In Where Winds Meet’s Qingzhou region, Riddled Echoes opens the Jianghu Legacy questline and carries the subtitle The Courtly Hermit. Players track a falling star near Mount Tai into an ancient Han dynasty tomb filled with riddles, a quicksilver flood, and flesh-eating insects. Completing the quest awards the Willowbend Fan martial art and finishes Jianghu Legacy Vol. 1.
Quick answer: Riddled Echoes is the 01 Jianghu Legacy quest in Qingzhou, started at Seedling Temple; finishing it unlocks the Willowbend Fan plus the Zephyr Whispers and Blade’s Will Inner Way tomes.
Where Riddled Echoes begins in Qingzhou
The quest lives in the Exploration menu under Qingzhou, then Jianghu Legacy, as 01 Riddled Echoes. Its starting point is Seedling Temple, southeast of Mount Tai in the Eastern Peak subregion. It only becomes available after that subregion is opened, which happens when players speak with the Eastern Peak Wayfarer during the Worldly Affairs quest Away to Qingzhou.
Tracking the objective and heading toward the waypoint triggers the opening set piece. The sky over Qingzhou darkens and cycles rapidly between day and night as shooting stars streak overhead, then a meteor slams into the foot of the cliff ahead. That crash site becomes the entrance to the whole dungeon.
Large stretches of the tomb are pitch black. Equipping the Mystic Skill Night Glow (also called Nightborne Glow) beforehand lets players light their surroundings by pressing B in dark areas.
Inside the tomb and meeting Zhuge Feifei
Dropping through the crater shaft leads into a subterranean Han mausoleum. The first point of interest is a broken bowl on a stone table, and examining it brings out Zhuge Feifei, a scholar of the Inkbound Order who is hunting for a relic lost to his order. He joins as a companion for the rest of the tomb, and much of the quest is built around moving through the ruins together.
Because a stone plug seals the tomb’s main doorway, use the robbers’ tunnel beside the table rather than try to force your way in. The burial rooms come one after another: statues and terracotta horses first, then a banquet hall with dining tables set out, followed by the two Compendium artifacts, the Heel Support and the Winged Goblet. Zhuge Feifei explains the carvings depicting the Queen Mother of the West and the Daoist quest for immortality, moving the story forward.
The inverted-bowl riddles and the Emperor Wu mystery
The puzzles that give the quest its name are inscriptions hidden under overturned bowls. They tie back to a famous court diversion in which the scholar Dongfang Shuo deduced that a gecko was hidden beneath an upside-down bowl at Emperor Wu of Han’s feast. The tomb belonged to an imperial scholar-official sent to find elixirs of immortality, who concealed his failure from the emperor and sealed the truth behind these riddles.
One inscription reads: “A thing most precious, most revered. All raise their eyes to it. A thing most worthless, most despised. All turn their faces from it. There is a thing whose presence brings peace, but whose loss splits the earth and shatters mountains.” Bamboo Scroll Fragments found in a nearby chamber fill in the lore, describing rare plants and concoctions linked to eternal life.
Quicksilver, darkness, and the insect swarm
An inscription on the altar between kneeling statues activates a trap when read. Quicksilver fills the chamber; it was chosen over water to protect the coffins, but touching it causes Quicksilver Poisoning. Leap from beam to beam toward higher ground, then get to the tunnel before the rising metal cuts off the route. The poison continues to deal damage even once you’re out of danger.
The cure sits in a wine cellar deeper in. Drinking from the aged wine jars and channeling Qi purges the Quicksilver Poisoning, though health stays in critical condition afterward. From there, smashing a cracked wall opens a pitch-black corridor split by a partition. Progress depends on tracing Zhuge Feifei’s voice, knocking on the dividing wall to stay in sync, and ducking under obstacles until both reach the shaft at the end.
In the curio room below, a large lacquer chest has an opening for a hand. Reach in without looking to collect the Immortal’s Pit, Endless Catch, and Woven Tassel, steering clear of the blade traps; doing so sets off the mechanism, opens vents in the ceiling, and sends out carnivorous insects. They track light and heat, so running buys time only until the hall containing the giant cauldron. Shoot a flaming arrow at the oil-filled lamp tree to burn the swarm. An explosion sends both characters down a chute, separating them briefly before Zhuge Feifei reappears unharmed.
Unlocking the Willowbend Fan and the final riddle
Past the swarm, Sun Buqi’s cultivation chamber contains ruined incubation coffins and glowing blue flora. Check the duel’s sword marks and the pages strewn across the floor to obtain Willowbend Fan, a ranged martial art. A wall inscription records Master Moonstream’s vow to oppose the disciple Sun Buqi.
An iron ladder climbs into the main burial chamber beneath a domed ceiling of constellations. The Tomb Master’s Bamboo Scroll there spells out how the official deceived Emperor Wu. At the central coffin, the final inverted bowl brings the earlier riddles together, and flipping it opens the sarcophagus to reveal fine aged wine instead of a body. Drinking it with Zhuge Feifei triggers a shared vision of Dongfang Shuo and the emperor solving the gecko riddle at the imperial feast, after which both wake in the tomb and teleport back to the surface of Mount Tai.
Look for the “01 Riddled Echoes Completed” screen and the Banquet Guest achievement banner to verify completion. Once the quest ends, the follow-up Exploration quest A Moonlit Night in Wellspring Town appears, carrying on Zhuge Feifei’s story.
Riddled Echoes rewards
| Reward | Type |
|---|---|
| Willowbend Fan | Ranged martial art |
| Zephyr Whispers | Inner Way Tome |
| Blade’s Will | Inner Way Tome |
| Winged-Tree Lamp | Decoration |
| Banquet Guest | Achievement |
| Medicinal Tales x1 | Material |
| Ebon Iron – Ever Aflame x4 | Material |
| Echo Jade x54 | Material |
| Qingzhou Exploration x80 | Progress |
| Enlightenment Point x200 | Progress |
| Character EXP x45,000 | Experience |
| Coin x45,000 | Currency |
What the Willowbend Fan does
Willowbend Fan is a ranged DPS choice on the Silkbind – Wings Martial Path. Its playstyle revolves around two effects that stack: Drifting Breeze enables the upgraded main skill, while Rustling supplies its offensive buff. At base, Rustling increases Attribute Attack by 6% for you and 3% for nearby allies; Zephyr Whispers at Tier 6 raises those amounts to 12% and 6%.
- Boreal Sweep — Special skill; an arcing wind blade that grants Drifting Breeze.
- Boundless Bloom (Q) — Martial skill; a wind field that grants Rustling, enhanced by Drifting Breeze.
- Sweeping Shear (Hold R) — Charged heavy that closes distance and also grants Drifting Breeze.
- End of Gale (F) — Heavy varied combo; applies Ink Rhythm and restores 30 Noble Will with Zephyr Whispers.
A typical rotation starts with Boreal Sweep for Drifting Breeze, continues with enhanced Boundless Bloom for Rustling, and ends with End of Gale for Ink Rhythm and Noble Will. The fan is meant to work with Museflow Waist Drum, obtained through the separate Sea Shepherd Jianghu Legacy quest in Qingzhou; both are on the Silkbind – Wings path. Building Noble Will and applying Ink Rhythm with the fan fuels the drum’s Rippling Dew, making the two a natural pairing.
