The Ember of East, Wen Wuque, is introduced in Chapter 2 of Where Winds Meet as one of the most formidable and politically connected figures in Kaifeng. His first appearance during the “Gathering of Heroes” main quest does more than showcase martial prowess; it also frames the economic and political crisis that drives the rest of the Universal Furnace chapter.
Where the Ember of East appears in the story
The Ember of East is first seen in the main quest Gathering of Heroes, the second part of Chapter 2: Universal Furnace. After the Young Hero arrives in Kaifeng and completes “New Guest in Kaifeng,” Big Zhao arranges a way into the Heroes Assembly at the luxurious Revelry Hall without an Assembly Ticket, using the same Boatman who originally ferried you into the city.
At the entrance to the main hall, Velvet Shade Disciples block the way, arguing with a pair of fighters known as the Joyous Couple. When the dispute escalates, the Joyous Couple easily knocks down the Velvet Shade Disciples. That’s the moment Wen Wuque steps in, and the game finally puts a face to the title “Ember of East.”
How the Ember of East’s “life coin” establishes his power
The confrontation with the Joyous Couple is designed to establish exactly how dangerous Wen Wuque is. Instead of drawing a conventional weapon, he flips a life coin toward them. The coin is more than a prop; it’s the focus of his signature “art of weight” and serves as a remote killing tool in combat.
The Joyous Couple pushes back with a line that captures the tension of the scene: “A coin for a life, is that right? Our lives won’t be so easy to buy.” A moment later, Wen Wuque proves that their confidence is misplaced. His manipulation of weight turns the coin into an instant execution, killing both of them in front of the assembled Jianghu heroes and sect representatives. The sequence makes several points clear:
- He is feared in Jianghu, not just respected.
- His techniques are subtle and almost ceremonial, but lethally effective.
- He has the authority to decide life and death even in a crowded, politically sensitive venue.
That mix of theatricality and ruthlessness underpins everything that follows in Reverly Hall.
The Ember of East, the Gold-Making Vessel, and Kaifeng’s economy
Once Big Zhao’s disguise plan gets you and him into the Assembly, you follow him up to the Ember of East’s chamber on the upper floors of Revelry Hall. There, Wen Wuque unveils the Gold-Making Vessel to a room full of officials and power brokers.
Several key figures are present:
- Dao Lord, ruler of Kaifeng’s Underground Market, representing the city’s shadow economy.
- Shen Yilun, in charge of the Ever-Normal Granary, tying the scene to food security and state reserves.
- Lord Shi, a representative of the Song court responsible for Kaifeng’s copper coinage.
Wen Wuque and Lord Shi demonstrate the Vessel by literally making it “rain” coins over the audience. The display underlines why the Ember of East matters beyond personal martial skill: he sits at the intersection of Jianghu prestige and state finances. The Vessel is effectively a magical or alchemical intervention in the money supply, and Wen Wuque’s decision to present it as a tribute to the court anchors him firmly in larger political currents.
The demonstration ends abruptly in an explosion. Lord Shi and the Vessel plummet; an eagle snatches the Vessel while a guard rescues Lord Shi. A chaotic scramble follows among the sect leaders and officials, and the last person seen in possession of the Vessel is Dao Lord. This theft is the fulcrum of Universal Furnace, and Wen Wuque’s role as the donor of the Vessel makes him central to the fallout even when he is not on screen.
Why you can’t meet the Ember of East (yet)
After the explosion, the Young Hero is trapped in an illusion, clutching a mysterious bag and forced to fight off waves of enemies to “protect” what seems to be the Vessel. Once the illusion breaks, Lord Shi opens the bag and reveals that you never had the real Gold-Making Vessel.
The Prefect of Kaifeng arrives and quickly asserts authority over even Lord Shi. Because you and Big Zhao entered without tickets, he names you the prime suspects in the theft. To secure your cooperation, the Prefect forces you to ingest the Seven-Day Soulbreaker Pill, a poison that will kill you in seven days unless he provides the antidote. Your survival becomes directly linked to retrieving the Vessel.
When the dust settles, your first instinct is to seek out Wen Wuque for answers. Big Zhao attempts to bring you to the Ember of East’s chamber, but government guards bar the way under the governor’s order. The conversation outside that door makes two things explicit:
- The Ember of East is now under strict protection because the “tribute from Jeang” (the Gold-Making Vessel) has gone missing.
- Officials view you as the prime suspect and will not risk unsupervised contact between you and Wen Wuque.
You are told bluntly that no one is allowed to visit the Ember of East. Big Zhao asks the guards to make an exception; they refuse, stressing the stakes if Wen Wuque were to flee while the tribute is unaccounted for. At this stage of Chapter 2, the Young Hero still has no direct conversation with Wen Wuque, which preserves his mystique and keeps his motives opaque.
