Zhang Yihao sits right at the intersection of several major systems in Where Winds Meet: sect choice, co‑op progression, and one of the strongest defensive Inner Ways in the game. The game never spells that out clearly, which is why so many players get stuck with him saying almost nothing or repeating the same lines.
This breakdown focuses on Zhang Yihao himself: where he appears, what each of his dialogue branches actually does, and how to use him correctly to join the Well of Heaven, resolve the Nine Mortal Ways scam plotline, and trigger the “Scammer Victims” encounter that awards the Art of Resistance Inner Way.
Who Zhang Yihao Is and Where to Find Him
Zhang Yihao is a Well of Heaven guide posted near Harvestfall Village in the Qinghe region. He is tied to:
- Initiation: Well of Heaven and the formal Well of Heaven sect join route.
- The fake Well of Heaven Elder scam that secretly belongs to the Nine Mortal Ways sect.
- The “Scammer Victims” encounter chain, which pays out the Art of Resistance Inner Way.
On the standard progression path, he appears on the cliff east of Harvestfall Village. You reach him by:
Step 1: Travel to Harvestfall Village in Qinghe and go to the tavern in the center of the village. Speak to the waiter, San Qian, in Solo Mode (he does not appear in Online Mode) and pay him 200 coins for intel.
Step 2: Follow the marker south‑west out of the village to a martial training yard and a stone Tai Chi circle. Beside that circle stands a “Well of Heaven Elder” who asks for 900 coins and then sends you to retrieve a “Large Pile of Jewelry” from his “old friend.”
Step 3: Follow the path up the hill to the east, past a small enemy camp, until you reach a lone figure under a tree beside a chest. That NPC is Zhang Yihao.
Story progress can later move Zhang Yihao to the Blissful Retreat area, but all of his key functions start from this Harvestfall cliff encounter.
How Zhang Yihao’s Dialogue Branches Work
Your first real choice around Zhang Yihao happens as soon as you’ve spoken to the fake Well of Heaven Elder and then reach him on the cliff. Three separate mechanics are hiding in two deceptively simple lines of dialogue.
- Ask about the Large Pile of Jewelry points you back toward the Nine Mortal Ways scam and their sect questline.
- Seek Apprenticeship / say you want to join Well of Heaven starts the Well of Heaven initiation route through Zhang himself.
- His future encounter state is what later unlocks “Scammer Victims” and Art of Resistance.
The game lets you mix these in different orders, which is how players end up confused. The key facts are:
- You can join either the Nine Mortal Ways or the Well of Heaven first, but joining the Well of Heaven through Zhang’s initial quest blocks joining Nine Mortal Ways through that same scam questline.
- The chest beside Zhang contains another copy of his jewelry, so the jewelry does not have to be stolen from his person during the initiation phase.
- Once Zhang transitions into his encounter state (he changes pose and emits an Encounter banner), his dialogue options change again, and the Art of Resistance route becomes available.
Joining the Well of Heaven Through Zhang Yihao
This is the route that uses Zhang as the entry point into Well of Heaven and immediately grants the Thundercry Blade.
Step 1: After speaking to San Qian and the fake Well of Heaven Elder, go up the cliff and talk to Zhang Yihao. Ignore the jewelry request and tell him you want to join the Well of Heaven.
Step 2: Zhang gives you a clear requirement: bring him three pieces of Ill‑Gotten Wealth and 200 Adventurer Slips. These are separate from the “Large Pile of Jewelry” that the fake elder wants.
Step 3: Collect three Ill‑Gotten Wealth items. There are several supported methods:
- Use the Gift of Gab minigame on NPCs that carry Ill‑Gotten Wealth (the fake elder has two, San Qian has one).
- Use the Celestial Seize mystic skill to steal from those same NPCs or from others marked in Wind Sense with chest icons.
- Buy wine from Hao Jiu (the “Honest Merchant,” usually in Blissful Retreat or later in Harvestfall), drink it, and open any Black Market Goods chests that the wines drop. Each chest can contain Ill‑Gotten Wealth, and you need three items total.
