Mistveil Forest in Where Winds Meet looks like late-game content the first time you see it: a poisoned woodland wrapped in dense fog that kills you if you push in. It is actually the center of a self-contained encounter chain, The Ephemeral Blight, built around finding three “Mistveil Forest Cure” notes and dismantling the source of the haze.
Quest setup: starting The Ephemeral Blight and the “cures” objective
The whole Mistveil Forest sequence begins in Kaifeng’s Granary of Plenty subregion, at a small settlement called Wishing Cove on the edge of the forest.
| Step | Location / Action | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pick up jade pendant on the ground in Wishing Cove | Starts the encounter “The Ephemeral Blight”. |
| 2 | Talk to Zhai Xu in his house | He explains the forest sickness and becomes your quest-giver. |
| 3 | Search his house for clues | You’re looking for documents about Mistveil Forest Cures. |
| 4 | Distract Zhai Xu, then loot the books | You use a nearby interaction (wind chime) to send him outside and steal two cure-related books. |
| 5 | Leave Wishing Cove and read “Thousand-Wish Amendment” in Backpack → Quest tab | This updates the objective to “Obtain three Mistveil Forest Cures”. |
Those “cures” are not crafted medicine; they are research notes scattered around Mistveil Forest and its surrounding faction bases. One is tied to Zhai Xu’s house, and two more are hidden inside hostile sites you have to infiltrate.
Unlocking Mistveil Forest safely
Before hunting down the cures, you need the forest itself to become an active quest space. The game does that by poisoning you once and forcing a rescue.
- Travel to Granary of Plenty and approach Mistveil Forest from the south, skirting along the edge of the fog.
- Step fully into the miasma and let the poison meter fill. Do not try to fight through; the goal is to collapse.
- A cutscene triggers, and you wake up in a healer’s house on the outskirts of the forest.
That healer is Zhai Xu. From this point on, Mistveil Forest is anchored to The Ephemeral Blight and the “Mistveil Forest Cures” objective.
All three Mistveil Forest Cures: locations overview
The game never labels the notes as “Cure 1/3” in the UI, but structurally they break down like this:
| Cure note | Area | Tied content | Key action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wishing Cove | Zhai Xu’s house on the south edge of Mistveil Forest | Early house investigation | Distract Zhai Xu and steal the books. |
| Aureate Pavilion | Aureate Pavilion Outpost, west of Mistveil Forest | Outpost occupied by Aureate Pavilion | Infiltrate the outpost and loot the note inside the main building. |
| Hollow Abode | House in the western Mistveil Forest (“Hollow Abode” in dialogue) | Stealth house infiltration, Healing Umbrella theft | Sneak into the basement and grab the umbrella and associated research. |
The quest log only cares that you obtain all three note entries; it does not require clearing every outpost or picking a particular dialogue branch.
Wishing Cove Cure: stealing the first notes from Zhai Xu
After you wake up in Zhai Xu’s house and talk through the initial dialogue, he keeps an eye on a set of books that clearly matter to the investigation. Taking them straight up will trigger his objection, so you have to misdirect him.
- Interact with the hanging wind chime in the house to draw him outside.
- Use Meridian Touch or simple timing to slip past him while he’s walking out.
- Loot the two key items on his table: “Thousand-Wish Amendment” and “Mistveil Forest Cure: Wishing Cove”.
Once you leave the house, open your Backpack, go to the Quest tab, and read “Thousand-Wish Amendment”. That reading step is what moves the encounter forward and formally tells you to find the remaining cures deeper in Mistveil Forest.
Aureate Pavilion Cure: finding and clearing the outpost
The second cure is tied to Aureate Pavilion, an outpost in the Granary of Plenty subregion. It sits to the west of Mistveil Forest and is marked as an Outpost on the world map.
| Outpost | Region | Occupying faction | Key objectives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aureate Pavilion | Granary of Plenty (near Mistveil Forest) | Aureate Pavilion | Eliminate 9 enemies, defeat Xie Xiuyu, then loot the building for the cure note. |
For the Mistveil Forest Cures objective, you do not technically need to run the outpost at a high difficulty tier, but entering and surviving is easier if you treat it like a normal Outpost clear:
- Spend the required 20 Energy to start the outpost challenge.
- Use stealth from the perimeter to thin out guards with ranged attacks and Meridian Touch.
- Head for the main interior building at the center of the camp. Guards patrol around it with overlapping vision cones.
- Climb to the upper floor or roof to bypass some of the ground-level patrol routes, then drop inside.
