Quick answer: The Village Auntie is an elite puppet standing in the stream just upstream of Master Bi Hai’s arena in the Village of Lu, past a chest holding a Blackstone Shard.
Where the Village Auntie is
In Chapter 1’s Village of Lu, find the Village Auntie in the stream near Master Bi Hai’s arena. The Smuggler’s Tunnel Entrance is the closest bell. Leave the arena, drop into the stream bed, and follow the water upstream. On the bank just beyond the arena, you’ll pass a grey chest on a plank platform beneath a wooden trestle. Continue roughly 30 m to reach the Village Auntie standing in the stream.
Open the grey chest with E before the fight. It opens in a purple glow and holds a BLACKSTONE SHARD plus some Remnant Dust. The shard is filed under Key Progression Materials, with the description “Collect 4 fragments to permanently increase Attack and Guard Break by 10%.”
What to expect from the Village Auntie
You can’t miss it. The Village Auntie is a very tall, long-haired puppet in a dark robe, with a pale, mask-like face and red eyes. No name appears above its health bar, so the size and the stream location are how you identify it.
It has 13,025 HP, which makes it a long fight. With the Sanguine Twin blades on PATHBREAKER, the default difficulty, about a minute of fighting removes roughly one seventh of its bar. On WAYFARER, a minute takes off less than one tenth.
Its usual attacks are far-reaching swipes, delivered while it lunges through the water. Watch out for its special move: it pierces your guard. A blocked hit or a parry timed wrong costs around 150 HP on PATHBREAKER and roughly 135 HP on WAYFARER. On WAYFARER, it can break through your guard three times in one fight. Evade this move rather than trying to block.
Soul at 1,275 max HP, full health and three healing gourds can still go down within about a minute on either difficulty. Bring upgraded weapons and full healing. If you fall, you return at the Smuggler’s Tunnel Entrance bell.
A Peacemaker, Mad Scholar, Simple Brother and Yang Puppet (Upper Half) wait apart from the fight on a ledge roughly 8 m above the stream. They stay up there while you fight in the water.
Memory Flower and chest upstream of the Village Auntie
Two more pickups wait past the Village Auntie. Both use the E prompt.
| Pickup | Where | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Memory Flower | Flat rock at the water’s edge, about 40 m upstream of the shard chest | Memory petal “II. IS THAT MY SON?” |
| Wooden chest | By the waterfall pool at the upstream end | 512 Remnant Dust, 14 Forged Metal, 2 Polished Forged Metal |
The Memory Flower’s card reads “MEMORY FLOWER OF THE VILLAGERS OF LU” and shows “(1/4) Collect all Memory Remnants to increase HP +7%”. Its memory follows a woman searching for her child late at night. She finds him, but he only giggles and won’t answer, and that scares her.
Polished Forged Metal from the waterfall chest is a Weapon Upgrade Material, described in-game as “Required to upgrade One-Handed weapons from Lv. 10-20.”
Wall-run to the ledge above the stream
You can choose when to approach the group on the ledge. Return along the stream toward Master Bi Hai’s arena and find the mossy rock face in the gully beside the water, marked with white claw marks and a “Space” prompt. Turn toward it, hold forward, then press Space to have Soul run up onto the ledge.
At the ledge you’ll find Peacemaker; Mad Scholar; Simple Brother; and Yang Puppet (Upper Half). On WAYFARER, two charged Dread Axe arts can take out the Peacemaker and Mad Scholar in under a minute without healing. On PATHBREAKER, the Mad Scholar may join the battle while you’re still fighting the Peacemaker.
