The Ferryman in Where Winds Meet sits at the center of Chapter 2’s Universal Furnace storyline. He is the gatekeeper to the Ghost Market, the hidden base of the Nine Mortal Ways, and he is tied directly to the mystery of the stolen Gold-Making Vessel. At the same time, players run into two separate pain points: a main story step that literally starts “tomorrow” and an end-of-chain prompt that simply says “wait for development”. Those are not the same thing, and treating them as if they are is what leaves many people stuck.
Where the Ferryman fits into Universal Furnace (Chapter 2)
Universal Furnace is Chapter 2 of the main story. It plays out in Kaifeng and is divided into five quests:
| Quest | Role in the chapter | Key Ferryman connection |
|---|---|---|
| New Guest in Kaifeng | Brings the Young Hero to Kaifeng and introduces Kaifeng’s scams, Tang Coins, and Big Zhao. | Travel to Kaifeng starts by talking to a ferryman at the dock, but this is not the Ferryman of the Ghost Market. |
| Gathering of Heroes | Heroes Assembly at Revelry Hall, first appearance of the Gold-Making Vessel, Soulbreaker Pill ultimatum. | Master Pu points you to a Ferryman in the Forsaken Quarter as the way into the Ghost Market. |
| Reunion | Investigation pivots into the underworld economy of Tang Coins and the Ghost Market; deduction minigame begins. | You actually meet the Ferryman, pay his “fee”, and learn how the Nine Mortal Ways move Tang Coins. |
| Accident | Tang Coin sting operation with Yingying, Little Fu, and Widow Zhou; soldiers begin mass confiscations. | Work done here builds on the Ferryman’s information and confirms the Corner Gate District lead. |
| Furnace of Righteousness | Follow-up to the Accident events as Universal Furnace heads toward its climax. | The Ghost Market and Nine Mortal Ways remain the backdrop, but the Ferryman himself is not the focus. |
The quest marker labeled “Ferryman” that players chase in Kaifeng is the main story contact named during Gathering of Heroes. That quest ends on a very clear pointer: find the Ferryman in the Forsaken Quarter, southeast of Kaifeng, identified by the motto “Born at dawn, dead by dusk”. The next quest, Reunion, is where that lead is supposed to pay off.
How to correctly trigger the Ferryman in Reunion
The Ferryman’s proper appearance is part of Reunion, the third Universal Furnace quest. It does not begin automatically the moment Master Pu mentions him; the game inserts a time skip and several prerequisites. The structure looks like this:
| Step | What you must do | What changes in the world |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Finish Gathering of Heroes | Play all the way through the Assembly of Heroes segment: disguise as Velvet Shade disciple, witness the explosion, take the Soulbreaker Pill, investigate the broken mask, and speak with Master Pu in the Entertainment District. | The game establishes that the broken mask belongs to the Nine Mortal Ways and that the Ferryman is the only route into the Ghost Market. |
| 2. Accept the “wait until next day” prompt | After the final cutscene of Gathering of Heroes, the main quest line instructs you to meet Big Zhao the following day. | The next main quest is scheduled for the Chen Hour of the next in-game day. |
| 3. Move time to Chen Hour | Use the in-game clock to skip ahead. Open the pause menu, find the clock icon, or use the action wheel’s “Time” function. Scroll until you reach the Chen Hour and confirm. | The Reunion quest activates, and a new main quest marker appears in the Forsaken Quarter. |
| 4. Go to the Forsaken Quarter entrance | Follow the main quest marker to the southeast side of Kaifeng. Approach the Forsaken Quarter; Big Zhao is waiting just inside. | Big Zhao is now present as a scripted NPC, ready to brief you on the Ghost Market plan. |
| 5. Find the red-faced Little Beggar | Once Reunion is active and you regain control of the Young Hero at the Forsaken Quarter entrance, look for a small red-faced beggar standing nearby. | Talking to the Little Beggar starts the Ferryman’s cryptic contact chain. |
| 6. Use the Ferryman’s password | The Little Beggar instructs you to knock three times at the Ferryman’s door and say “Raise the coffin, deliver the goods.” Follow the new quest marker to the Ferryman’s location and perform the interaction. | The Ferryman opens up negotiations and asks for his fee. |
When all of that is in place, the Ferryman behaves like a normal story NPC. He gives you a simple job: bring him a specific scroll in exchange for passage to the Ghost Market.
