Fang Xu sits at an unusual intersection of Where Winds Meet’s social systems and its experimental AI-driven NPCs. On paper, he is a standard Jianghu Friend in Qinghe. In practice, he has been the center of a small storm of confusion, bugs, and quiet design changes around the General Shrine “old friend” exploration objective.
Who Fang Xu is in Where Winds Meet
Fang Xu is listed as a Jianghu Friend NPC located in Qinghe. Jianghu Friends are a large set of interactable characters spread across the world. Building a relationship with them unlocks:
| Jianghu Friend feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Conversation and exposition | They fill in world background, local stories, and sometimes quest context. |
| Friendship levels | Raising affection to “revered” grants weekly gift rewards. |
| Friendship methods | Some require winning mini-games or duels; others use AI chat-style conversations. |
| Failure states | Critical failures in certain conversations can turn otherwise neutral NPCs hostile. |
Fang Xu belongs to the subset tied to AI-style dialogue: instead of picking fixed options, you type to him and steer the conversation toward an outcome the game reads as “befriended.”
General Shrine, “old friends,” and where Fang Xu fits
In the General Shrine area, the exploration goal hinges on meeting a specific set of “old friends” (a local label for Jianghu Friends tied to that landmark). Players encounter more than six interactable NPCs there, but only six count toward the exploration tracker.
| General Shrine “old friends” slot | How you normally unlock it | Interaction type |
|---|---|---|
| Fisherman by the shrine | Basic AI chat; agreeing with his remarks and being supportive is enough to befriend him. | Chat only |
| Martial challengers in the arena (several NPCs) | Challenge each to a duel on the arena structure and win; some now also allow brief chat before they register as friends. | Duel, sometimes followed by chat |
| NPC on the riverbank with a letter hook | Discuss his missing family, then reveal “I have a letter” and choose to hand it over. | Chat plus item handoff |
| Fang Xu in the fighting area | Originally bugged; later updated to befriendable through AI chat in the same arena zone. | Duel and AI chat |
At launch, Fang Xu was intended to be the sixth “old friend” in that General Shrine cluster, closing out the 6/6 exploration goal once you befriended him. That intent ran into two separate problems: a busy or unavailable chat interface, and later a patch that removed his chat option entirely for some players.
Early issues with interacting with Fang Xu
Players initially ran into a simple but hard blocker: Fang Xu’s AI chat was often reported as “busy” or not available, with no way to open a conversation window at all. The only visible interaction was to fight him repeatedly in the arena.
That had two practical effects:
| Issue | Impact on players |
|---|---|
| “Bot is busy” or no chat option | Fang Xu could not be befriended at all, blocking 6/6 old friends for General Shrine. |
| Combat-only interaction | Multiple victories over him did not change his status to old friend, causing confusion about hidden conditions. |
For a period, players in that situation were effectively locked out of finishing the Sentient Beings / General Shrine exploration requirement using Fang Xu.
How befriending Fang Xu’s AI chat actually works
Once the chat interface is available, Fang Xu behaves like other shrine AI NPCs: the system looks for a certain emotional or ethical direction in your responses rather than a strict pre-written tree. With him, the pattern centers on what he should do with his money and status.
The key is to steer him toward using his wealth for charitable or socially valued purposes, framed in a way that still appeals to his ego or desire for recognition. Successful sequences have used lines along these lines:
| Conversation step | Example kind of message | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Suggest public generosity | Encourage donating to a local shrine so monks and villagers benefit. | Frames charity as both virtuous and visible. |
| 2. Make it an event | Propose funding a festival or worship event that he personally organizes. | Connects generosity to prestige and community admiration. |
| 3. Reinforce his role | Affirm that he will hold the best festival in Qinghe or that people will remember his deed. | Confirms his identity as a respected, high-profile benefactor. |
| 4. Lock in the decision | Agree to “begin” or otherwise commit to his chosen charitable plan. | Signals the conversation has reached a satisfying resolution. |
Once the system detects that arc — turning self-focused ambition into community-facing largesse — Fang Xu’s relationship flips to friend status, and he counts as one of the shrine’s completed old friends.
Players have also nudged him toward similar outcomes by suggesting he spend money on armor or travel before pivoting back to helping others through education or charity. The constant is the final commitment to using his funds to aid people rather than hoard wealth.
Role of time-of-day, Old Man Tie, and later patches
Later discussion around Fang Xu adds two more wrinkles: time-of-day gating and an alternate way to finish the area if you cannot chat with him at all.
| Mechanic | What changes |
|---|---|
| Time set to “Chou” | Some players report needing to set the in-game time to the “Chou” period before certain interactions linked to Fang Xu and Old Man Tie become available. |
| Speaking with Old Man Tie | Talking to Old Man Tie after adjusting time can open up Fang Xu’s chat in configurations where he is initially locked to battle-only. |
| Post-patch removal of Fang Xu chat | On newer patches, Fang Xu can appear permanently stuck in “let’s spar” mode with no chat at all; befriending him is no longer part of that area’s 100% requirement. |
On those post-patch builds, the design shifts. Instead of needing Fang Xu, you can complete the General Shrine exploration objective by befriending a different NPC in the same region — a treasure hunter whose storyline is tied to a dog you can converse with after unlocking an “animal whisperer” style exploration skill.
That exploration skill is obtained through content in Finesteed Hamlet, where a local task chain has you track down several scattered items. Completing that chain grants the ability to understand animals. With that ability, you can talk to the dog near the treasure hunter, resolve his situation, and gain a new Jianghu Friend who replaces Fang Xu in the 100% calculation for that area.
How Jianghu Friend design shapes interactions like Fang Xu
Fang Xu highlights what makes Jianghu Friends in Where Winds Meet distinct from traditional NPCs. Many of them are wired to respond to intent and roleplay rather than specific buttons. That leads to a few consistent patterns:
| Pattern | How it plays out |
|---|---|
| Evidence and proof | Characters such as Lie Buxi demand “evidence” before trusting news about their family; referencing an actual letter and “handing” it to them in text satisfies that need. |
| Repetition and reassurance | Reiterating that someone is safe, that an area is cleared, or that you hope they reunite with loved ones can push the system toward registering a positive outcome. |
| Accepting light roleplay | Simple stage directions like “*hands it to her*” have been recognized as in-universe actions and used to cross dialogue hurdles. |
| Ethical direction | NPCs with moral dilemmas, like Fang Xu’s wealth dilemma, respond well when you steer them toward altruistic or community-serving choices. |
The result is messy in places but reveals the intended texture: you are meant to talk your way into being a credible, trustworthy presence in their lives, not merely click through a fixed menu.
For anyone staring at a “busy” Fang Xu or a version of the game where he only wants to spar, the key is simple: on older builds, he completes the General Shrine circle once you convince him to spend his money on public good; on newer builds, he is no longer required and a different Jianghu Friend in the same region carries the weight of that last percentage point. Either way, Qinghe’s most notorious rich fighter ends up telling you as much about the game’s social systems as he does about himself.
