Explosive Device Plans are a quest item in Where Winds Meet that many players first encounter right after finishing the Jinming Pool fight. Tang Jian stands by a locked chest and refuses to open it until he sees those plans. The catch: the game never clearly explains where they come from.
The plans are tied to a Wandering Tales encounter called “Soaring Eagle,” which plays out around Jade Mirror Pond and Kaifeng. The whole chain is easy to break if you do things out of order or rush time skips, so it helps to follow a clear sequence.
Quest overview and prerequisites
The path to Explosive Device Plans runs through three connected beats:
| Step | What you do | Key locations / NPCs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finish the Jinming Pool encounter and talk to Tang Jian by the locked chest. | Jinming Pool, Tang Jian |
| 2 | Collect three wooden eagle parts and assemble the eagle. | Jade Mirror Pond area |
| 3 | Hand the assembled eagle to Li Shoujie and then to Shi Shouxin. | Bridge above Jade Mirror Pond; temple south of South Imperial Garden |
| 4 | Return to Jade Mirror Pond to trigger the “Soaring Eagle” encounter. | Jade Mirror Pond (night / after a daily reset) |
| 5 | Follow the encounter into a hidden cave and obtain the Explosive Device Plans. | Secret cave near Jade Mirror Pond |
| 6 | Take the plans back to Tang Jian to unlock the chest. | Jinming Pool, Tang Jian |
You do not need to be at a specific chapter of the main story beyond already having access to Jinming Pool and Kaifeng. Most issues players hit are about trigger order and time, not level gating.
Step 1 – Talk to Tang Jian after Jinming Pool
After clearing the Jinming Pool boss, you respawn near a large chest that cannot be opened yet. Tang Jian stands nearby on the pier or bridge-like structure. Speak to him:
- He mentions the chest cannot be opened without Explosive Device Plans.
- This conversation is the soft starting flag for why you care about the plans.
You will not get a direct marker for the plans at this point. The trail continues in the Jade Mirror Pond region.
Step 2 – Go to Jade Mirror Pond
Open the map and head to the Jade Mirror Pond teleport in Qinghe. The entire wooden eagle puzzle and the Soaring Eagle encounter take place in this sub-region.
Three separate eagle parts are scattered very close to this teleport, clustered around the main waterfall and a small pond shaped roughly like an eagle.
Step 3 – Find all three wooden eagle parts at Jade Mirror Pond
The eagle is broken into three components. All of them sit in or around the water features of Jade Mirror Pond.
| Part | Location description | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 – Underwater piece (often treated as the “head”) | Directly beneath the Jade Mirror Pond teleport, in a small underwater cave with a chest. | From the pavilion/teleport, jump into the water below, dive, and look for an underwater tunnel leading to a chest. |
| Part 2 – Waterfall piece (body) | On top of the first major waterfall that has a visible cave behind or beside it. | Swim or glide to the tall waterfall in front of the pond, run or climb up, enter the cave, and loot the part. |
| Part 3 – Grave-side piece (wing) | At a tiny eagle-shaped pond north of the main waterfall, by a grave with an interaction prompt. | Open the region map and find the bridge over Jade Mirror Pond; north of the left end of that bridge is a small pond shaped like an eagle. At the grave there, use the “dig” interaction. |
Once all three parts are in your inventory, the eagle can be assembled. The game treats this as a quest object that other NPCs will react to.
Step 4 – Talk to Li Shoujie on the hanging bridge
Before you can hand the eagle to the general in Kaifeng, you need to speak with a soldier who frames the story around the wooden eagle.
- Look at the map for the narrow black line representing a hanging or wooden bridge just above Jade Mirror Pond.
- On that bridge (between Martial Temple and Pipa Chasm) stands Li Shoujie in full armor.
- Talk to him while you have the three parts; this conversation helps unlock later dialogue options with Shi Shouxin.
Several players report that skipping Li Shoujie can make Shi Shouxin refuse to speak later, even if you have all three parts, so this step is worth doing before leaving the area.
Step 5 – Deliver the assembled eagle to Shi Shouxin in Kaifeng
Shi Shouxin is the general who ultimately takes custody of the assembled eagle. He is not at Jade Mirror Pond; he waits at a temple near Kaifeng’s South Imperial Garden.
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| City | Kaifeng |
| Reference point | South Imperial Garden |
| Map clue | A white building icon just south of South Imperial Garden, drawn with a roof that looks like a cross from above. |
| NPC | Shi Shouxin, inside or in front of the temple. |
Travel to Kaifeng, move south from the South Imperial Garden toward that cross-shaped roof on the map, and enter the temple complex. Speak to Shi Shouxin and hand over the assembled wooden eagle.
