Mountain of Imprisonment Walkthrough: Summit, Boss & Rewards

The Mountain of Imprisonment is Phantom Blade Zero’s endgame mountain region — a mist-sealed peak off northeastern Meigu Lake that concentrates more dangling quest threads than any other zone. Several quests you pick up in the first three regions can only be finished here, and the mountain’s depths hide two of the true ending’s key items. This walkthrough covers the unlock chain, everything worth clearing on the way up, and what the summit shrine actually conceals. For the Kunlun-flavored pillar trials elsewhere, see the companion page on the Pillars of Kunlun quest.

Unlock Prerequisites

You cannot enter the mountain until the campaign is well underway. The verified chain, per Polygon, PCGamer, and GameSpot:

1. Reach Pangzhen and defeat Flame, the Mask-Bound Lion Dance Grandmaster. Take the Dormant Flaming Mane to Jingyang Hall to have it repaired into the Flame Mane Phantom Edge.
2. Burn the roots blocking the path to the docks with the Flame Mane, opening Meigu Lake on the southeastern side of the map.
3. Complete the Illusory Pipa side quest to restore the pipa Phantom Edge — the full part hunt is in our Illusory Pipa parts guide.
4. Sail to the Weeping Mistgate on the northeastern side of Meigu Lake and play the Illusory Pipa at the mist. A cutscene follows, and Soul wakes up in the new region.

Side Quests That Resolve Here

GameSpot flags the Mountain of Imprisonment as the answer to several head-scratching quest steps:

• Cui’s grandfather, from the Village of Lu quest, is trapped in a cage in this region.
• The Ailing Man, part of the Don’t Forget Me quest from a Pangzhen NPC, is another caged character along the route.
• The Hero’s Lament / Moji’s Relic objective grants a powerful Phantom Blade and cascades into an NPC quest and a follow-up from their companion — the arc that finally hands over the Pangzhen Courtyard Key.
• Bi Feng, the Giant Saber Commander guards part of the region and drops the Juggernaut, a two-hander whose parries stack charges for a massive heavy attack — a core piece of the guard-break build in our best builds guide.

The Ascent: Layout and Combat Notes

The region is a long climb from the mistgate to the northwestern summit shrine, and it assumes endgame loadouts — do not wander in straight from Pangzhen with under-leveled weapons. A few practical notes from the launch-week guides:

• Ring every bell you pass. As elsewhere, bells are your checkpoints and fast-travel anchors; the mountain’s verticality makes backtracking painful without them.
• Expect puppet-heavy encounters. The region’s enemies hit hard and stagger little before their Sha-Chi breaks; the Bashpole and Dread Axe pay for themselves here, which is why the heavy build in our best builds guide feels tailor-made for this climb.
• Check cages as you pass. Both caged NPCs that advance side quests are visible from the main route — freeing Cui’s grandfather and the Ailing Man takes seconds and saves a second trip.
• Budget a full session. Between the ascent, the Huangxing duel, the platforming descent, and the Spectral Gate, the region runs well over an hour if you sweep it thoroughly rather than sprinting the critical path.

The Summit Shrine: Huangxing, the Kunlun Renegade

Push the main objectives to the summit shrine in the northwest of the region. There you face Huangxing, the Kunlun Renegade in a two-phase duel — watch for his blue flashes (parry) and black flashes (dodge), and bring Green Serpent Brew if his second phase pressures you. Victory pays out on four fronts:

1. The Flying Guillotine Phantom Edge — a device-interaction edge, not primarily a combat tool.
2. The Crossroads of Blood silver trophy for defeating Huangxing.
3. The pit beneath the shrine, opened by using the Flying Guillotine on the dial in the boss room.
4. Access to the Inanis’ Radiant Fan Phantom Edge at the bottom of the descent.

The Depths: Platforming, Chord, and Whence the Weeping

The dial opens a massive pit under the arena. GameSpot’s warning is worth repeating: this is extremely careful platforming, dropping from one ledge to the next — a missed drop means redoing the descent. At the bottom, a cutscene triggers: Soul finds Chord’s body and interacts with her, which completes the Whence the Weeping quest that began back in Weeping Creek Valley. Polygon and GameRant confirm the sequence: defeat Huangxing, use the Guillotine on the mechanism, descend, find Chord, receive Inanis’ Radiant Fan. Since Whence the Weeping is one of the quests feeding the true ending, this descent is not optional for completionists — check the true ending guide before leaving.

The Third Spectral Gate: Crystal Puppet Eye [Yin]

Behind the chair where you found Chord, a shining blue portal leads to the Three-Eyed Puppet’s domain — the third and final doorway of The Herald’s Illusion (the first two are in the Village of Lu and the Mandate Encampment; the full chain is in our Herald’s Illusion walkthrough). Interacting with the hanging puppet opens its third eye and drops two key items:

• The Puppet’s Tongue — placed at the Crimson Manor to open its doors. The manor walkthrough and the Puppet Scavenger fight that yields the matching eye are in the Crimson Manor guide.
• The Crystal Puppet Eye [Yin] — one of the two eyes socketed into Puppet No. 99 for the ritual at the Heart of the Lake, detailed in the Crystal Puppet Eyes guide.

In other words, one descent beneath Huangxing’s shrine completes a side quest, banks a trophy-adjacent Phantom Edge, and advances two separate true-ending chains. Clear it the moment you defeat Huangxing — the mountain’s mist never comes back, but neither do your reasons to return once the depths are looted.

Sources: gamespot.com (How to Reach the Mountain of Imprisonment; Herald’s Illusion quest guide), polygon.com (Whence the Weeping walkthrough; Crimson Manor gate locations), pcgamer.com (Whence the Weeping walkthrough), gamerant.com (Whence the Weeping quest guide), sportskeeda.com (walkthrough steps) — launch-week guides, October 2026.