Night fell!
That night, from a small courtyard somewhere in Ping'an City's eastern district came a series of utterly miserable cries.
What was most peculiar, though...
was that mixed into those screams was the stubborn, childish voice of a young boy.
Following the sound, one could see a middle-aged cultivator with an honest-looking face wielding a long whip, lashing it across the body of a boy whose face was full of defiance.
As he whipped him, he shouted furiously:
"Were you wrong or not?"
"I wasn't wrong!"
Smack! Smack...
"Ahh... I wasn't wrong."
"Not wrong?
Did the family deny you food, or deny you drink?
Yet right there in the academy, before everyone, you said the family was capital!
Wouldn't that make the Ancestor a capitalist?"
"Do you little bastard have any conscience at all?"
"Today, I'm going to teach you a proper lesson about what should and shouldn't be said!"
Smack! Smack, smack...
"Ahh... I didn't say anything wrong. Besides, it was only a metaphor!"
"A metaphor?
I'll give you a metaphor!"
"You ungrateful little bastard, with that temperament of yours, you'll sooner or later bring great trouble down on the family.
Might as well whip you to death today!"
As he spoke.
The middle-aged man glanced at the delicate-looking female cultivator not far away and said:
"His mother, don't just stand there!
Come teach this little bastard a lesson with me. Today, he has to learn how many eyes King Ma has!"
"Mm! He really has gone too far!"
"If I don't properly straighten him out today, those old biddies will surely spread gossip about me tomorrow!"
"Put some strength into it later!
The louder his screams, the better!"
"Alright!"
"I've already shut down the formation attached to the courtyard."
"This little brat's screams will definitely carry a