My Cat behaviour

Hey, I’m kinda new to this forum and have mostly just been using it to search for stuff, so this is my first post.

A few months ago, my family and I picked up a cat off the street, and we think he was about 6-7 months old at the time. He was a really good cat for the first few months, which made us think he might have come from a home, but we couldn’t find his family despite trying hard.

When he started to reach puberty, we noticed his behavior changed a lot. We figured it was because he was unneutered, so we had him neutered, but he’s continued to act out. We’ve been trying to correct his behavior by spraying him with water or using “cat behavior mist,” and sometimes, when he scratches the furniture or curtains, we’ve resorted to lightly hitting him. Despite all our efforts, his behavior hasn’t improved, and it’s getting to the point where we’re considering taking him to a rescue.

He never acted like this before, and it’s been months since he was neutered. How can I fix his behavior?