The Furnace of Righteousness quest in Where Winds Meet is the climax of Chapter 2: Universal Furnace. It pulls together the Ghostlight Market plot, Yingying’s hidden identity as the Ember of East, and the politics around Kaifeng’s Tang coin confiscation into one long sequence of stealth, dungeon crawling, and multi‑phase boss combat.
Where Furnace of Righteousness fits in the main story
Furnace of Righteousness is a Main Story Quest set in Kaifeng and follows directly after the quest “Accident.” By this point, the protagonist has shifted from the Young Hero of Heaven’s Pier to the Young Wanderer, now entangled in the city’s underground economy and the mystery of the Gold-Making Vessel, also called the Treasure Basin.
“Accident” ends in the Ghostlight Market, where the Young Wanderer uncovers fraud around the supposed gold‑making artifact. Furnace of Righteousness picks up immediately: the focus moves from exposing the scam to confronting the state-backed machinery that is literally melting down the city’s wealth and its people inside the furnace complex.
Quest structure and key objectives
The quest is unusually long and is best thought of as four broad acts, each with its own gameplay focus:
- Protecting civilians and revealing Yingying’s identity in Kaifeng’s streets.
- Stealth infiltration of the furnace camp and dungeon to track Yingying.
- Rescuing attempts, dungeon exploration with the Little Sisters, and the mid‑boss Jin Huo.
- Entering the furnace proper, sneaking through the industrial interior, and fighting Lord Shi as the Black God of Wealth.
The in‑game quest tracker breaks this down into dozens of steps, from “Regroup with Little Fu, Little Lu, and Little Shou” through to “Return to Granny’s House” after the final confrontation.
Act 1: Kaifeng crisis and the Ember of the East
The opening section plays out on the surface streets and alleys of Kaifeng.
- Regroup with Fu, Lu, and Shou: The Young Wanderer returns from the Ghostlight Market’s secret dock and meets the three Little Sisters near the water in the Forsaken Quarter. Soldiers are still searching for them after the Treasure Basin incident.
- Find Yingying: Yingying waits near the Forsaken Quarter Boundary Stone. She learns that Little Fu is safe and hints at her tense dealings with Lord Shi.
- Discovery of the furnace: A nearby Commoner is dragged away by an officer “to the furnace,” revealing that officials are rounding up Forsaken Quarter residents to locate Little Fu and the basin.
The group heads to a safe house called Haven, intending to evacuate neighbors through a secret passage. Widow Zhou inadvertently leads soldiers to their location, forcing the Young Wanderer to stand and fight.
- Lord Shi encounter: After fighting regular troops, Lord Shi himself intervenes and almost lands a killing blow on the Young Wanderer.
- Ember of East revealed: Yingying intercepts the strike, her headscarf falls, and her pale yellow hair marks her as “Yingying, the Ember of the East,” a former God of Fortune figure from Weiyang. Lord Shi’s reaction confirms she once held real influence and wealth.
Yingying sends the Young Wanderer to secure her mother, Granny Turtle, while she holds off Lord Shi. The implication is that she loses and is captured for transport to the furnace, setting up the rest of the quest.
The brocade bag scheme and Song of Mercy
Back at Granny Turtle’s hiding place, the quest pivots from brawling to planning and community organizing.
- The Young Wanderer hands the Little Sisters a brocade bag Yingying entrusted earlier.
- Inside is a note with a riddle: “When the court shows mercy, the basin shall be filled,” and a symbol the sisters recognize as a “brocade bag scheme.”
- Granny Turtle wakes and admits this Yingying is not her original child, describing her instead as an eagle she once took in. She throws her support behind Yingying’s plan.
The scheme calls for people to sing the Song of Mercy together to “fill the Basin” — a way of weaponizing public trust and attention in response to the furnace and coin policy. The plan now has two parts: rallying commoners to sing, and sneaking into the furnace to rescue Yingying.
Little Lu explains there is only one viable way into the furnace complex: hiding in a coin cart used to haul confiscated Tang coins.
Act 2: Sneaking into the furnace camp
With the song spreading through Kaifeng, the quest switches to stealth around the furnace convoy and outer camp.
- Rally Commoners to Sing Ballads: The Little Sisters struggle to convince residents; doors are slammed in their faces until Granny Turtle performs in a turtle costume to draw a crowd.
- Eavesdrop on Whisperers: Nearby, conspirators discuss “Master’s” orders and conflicting instructions about whether to wait outside the furnace or act inside, suggesting competing agendas around the campaign.
