At midday, the royal palace erupted with sorrowful wails.0

The newly crowned tenth on the Ranking of Heaven, Ye Wuzong—the Thief Saint who had shone brightly in the Dragon-Slaying Battle, leaving Bo’e humiliated with a face as swollen as a pig’s—had passed away in meditation at the royal palace’s guest residence.3

The queen of the Spirit Tribe, Xiang Simeng, whom Ye Wuzong had dotingly acknowledged as his true disciple and taught in earnest for a couple of months, wept as though her heart would break. She was said to have cried a river of tears, coughed up three liters of blood, and fainted several times.0

In her grief, she lashed out at the surrounding guards, scolding them for failing to protect her master and delivering swift punishment to anyone she deemed negligent. She then ordered white banners, mourning attire, and other funerary items to be prepared immediately. The commotion quickly spread from the sacred mountain to the entire Spirit Tribe.0

Word of the Thief Saint’s death traveled faster than the tribe’s investigative commands regarding celestial anomalies. Many Spirit Tribe villages and settlements...0