Quick answer: Open the magic doors in the Village of Lu, the Mandate Encampment and the Mountain of Imprisonment. With all three open, the Three-Eyed Puppet gives you the Puppet’s Tongue and the Crystal Puppet Eye [Yin].
The Herald’s Illusion is one of Phantom Blade Zero’s purple quests, listed on the Story tab under the subtitle “A twisted dreamscape, forever lost”. It has a single objective: “Open all three doors leading to the Herald’s Illusion”.
The three doors
Each door sits near a named bell. Height matters at the Village of Lu, where the door sits well below its nearest bell.
| Region | Nearest named bell | Distance | Height against the bell |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village of Lu | Terraces | About 53 m | Roughly 70 m below |
| Mandate Encampment | Training Grounds Depths | About 16 m | Same height |
| Mountain of Imprisonment, Puppet Cell | Puppet Cell | About 13 m | Same chamber |
At the Village of Lu, the door sits roughly 88 m away from the Smuggler’s Treasure Cellar bell, and the Puppet Testing Grounds bell gives you a clear walk to it. The Mountain of Imprisonment door shares a chamber with the Puppet Cell bell. For a refresher on travelling between bells, see how bells work.
Both regions have more to pick up along the way, covered in the Village of Lu collectibles and Mountain of Imprisonment collectibles lists.
Reaching the Village of Lu door
Start at the Puppet Testing Grounds bell. From there, the Village of Lu door is roughly 96 m away on foot, straight through a dark, rocky gully, and nothing attacks you along the way. The Terraces bell looks closer on paper, but it sits about 70 m above the door and offers no obvious path down, so the gully walk is the simpler choice.
About halfway along, look for a body lying on the ground with an E prompt. Interact with it to pick up the book “THREAD-BINDING SECT: SOUL DISPLACEMENT PUPPETS”, which opens with the line “The Thread-Binding Sect can use the Soul Displacement Art to extract part of a living person’s consciousness and bind it to a puppet.”
You’ll know the door when you see it: a ring of fire set between two pillars wrapped in red rope. Walk up to it and press E, and the game moves you into the Herald’s illusion.
Inside, you’re standing in a broad room flooded with shallow, sand-coloured water, with the Three-Eyed Puppet suspended above on red threads. A banner reads “THE HERALD’S ILLUSION” alongside “Open all three doors leading to the Herald’s Illusion (1/3)”, which confirms this door counts toward the quest.
Soul points out that every door you open opens another of the puppet’s eyes, but with just this one done, the puppet has nothing for you yet.
To get out, turn around, walk to the burning ring behind your starting spot, and press E. You’ll reappear outside, right next to the door in the Village of Lu.
Reaching the Mandate Encampment door
Before searching for the door, ring the Training Grounds Depths bell in Mandate Encampment. The world map will show “Area map not yet acquired” for Mandate Encampment until then. Ringing the bell unlocks the area map and adds the Training Grounds Depths label, giving you a fixed map reference for what follows.
The door itself is a flaming ring roughly 16 m away on the same level. Press E at the ring to reach the Three-Eyed Puppet’s room. If it is your second door, the banner reads “Open all three doors leading to the Herald’s Illusion (2/3)”.
A burning ring in the room takes you back out afterwards.
Reaching the Mountain of Imprisonment door
The Mountain of Imprisonment door is in the Puppet Cell, a chamber beneath Huangxing’s hall. The way in is down through the opened hall floor and out the other side of the Realm of Mirage.
How the doors work
- Each door opens only from its far side, from inside a secret room behind it.
- No door asks for a key.
- If a door is shut when you reach its front, go around it and in through the room behind.
- Passing through an opened door brings you into a separate chamber occupied by the Three-Eyed Puppet, and one of its eyes opens.
An opened eye confirms that the corresponding door counts. Soul comments on it after the first door opens and again after the second. With one or two doors unlocked, the puppet only calls out to you and offers no reward.
Rewards from the Three-Eyed Puppet
The Three-Eyed Puppet remains silent, with no prompt visible through most of the room, even after all three doors are open. Move around to its west side and look toward the blue-eyed face. Only then does the E prompt appear; press it to begin the conversation.
The puppet shouts “The Crimson House beneath the tower! Give my tongue to that Mute over there!” and you receive the Puppet’s Tongue. It follows with “The Herald’s favorite is Number Ninety-Nine!”, “Number Ninety-Nine has two crystal eyeballs!” and “Mine is the Yin Eye!”, then hands you the Crystal Puppet Eye [Yin]. A banner for the Crimson Manor quest confirms it worked with “Use the Mute’s Tongue to open the Crimson Manor”.
Once all three eyes are open, the puppet finally talks. It tells you the Herald lives in the Crimson Manor, the crimson house beneath the tower, and that its tongue should go to the Mute. It also explains that the Herald’s favourite puppet, Number Ninety-Nine, has two crystal eyes: this puppet holds the Yin eye, while the Yang eye is in the manor. You receive two items.
| Item | Item card |
|---|---|
| Puppet’s Tongue | “A tongue-shaped key made of ceramic or finely polished bone. The three grooves at its base correspond to the three gates within the Herald’s illusion. Every gate it unlocks causes the Three-Eyed Puppet’s tongue to spring a little farther out.” |
| Crystal Puppet Eye [Yin] | “A crystal puppet eye with a black, fish-shaped form visible within, resembling the Yin half of a taiji symbol. It forms a pair with another crystal eye containing the Yang half.” |
What comes next: the Crimson Manor
The tower the puppet mentions is the Valley Sha-Chi Tower in Weeping Creek Valley. The way in is a cracked wall about 24 m from the Valley Sha-Chi Tower Base bell. Inside, hand the Puppet’s Tongue to the Mute, the puppet that serves as the manor’s main gate. The full route is in the Crimson Manor walkthrough.
The matching Yang eye is carried by the Puppet Scavenger inside the manor, one of the fights listed among all Phantom Blade Zero bosses.
