Fang Xu sits right at the center of Where Winds Meet’s early story: he is the first opponent in the General’s Shrine arena, and also a Jianghu Friend tied to the “Old Friends” progress in that area. For a long stretch after launch, players could duel him but not talk to him, which broke completion runs of the shrine. That behavior has changed with patches, and the way you interact with him now depends on when your save effectively “meets” him.
Who Fang Xu is and where to find him
Fang Xu is flagged in-game as a Jianghu Friend located in Qinghe. Jianghu Friends are special NPCs you can talk to, befriend, and level up for weekly gifts once you reach revered status. Some are unlocked through mini‑games or duels, others through AI‑driven conversations.
In the main story, Fang Xu appears during the first chapter, “Heaven Has no Pier” at the General’s Shrine. Your character arrives looking for Ruby and is sent toward the arena, where Fang Xu from the Well of Heaven sect is waiting. Speaking to him here starts a series of tutorial duels in the arena.
| NPC | Role | Location | First encounter context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fang Xu | Jianghu Friend, arena opponent | Qinghe – General’s Shrine | Triggers the first arena tournament duels in Chapter 1 |
How Fang Xu behaves during the main quest
During “Heaven Has No Pier”, talking to Fang Xu at the arena does one thing: it starts the duel. The fight is a sparring tutorial built around the game’s Qi and point‑based duel rules, where the first to five hits wins. Beating Fang Xu completes the “win the arena tournament” objective and unlocks the follow‑up interaction with Old Jin, who hands over your prize and walks you through talent points and attributes.
At this early point, Fang Xu is not yet treated as a conversational Jianghu Friend in the way later AI‑powered NPCs are. After the arena sequence, most players simply move on with the story, and the shrine’s “Old Friends” tracker only becomes relevant later, once you return for completion.
Fang Xu and the General’s Shrine “Old Friends” tracker
General’s Shrine has its own “Old Friends” completion bar, which goes up as you befriend specific NPCs around the shrine. Players commonly hit 5/6 here and get stuck on the last slot. For a while, the missing name was often Fang Xu: he appeared on the platform by the arena as usual, but had no option for AI chat, or his chat repeatedly reported that it was “busy”.
In parallel, other NPCs at the shrine caused similar headaches. Wang Duolu, the fisherman, would not talk until after his fishing competition on the river north of the shrine. Lie Buxi, the girl looking for her brothers, required very specific conversation beats about her brothers and uncle Cui before she would register as a friend. Fu Lubao and Fu Lushou, tied to the Animal Whisperer skill and a dog behind the shrine, would sometimes fail to appear or to count toward the shrine total.
This mix of shrine NPCs meant many players saw numbers like 3/6 or 5/6 even after talking to every available character. Fang Xu’s missing conversation option was one of the main blockers.
Why Fang Xu could not be befriended for a time
For an extended period after release, Fang Xu’s Jianghu Friend behavior simply did not work in the English client. Interacting with him offered only repeat duels, no chat, or produced generic “too many players” errors on AI conversations. Community reports consistently described him as “always busy”.
Later updates adjusted shrine NPCs. Players who revisited General’s Shrine after these patches found that several NPCs that were previously inert suddenly offered conversations and registered properly in the Old Friends counter. Fang Xu shifted from being effectively locked to being talkative for some players without any obvious in‑game trigger beyond having progressed further into the story.
Known conditions that can unlock Fang Xu’s conversation
When Fang Xu’s chat started working for players, several patterns appeared. None is labeled explicitly in the UI, but the following conditions have lined up with success:
| Condition | What to do | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Story progression to Kaifeng | Advance the main chapter into the “Universal Furnace” arc and reach Kaifeng before returning to General’s Shrine. | Fang Xu seems more likely to act as a Jianghu Friend once your character has moved beyond the early Qinghe chapter. |
| Joining Well of Heaven | Align your sect with Well of Heaven, then go back to talk to him. | Sharing his sect can help the game flag him as thematically linked to your character, making his friendship track available. |
| Approach from his level | Use the arena scaffolding to jump up and stand on the same platform he is sitting on, then initiate conversation. | Being on the same elevation as Fang Xu appears to help the interaction snap to the correct conversational mode instead of the duel prompt. |
| Patch timing | Log in after a game update and check him again, even if he was inert before. | Shrine NPCs have been quietly adjusted through patches; Fang Xu has gone from non‑interactive to talkative for players without any other change on their side. |
These conditions are not formal requirements listed in the interface; they reflect what consistently aligns with Fang Xu finally offering a chat instead of another duel. If you still only see “battle” as an option, focus first on pushing the main story through to Kaifeng, then try again from the platform at his level.
How to befriend Fang Xu once the chat works
Once Fang Xu is ready to talk, he acts like other AI‑driven Jianghu Friends at the shrine. He is obsessed with building a reputation and wants to pour his earnings into something that will make his name echo across the land. The friendship challenge is essentially to steer that ambition into something grounded and socially useful rather than empty glory.
Players who have successfully befriended him have done so by nudging him toward a civic project. For example, suggesting he spends his money on a public clinic that offers treatment to the poor fits the game’s moral tone and provides the “noble cause” he’s chasing. The exact phrasing can vary because the conversation system is flexible, but the structure stays the same:
- Recognize that he wants enduring fame, not short‑term profit.
- Propose a charitable or public service project that matches that goal.
- Frame it as something that will help ordinary people and make his name respected, not feared.
Once he accepts a plan in that spirit, his favor jumps, and he registers as a Jianghu Friend, which also fills one of the Old Friends slots at the shrine.
Fang Xu and shrine completion after later patches
After the shrine NPC fixes landed, players who were stuck at 5/6 Old Friends reported finally being able to complete the tracker by talking to Fang Xu and resolving their lingering friendship flags with characters like Fu Lubao and Fu Lushou. For Fu Lubao in particular, the critical step is unlocking the Animal Whisperer exploration skill, talking to the dog behind the shrine, and viewing the cutscene that follows; that scene finalizes both Fu brothers as friends.
In some earlier builds, one of the ways around Fang Xu’s broken state was to use these other NPCs to reach 6/6 without him. At that time, shrine completion relied on the treasure hunter linked to the dog and the Animal Whisperer skill more than on Fang Xu himself. With later updates, Fang Xu now participates properly in the shrine’s social web instead of sitting off to the side as a permanent duel dummy.
If Fang Xu still refuses to talk in a current build after you have reached Kaifeng, joined a sect, and revisited him from the scaffolding platform, the issue is likely version‑specific rather than something fixable through in‑game tricks. In that case, focusing on the other shrine friendships—Wang Duolu’s fishing, Lie Buxi’s family story, Fu Lubao’s waystone trail, and the dog behind the shrine—will get you as close as the game currently allows to a clean General’s Shrine completion.
