The Three Questions is an early healing-focused side story in Where Winds Meet that doubles as the initiation trial for the Silver Needle Sect. It asks you to treat three patients in Qinghe and decide what “price” each life is worth, using the sect’s creed of “one life, one price” as the test.
How the Three Questions side story starts
The Three Questions is an exploration “Journey” quest that takes place in Qinghe. It is aimed at players who want to pursue the Healing Profession and eventually join the Silver Needle Sect, a group of doctors who treat both body and mind.
Before speaking to the sect, you need to unlock the Healing Profession in Sundara Land, in the western part of the world. Once you have basic healing unlocked, you can look at the Sect menu in-game and hover over Silver Needle. That menu shows a hint pointing you toward the sect’s contact in Qinghe.
Instead of going to the larger clinic in northern Qinghe, travel south toward Sage Knoll. There is a smaller clinic there, the Silver Needle Clinic, where you will find Dr. Yuan in white robes behind a desk. Talking to Dr. Yuan about becoming a disciple starts the Three Questions trial.
What the “three questions” actually are
Dr. Yuan does not hand you a written test. Instead, his questions take the form of three patients scattered around the countryside. You must diagnose and heal each one, and—crucially—decide what payment you will accept for saving them.
The sect’s rule of “one life, one price” is central here. Healing is treated as a sacred exchange, and accepting meaningless payment is seen as disrespectful to the value of a life. The “right” answers are the payments that reflect genuine moral weight or personal meaning, not raw monetary value.
The quest structure is simple:
| # | Objective | Location context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Speak with Dr. Yuan at the Silver Needle Clinic | Qinghe, Sage Knoll area |
| 2 | Heal the sick merchant by the road | Road south of the clinic, bamboo grove |
| 3 | Heal Xu Youqian in the woods | Drunk man further south |
| 4 | Heal Li Ermao, an injured villager | Overlap with the “second patient” section in practice |
| 5 | Heal the Little Beggar by the mountainside | Higher up the nearby slopes |
| 6 | Return to Dr. Yuan with your records | Silver Needle Clinic |
First patient choice: the sick merchant in the bamboo grove
Leaving the clinic and heading south down the road, you encounter the first patient, a merchant in serious pain accompanied by an attendant in a bamboo grove. He is clearly wealthy but distressed, and he offers various forms of payment once you agree to help.
Use Wind Sense to identify and treat his illness, then select your fee. Several options appear, but the one that matches the sect’s expectations is the artwork labeled as ill-gotten wealth. Choosing this option forces the merchant to part with something gained improperly rather than with convenient coin.
He argues strongly against giving up this artwork and offers you anything else instead. The trial, however, expects you to hold your ground. Confirm the “Ill-gotten Wealth: Artwork” choice, complete the healing, and move farther down the hill for the next case.
Second patient choice: the drunk with a fracture
The second patient is a drunk man named in quest text as Xu Youqian, found further south in the woods after the road. He has fallen, suffered a fracture, and has almost nothing of obvious value on him.
Again, you diagnose and treat his injury, then choose a payment. The meaningful option is a jar called “Parting Tears.” This is a deeply personal keepsake rather than a store of wealth, which is why he reacts so strongly when you select it.
For the trial’s purposes, you must stick with that choice. Confirm the jar of Parting Tears as your payment and then perform the healing. The sect takes this as proof that you understand the weight of asking for something tied to loss and memory when exchanging for a life.
Third patient choice: the shivering orphan
The final patient is a child sometimes referred to as the Little Beggar. She waits higher up the mountainside above the previous locations, cold and clearly struggling to survive. When you speak with her, it becomes clear she has nothing of obvious financial worth.
The dialogue includes the option to treat her for free, which is tempting, but the Silver Needle creed does not allow free treatment. The trial is specifically testing whether you follow “one life, one price” even when compassion would push you to waive your fee.
Her only offering is a scrap of fabric. That is the correct payment to accept. Select the fabric, accept it as her contribution, and then carry out the healing. The scene underlines that the “price” of a life does not have to be gold; it can be the last thing someone truly owns.
Turning in the trial and joining the Silver Needle Sect
Once all three patients have been healed and their payments recorded, return to Dr. Yuan in the Sage Knoll clinic. Speaking with him completes the Three Questions side story. If you chose the artwork from the merchant, the jar of Parting Tears from the drunk, and the scrap of fabric from the orphan, Dr. Yuan acknowledges that your answers align with the sect’s doctrine.
At that point, he invites you to join the Silver Needle Sect. Completing this trial also unlocks a Panacea Fan as a reward, giving you access to a signature healing-focused martial arts weapon.
What the Silver Needle Sect gives you
Membership in the Silver Needle Sect provides both cosmetic and gameplay-focused perks tied to the healer fantasy. You gain access to a sect-exclusive shop and visual items as you advance your standing, letting you lean into the identity of a doctor within the Jianghu.
The sect also defines a pair of martial arts builds around fans. The Panacea Fan focuses on dedicated healing, helping you keep allies alive in group content. The Inkwell Fan, by contrast, is positioned as a damage-dealing alternative while still aligning with the sect’s aesthetic and theme.
Silver Needle disciples are also subject to daily and weekly duties that affect “precept value,” a sort of reputation meter for how well you uphold sect teachings. Two key expectations stand out:
- Shared Healing asks you to participate in successful multiplayer healing sessions. Doing so increases precept value.
- Healing Bodies and Minds requires you to earn a baseline number of “likes” from players each week. Falling short reduces precept value.
These rules encourage you to actively engage in co-op healing and positive social behavior rather than passively holding the title.
How to leave the Silver Needle Sect
Disciples are not locked into the Silver Needle Sect forever. You can leave by completing the sect’s dedicated exit trial, which serves as a formal way to sever ties. Leaving removes any titles and progression you built within Silver Needle, such as ranks or certain internal rewards.
You are free to return later, but the game may apply cooldown periods between leaving and rejoining, or between switching sects in general. Planning when you attempt different sects is, therefore, useful if you want to explore multiple martial identities without repeatedly resetting your progress.
The Three Questions trial is more than a small side quest. It introduces the game’s take on medical ethics in a wuxia world, where a doctor’s fee is measured in memory, guilt, and sacrifice as much as in coin. For players drawn to support roles and moral storytelling, it is an early statement of what the Silver Needle Sect expects from its healers.
