TFOD Chapter 1

“Wei Wuxian is dead. Good riddance!”

The great siege at the Burial Mounds had just ended, and before the second day, the news had spread like wildfire throughout the cultivation world, even faster than the flames of war had originally spread.

For a time, whether it was among the esteemed families or the rogue cultivators in the mountains, everyone was discussing this siege, which was jointly led by the four great cultivation clans and participated in by hundreds of large and small families.

“Good, good, good! Truly, good riddance! Which renowned hero was it who personally killed this Yi Ling Patriarch?”

“Who else could it be? His junior brother, young Sect Leader Jiang Cheng, of course. The Yunmeng Jiang Clan, the Lanling Jin Clan, the Gusu Lan Clan, and the Qinghe Nie Clan took the lead, putting family aside to eliminate the threat, wiping out Wei Wuxian’s old nest, ‘the Burial Mounds’, in one fell swoop.”

“I have to say a fair word: it was a good kill.”

Immediately, someone clapped and loudly echoed, “That’s right, a good kill! If the Yunmeng Jiang Clan hadn’t taken him in and cultivated him, Wei Ying would have been just a useless nobody mixing with the commoners… not even worth mentioning. The former Sect Leader Jiang treated him like his own son, but what did he do? He openly defected, became an enemy of all the clans, disgraced the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, and caused the Jiang family to almost be completely wiped out. What is called an ingrate? That’s what this is!”

“Jiang Cheng actually let this scoundrel be arrogant for so long. If it were me, when that Wei person defected, I wouldn’t have just stabbed him once. I would have directly cleansed the family. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had the chance to commit those later, depraved acts. Why even talk about the feelings of fellow disciples or childhood friends with someone like that?”

“But isn’t what I heard different? Wasn’t Wei Ying killed by his own evil cultivation, suffering a backlash and being torn apart and devoured by his own ghost generals? I heard he was chewed to bits and turned into dust.”

“Hahahaha… that’s what they call karma. I’ve long wanted to say that the group of ghost generals he raised were like a pack of unleashed mad dogs, biting everyone everywhere. In the end, they bit him to death, serves him right!”

“That may be so, but in this siege of the Burial Mounds, if it wasn’t for young Sect Leader Jiang pinpointing the Yi Ling Patriarch’s weakness and devising a plan, success would have been difficult to achieve. You can’t forget what Wei Wuxian had in his hands. How were more than three thousand well-known cultivators completely annihilated in one night?”

“Wasn’t it five thousand?”

“Three thousand, five thousand, it’s all about the same. I think five thousand is more likely.”

“Truly depraved…”

“Before he died, he destroyed the Stygian Tiger Seal, which could be considered a bit of good merit, otherwise, if that ghostly thing was left to continue harming the world, it would be even more sinful.”

The words “Stygian Tiger Seal” were spoken, and suddenly there was a silence, as if everyone was wary of something.

After a moment, one person sighed and said:

“Ah… speaking of this Wei Wuxian, back then he was also an extremely famous young master among the cultivation families. He was not without good accomplishments. He achieved fame at a young age, how glorious and unrestrained he was… how exactly did he end up like this…”

The topic shifted, and the discussions buzzed again.

“From this, it can be seen that cultivation must ultimately follow the orthodox path. Heretical and crooked ways, while seemingly glorious and powerful for a while, like a very arrogant and amazing thing? Heh, what is the final outcome?”

Someone declared emphatically, “A mangled corpse!”

“It’s not entirely the fault of the path of cultivation. Ultimately, it’s because Wei Wuxian’s character was too poor, causing both heavenly and human resentment. The so-called good and evil will always be repaid, the way of heaven always revolves…”

…

After death, the final verdict was given. The content of the discussions were largely the same, and if there was a weak dissenting voice, it would immediately be suppressed.

However, there was a lingering shadow in everyone’s heart that could not be dispelled.

Although the Yi Ling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian, had died at the Burial Mounds, after it was over, they could not summon his remnant soul.

Perhaps his soul was devoured along with the ten thousand ghosts, or maybe it had escaped.

If it was the former, naturally everyone would be happy and the whole world would celebrate. However, the Yi Ling Patriarch had earth-shattering, mountain-moving, and sea-overturning powers—or at least that’s what the rumors said. If he wanted to resist soul summoning, it wouldn’t be difficult. Once his primordial spirit recovered in the future, and he was to take over another body, then the cultivation families and even the entire human world would certainly face an even more depraved revenge and curse, plunging into darkness and bloodshed.

Therefore, after pressing one hundred and twenty stone beasts on top of the Burial Mounds, the major families began frequent soul summoning rituals while strictly investigating body possession, searching for strange phenomena in various places, and going all out to be vigilant.

The first year was peaceful.

The second year was peaceful.

The third year was peaceful.

…

The thirteenth year was still peaceful.

At this point, finally, more and more people believed that maybe Wei Wuxian wasn’t that amazing, maybe he had really vanished completely, both soul and spirit.

Even if he once turned his hand to create clouds and rain, there would eventually be a day when he would become the one overturned.

No one will be forever enshrined on the altar, and legends are only legends after all.