- Find the Convoy: Imperial Soldiers talk about a Tong coin cart parked at the Cuju Field on South Gate Avenue. This becomes the infiltration vector.
At the guarded convoy, the Young Wanderer must avoid direct confrontation long enough to slip under the coin cart. The scene is framed by soldiers commenting on the strange city‑wide singing triggered by the Song of Mercy. Once the cutscene plays, the cart takes the Young Wanderer straight into the furnace compound.
Stealth through the outer camp and Jin Huo’s dungeon
Inside the walled camp, gameplay emphasizes crouching, timing, and opportunistic assassinations rather than open combat.
- Checkpoints and diversions: Moving between marked spots keeps you out of most sightlines. A nearby Laborer is scapegoated for theft and dragged away, freeing a narrow passage you can squeeze through.
- Rooflines and catwalks: The path winds over roofs and scaffolding, with conversations below revealing that a woman (Yingying) has refused to talk and is being “sent to a dungeon of the God of Fortune” on Captain Jin Huo’s orders.
- Watchtower vantage: From a watchtower, the Young Wanderer spots Yuanbao the cat moving with soldiers. Rope‑walking across the courtyard leads to an open window where guards discuss a “special dungeon.”
One of these guards receives a map to the dungeon. Defeating them grants the Furnace Dungeon Map and opens the next infiltration layer.
Using the Furnace Dungeon Map and stealing the key
The map shows that the dungeon lies beneath a central building in a separate courtyard, with a main gate too heavily fortified to use directly.
- Approach options: The lightly guarded side gate can be used, but the intended path is rooftop hopping toward a building with open windows aligned over the dungeon stairs.
- Jin Huo’s prayer: Inside, multiple soldiers gather as Jin Huo intones, “Into the righteous fire, I cast this humble life,” tying their zealotry to the furnace imagery.
- Locked gate: After Jin Huo’s group moves on, two guards remain; taking them down reveals a locked metal gate to the dungeon. The key is held by a Deputy Captain with a long‑feathered helm in an adjacent building.
The Young Wanderer must reach an upper-floor vantage, then use the Celestial Seize Mystic Skill to steal the Dungeon Key through a window while the Deputy Captain consults a Strategy Officer about Lord Shi and the Gold-Making Vessel. With the key in hand, the dungeon levels below become accessible.
Dungeon depths, money madness, and the Little Sisters
The dungeon beneath the central building serves as both a narrative and mechanical midpoint.
- Prisoners’ obsessions: A Man in Official Robes claims Lord Shi is not the real judge of Kaifeng but a man from Weiyang. His sanity quickly collapses into fixation on coins and a compulsion to enter the furnace, mirroring other inmates’ derangement.
- Life Coins aftereffects: Many prisoners mutter about money and riches, suggesting long‑term exposure to the furnace’s coin‑based techniques, including the Life Coins move associated with Yingying.
- Locked-in twist: In the farthest unlocked cell, stepping inside triggers the Little Sisters to slam the door on the Young Wanderer as payback for rushing ahead without them. After a brief scolding, they unlock the cell and help search for a deeper passage.
A small gate at the end of the hall is just big enough for Little Fu to squeeze through. She opens it from the other side, and the group moves into a treasure‑filled chamber.
Lord Shi’s shrine and the secret door puzzle
The treasure chamber is lined with coins and valuables, dominated by a large painting of Lord Shi depicted as a God of Fortune.
- The Little Sisters recite lore: “Black and White Treasurers rule Wiyang. Four Keepers serve their own masters.” Yingying, the Ember of East, is one God of Fortune; the missing Black Treasurer is another, implicating Lord Shi.
- A note on the central table links the furnace to the Aureate Pavilion’s internal treasury division, tightening the connection between face‑changing conspirators and Kaifeng’s coin policies.
The group must then solve a small environmental puzzle to reveal a hidden door:
Step 1: Inspect the lit candles by the shelves. A draft extinguishes them, and their smoke trails point toward a suspicious bookcase.
Step 2: Stack up with the Little Sisters in a “human pole” to reach for a mechanism near the top of the shelf. The stack wobbles, collapsing and knocking books and jars to the ground.
Step 3: Notice that only one jar remains standing, marked with the same loong symbol seen on Uncle Jiang’s house in Bamboo Abode. Interacting with this vase operates the hidden mechanism, and a secret door opens.
As soon as the Young Wanderer passes through, the door shuts behind, separating them from the sisters and forcing a solo advance.
