The Iron Spear in Where Winds Meet is the most obscure of the three relics you need for the Jianghu Legacy quest “March of the Dead.” Mountain Armor and the Battle Helmet both sit along clear lantern routes; the spear is buried deeper in the Nether Mist behind a pack of spectral soldiers and a long, almost unlit climb.
How March of the Dead works
March of the Dead takes place in the Ghostlight Market in Kaifeng. After completing the Worldly Affairs quest “Bounty Trouble” and gaining access to the market, you start March of the Dead by changing the in‑game time at Ghostlight Market to Mao hour (the event version of the market where Nether Mist rolls in and Wind Sense is disabled).
At the center of this version of the market, elder Liu Changsheng tasks you with finding three items scattered through the mist:
| Quest item | Approximate direction from Liu Changsheng | Main hint NPC |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain Armor (Mountain Crest) | Right, down toward the river | Jin Yunhai (boatman) |
| Battle Helmet | Straight ahead through ribboned gate | Nan Lugong (stall keeper) |
| Iron Spear | Up the stairs beside Nan Lugong | Xiang Gutong (broken emissary) |
The entire zone is saturated with Nether Mist. A mist bar fills as you move; once topped out, it starts chewing through your HP. Green Lanterns of Underground temporarily clear the debuff and reset the bar. Guards and spectral soldiers hit extremely hard, so speed and route knowledge matter more than fighting.
How to reach the Iron Spear path
You only need the spear’s route once you already have Mountain Armor and the Battle Helmet and have spoken to Nan Lugong. From Liu Changsheng’s checkpoint, the layout is easier to understand if you think in layers:
| Stage | What you should see | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Starting terrace | Liu Changsheng, steps leading down | Walk down the main stairs into the misty plaza. |
| Nan Lugong fork | Gate with lantern and ribbons; crying woman audio | Go straight from Liu through the gate, then right to Nan Lugong’s stall. |
| Iron Spear stairs | Small stall, swords hanging nearby, side stairway | From Nan Lugong, move slightly past the stall and take the stairway immediately beside it. |
That side stairway next to Nan Lugong is the key. Many players wander the lower streets or cross the wrong bridge; the spear route actually climbs above the market along a wooden path carved into the hill.
Iron Spear route in Ghostlight Market
Once you are on the correct stairway, the path to the Iron Spear looks like a long zigzag up the left edge of the area, with only a few lanterns spaced far apart. The fog gets thick enough that it often feels like a dead end, but it does connect to the spectral camp with the spear chest.
| Step | Landmark | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Side stairs by Nan Lugong | Climb the stairway beside Nan Lugong’s stall. | Pause at the first lantern to clear your mist bar before pushing on. |
| 2 | Upper lane, left wall | From the first lantern, move straight and hug the left side of the path. | Running fills the mist bar faster but shortens exposure time; choose based on your health. |
| 3 | Second stair set and lantern | When a lantern comes into view ahead, take the next set of stairs upward. | This gap between lanterns is longer than earlier sections; expect to take some chip damage. |
| 4 | Bridge with lone Spectral Soldier | At the top, turn left and run along the ridge until you reach a wooden bridge. | There is a green lantern at the bridge with Xiang Gutong nearby; do not cross deeper bridges beyond this point. |
| 5 | Xiang Gutong by green lantern | Talk to Xiang Gutong, the wounded emissary sitting or kneeling near the lantern. | Talking to him highlights the final chest location and confirms you’re on the right track. |
| 6 | Spectral soldier pack | Move past the bridge area toward the sound and glow of several ghosts grouped together. | Ignore any bridge that leads away; the spear is in a chest directly behind the group of ghosts. |
| 7 | Iron Spear chest | Slip behind or through the formation of spectral soldiers and open the chest. | Grab the Iron Spear, then retreat along the same route; enemies break off quickly once you create distance. |
Two visual cues confirm you’re close: a cluster of spectral soldiers standing in formation, and a chest tucked right behind them in a relatively open pocket of terrain. If you see a major bridge leading outward from the ridge with soldiers posted on it, you’ve gone too far in that direction; the spear chest is behind the nearby group on the same side rather than across that bridge.
Dealing with Nether Mist and spectral soldiers on the spear run
The Iron Spear route is tuned to feel punishing. The walk between lanterns is longer than for the armor and helmet, and the final sprint takes you through or around a dense enemy pack. The quest also disables Wind Sense, so you cannot simply scan for objectives; lanterns and NPCs are your only real navigation aids.
| Hazard | Behavior | Counterplay on the spear route |
|---|---|---|
| Nether Mist | Builds on distance traveled; full bar starts stripping HP rapidly. | Plan your moves between lanterns, stop briefly at each one to reset the bar, and avoid backtracking in the upper lanes. |
| Spectral soldiers | High damage melee; some players report they keep chasing after respawn if pulled badly. | While unmasked, avoid fighting; sprint past, or thread the edge of their vision and focus on opening the chest. |
| Limited visibility | Fog hides both lanterns and enemies until you’re almost on top of them. | Use sound (ghost chatter, footsteps) and faint green light from lanterns to orient, and remember the left‑wall rule on the climb. |
Some players try to stealth the chest by crouching and hugging the wall behind the line of soldiers until the prompt appears. Others simply dash through, trigger aggro, loot the chest, and immediately run back toward Xiang Gutong’s lantern. The soldiers tend not to pursue very far once you break line of sight or cross back toward the bridge.
Turning in the Iron Spear and what happens next
With all three relics collected, the objective sends you back to Liu Changsheng at the starting point in Ghostlight Market. Hand over:
- Mountain Armor (Mountain Crest)
- Battle Helmet
- Iron Spear
Liu transforms the set into Spectral Soldier Armor (often referred to as Ghost Armor), a quest item you equip from your bag under the Quest tab. Once worn, it makes spectral soldiers ignore you unless attacked, and effectively removes the threat of the Nether Mist for the remainder of March of the Dead.
Equipping this armor shifts the quest into its final act. You wake as a specter, join the Spectral Soldiers’ Procession, follow it to the Ghost Gate, unlock the Inner Way “Trapped Beast,” and then fight Zhu Yousheng inside the Eternal Rest chamber. Defeating him and speaking to Liu again ends March of the Dead and returns the market to its normal state.
If you leave or soft‑fail the quest
Several things can interrupt progress on March of the Dead:
- Changing the time out of Mao hour, which collapses the mist version of Ghostlight Market.
- Talking to the Nine Mortal Ways disciple at the Ghostlight Market Boundary Stone and leaving the area mid‑quest.
- Letting fog or soldiers kill you repeatedly and respawning back at the inn.
March of the Dead tracks its objectives rather than forcing a full reset every time. If you change the time away from Mao hour and “fail” the scenario, switching it back to Mao hour later restores your last active objective rather than wiping progress. If you hard‑exit the area through an NPC, you can reopen the quest from your character’s Quest tab under Lost Chapter, teleport back to the quest area, then set the in‑game time to the appropriate hour to resume.
If you get teleported out after the boss or the ghost army keeps attacking you because you are no longer wearing Spectral Soldier Armor, re‑entering through the quest menu and ensuring the correct time window usually restores the intended state so that NPCs can be approached safely.
The Iron Spear’s location is the one genuinely opaque piece of March of the Dead. Once you know that the route starts beside Nan Lugong, climbs the left wall through long stretches of mist, and ends behind a tight knot of ghost soldiers, the rest of the quest falls into place: recover the relics, wear their echo, march with the dead, and close out one of Kaifeng’s strangest stories.
