Chief Xie had no intention of causing any trouble for Shao Xia, as she knew that she had no evidence. She simply relayed what happened to the elders and the other totem warriors. When the elders heard that Hei Ya had used such despicable means to harm a member of the tribe, even if they hated Ruan Chanchan, they couldn’t ignore his actions.

After all, they had to answer Chief Xie and the rest of the tribe. A mer was carrying Ruan Chanchan’s child, and if the word got out, they would be the ones in trouble. The elders, however, couldn’t even come up with the decision of killing Hei Ya because the mer was, after all, a strong totem warrior. Killing him meant that they were weakening their own strength.

In the end, Hei Ya was reduced to the position of a slave and had to sleep with women or men as long as they were willing to give him a child. For the loss that he made Xie Daiyu suffer, he would have to give birth to twenty children.

For someone like Hei Ya, this punishment was too much. He was too proud and had never slept with a woman before, as his heart was set on Xiao Ya but suddenly everything seemed to have fallen into nothing but a chaotic storm. He wanted to control his tears, but in the end, he couldn’t. Warm and hot tears spilled from his eyes, and he couldn’t help but sob wildly.

How could such a thing happen? All because he wanted to love someone. All because he cared for someone whom he should have never even looked at. He was now reduced to a mere slave! A slave who was supposed to sleep and give birth to a child.

"You foolish child, how could you do such a thing!" Father Hei came running when he heard the punishment of his son. Though he wanted the council to give a lenient punishment to Hei Ya, this was already way more lenient than anyone could have expected. Even if Father Hei wanted to make a fuss, he couldn’t do it because Hei Ya’s crime was way too big. Who asked him to kill Ruan Chanchan? Even if the woman was alive, the fact that Hei Ya had tried to kill her couldn’t be changed.

Hei Ya looked at his father, who had abandoned him as soon as he turned into an adult, and stiffened. He always thought that his father despised him, which was why he had abandoned him so early, but he did not know that Father Hei, who was just a slave, was worried that he would be dragged down because of him; thus, he separated from him.

"Ah Ya, if father was not worried that you would be ruined because of his reputation, do you think he would have asked us to move out of his cave?" Hei Bin was much smarter than her brother and knew why her father asked them to stay separately. But unfortunately, Hei Bin was too big a fool.

Hei Ya’s eyes turned red as he looked at his father and then threw himself in the arms of his father. "Father, I—"

"You fool! How many times did I tell you to stay away from that woman? You thought that I was meddling in your affairs. Your father had seen many women like her and knows that she is all talk and no action at all. She likes that fox and would have never taken you as her mate, even if you created a fuss, you —how could you be so silly? What am I going to do with you now?"

"Your father never wanted you to follow the same path as me, which is why I sent you away the second you awakened as a totem warrior. Who would have thought that you would still end up in the same position as your father?" Father Hei was heartbroken. Even though he felt no shame in taking women and men and serving them, he still wanted his children to live a better life than he did.

He was beaten and scolded as the elders of the tribe wanted, and he couldn’t fight back because his core was broken, and he could only serve the people in the tribe to get something to eat. He did not want his son to follow the same path and wished for him to rise higher and higher. For him to be reduced to a slave. The pain was even worse for Father Hei. All along, whenever he saw Hei Ya walking with the totem warriors, he was filled with pride, but now his son was a mere slave just like him. Father Hei was heartbroken, but there was nothing he could do.

Hei Ya also knew that he had let his father down; he choked on his sobs and swore that he would never get entangled with Xiao Ya ever again. That woman was such a ruthless woman. When she wanted to use him, she promised him that she would bring him to her side and when she wanted to push the blame on his head, she did it without even batting her eyes. She was simply cruel to her bones! 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Hei Bin watched the two of them cry and sighed. She said in a low voice, "Alright, don’t cry too hard. I know that the two of you are upset, but things are not as bad as you think. At least the people of the tribe respect Hei Ya as a totem warrior and would be too embarrassed to go to his cave to seek him. The strong ones will be reluctant, and the weaker ones will be scared that Hei Ya might kill them. In the end, it’s still up to Hei Ya if he wants to sleep with someone."

Father Hei nodded as he wiped the tears off Hei Ya’s face. He said to his son with a heartbroken voice, "I know that you are wronged but you did something wrong. You should be glad that Ruan Chanchan is alive or else Xie Daiyu would have killed you."