Mistveil is one of the more mysterious regions in Where Winds Meet. Mistveil Forest, located east of Kaifeng City, is shrouded in a poisonous Dawn-to-Dusk mist that gates off a large part of the area until you complete the Ephemeral Blight encounter. Nearby, Mistveil City appears as an exploration location but is currently blocked by a hard lock.
When players approach the boundary of Mistveil City, a message appears saying "This area is not yet open. Please come back later", followed by a short countdown of a few seconds before the game teleports them back out. Even if you use lightness skills to dash past the boundary and briefly interact with objects inside, the timer still triggers, and you are removed.
This has led to questions about whether joining the Nine Mortal Ways sect is required to enter. Player discussion points instead to a simple time gate: the area is set to open on January 22, and until that calendar date, the lock message appears for everyone regardless of build or progress. Treat Mistveil City as content scheduled for that date rather than something you can unlock early through a quest or sect choice.
Starting Ephemeral Blight in Mistveil Forest
Ephemeral Blight is the encounter that lets you eventually clear the poisonous fog in Mistveil Forest. It begins the first time you push too deep into the mist and collapse from the Dawn-to-Dusk toxin.
Step 1: Enter Mistveil Forest to the east of Kaifeng City and continue walking into the dense fog until the Dawn-to-Dusk venomous mist overwhelms you. When your character succumbs, a cutscene plays where an NPC named Zhai Xu rescues you and brings you to his house on the edge of the forest, called the Wishing Cove.
Step 2: After you wake up in the Wishing Cove, look beside the bed and pick up the jade pendant lying on the floor. Speak with Zhai Xu to ask about the pendant and the poisonous mist that fills Mistveil Forest.
Step 3: Once the conversation ends, use Wind Sense inside the house to highlight interactable objects. Focus on the table in the middle of the room, where two books are placed; when you try to examine them, Zhai Xu warns you not to interfere.
Step 4: Stand near the window above the table and use Meridian Touch on the wind chime hanging there. The chime rings loudly, distracting Zhai Xu and drawing him outside to check on the sound.
Step 5: While Zhai Xu is out of the room, interact with both books on the table. These are the first cure book, "Mistveil Forest Cures: Wishing Cove", and a note called "Thousand-Wish Amendment", which are added to your quest items.
Step 6: Leave the Wishing Cove house to exit the small cove area. Outside, open your Bag (B), switch to the quest items tab, and read the Thousand-Wish Amendment. Its contents reveal that three cures are needed to lift the fog over Mistveil Forest: Wishing Cove (already obtained), Hollow Abode, and Aureate Pavilion, along with hints to their locations.
Finding the Hollow Abode Mistveil Forest cure
The Hollow Abode cure is hidden inside a Skill Theft dungeon to the southwest of Mistveil Forest, within the Soulshade Umbrella - Post Station. You do not need to finish the entire dungeon or unlock the Soulshade Umbrella weapon to get the cure.
Step 1: Travel to the Soulshade Umbrella - Post Station located southwest of the main Mistveil Forest area and enter the post station courtyard. This location is marked as a Skill Theft dungeon for the Soulshade Umbrella, but your immediate goal is only the cure document.
Step 2: In the main yard, activate Wind Sense (V) to see enemy vision cones and plan a stealthy route. Head towards the vines growing on the building that leads up to the second floor rather than confronting guards at ground level.
Step 3: Climb the vines to reach the upper level and slip through the open window into the main house. Once inside, look to your right to find a staircase going down into a lower area.
Step 4: Watch the patrol pattern of the guard posted by the staircase. When the guard turns away, quietly approach and use Touch of Death to eliminate them in a single strike, keeping the area quiet.
Step 5: After dealing with the guard, turn around to locate a small room lit by green candles. On the table in that room is the Hollow Abode Mistveil Forest cure; pick it up to complete this objective, then choose whether to push deeper into the dungeon for the Soulshade Umbrella or leave the way you came.
Finding the Aureate Pavilion Mistveil Forest cure
The Aureate Pavilion cure is located in a hostile outpost north of Mistveil Forest. The outpost is marked with a red combat icon and sits slightly east of a nearby teleporter.
Step 1: Travel around the edge of Mistveil Forest to the Aureate Pavilion outpost north of the mist. Use the teleporter nearby if you have already unlocked it to shorten the trip.
Step 2: Approach the outpost carefully, as groups of enemies occupy the central area. You can either pick off smaller groups along the way or circle around the perimeter to find a path that avoids the densest patrols.
Step 3: Your target is the main hut located at the center of the outpost, behind a large cluster of enemies standing around a fire. Either defeat the enemies head‑on or rely on stealth and lightness skills to slip behind them and enter the hut without drawing attention.
Step 4: Inside the central hut, look for a table beside a mummified body. On this table lies the Aureate Pavilion Mistveil Forest cure; interact with it to collect the final cure book. You can then leave the outpost without clearing the encounter or spending any Energy.
Returning to Zhai Xu and preparing the antidote
With all three cure documents collected, the next part of Ephemeral Blight focuses on helping Zhai Xu brew a working antidote to the Dawn-to-Dusk toxin.
