TFOD Chapter 2

Wei Wuxian was kicked as soon as he opened his eyes.

A thunderclap exploded in his ears: “What are you pretending to be dead for?!”

This kick to the chest nearly made him cough up blood. His head hit the ground, and he lay staring at the sky. In a daze, he thought: *Dare to kick this old ancestor, you’ve got some nerve.*

Wei Wuxian didn’t know how many years it had been since he heard a living person speak, let alone a loud cursing like this. His head was spinning, and the shrill, young voice echoed in his ears, buzzing: “Don’t you even think about it, whose land are you living on, whose rice are you eating, whose money are you spending! How is it wrong to take a few things from you? Everything should have belonged to me in the first place!”

Immediately after, the sounds of drawers being overturned and objects being smashed and thrown echoed around him. After a long while, Wei Wuxian’s vision gradually cleared. In his sight was a dim ceiling. Above him, a face with upturned eyebrows and glaring green eyes spat wildly, “You even dared to complain! Do you really think I’m afraid of your complaints? Do you think anyone in this family will take your side?”

Two burly men, who looked like servants, came to his side, saying, “Young Master, we’ve smashed everything!”

The shrill-voiced youth said, “Why so fast?”

The servant replied, “This rundown room didn’t have much to begin with.”

The shrill-voiced youth was extremely satisfied and turned to Wei Wuxian, his index finger almost poking Wei Wuxian’s nose into his brain: “You had the audacity to complain, now you’re pretending to be dead? As if anyone cares about your broken bronze and old scraps of paper. I’ve smashed them all, see what you’ll use to complain from now on! Going to a cultivation sect for a few years makes you so high and mighty? Aren’t you just like a stray dog who was chased back here!”

Wei Wuxian thought weakly, *I haven’t been acting, I really have been dead for years.*

*Who is this?*

*Where is this???*

*When did I ever do something like possession???*

The shrill-voiced youth, having kicked him, smashed his room, and let out enough of his anger, swaggered out of the door with his two servants. He slammed the door and loudly ordered, “Keep an eye on him, don’t let him come out and embarrass himself!”

The servants outside the door echoed their agreement. Once the people were far away, the inside and outside of the room became quiet. Wei Wuxian tried to sit up, but his body wouldn’t obey, and he fell back down. He could only turn over and, gazing at the unfamiliar surroundings and the mess on the ground, continued to feel dizzy.

There was a copper mirror that had been tossed on the ground beside him. Wei Wuxian reached for it and looked. A pale face appeared in the mirror. Two large, uneven and asymmetrical patches of red were on each cheek. If he stuck out a long, red tongue, he would look exactly like a hanged ghost.

Wei Wuxian couldn’t accept it and threw the mirror away, wiping his face and smearing a handful of white powder.

Luckily, this body’s natural appearance wasn’t strange; it was just that the taste was peculiar. A grown man had painted his face with rouge and powder, and the worst part was how ugly he had done it.

Startled by this, he regained some strength and finally managed to sit up. Only then did he notice the circular array beneath him. The array was scarlet, the circle irregular. It seemed to have been drawn by hand using blood, still damp and reeking of a metallic stench. Twisted and chaotic incantations were drawn inside the array. Some of them were partially erased by his body, and the remaining shapes and words were sinister and eerie. Wei Wuxian had been called the Supreme Evil One, the Founder of Demonic Path, and the like for many years, so he was naturally familiar with such obviously sinister arrays.

He hadn’t taken over someone’s body—he had been summoned through the Sacrifice of the Body!

The essence of “Sacrifice of the Body” was a curse. The caster would harm themselves with a sharp weapon, making cuts on their body. They would use their blood to draw the array and incantations, and sit at the center. They would sacrifice their body to an evil spirit, and their soul would return to the earth as a cost to summon a wicked ghost or demon. The caster would then pray to the spirit to fulfill their wish. This was the exact opposite of “Possession”. They were both forbidden arts with bad reputations, but the latter was not as practical or popular as the former. After all, there were few desires strong enough to make a living person willingly sacrifice everything, so it was rarely practiced. Over the centuries, it was almost lost. According to ancient records, there were only three or four people with verifiable cases. Without exception, these three or four people all wanted revenge, and the evil ghosts they summoned perfectly fulfilled their wishes in cruel and bloody ways.

Wei Wuxian was unconvinced.

Why was he classified as a “wicked ghost or demon who had committed all sorts of evil deeds”?