Quests / The handbook

The Ephemeral Blight: three cures and the hidden-lair deduction

Collect all three Mistveil cures, solve the hidden-lair deduction and remove the remaining blight.

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The quick answer

Trigger the Mistveil Forest encounter, collect the cures from Wishing Cove, Hollow Abode and Aureate Pavilion, then return to Zhai Xu. After two in-game days, investigate the hidden lair and destroy the blooms to resolve the blight.

Quest requirements

Encounter · Start with Zhai Xu

    Rewards

    • Mistveil Forest blight resolution
    • Quest completion rewards

    Trigger the rescue and inspect Wishing Cove

    Enter the dense mist near Granary of Plenty in southern Mistveil Forest. The collapse leads to Zhai Xu’s rescue and Wishing Cove. Inspect his home for the Thousand Wish Amendment and Mistveil Forest Cure: Wishing Cove.

    If he interrupts the search, use Meridian Touch on the wind chime to distract him. Collect both documents, then open the Quest section of your Bag and read the Amendment. Picking it up without reading it can leave the next objective unregistered.

    Collect the other two cures

    CureWhere to search
    Wishing CoveThe documents by the window in Zhai Xu’s home
    Hollow AbodeThe underground rooms reached through the western house, along the Soulshade Umbrella theft route
    Aureate PavilionThe document inside the outpost’s main building

    At Hollow Abode, follow the stealth route and inspect the marked notes. Learning the umbrella is a separate goal; check the quest’s cure count before deciding another martial-art attempt is necessary.

    Clear the Aureate Pavilion enemies as required to reach its building. The cure is a document pickup, so completing combat alone does not guarantee you collected it. Return with all three cures rather than repeatedly checking Zhai Xu after only one new note.

    Advance two in-game days

    Hand over the clues, then use the world clock to advance two days. Return to Wishing Cove for the antidote note and continue to the northern rendezvous. This uses in-game time, unlike Under Another’s Roof’s real-day waits.

    Open the lair and inspect the evidence

    Use Fire Arrows on the blue Dawn-to-Dusk Blooms and vines blocking the tunnel. Inside, inspect the coffin, dead vines, Aureate crest and damaged bug cage. Destroy the hanging blooms, deal with the released Sleeping Puppets and follow the shadowy figure’s successive appearances into the lower lair.

    Collect Sun Buqi’s notes and the old jade pendant. When the deduction opens, combine the evidence in this order:

    1. Match the puppet’s pendant half with the crane-and-lingzhi pendant half.
    2. Connect the three factions’ transformation into puppets with the medicinal gourd, identifying the hidden-lair puppet as a Silver Needle doctor.
    3. Connect that doctor identity with the bodies showing rescue attempts.
    4. Combine the resulting healer clue with the reunited-pendant clue to identify your savior.

    The new deduction cards matter: later pairs use conclusions produced by earlier combinations. If a pair is unavailable, finish the preceding deduction and inspect any unread evidence.

    Return the pendant and remove the remaining blooms

    Give the pendant back to the puppet, then use Fire Arrows to destroy the remaining blue blooms in the lower lair. Return to Zhai Xu at Wishing Cove with the notes to close the encounter.

    This resolves the forest’s local blight storyline. Confirm the final journal completion rather than treating the first opened tunnel or defeated puppet group as the end.

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