The Beauty and Blade encounter in Where Winds Meet is one of the more opaque side activities in Qinghe. It quietly unlocks a full cosmetic set, Alms Pilgrim, but the game gives almost no guidance on how to make the encounter appear or why players keep missing it.
Beauty and Blade is also referred to in some places as “Hero & Beauty” or “Hero and Beauty” — all of these names point to the same encounter in Qinghe that ultimately rewards the Alms Pilgrim set.
Beauty and Blade / Hero & Beauty overview
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Quest type | Encounter (Side Quest) |
| Region | Qinghe |
| Primary unlock condition | Conquer the Bloomveil Monastery Outpost |
| Trigger location | Blissful Retreat, near the Bamboo Grove / red gate area by the waterfall |
| Key reward | Alms Pilgrim cosmetic set |
| Other rewards | Echo Jade, Qinghe Exploration, Enlightenment Points, Jade Fish, EXP, Coin |
On paper, the encounter is simple: clear an outpost, walk into Blissful Retreat, and talk to a group of servants looking for an escort for Lady Zhao. In practice, many players never see the crowd appear at all. The main reasons are hidden prerequisites and the game’s limit on how many Encounters can be active at the same time.
Prerequisites: how to make Beauty and Blade spawn
To have any chance of seeing Beauty and Blade, you need to meet all of the following conditions.
| Requirement | What you need to do | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bloomveil Monastery Outpost cleared | Capture the Bloomveil Monastery Outpost in Qinghe at least once. | Located northeast in Qinghe. You can storm it directly or resolve it using the Scholar profession. |
| Encounter cap not reached | Have fewer than 3 active Encounters in your quest log. | If you sit at the cap (3), no new Encounters, including Beauty and Blade, will trigger. |
| Story progress | Chapter 1 can be completed, but is not strictly required. | Players have triggered the encounter both before and after Blissful Retreat is burned. |
| Time and respawn behavior | Allow time to pass or relog if you suspect the encounter timer expired earlier. | If Beauty and Blade triggered and expired previously, it may sit on a hidden respawn timer. |
There is also a widely shared extra step: killing a goose. During the encounter, characters mention killing a goose; players have reliably triggered Beauty and Blade after picking up a goose and dumping it in water or otherwise killing one near Heaven’s Pier. The encounter is not limited to a specific goose — any goose seems to count.
Exact trigger location in Blissful Retreat
Once the unlock conditions are met, Beauty and Blade is not picked up from a board or a quest marker. It is proximity-triggered in a very specific slice of Blissful Retreat.
- Fast travel to the Evercare Clinic waypoint in Blissful Retreat.
- From the waypoint, move north toward the waterfall and Bamboo Grove.
- Look for:
- a tiny plank bridge over the stream near the waterfall, and
- a red gate/bamboo gate by the bamboo cluster.
- As you walk close to that gate/bridge area, a crowd of servants and townsfolk should pop into a dialogue scene.
In some cases, players have reported the prompt triggering as they walked away toward the sea rather than directly into the cluster, so it is worth pacing slowly around that whole corner of the village.
Beauty and Blade quest flow (all three trials)
Once the servants appear and you agree to participate, Beauty and Blade breaks into three trials spread across Qinghe.
Step 1 – Speak with the servants and accept the escort trials
At the trigger area in Blissful Retreat, servants are recruiting someone to escort Lady Zhao. Join the crowd and listen to the offer; you are immediately entered into a contest against unseen rivals for that role.
When you accept, they send you to the first trial in Moonveil Mountain.
Step 2 – First trial: defeat the Giant Black Bear at Moonveil Mountain
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Moonveil Mountain, just outside Heaven's Pier |
| NPC | Servant overseeing the first trial |
| Objective | Defeat the Giant Black Bear nearby, then report back to the servant |
Head to Moonveil Mountain near Heaven’s Pier and speak with the waiting servant. A Giant Black Bear is close by; defeat it to prove your martial strength. After the kill, talk to the servant again to receive directions for the second trial at Crimson Peak.
Step 3 – Second trial: guqin performance at Crimson Peak
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Crimson Peak, wooden bridge overlooking the lake |
| NPC | Servant at the bridge |
| Objective | Play the guqin and complete the rhythm mini-game |
Travel to Crimson Peak. On the wooden bridge above the lake, another servant explains the second trial: a guqin performance. Interact with the instrument to start a rhythm mini-game and play it through to completion. When you finish, speak with the servant again to validate the trial and unlock the third test at Heaven’s Pier.