If Shi Shouxin refuses to talk:
- Confirm you have all three eagle parts assembled, not just in pieces.
- Make sure you have spoken to Li Shoujie on the wooden bridge above Jade Mirror Pond.
Step 6 – Trigger the “Soaring Eagle” encounter at Jade Mirror Pond
With the eagle delivered to Shi Shouxin, the follow-up Wandering Tales encounter “Soaring Eagle” becomes eligible. This is the chain that ultimately grants the Explosive Device Plans.
There are two overlapping timing layers:
- In-game clock: many players report success by setting the time to You hour (one of the night-time slots) before heading back.
- Daily reset: for some, the encounter would not appear until after a real-time daily reset had passed since handing the eagle to Shi Shouxin.
To give the encounter the best chance to trigger:
- Leave the Jade Mirror Pond area completely after delivering the eagle.
- Wait at least until the next in-game day, ideally setting the time to You hour.
- Fast travel back to the Jade Mirror Pond teleport. If nothing happens immediately, walk toward the visible cave entrance in the area; several players found that the event only started when they moved near that cave rather than staying at the pavilion.
When it starts properly, you will see the Soaring Eagle encounter banner and related NPCs appear around the pond, including a young girl associated with wooden eagles.
Step 7 – Follow the Soaring Eagle quest into the secret cave
Once the encounter is live, simply follow its objectives.
- Talk to the girl by the water at Jade Mirror Pond among several wooden eagles.
- Accept the related Wandering Tales tasks (Soaring Eagle and often “All Beauty Fades” in parallel).
- Wait until the next in-game day at the specified hour (the quest text calls out a particular time like “Su hour”) when prompted.
- Follow the quest markers up from the pond to meet the girl again; she will lead you through a series of scenes.
Eventually, she runs off, and you are directed to open a hidden passage and drop into a tunnel system. This is the critical segment for the Explosive Device Plans.
Inside the tunnel:
- Move through the underground path, following any markers.
- Interact with the NPCs you encounter, including an older woman deeper in the cave.
- At some point near the end of the underground section, look for a shelf or similar surface with an interactable book or scroll – this is where the Explosive Device Plans are picked up.
During this sequence, Li Shui appears inside the cave and gives you a badly burnt letter, but that item relates to the Wandering Tales story and is not required for Tang Jian’s chest.
Step 8 – Return to Tang Jian and open the chest
Once the Explosive Device Plans are in your quest inventory, you can safely leave the cave. You can either keep following the Soaring Eagle quest markers to see the storyline through, or break away and resolve the Jinming Pool chest first.
For the chest:
- Fast travel back to the Jinming Pool area, where you first met Tang Jian.
- Speak with Tang Jian again; you now have the Explosive Device Plans he requested.
- Hand over the plans when prompted. This satisfies his condition and allows you to open the large chest next to him.
The questline itself continues past this point as a separate Wandering Tales arc, but the chest is fully resolved once the plans are delivered.
Common issues and troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Shi Shouxin will not talk or has no eagle dialogue. | Li Shoujie on the bridge was never spoken to, or the eagle is still in three separate parts. | Confirm the eagle is assembled, then talk to Li Shoujie on the hanging bridge above Jade Mirror Pond and return to Shi Shouxin. |
| Soaring Eagle encounter does not appear at Jade Mirror Pond. | Insufficient time passed after giving the eagle to Shi Shouxin; encounter not yet rolled in. | Leave the region, advance to the next in-game day at You hour, and fast travel back. If needed, wait for a real-world daily reset and try again. |
| No event triggers when returning; only the cave entrance is visible. | Encounter is active but location trigger is closer to the cave than the teleport. | From the Jade Mirror Pond teleport, walk down toward the visible cave entrance; the encounter should start as you approach. |
| All eagle parts collected, but unsure where to go next. | Hand-in order not obvious from quest log. | Talk to Li Shoujie on the bridge, then travel to the temple south of South Imperial Garden in Kaifeng to find Shi Shouxin. |
Handled cleanly, the chain around Jade Mirror Pond links one of the more atmospheric Wandering Tales encounters with a very practical outcome: a set of explosive blueprints that finally pry open Tang Jian’s stubborn chest. Once the plans are in hand, later uses of explosives in puzzles and blocked passages make a lot more sense—and that early locked box at Jinming Pool stops nagging from the back of your mind.
