Xiao the Healer sits right on the edge between comedy and horror. North of Crimson Cliff in the Qinghe region, he laughs until he can barely breathe, trapped in a condition the game calls “Hollow Joy.” Your job is to track down three scattered vials around Crimson Cliff and bring them back so he can finally stop.
How to start A Cure for Hollow Joy (Xiao the Healer)
Xiao’s quest is a Wandering Tales side story called A Cure for Hollow Joy. It does not appear as a big, obvious marker the way main quests do, so it’s easy to miss while passing through Qinghe.
Step 1: Open your map and head to the Crimson Cliff area in Qinghe. Look slightly to the north of the named area.
Step 2: On a mountain ledge just north of Crimson Cliff, look for a man standing dangerously close to the edge, laughing uncontrollably. Approach and interact with him.
Step 3: During the conversation, Xiao explains that he can barely speak and only laughs. He asks you to recover three vials scattered around Crimson Cliff to lift his condition. Accept to begin A Cure for Hollow Joy.
Once the dialogue finishes, the quest objective shifts to finding all three vials in the region around Crimson Cliff.
Antidote vial #1 – Bandit camp southwest of Crimson Cliff
The first vial sits in plain sight, but you have to clear out a camp to safely pick it up.
Step 1: From the Crimson Cliff label on your map, move southwest until you see an enemy camp. It is close enough that you can ride or glide to it without loading into a new area.
Step 2: Deal with the bandits first. If you try to loot while they are alive, you will be interrupted constantly.
Step 3: After clearing the camp, look near the cooking pot and storage jars in the center. The vial rests on top of some jars beside the pot. Interact to collect it.
There is no puzzle here; the only requirement is that you handle the enemies and take a close look around the camp kitchen area.
Antidote vial #2 – The bear on the western ledge
The second vial is tied to a small combat encounter with a wild bear near a breakable rock wall west of Crimson Cliff.
Step 1: From the bandit camp where you found the first vial, head northwest toward a low hill and a raised rocky ledge overlooking a road. On the world map, this sits near the western side of Crimson Cliff, close to the border with the Peace Tower Bell area.
Step 2: As you approach the ledge, a wild bear will aggro. Focus on defeating the bear first; it can interrupt looting and knock you off the edge if you are careless.
Step 3: Once the bear is down, check the rocks on the ledge itself. The second vial lies on the stone near where the bear was roaming. Interact to pick it up.
Players with a throwing ability can also grab the bear and hurl it into nearby rocks to reveal a separate chest hidden behind a breakable wall. That chest is optional and does not contain the vial; the vial sits on the ground beside the bear’s path.
Antidote vial #3 – Bird’s nest on the cliff northeast of Crimson Cliff
The final vial is the easiest to run past and the one that confuses most players. It is small, blends into the scenery, and hides inside a nest rather than sitting in the open.
Step 1: From Crimson Cliff, move toward the northeast edge of the area. You are looking for a cliffside overlooking a drop, not another camp or animal encounter.
Step 2: Walk along the cliff edge and scan the ground for a bird nest with eggs. The nest is close to the ledge and easy to miss if you sprint straight past.
Step 3: When you find the nest, interact with it. The third vial is inside the nest rather than sitting beside it, so you will not see a separate bottle model until you trigger the interaction.
Quest order and common confusion
The three vials are always the same items and are tied to the same three landmarks around Crimson Cliff: a bandit camp, a bear encounter, and a bird’s nest on a cliff.
| Approximate order | Landmark | Map side | Key detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bandit camp | Southwest of Crimson Cliff | Vial on jars beside the cooking pot |
| 2 | Bear and breakable wall | West side, near Peace Tower Bell border | Vial on rock where the bear patrols, not in the chest |
| 3 | Bird nest cliff | Northeast of Crimson Cliff | Vial inside the nest with eggs |
Most players who get stuck around Xiao report one of two issues. The first is assuming the medication is inside the bear’s chest instead of on the ground beside it, and leaving without actually picking up the vial. The second is running past the bird’s nest repeatedly because it is low to the ground and does not read as an obvious quest object from a distance.
Returning the vials to Xiao the Healer
With all three vials in your inventory, you can finally free Xiao from his curse.
Step 1: Travel back to the mountain ledge north of Crimson Cliff where Xiao the Healer stands laughing.
Step 2: Interact with Xiao and choose the Give option when prompted. A menu shows the three vials you collected.
Step 3: Confirm that you want to hand over all three vials. After the final dialogue, a notification pops up on the left side of the screen indicating that A Cure for Hollow Joy is complete.
Step 4: Open the Wandering Tales menu via the notification’s View prompt. The rewards are claimed from the Wandering Tales interface rather than directly in the dialogue.
Finishing the tale awards Echo Jade, Qinghe Exploration progress, character experience, and coins, and it clears Xiao’s marker from the ledge.
Quest rewards for A Cure for Hollow Joy
The rewards attached to Xiao the Healer’s story make it worthwhile to complete early while exploring Qinghe:
| Reward | Amount | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Echo Jade | 40 | High-value currency used across multiple systems |
| Qinghe Exploration | 10 | Contribution toward region exploration track |
| Character EXP | 5000 | Direct experience for your character |
| Coin | 5000 | Standard currency for purchases and upgrades |
Because Wandering Tales often hide off the main path, they are easy to skip. A Cure for Hollow Joy sits along a natural route through Qinghe, so grabbing all three vials as you pass through Crimson Cliff is an efficient way to pad out both your Echo Jade and your region completion without detouring far from the main story.
Once Xiao’s laughter finally stops and the quest stamps as complete in the Wandering Tales menu, Crimson Cliff becomes a little quieter. If you are still roaming Qinghe, use the same mindset—checking ledges, camps, and odd NPC behavior—to pick up the rest of the Wandering Tales scattered around the region.
