that impassioned speech, everyone was fired up. They clamored to go settle the score with Tang Sanzang and his disciples.
Once the crowd had dispersed, Ye Chen stepped out of the darkness.
"Heh, what a genius." He had to admit, the tall, skinny Daoist's methods and every aspect of his planning were meticulous.
From the moment the day began, Zhu Bajie and the others had been gradually walking into his trap without realizing it.
Over dinner, he had casually brought up the wonders of the Ginseng Fruit, saying he could request some from the Martial Ancestor. He planted the idea in everyone's minds, then went on about the fruit's benefits, making Zhu Bajie unable to resist. He'd seized upon Zhu Bajie's greed from the start, then correctly guessed that Zhu Bajie wouldn't be able to resist sneaking into the back courtyard that night. Whether he stole anything was beside the point; as long as Zhu Bajie passed by, the man would have a chance to take the next step.
And his claim that he'd requested the Ginseng Fruit was true. The fruit had to be knocked down with a special Golden Scepter, or else it would fall into the ground and vanish.
He must have asked Great Immortal Zhenyuan and gotten his permission to take the Golden Scepter. He'd knocked down all the fruit ahead of time and pocketed it, then gone a step further and destroyed the Ginseng Fruit Tree at its roots. Afterward, he'd waited quietly for Zhu Bajie to show up. It was an incredibly bold move—fortune favored the brave. He'd been so certain Zhu Bajie would come that he hadn't even considered an escape route. And just as he'd expected,