Step 1: Head back to the Wishing Cove and re-enter Zhai Xu's house. Talk to him and hand over the three Mistveil Forest cure notes, prompting him to start combining them into a full antidote.
Step 2: Leave the cove and advance the in-game time by two full days. You can simply keep playing and let time pass naturally, or use any time-skip options you have unlocked to move quickly through the in-game calendar.
Step 3: After two in-game days have passed, return once again to the Wishing Cove. Inside the house, you will find that Zhai Xu is gone and a note has been left on a table stating that the antidote has begun to work and instructing you to meet him at the northern shore of Mistveil Forest.
Step 4: Follow the new quest marker to the northern wasteland at the edge of Mistveil Forest to find Zhai Xu. Speak with him to receive medicine that lets you survive inside the poisonous mist, and move forward by staying close to fires placed along the path, which act as temporary safe zones against the Dawn-to-Dusk toxin.
Venturing deeper into Mistveil Forest and destroying Dawn-to-Dusk blooms
Once you have the antidote, Ephemeral Blight shifts into a more combat-focused exploration through the heart of Mistveil Forest, where you must clear out the physical source of the toxin.
Step 1: Move deeper into the forest following the quest objectives, where you will encounter more Aureate Pavilion guards. Defeat these enemies to secure the area and progress towards a path that is completely blocked by overgrown Dawn-to-Dusk blooms.
Step 2: Equip Fire Arrows and target the large toxin flowers covering the entrance ahead. Burning these Dawn-to-Dusk blooms clears the blockage and allows you to continue further into the corrupted section of the forest.
Step 3: Continue until you reach a huge tree covered in hanging corpses, a key landmark in the encounter. Investigate the surroundings, destroy the three Dawn-to-Dusk blooms in this area, defeat the Sleeping Puppets that wake up to defend them, and then pick up the half of a jade pendant that drops on the ground near the tree.
Solving Sun Buqi’s deductions and ending Ephemeral Blight
After recovering the pendant piece, the encounter turns into a mix of tracking and deduction as you uncover the origin of the toxin and the fate of a Silver Needle healer.
Step 1: When you collect the pendant, a shadowy figure wearing Silver Needle Sect attire appears briefly and then retreats into the depths of the forest. Follow this Silver Needle Sect shadow figure along the quest path until you reach an underground lair that seems to end in a dead end with a mummified body.
Step 2: Search the room around the mummy carefully and read Sun Buqi's Notes and the other documents placed on the nearby table. These texts explain how the Dawn-to-Dusk Toxin was created, how people were turned into Sleeping Puppets, and hint at the identity of the healer involved.
Step 3: Open the deduction interface and start pairing the clues into complete thoughts that describe the story in a logical order. Begin by linking the line that names the Dawn-to-Dusk Toxin with the description of where the cold poison is brewed, then match the text about the toxin turning people into Sleeping Puppets with the mention of a flood and sinkhole that exposed the hidden lair. Continue by combining the hints about a Sleeping Puppet holding half of a pendant and the Crane Holding Lingzhi motif, then pair the statements about disciples of three factions becoming puppets with the clue mentioning a Silver Needle medicinal gourd. Finish by tying together the notes that the secret lair's Sleeping Puppet was once a Silver Needle Doctor, that the bodies showed signs of attempted rescue, that a healer's heart stays true, and that when the pendant halves reunite, the relationship becomes whole again.
Step 4: After you confirm the correct deductions, interact with the unusual Sleeping Puppet near the mummy, who represents the Silver Needle Doctor. The puppet now responds to you, acknowledging the truth you uncovered and leading you towards the heart of the lair where the toxin is produced.
Step 5: Follow the Sleeping Puppet through the cave system until you reach the source of the Dawn-to-Dusk mist. Inside this cavern, locate and destroy the three large Dawn-to-Dusk blooms that are maintaining the poisonous fog, using fire attacks as needed to burn them down safely.
Step 6: Once all blooms in the cavern are destroyed, the Dawn-to-Dusk mist over Mistveil Forest lifts for good. Return to the Wishing Cove one last time and talk to Zhai Xu to complete Ephemeral Blight, claim your rewards, and unlock Mistveil Forest as a fully explorable region without the constant threat of the toxin.
How Mistveil City’s exploration unlock relates to Mistveil Forest
Clearing Ephemeral Blight and lifting the fog in Mistveil Forest unlocks a large new area and associated encounters, including a world boss and new teleport points. However, this progress does not currently open Mistveil City. The city is controlled by a separate gate that shows the message that the area is not yet open and teleports players out after a brief countdown.
Players who have seen this lock report that the message appears regardless of their sect, gear, or quest progress, and that the key detail is the instruction to return on January 22. That phrasing indicates a scheduled content unlock tied to the calendar rather than to a specific exploration objective like Ephemeral Blight or a requirement to join Nine Mortal Ways.
If you are exploring the Mistveil region now, you can fully complete the Ephemeral Blight encounter in Mistveil Forest using the cures and steps above. For Mistveil City, treat the lock as a time gate: once the stated date arrives and the developers flip that content live, the countdown message should disappear and the city’s exploration quest can begin without any additional hidden requirement.