The money tree, illusion, and Dao Lord fight
Down the hidden corridor, a familiar voice begs for help. When the Young Wanderer opens the next door, a vision appears: Yingying chained to a towering monolith of giant coins, resembling a sword from a distance. The sight causes the protagonist to faint.
Upon waking, the Little Sisters have somehow rejoined in the chamber, but Yingying is gone. Only discarded clothes remain on the coin structure. Examining the clothes and the “money tree” triggers an ambush by Imperial Soldiers.
- The Little Sisters merge into their Dao Lord persona, the split versions seen earlier in the story, and fight alongside the Young Wanderer.
- Giant rats also join the battle as allies, echoing earlier encounters with named rat NPCs in the game.
After clearing the room, the group navigates bloodied corridors and corpses littered with coins, clear signatures of Yingying’s Life Coins technique. A lift carries them back to the surface level of the camp, leading directly into a bridge confrontation.
Mid‑boss: Jin Huo and his spear
On exiting the dungeon building, government soldiers block the bridge. The Little Sisters ask the Young Wanderer to focus on the leader while they handle the rank‑and‑file.
That leader is Captain Jin Huo.
- Weapon and reach: Jin Huo wields a long spear, giving him significant range.
- Rhythm: His attacks mix standard and faster thrusts; once he begins a swing, interruption is unlikely, but he staggers cleanly before and after committed moves.
- Debuffs: He is susceptible to status‑inflicting techniques, which help control the fight.
Defeating Jin Huo clears the bridge. The sisters then move to the catwalks above, where they outline the next phase: creating a diversion so the Young Wanderer can infiltrate the furnace itself.
Act 3: Entering the furnace interior
Jin Huo has already stated that Yingying is inside the furnace, so the objective shifts to penetrating the core industrial complex.
- Boat‑fire diversion: The Little Sisters plan to set a nearby boat ablaze, drawing guards away. The Young Wanderer must shadow them closely along marked routes; falling too far behind fails the segment and resets to the catwalk.
- High ground vantage: From a crane above the docks, the Young Wanderer watches the guards scramble to extinguish the fire.
- Furnace gate: After a cutscene, control resumes in front of the massive red doors of the furnace complex.
Inside, the level design becomes vertical and industrial: chains, catwalks over molten channels, endless laborers, and heavy ladles hoisted through the air.
- Yuanbao the cat appears again, padding through the facility while no one reacts to the Young Wanderer, highlighting the workers’ single‑minded focus on toil and offerings.
- A chain bridge leads from an outer platform to the central furnace structure, where a series of moving ladles (“barrels”) serve as elevators upward.
- Steam vents and fire puffs along the upper walkways can ignite the character if mistimed, adding environmental hazard pressure.
The goal at this stage is to reach the freight elevator without being detected by nearby guards.
Freight elevator stealth and the vertical run
The final stealth sequence centers on a group of soldiers around a freight elevator.
- Two nearby soldiers have their backs turned and can be taken out silently.
- A group of four patrols in a loop around the elevator. Detection by any of them resets the section to the earlier eavesdropping point, making a non‑lethal route the safer choice.
Opening the elevator door inevitably alerts the guards at the last moment, and they begin to attack the lift as it descends, transitioning the quest from stealth to escape.
Step 1: Sprint down the collapsing corridor as structures fail behind you. The camera emphasizes forward momentum and falling debris.
Step 2: As the floor gives way, jump to latch onto the side of a moving metal ladle. Timing is tight; missing the landing drops you into the fiery depths.
The sequence evolves into a wuxia‑style vertical run:
- The Young Wanderer runs up the central furnace battery, then along chains, leveraging Lightness Skills to keep climbing.
- A passing metal cart on a track becomes the final ride out, carrying the character through an opening high in the tower wall to the exterior near the peak.
Treasure tower, internal lift, and Lord Shi’s chamber
Outside, near the top of the tower, statues offer handholds for a short climb back to an entrance at the tower’s peak. A lever there controls an internal lift surrounded by mountains of coins and treasure.
- Loot rooms: Each stop on the internal lift system contains chests and echoing voices of supplicants praying to the God of Fortune for mercy.
- Atmosphere: The rooms reinforce the link between personal offerings and systemic extraction: people seek salvation; coins flow to the furnace.
Opening the next door finally leads into Lord Shi’s inner sanctum, where he transforms fully into the Black God of Wealth.
Final boss: Black God of Wealth (Lord Shi)
The Black God of Wealth encounter is a long, multi‑phase fight that combines close‑quarters melee, defensive mechanics, and ranged targeting.
Phase structure and key mechanics
- Phase 1: Lord Shi fights with a standard melee loadout, testing basic parry and dodge skills.