Paying the Ferryman: fee, map, and Heavenly Snatch
Once you reach the Ferryman in Reunion and say the password, the quest shifts to his payment. The game uses this moment to teach a mechanical trick and to tie the Nine Mortal Ways to the city’s economy.
| Objective | Details | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Ask Ferryman about the fee | The Ferryman agrees to ferry you to the Ghost Market but demands a specific item as payment: a scroll held by constable-affiliated men. | There is no alternate dialogue route; you must accept his terms to proceed. |
| Follow the map he gives you | He hands over a simple map. The main quest marker jumps to a new spot where the “fee” can be found. | The new marker leads to a small group of three men at a table; the scroll is laid out in plain sight. |
| Use Heavenly Snatch | To avoid a direct confrontation, you steal the scroll with the Heavenly Snatch skill, grabbing it from the table without a traditional fight. | Perform Heavenly Snatch quickly; lingering in plain view can trigger extra heat before the scripted escape sequence takes over. |
| Survive the chase event | Once you grab the scroll, a brief chase-style event plays as the owners pursue you. | Follow the prompts; the sequence ends with Big Zhao intervening and pulling you out of danger. |
| Reach Granny Turtle’s hideout | The Young Hero escapes alone and ends up sheltered by Granny Turtle, an NPC you met earlier selling grass turtles in Kaifeng. | This is the handoff point into the more domestic part of Reunion, where the scroll is opened and its contents are examined. |
The scroll turns out to be a letter from the Constable berating subordinates for accepting Tang Coins while those coins are banned. Paired with Granny Turtle’s story about Nether Coins changing into Tang Coins, and with Master Pu’s earlier comments, this becomes the basis for your first deduction minigame: the Nine Mortal Ways are pushing new Tang Coins through the Ghost Market, and they likely used the stolen Gold-Making Vessel to do it.
Why some players never see the red-faced beggar
Several players report arriving at the Forsaken Quarter and finding no red-faced beggar at all, even after wandering around the southeast of Kaifeng or grinding levels. That usually comes down to one of three issues:
| Symptom | Likely cause | Practical check |
|---|---|---|
| No Reunion quest in the main quest list | Gathering of Heroes is not fully completed, or its final cutscene with Master Pu was not finished. | Open the quest log and confirm that Gathering of Heroes shows as completed and that the next main quest listed is Reunion. |
| Reunion shows as active, but no Forsaken Quarter marker | Time has not been advanced to Chen Hour, so the “next day” flag never flips. | Manually advance time via the clock icon or action wheel, making sure to land specifically on Chen Hour rather than just any morning slot. |
| You have already cleared the Underworld Ghost Market content | The Ghost Market storyline has been completed through other content, so the Ferryman’s main-story introduction no longer needs to spawn at the Forsaken Quarter entrance. | If you have already met the Ferryman in the Ghost Market itself and completed that chain, do not expect the red-faced beggar encounter to appear again in Kaifeng. |
Level does not fix this. Players at level 50 still report running empty loops in the Forsaken Quarter, trying to force the beggar to spawn. The trigger is story progression plus time, not character level.
Many also mention an on-screen note saying “wait for development” during this slice of Chapter 2. That text is misleading in English: it is not a live progress bar, and it does not refer to your character’s level. In context, it simply marks a pause in story development until the in-game day rolls over and reunites you with Big Zhao at the Forsaken Quarter.
What “wait for development” really means here
The phrase “wait for development” shows up in two different ways around the Ferryman content, and they have very different implications.
| Where you see it | What it refers to | What it actually means |
|---|---|---|
| Immediately after Gathering of Heroes, before Reunion | Transition from one day’s events to the next. | Advance time to the next day’s Chen Hour to “let things develop” in the story; it is a narrative time skip, not content on hold. |
| At the tail end of Ghost Market / Underworld content involving the Ferryman | End of an implemented quest chain related to the underworld Ghost Market. | The storyline simply stops there for the current build. The text is a placeholder indicating further main quests tied to the Ferryman and the underworld have not yet been added. |
The confusion comes from seeing the same English phrase both during a simple in-game time skip and at the edge of completed content. If you are still on Universal Furnace and Reunion has not fired, treat “wait for development” as a prompt to use the time-change mechanic. If you have already completed the Underworld Ghost Market quests and “wait for development” appears there, that second usage indicates that the Ferryman’s story in that branch currently ends.
Why the Ferryman disappears after the Ghost Market
Once the Ghost Market storyline and related underworld quests are cleared, the Ferryman’s role changes. Several players note that after doing the Underworld Ghost Market quest, the red-faced beggar no longer appears in the Forsaken Quarter, and the Ferryman seems to vanish from his previous spots. That behavior lines up with how the story is structured:
- The Ferryman’s first main-story function is to sell passage into the Ghost Market so you can investigate the Nine Mortal Ways’ connection to the Gold-Making Vessel and Tang Coins.
- After that passage is used and the Ghost Market arc is completed, he no longer needs to stand in Kaifeng’s Forsaken Quarter waiting for customers; his purpose in that location has been served.
- Further content involving the Ferryman and the underworld uses is gated behind that completion point and currently caps out with “wait for development”.
In other words, if you are trying to “start the Ferryman quest” after you have already finished the Ghost Market content, the game is behaving as designed for the current version. The quest available now is the Universal Furnace path described above; anything beyond that is explicitly labeled as not yet developed.
For now, the practical way to approach the Ferryman is straightforward: follow Universal Furnace in order, use the time-change mechanic when the story asks you to “wait”, meet the red-faced Little Beggar and pay the Ferryman’s fee with Heavenly Snatch in Reunion, and expect the Ghost Market branch to end once “wait for development” appears at the underworld’s edge. Anything beyond that line is future content rather than a hidden trigger or level requirement.