The cure note lies on a table inside this central building. Many players miss it by clearing the outpost from the outside and leaving as soon as Xie Xiuyu goes down. If your quest still shows “Obtain three Mistveil Forest Cures” after an Aureate Pavilion clear, go back and:
- Walk through the entrance-facing building at the outpost center.
- Scan interactables in the main room; the note is a small, glowing book on the table.
- Pick it up to register the Aureate Pavilion Cure.
Once that note is in your backpack, you can raise the outpost’s farming tier later without needing to worry about the cure objective again.
Hollow Abode Cure: sneaking into the western house
The last cure sits in a place the game refers to informally as the “Hollow Abode” – a single house on the western side of Mistveil Forest. It doubles as the Skill Theft location for Soulshade Umbrella, which is why it looks more like a martial arts encounter than a medical one at first glance.
- Head to the western edge of Mistveil Forest; look for a lone, guarded house just outside the thickest fog.
- Stay crouched as you approach. Treat it like a stealth mission rather than a direct assault.
- Circle the building to find less-watched entrances, windows, or elevated paths to the roof.
Inside, the path to the cure runs through the basement:
- Enter the house and avoid pulling the entire group of guards at once; use single-target takedowns or distractions where possible.
- Find the stairs or ladder leading down to the basement.
- In the basement, steal the “Healing Umbrella” and examine the notes and documents nearby – one of them is the final Mistveil Forest Cure entry.
Players often exit as soon as they get the Healing Umbrella, assuming that skill theft was the only point. If your quest tracker still shows only two cures after looting this house, go back into the basement and sweep each table and shelf for another readable note.
Turning in the cures and advancing The Ephemeral Blight
Once all three cure notes are in your quest inventory, return to Wishing Cove:
- Talk to Zhai Xu and hand over the collected pages.
- The objective updates, and he asks for time to work; you need to wait two in-game days.
- Use the time-change function on the world map or rest at safe spots to advance to the required hour.
After two days pass, meet Zhai Xu again. He directs you to a rendezvous point in the “northern wasteland” of Mistveil Forest. From there, the encounter shifts from document hunting to a guided push into the heart of the fog.
Clearing the forest: Dawn-to-Dusk Blossoms and the hidden lair
With the cures in hand, the game finally lets you attack the problem causing the haze. The Ephemeral Blight now guides you through a linear but busy dungeon inside Mistveil Forest.
| Sequence | Objective | Mechanics |
|---|---|---|
| Northern approach | Follow Zhai Xu into Mistveil Forest | Ignore generic enemies and focus on reaching the marked areas. |
| First blossom cluster | “Destroy the Dawn-to-Dusk Blossoms” | Use your bow to shoot all glowing flowers quickly; time-slow skills make this trivial. |
| Tunnel section | “Pass through the tunnel” | Grab the waypoint, fight zombie-like puppets, and keep progressing forward. |
| Puppet battlefield | “Defeat the Sleeping Puppets” | Clear waves of enemies after each blossom cluster you destroy. |
| Bound corpse | “Examine what the Dawn-to-Dusk Blossoms bind” | Interact with the body tangled in vines; this reveals the story’s core victim. |
| Hidden lair | Follow the shadow, enter the lair, repeat blossom and puppet fights | Multiple chambers of the same pattern: destroy blossoms → fight puppets → push deeper. |
| Pendant choice | “Search for Sun Buqi’s notes” and “Return the pendant to the Sleeping Puppet” | Collect research documents, piece together the truth in the quest UI, then return the jade pendant. |
| Final blossom cluster | Destroy the last Dawn-to-Dusk Blossoms | Once the final cluster is gone, the mist’s source is effectively destroyed. |
After the final blossoms vanish, Mistveil Forest’s poison fog clears on the world map, and a new World Boss, Ghost Master, becomes available in the region. The Ephemeral Blight encounter ends back in Wishing Cove, where you turn in the last set of notes and receive a substantial reward: Echo Jade, Kaifeng Exploration, Enlightenment Points, experience, and Coin.
Viewed from a distance, Mistveil Forest looks like a late-game hazard walling off part of Kaifeng. In practice, it’s a tightly scoped quest dungeon with three research notes, two stealth-heavy infiltrations, and a payoff that literally changes the map. Once the three Mistveil Forest Cures are in your backpack and The Ephemeral Blight is complete, the poisoned woods become just another part of Jianghu to farm—and a permanent home for the Ghost Master, waiting at the center of the now-cleared forest.
