On a sultry summer night, a cool breeze brushed across the treetops, and the birds in the trees cooed softly.
Outside a village near the Capital of Fire, only a scattering of households still had their lights on.
On the dim, yellowish street, a few stray cats crouched in the corners, stretching their bodies.
Heavy footsteps rang out abruptly, startling the stray cats and sending them darting into the darkness.
A burly man carrying a sack poked his head out of an alley with a stealthy look. He glanced left and right, hurried across the street, and entered the alley opposite, finally making his way to a courtyard at the edge of the village.
"Squeak—"
The dim basement door was pushed open. The burly man untied the sack, revealing the bound object inside—it turned out to be a little boy not yet three years old.
"Wuwu..."
Seeing the light again, the little boy instinctively struggled with all his might.
The burly man untied the ropes from the little boy and casually picked up a leather whip.
At the sight of this, the little boy's face filled with terror, and he instinctively began to cry out.
A ferocious grin spread across the burly man's mouth as he swung the leather whip and lashed it fiercely against the little boy.
The pain caused the little boy to roll back and forth on the ground, crying in a heartbreaking manner.
After beating him for a moment, the burly man wore a ferocious expression, pointed the leather whip at the little boy, and said,
"If you don't shut u…
Chapter 78