- Phase 2 (dual‑wield): He switches to faster dual swords that can fuse into a double‑edged weapon. Attack speed and combo density increase sharply.
- Money Flowers shield: Near the end of Phase 2, he summons “Money Flowers,” a defensive effect that prevents his HP from dropping further until the shield is broken. Once shattered, he staggers, giving a window to finish the phase.
- Phase 3 (scepter form): Lord Shi manifests as a large figure wielding a scepter with an eye. His attacks become wide, sweeping area‑of‑effect patterns, and he summons minions.
Using the scepter eye to break defenses
The third phase hinges on the eye embedded in his scepter:
- The eye periodically opens and glows red, signalling vulnerability.
- Hitting the open eye three times with arrows breaks his HP protection layer, enabling real damage again.
- Each successful shot escalates the fight; after the first, he spawns several durable minions that can crowd the arena.
His long‑range attacks in this form can be deflected, rewarding precise timing even amid visual chaos. After the third arrow to the eye, a final sequence leads into a cinematic resolution.
Political resolution and economic fallout
As the final blows land, the narrative cuts between the furnace battle and a palace discussion about confiscating Tang coins and suppressing the people. The Young Wanderer appears to be pushed to the brink but draws on the “will of the people” to triumph, echoing the earlier Song of Mercy and brocade bag scheme.
The Young Wanderer then erupts from the furnace into the middle of a tense standoff between Yingying and a powerful official. From here, the story jumps forward two weeks to show how the events of the furnace reshape Kaifeng’s economy.
- Big Zhao’s street retelling: Big Zhao tells local children how the Ember of East argued that the coin shortage came from a lack of copper, proposing paper notes as a replacement store of value.
- Paper money and trust: The solution is framed as “feeding on illusions”: if people trust the state to honor paper promises, then paper can function as money just as copper or iron does.
- Coin exchange policy: The government opens the treasury, exchanging citizen Tang coins for copper coins and paper bills. Even Granny Turtle’s old Yuanbao‑era coins are swapped, tying past and present regimes together.
These scenes reposition Yingying from fugitive to architect of a new monetary approach, albeit one still dependent on trust in central authority.
Aftermath with Yingying and new leads
The quest ends in a quieter key at Granny Turtle’s house, where the Young Wanderer finally speaks frankly with Yingying as the Ember of East.
- Aureate Pavilion link: Discussion of Lord Shi’s background suggests he worked under Wuhen and later for the Aureate Pavilion. The Pavilion likely changed his face to impersonate Kaifeng’s judge overseeing Tang coin confiscation.
- Antidote question: The Young Wanderer voices concern that the governor’s antidote might be fake, but Yingying expresses confidence that it is genuine despite the political theatre surrounding it.
- Aunt Han (Water Lady): The Young Wanderer produces the letter Aunt Han sent Yingying before Heaven’s Pier fell. Yingying explains that the Water Lady wanted the Ember of East to arrange a retreat route for Heaven’s Pier’s people, which ultimately was not used. She does not know Aunt Han’s current whereabouts but offers to investigate from Weiyang.
Yingying plans to return to Weiyang, warning that it could take months or years to gain enough power “where the silver flows” to easily find Aunt Han. Since the Young Wanderer cannot wait that long, she points to a nearer lead.
- Velvet Shade lead: Yingying recommends seeking Velvet Shade, “a place where secrets both gather and vanish,” as a way to learn Water Lady’s location in about three months’ time.
- Parting Tears wine: She reveals she bought all of the Parting Tears wine and that the true value for Velvet Shade’s master is not the vintage but the sentiment the Young Wanderer has attached to the jar.
- Trade offer: The implied bargain is one jar of emotionally charged Parting Tears for one piece of crucial information about Aunt Han — or, as Yingying phrases it, a jar of wine in exchange for a friend.
The farewell between the Young Wanderer and Yingying/Wuque underscores the personal stakes: he or she pledges not to waste the life Yingying risked so much to save, and both part with the expectation of meeting again when the political situation in Weiyang changes.
Furnace of Righteousness closes out Universal Furnace’s Kaifeng arc by resolving the Ghostlight Market fraud, unmasking Lord Shi as the Black Treasurer aligned with the Aureate Pavilion, and reframing money itself as a matter of collective belief. Mechanically, it combines nearly every system the game has taught up to that point — stealth, vertical traversal, dungeon puzzles, and parry‑driven boss fights — while opening new narrative paths through Velvet Shade and the search for Aunt Han.
