diff --git a/odoo/addons/base/models/ir_ui_view.py b/odoo/addons/base/models/ir_ui_view.py
index 094de41a9e7..fefd9d9d2a3 100644
--- a/odoo/addons/base/models/ir_ui_view.py
+++ b/odoo/addons/base/models/ir_ui_view.py
@@ -1956,16 +1956,18 @@ actual arch.
                 # TODO: collections.Counter if remove p2.6 compat
                 # running index by tag type, for XPath query generation
                 indexes = collections.defaultdict(lambda: 0)
-                for child in e.iterchildren(tag=etree.Element):
+                for child in e.iterchildren(etree.Element, etree.ProcessingInstruction):
                     if child.get('data-oe-xpath'):
                         # injected by view inheritance, skip otherwise
                         # generated xpath is incorrect
-                        # Also, if a node is known to have been replaced during applying xpath
-                        # increment its index to compute an accurate xpath for susequent nodes
-                        replaced_node_tag = child.attrib.pop('meta-oe-xpath-replacing', None)
-                        if replaced_node_tag:
-                            indexes[replaced_node_tag] += 1
                         self.distribute_branding(child)
+                    elif child.tag is etree.ProcessingInstruction:
+                        # If a node is known to have been replaced during
+                        # applying an inheritance, increment its index to
+                        # compute an accurate xpath for subsequent nodes
+                        if child.target == 'apply-inheritance-specs-node-removal':
+                            indexes[child.text] += 1
+                            e.remove(child)
                     else:
                         indexes[child.tag] += 1
                         self.distribute_branding(
diff --git a/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_views.py b/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_views.py
index cb5b91298e2..7ad8a1f9442 100644
--- a/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_views.py
+++ b/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_views.py
@@ -870,6 +870,44 @@ class TestTemplating(ViewCase):
             initial.get('data-oe-xpath'),
             "The node's xpath position should be correct")
 
+    def test_branding_inherit_remove_node(self):
+        view1 = self.View.create({
+            'name': "Base view",
+            'type': 'qweb',
+            # The t-esc node is to ensure branding is distributed to both
+            # <world/> elements from the start
+            'arch': """
+                <hello>
+                    <world></world>
+                    <world></world>
+
+                    <t t-esc="foo"/>
+                </hello>
+            """
+        })
+        self.View.create({
+            'name': "Extension",
+            'type': 'qweb',
+            'inherit_id': view1.id,
+            'arch': """
+                <data>
+                    <xpath expr="/hello/world[1]" position="replace"/>
+                </data>
+            """
+        })
+
+        arch_string = view1.with_context(inherit_branding=True).get_combined_arch()
+
+        arch = etree.fromstring(arch_string)
+        self.View.distribute_branding(arch)
+
+        # Only remaining world but still the second in original view
+        [initial] = arch.xpath('/hello[1]/world[1]')
+        self.assertEqual(
+            '/hello[1]/world[2]',
+            initial.get('data-oe-xpath'),
+            "The node's xpath position should be correct")
+
     def test_branding_inherit_top_t_field(self):
         view1 = self.View.create({
             'name': "Base view",
diff --git a/odoo/tools/template_inheritance.py b/odoo/tools/template_inheritance.py
index e6e62b78d88..45e7d7f96f5 100644
--- a/odoo/tools/template_inheritance.py
+++ b/odoo/tools/template_inheritance.py
@@ -176,19 +176,19 @@ def apply_inheritance_specs(source, specs_tree, inherit_branding=False, pre_loca
                             comment.tail = text
                             source.insert(0, comment)
                     else:
-                        replaced_node_tag = None
+                        # TODO ideally the notion of 'inherit_branding' should
+                        # not exist in this function. Given the current state of
+                        # the code, it is however necessary to know where nodes
+                        # were removed when distributing branding. As a stable
+                        # fix, this solution was chosen: the location is marked
+                        # with a "ProcessingInstruction" which will not impact
+                        # the "Element" structure of the resulting tree.
+                        if inherit_branding:
+                            node.addprevious(etree.ProcessingInstruction('apply-inheritance-specs-node-removal', node.tag))
+
                         for child in spec:
                             if child.get('position') == 'move':
                                 child = extract(child)
-                            if inherit_branding and not replaced_node_tag and child.tag is not etree.Comment:
-                                # To make a correct branding, we need to
-                                # - know exactly which node has been replaced
-                                # - store it before anything else has altered the Tree
-                                # Do it exactly here :D
-                                child.set('meta-oe-xpath-replacing', node.tag)
-                                # We just store the replaced node tag on the first
-                                # child of the xpath replacing it
-                                replaced_node_tag = node.tag
                             node.addprevious(child)
                         node.getparent().remove(node)
                 elif mode == "inner":