Step 4 – Third trial: riddles and meditation at Heaven’s Pier
The last trial mixes dialogue, a riddle answer, and timed meditation.
| Phase | What to do | Key detail |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 – Check in | Go to Heaven's Pier and speak with the servant near the Bounty Board. | He directs you to retrieve something from the Zhao household’s page boy at the Winery. |
| 4.2 – Answer the page boy | At the Winery, approach the page boy and respond with the specific phrase. | Correct response: “Though far, not far; though empty, not empty.” |
| 4.3 – Meditate | Follow the page boy’s instruction to meditate on the rooftops. | Meditate twice: once at the eastern rooftop, once at the western rooftop, each for a “day”. |
After both rooftop meditations are complete, return to the Winery to move toward the resolution.
Step 5 – Expose the final trial and meet Lady Zhao
Back at the Winery, events shift from simple trials to a small intrigue around the Zhao household and Bloomveil Monastery’s monks.
- Approach the servant and page boy at the Winery and secretly eavesdrop on their conversation.
- Once the scene plays out, confront them about the nature of the “final trial”.
- They agree to bring you directly to Lady Zhao.
A cut-scene follows that touches on what happened to the monks at Bloomveil Monastery and Lady Zhao’s connection to those events. When the scene ends, talk to Lady Zhao herself to close out Beauty and Blade.
Beauty and Blade rewards, including Alms Pilgrim
Completing Beauty and Blade pays out a mix of progression currency, regional reputation, and the unique cosmetic set tied to the encounter.
| Reward | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alms Pilgrim | Cosmetic set | Monk-inspired outfit set; also listed globally as unlocked by the Hero & Beauty encounter near Bloomveil Monastery Outpost. |
| Echo Jade ×50 | Currency | Used for Solemn Echo pulls and other progression. |
| Qinghe Exploration ×50 | Reputation / exploration points | Contributes toward Qinghe exploration level, which unlocks rewards like the Sound of Valor set. |
| Enlightenment Point ×100 | Progression | Used to unlock and advance character abilities. |
| Jade Fish ×150 | Currency | General-purpose spending currency. |
| Character EXP ×15,000 | Experience | Directly increases character level. |
| Coin ×15,000 | Currency | Standard in-game money. |
The Alms Pilgrim set is also documented among the game’s free cosmetics as being tied specifically to this encounter near Bloomveil Monastery. If you are aiming for a full wardrobe, Beauty and Blade is mandatory; there is no alternate path to Alms Pilgrim.
Why Beauty and Blade doesn’t appear (and how to fix it)
Most frustration around this encounter comes from it silently failing to spawn. Common causes and practical fixes are straightforward once you know how Encounters work.
| Problem | Symptom | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Encounter cap reached | No crowd appears in Blissful Retreat despite clearing Bloomveil. | Open your quest log and check the Encounters section. If you have 3 active, finish or let one expire, then re-enter Blissful Retreat. |
| Outpost not actually conquered | Bamboo Grove area is empty, no red gate trigger. | Return to Bloomveil Monastery Outpost and confirm it is cleared at least once. If you cleared it through dialogue, a combat clear is not required; either resolution counts. |
| Expired previous trigger | You recall seeing something near Blissful Retreat earlier but ignored it, and now nothing appears. | Wait in-game time, complete other Encounters, or log out and back in to allow the Encounter list to refresh, then revisit the trigger area. |
| Daily/hidden refresh behavior | All conditions met, log is clear, but the encounter still will not spawn that day. | Players have had success returning on the next real-world day after meeting all prerequisites, suggesting a daily refresh limit for Encounters. |
| Positioning in Blissful Retreat | You walk through the village but never see the servants. | Approach specifically from Evercare Clinic, heading north to the small plank bridge and red gate beside the Bamboo Grove; walk slowly around that cluster. |
Once Beauty and Blade is finally unlocked, the quest itself is short, self-contained, and mechanically simple — a bear fight, a music mini-game, and a rooftop meditation loop. The real challenge is treating Encounters as a limited resource. As long as you keep your active Encounter count below three and return to Blissful Retreat’s Bamboo Grove after capturing Bloomveil, Lady Zhao’s servants will eventually be there waiting, and so will the Alms Pilgrim set.
