This editorial draft collects route notes and open questions around optional fights and the true-ending path. Treat specific locations, rewards and unlock requirements as provisional until they are verified in-game.
Don't miss
- Complete Yaoguai questlines to unlock their transformations and secret arenas.
- Chapter 3 hides an extended questline that leads to a major optional boss.
- Finishing the game's hidden objectives across all chapters unlocks the true ending.
- Meditation spots and hidden areas often gate the toughest optional encounters.
Unlocking them
- Talk to and follow NPCs (like the drunk Chief and various monks) across a chapter.
- Explore thoroughly — many secret arenas hide behind breakable walls and side paths.
- Some fights only appear after you've beaten specific optional bosses in order.
- Track the true-ending steps carefully; missing one usually means an NG+ cleanup run.
Rewards worth it
- Optional bosses drop unique transformations, Spirits and crafting materials.
- Several gate the best staves and armour sets in the game.
- The hidden objectives across chapters unlock the true ending and Erlang Shen.
- Because they're missable, follow a checklist so you don't need an NG+ cleanup.
Why they matter
- Several hold the materials for the strongest staves and sets in the game.
- The secret ending is gated behind a chain of them spread across chapters.
- They are tuned harder than the chapter boss you are about to face, which makes that boss easier.
How to find them without a guide
Follow the paths that look decorative
This game hides content behind scenery that reads as background rather than behind obvious doors.
Go back after you get a new spell
Some routes only open once you have the tool that reveals or reaches them.
Finish a chapter's side content before its boss
Beating the King moves you on, and some optional content becomes awkward or impossible to return to.
The warning that matters
It is easy to lock yourself out of the secret ending without noticing: the chain starts in the early chapters. If you are going for it, learn the requirements before you finish Chapter 1.
Cross-checked
Cross-checked on 5 September 2026 against the secret-ending guides of PowerPyx and GameRant, which agree on the Chapter 1 secret boss, Elder Jinchi, but not on the rest: PowerPyx names Fuban (Ch.2), Duskveil (Ch.4) and the Bishui Golden-Eyed Beast (Ch.5), while GameRant names a different Chapter 4 boss fought twice and ties the Chapter 3 requirement to a specific boss rather than only a quest. This page states only what both agree on. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.