- Steal from other NPCs around the world who show an Ill‑Gotten Wealth item in their Wind Sense inventory, such as Fu Lushou in General’s Shrine or Jin Nanshou west of Moonveil Peak.
Step 4: Earn 200 Adventurer Slips by playing co‑op activities such as wandering paths, Madiao, Pitch Pot, or wrestling. The “Heart of the Healer” wandering path gives 100 slips per clear, so two runs are enough.
Step 5: Return to Zhang Yihao and choose the “Seek Apprenticeship” option once both requirements are met. Hand over three Ill‑Gotten Wealth items and confirm. Zhang accepts you into the Well of Heaven and unlocks the Thundercry Blade martial art immediately.
Joining this way means the fake elder’s Nine Mortal Ways invitation on that questline will never become valid, and the “Art of Resistance” Inner Way tied to Nine Mortal Ways must be handled via the later encounter instead.
Joining Well of Heaven After Nine Mortal Ways
Many players meet Zhang through the scam, take his jewelry, hand it back to the fake elder, and join the Nine Mortal Ways first. That does not permanently lock out Well of Heaven.
Step 1: Open the Sect menu and choose to “Betray Master” while still in Nine Mortal Ways. For Nine Mortal Ways, this triggers a severance quest that sends you to Ni Laoshan in Harvestfall Village and forces you to pay a 50,000‑coin fee.
Step 2: Once the severance is complete and you are sectless again, return to Zhang Yihao at his cliff location. His dialogue now recognizes you as a free agent and allows the Well of Heaven route.
Step 3: Either:
- Follow the same three‑Ill‑Gotten‑Wealth plus 200 Adventurer Slip requirement as above and apply for apprenticeship again, or
- Rely on a separate invitation letter pathway if you already triggered it (see below).
When you finalize Well of Heaven membership with him, he again gives Thundercry Blade, and you gain access to the Well of Heaven sect shop, ranks, and co‑op‑focused quotas.
Joining Well of Heaven via Direct Invitation
The game can skip Zhang’s Ill‑Gotten Wealth requirements entirely if you catch the attention of Well of Heaven through your spending or generosity. In that case, Zhang still functions as the in‑world contact, but your membership comes from a letter rather than his task list.
Two common triggers are:
- Spending a large amount of Echo Jades on Inner Way pages such as Morale Chant, from merchants like Tang Bao in Blissful Retreat.
- Frequently using the Giveaway emote on beggars and other NPCs, which matches Well of Heaven’s theme of tossing money around for those in need.
These actions can cause a “Well of Heaven Invitation” letter to appear in your Bag. Accepting the invitation from the letter makes you a Well of Heaven member instantly when you present it at the recruitment point, without collecting Ill‑Gotten Wealth or Adventurer Slips.
How Zhang Yihao Ties into the Nine Mortal Ways Scam
The fake Well of Heaven Elder by the Tai Chi circle is actually a Nine Mortal Ways recruiter. His entire setup is designed around abusing Zhang Yihao’s trust.
There are three key beats:
- The fake elder sends you to take Zhang’s Large Pile of Jewelry, implying it’s a harmless favor between friends.
- You can either steal the jewelry from Zhang directly (using Wind Sense and theft skills) or simply wait until you are in Well of Heaven and loot the chest by him.
- When you return the jewelry to the fake elder, he drops the pretense and offers to induct you into Nine Mortal Ways instead.
If you accept that offer, you join Nine Mortal Ways through the scam route and must later pay the severance fee and backtrack to Zhang to pick up Well of Heaven and Art of Resistance. If you refuse and choose to fight the scammers, you can kill the fake elder and his bodyguard, loot Ill‑Gotten Wealth from them, and continue into Well of Heaven without joining Nine Mortal Ways at all.
Either way, Zhang’s jewelry and his chest are safe to use later when you return for the “Scammer Victims” encounter.