The Ember of East’s connection to Heaven’s Pier and Aunt Han
For the Young Hero, Wen Wuque is not just an intimidating martial artist. Earlier story events at Heaven’s Pier frame him as a would-be savior. A letter reveals that the Ember of East tried to help Aunt Han evacuate the residents of Heaven’s Pier to safety before the attack that destroyed the area.
That history explains why the Young Hero pushes so hard to attend the Assembly of Heroes in the first place: meeting the Ember of East is tied to unfinished emotional and moral business from Chapter 1. By the time you sneak into Revelry Hall, Wen Wuque carries two overlapping identities:
- To the court and Kaifeng’s elite, he is a key figure in a game of tribute, monetary control, and prestige.
- To the Young Hero, he is “Wen Wuque,” the person who tried to protect the vulnerable at Heaven’s Pier.
Blocking you from speaking to him after the theft is therefore not just a plot device; it postpones the reckoning between those two versions of the same man.
From Ember of East to Nine Mortal Ways: how the trail moves away from him
Once you are denied access to Wen Wuque, the investigation shifts to those who might have engineered or exploited the chaos around the Vessel. On the third floor near the explosion site, you find a Broken Mask. When you show it to Big Zhao, he recognizes that it might be linked to a hidden power in Kaifeng and points you toward Master Pu, the city’s self-styled “Know-It-All,” in the Entertainment District.
After you pick up a copy of The Analects lying on the ground, Master Pu identifies the mask as belonging to the clandestine sect Nine Mortal Ways. He explains that they are notoriously secretive and that answers now lie in the Ghost Market, not with Wen Wuque directly. Master Pu’s last practical clue is a lead on the Ferryman in the Forsaken Quarter, known by the motto “Born at dawn, dead by dusk.”
This transition marks a structural shift. The Ember of East created the conditions for the crisis by presenting the Vessel and standing close to the court. Once the theft occurs, the narrative reroutes you into Kaifeng’s underbelly, where the Nine Mortal Ways and the Ghost Market operate. The Ember of East stays in the background as a figure the government is desperate to secure, and the court cannot afford to lose.
How Reunion and the deduction puzzle circle back to the Ember of East’s crisis
The next main quest, Reunion, picks up the thread the morning after Gathering of Heroes. You are told to wait until Chen Hour (which you can set manually using the in-game time controls) and then meet Big Zhao in the Forsaken Quarter to contact the Ferryman and gain access to the Ghost Market.
Through a sequence involving a red-faced little beggar, the Ferryman’s “fee,” and a stolen letter from the Constable about forbidden Tang Coins, the game links three elements:
- The sudden flood of Tang Coins in Kaifeng after the Vessel’s theft.
- Stories of “Nether coins turning into Tang coins” around the Ghost Market.
- Master Pu’s words about the Nine Mortal Ways operating underground.
Later that night, on Granny Turtle’s rooftop, you and Big Zhao enter a deduction mini-game. By combining the clues “Hong Si’s Scroll” and the “Story of Nether Coins Turning Into Tang Coins,” you derive that the increase in Tang coins is tied to the Ghost Market. Linking that to Master Pu’s words yields a new conclusion: the surge in new Tang coins is related to the Nine Mortal Ways. Finally, pairing that with the “Tattered Mask” clue leads to the inference that the Nine Mortal Ways stole the Gold-Making Vessel, also called Treasure Basin.
Even though Wen Wuque is absent from this stretch of gameplay, everything you uncover is a direct consequence of his earlier presentation of the Vessel. The deduction system makes that logic explicit, transforming the Ember of East’s failed tribute into an economic mystery with underground counterfeiters, banned coinage, and sect politics at its core.
What the Ember of East represents in Universal Furnace
Within Chapter 2, the Ember of East functions as more than a boss-tier martial artist. He is:
- A symbol of state-linked Jianghu power, presenting a reality-bending financial artifact as court tribute.
- A catalyst for the Gold-Making Vessel heist, which triggers the Prefect’s extreme response, your poisoning, and the rush toward the Ghost Market.
- A personal point of tension for the Young Hero, tied to the fall of Heaven’s Pier and Aunt Han’s fate.
By keeping direct contact with Wen Wuque out of reach while his decisions reshape Kaifeng’s economy and politics, Universal Furnace turns the Ember of East into a gravitational center. The path forward—through the Ferryman, the Ghost Market, and the Nine Mortal Ways—unfolds in his shadow, with the stolen Treasure Basin and the ticking Seven-Day Soulbreaker Pill binding your survival to the unresolved aftermath of his grand display in Revelry Hall.
