A little earlier.
Zhan Ying was about to leave Ancient Wood Mountain, and a large crowd from the Water Ghost Alliance had come to see him off at the Plantation.
"Brother Zhan, remember our agreement once you get out," someone said, his face full of hope.
"Don't forget your brothers..." another said in a lowered voice.
"Quiet!" Zhan Ying hurriedly hissed. "Do you have a death wish? I remember what everyone needs. We mustn't let those demons catch wind of this!"
With that, he turned and flew away without looking back, as though afraid that if he were a few steps slower, the people in the compound would chase him down and drag him back.
It was now the evening of the competition's third day. They had been prisoners on Ancient Wood Mountain for over a day and a night. They had spent more than a day picking Flowing Cloud Fruit here, but even with Zhan Ying putting his puppets to work alongside him, it was still difficult for him alone to scrape together ten thousand Demon-Suppressing Coins to buy his freedom.
Previously, the entire Four Wood Team had only managed to pick eight thousand Demon-Suppressing Coins' worth in a day. At an individual rate, however hard they worked, it would take at least three or four days.
Zhan Ying felt utterly miserable.
He had gone off to kill exotic beasts precisely because he hadn't wanted to put in honest work. After losing teammates while killing exotic beasts, he had gathered people to go robbing instead.
Yet after all that robbing, he had ended up putting in honest work here...
After going around in that circle, he would have been better off working and doing missions from the start, rather than having even his current earnings exploited.
As more and