Unlocking Art of Resistance Through “Scammer Victims”
Art of Resistance is a defensive Inner Way with strong tank applications, particularly against crowd control. Its reward is attached to an encounter called “Scammer Victims” that branches off the same scam story you saw at Harvestfall.
Common frustrations with this encounter include:
- Zhang only offering the “Large Pile of Jewelry” and “Take Care” dialogue options indefinitely.
- Being told “you’re not worthy” or that the target is busy when trying to interact with him for the promotion task “Learn Well of Heaven ultimate skill.”
- The encounter banner never appearing even after beating the Nine Mortal Ways scammers.
There are several reliable patterns that resolve these issues and push Zhang into the correct encounter state.
How to Trigger “Scammer Victims” from Zhang Yihao
Step 1: Make sure the original scam plot is resolved in some way. You should have either:
- Joined Nine Mortal Ways through the fake elder and finished that sect quest, or
- Fought and defeated the fake elder and bodyguard, chased them off, or otherwise completed their confrontation.
Step 2: Check your quest log’s “Encounters” tab. If you are already at or near the maximum number of active Encounters, remove or complete some of them. Players report “Scammer Victims” will not appear while multiple “?” Encounters are occupying slots.
Step 3: Walk away from Zhang’s area and do other activities. Completing another Encounter (for example, “Lucky Break” near Riverside Station) or fighting a world boss is often enough time for the world state to refresh. When you return to Zhang, his pose should change, and a new Encounter splash should appear.
Step 4: If Zhang is still stuck on the jewelry dialogue, use the Meridian Touch mystic on him once to reset his state. Several players find that this immediately frees him from the “busy” status and restores proper interaction options.
Step 5: Once the “Scammer Victims” Encounter banner appears, follow its objectives as directed on the map. The chain revolves around helping people who were tricked by the Nine Mortal Ways scammers, culminating in a final fight and a reward chest that contains the Art of Resistance Inner Way.
What to Do If Zhang Yihao Seems Completely Bugged
A handful of edge cases leave Zhang unresponsive even after the steps above. The most common recoveries share the same pattern:
- Clear Encounter clutter. Abandon or complete all Encounter‑type quests in your log, especially those marked with “?”. Then leave the area and return.
- Let him despawn and respawn. Change areas, do several other quests, or log out and back in later. When he respawns, he often appears in a new pose and with updated dialogue.
- Use Meridian Touch on him once. This mystic has been repeatedly reported to “unstick” his interaction state, especially when the UI claims the target is busy.
- Check your sect tasks. Some Well of Heaven promotion tasks, such as “Learn Well of Heaven ultimate skill” only unlock once the first two promotion criteria (like Bonds of fellowship and Heroic Righteousness) are fully checked off. If those are incomplete, Zhang will not advance that promotion chain, even if he is otherwise responsive.
If all of these fail and Zhang remains frozen with only his jewelry line, the remaining option is to wait for a patch and submit an in‑game bug report from the support menu so the issue can be fixed on the server side.
Why Zhang Yihao Matters for Tanks and Co‑op Players
Zhang is more than a flavor NPC on a cliff. He is the hinge between three systems that heavily affect defensive and co‑op playstyles:
- Well of Heaven membership grants Thundercry Blade, a heavy melee weapon tuned for tanking, and a sect shop with durable armor cosmetics that you keep even after leaving the sect.
- Art of Resistance from “Scammer Victims” becomes a core Inner Way for many tank builds because it improves resistance to control and pressure.
- Co‑op economy runs through him via Adventurer Slips and Well of Heaven’s weekly Widespread Bonds quota, so his tasks train you into the game’s broader multiplayer loop.
Handled correctly, Zhang Yihao lets you sample both Nine Mortal Ways and Well of Heaven, pick up Art of Resistance even if you changed your mind mid‑quest, and walk away with the Thundercry Blade and a set of sect cosmetics. The only real risk is locking yourself behind his stuck dialogue state, which is why it is worth clearing your Encounters and refreshing his state as soon as he starts acting strangely.
