The elders paid no attention to Venerable Ping, who was still wailing.
With things having reached this point, he no longer posed much of a threat.
It was a very simple matter.
Before this, when facing Venerable Ping, no one knew just how far his resolve would take him.
Coupled with the constraints imposed by their own family holdings, they had always shown Venerable Ping considerable forbearance.
At first, everyone had thought that since he could plot such a grand scheme, he must at least know his limits.
What belonged to him, naturally, no one would covet. But what did not belong to him—surely he would not be too greedy for that.
Yet Venerable Ping's later actions had clearly surpassed everyone's expectations.
Or rather, perhaps he had initially intended to stop while he was ahead.
It was simply that everything had gone too smoothly, leaving him unable to suppress the greed in his heart.
And the heavier one's greed became, the more unscrupulous one's actions would grow.
After the elders had begun by yielding ground, their bottom line had started slipping without limit.
The final result was the situation that had greeted Ye Xiu's group upon their return from the outer city.
The inner city had practically become Venerable Ping's one-man domain, while the elders of every family had hoped that hiding away would lessen their losses.
But now, the situation was vastly different.
Ye Xiu had struck Venerable Ping head-on before everyone and cut him down to half-dead, yet even under such circumstances, he still lacked the courage to perish together with his enemy.
That had completely exposed where his bottom line lay.
After gaining so many benefits, Venerable Ping had long become a cowardly rat afraid of death.
This was a very serious problem.
Even for Venerable Ping,