The Midnight Blades in Where Winds Meet are built for players who want to lean hard into killing, duels, and karmic punishment. This sect rewards relentless aggression, both in the open world and in the arena, and locks some of the game’s grimmest cosmetics and progression behind that playstyle.
Joining them is easy to miss if you’re just sprinting through Qinghe, and the questline hides a few sharp edges of its own. Here is how to start the quest, actually join the sect, and what changes once you’re sworn in.
Where to find the Midnight Blades initiation (Qinghe – Sundara Land)
The path into Midnight Blades starts in Qinghe – Sundara Land, on the road up toward Halo Peak.
| Step | Location / Requirement | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Reach the area | Qinghe – Sundara Land, path leading to Halo Peak | You hear a man shouting for help and see his marker on the map. |
| 2. Trigger the quest | Speak to the marked NPC on the road | He delivers his lines and dies, starting “To Save by Slaying”. |
| 3. Optional route | Exploration Quest tab | Starting “Building: One Last Job” at level 25 can also lead you into the same event chain. |
The cleanest way into the sect is to simply walk the Halo Peak road in Qinghe until the help icon appears, then follow it. You do not need to talk to any “sect recruiters” elsewhere; there is a fake Midnight Blades contact near a jail area that belongs to a different group and will not start the real sect line.
Follow the blood trail and meet Icchantika
Once the initial victim dies, the game immediately focuses your attention on the blood on the ground. That trail is the direct route to the sect’s representative.
| Step | Action | Key item / outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Track the blood | Follow the blood trail roughly 50 meters downhill | You find multiple corpses along the path. |
| 2. Loot the bodies | Inspect each corpse you can interact with | One of them carries a Damaged Decree; take it. |
| 3. Find the sect member | Look up toward the rocks at the end of the trail | A man is sitting on a rock above you – this is Icchantika, of Midnight Blades. |
Climb up and talk to Icchantika. Your character recognizes him as a Midnight Blades member, and he immediately tests you with a question about whether you have a “heart for the Dharma.”
When the dialogue offers multiple answers, choose “My heart is that of Bodhi Heart” to allow the initiation to continue. Other responses can shut the opportunity down, so stick with that wording if you want in.
Prove yourself: the first kill and unlocking “Join Sect”
After the conversation, Icchantika hands you a decree and sets a simple requirement: kill a living being to prove your willingness to shed blood.
| Requirement | How to complete it | What unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Kill a living being | Kill any basic creature (for example, a wolf or another nearby animal); you do not need to murder civilians. | The next quest step triggers once the game detects the kill. |
| Join via menu | Open the Sects menu, select Midnight Blades, and press “Join Now”. | The game gives you a task prompt: “Go to Take a Master.” |
At this point you are not fully in the sect yet; you have only opened the join option. Use the new objective to track your way back to Icchantika.
Formal initiation: taking Icchantika as your master
With “Go to Take a Master” active and Midnight Blades selected in the Sects screen, head back to Icchantika’s location on the mountain. You can fast travel to the nearest point and climb back up to him.
| Interaction | Dialogue choice | Item handed over |
|---|---|---|
| Speak to Icchantika again | Select “Inherit Karmic Burden, join the sect.” | Give him the Annihilation Decree you received earlier. |
Icchantika insults your weakness but still accepts you. Once this dialogue completes, your character is formally enrolled in Midnight Blades and your sect rank appears as Novice Cultivator.
Midnight Blades rules: karma, bans, and where you fight
Midnight Blades is built around one central rule: do not leave enemies alive. Mercy runs against the sect’s philosophy. Sparing hostile targets or showing restraint can break the order, and players who act too gently are expelled.
The sect’s progression revolves around karma and the Asura path:
| Mechanic | How it works | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Karma gain | Defeating other wanderers (players) builds up karma; some PvE content also contributes. | Higher karma moves you along the Asura path and into higher sect ranks. |
| Karma loss | Being killed by other wanderers reduces your karma. | Frequent deaths slow or reverse your Asura progression. |
| Perception Forest | A dedicated area that yields large amounts of karma when you clear enemies there. | Useful if arena queues are slow or you need a fast PvE boost. |
In practice, Midnight Blades is a PvP-first path: the sect’s commandments and rewards push you to hunt players, queue for duels, and avoid peaceful resolutions wherever possible.
Ranking up from Novice Cultivator and unlocking Path of Bloodshed
Your starting rank inside the sect is Novice Cultivator. Climbing higher is tied to specific combat milestones and a short ritual sequence.
| Rank goal | Requirement | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Advance from Novice Cultivator | Score 20 kills in 1v1 Arena. | Grants a quest to seek out the Ferryman. |
| Ferryman encounter | Find and kill the Ferryman NPC after meeting the arena requirement. | You obtain the Faded Decree. |
| Path of Bloodshed | Hang the Faded Decree at the Tree of Sin and meditate. | You “comprehend” the Path of Bloodshed, pushing your sect progression forward. |
The user interface helps here: clicking the icons for objectives like the Ferryman, Tree of Sin, or Arena kills sets map markers so you don’t have to memorize coordinates.
Bearing the Sin: Faded Blood Token and the “deliverer” confusion
After the initial promotions, Midnight Blades introduces a Novice Cultivator follow-up called Bearing the Sin, which asks you to retrieve a Faded Blood Token from a so-called “deliverer.” The game’s wording makes this sound like a new NPC; in reality the solution stays inside the same mountain area where you joined the sect.
| Step | What to do | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Get 20 arena kills | Finish your 20 kills in 1v1 Arena if you haven’t already. | The quest line advances and the relevant item becomes obtainable. |
| 2. Return to the mountain | Go back to the real Midnight Blades NPC on the mountain (Icchantika), not the fake jail recruiter. | He is the “deliverer” for the next step. |
| 3. Kill Icchantika | Attack and defeat him on the mountain after meeting the arena requirement. | He drops a Faded Blood Token (or equivalent quest token). |
| 4. Visit the Tree | Take the token to the Tree of Sin as instructed. | Interacting there completes Bearing the Sin and advances your sect progression. |
Earlier speculation suggested killing nearby animals (like a bear) inside the quest area might drop the token. That does not reliably work; the consistent solution is to earn your 20 arena kills, then kill the same sect NPC on the mountain.
What Midnight Blades offers once you’re in
Beyond the roleplay of being the game’s most ruthless sect, Midnight Blades pays out in progression and cosmetics.
| System | How you interact with it | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Sect shop | Open the Midnight Blades shop after joining and ranking up. | Access to outfits and items themed around the sect’s infernal, twinblade-heavy aesthetic. |
| Reputation | Gained by following sect commandments and completing its quests. | Used as currency in the sect shop to purchase cosmetics and other rewards. |
| Infernal Twinblades synergy | Build around Infernal Twinblades, which match the sect’s combat style. | Visual and mechanical cohesion with the sect’s identity and animations. |
All of this comes with an ongoing cost: you are expected to keep killing. The more you lean into arena duels, open-world fights, and karmic farming in places like Perception Forest, the more Midnight Blades opens up. Ease off for too long, show mercy to enemies you’re meant to finish, and the sect reacts by cutting you loose.
For players wondering how to join Midnight Blades in Where Winds Meet, the real friction is not the mechanical steps—walk Qinghe’s Halo Peak road, follow the blood, pick the Bodhi Heart answer, kill a creature, then formally swear yourself to Icchantika—but what comes after. This sect assumes you’re comfortable treating the world like a hunting ground. If that fits your build and your temperament, the Path of Bloodshed becomes one of the game’s most distinctive ways to play.
