The Pei Residence.
Bang, bang, bang!
In the main hall, Bu Tingyang knelt on the floor, covered in blood.
Seven or eight burly men wielding iron rods struck his back over and over.
Everyone in the room was silent with fear. No one dared make a sound.
Elder Pei calmly held his teacup, while Gu Xia, the director of the Security Bureau, quietly sipped tea beside him.
Only when a woman with a heavily pregnant belly rushed in from outside and threw herself over Bu Tingyang did the men administering the family punishment stop.
"Father, are you really going to beat him to death?"
She was Bu Tingyang's wife and Elder Pei's own daughter.
The woman tenderly stroked the bloody welts on Bu Tingyang's back, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" At the sight, Elder Pei could only let the matter drop.
He slowly set down his teacup, his cloudy eyes turning cold and sinister.
"I know I was wrong."
Bu Tingyang straightened his back and clenched his fists, not daring to voice the slightest complaint.
Elder Pei smiled noncommittally.
"Drop your little schemes. Do you know why you received the family punishment?"
"Because I... acted against Little White Tiger without your permission, Father-in-law."
He knew Elder Pei feared Overlord and was unwilling to go to war with the forces outside the city without complete confidence.
But San Mu Ichiro held his greatest secret.
If the Pei Family learned that secret, not only he but even his wife and children far away on Kou Island would die.
"Rotten wood cannot be carved." A trace of disappointment flashed through Elder Pei's eyes.
"Did you think Dong Gui's little maneuvers with you could escape our notice?" Elder Pei looked at Gu Xia beside him.
This powerful figure was the