Mandate Encampment Walkthrough: Optional Bosses & Baishan Tales

The Mandate Encampment is a strange interlude: a chapter with no mandatory boss, where the story’s heaviest lore sits beside some of the game’s most rewarding optional fights. You arrive partway through Pangzhen, at level 19–20, and leave with two of the best swords in the early-mid game. This route covers everything worth doing before you return to the plague city.

Story Context

The Mandate camp runs on the Mindseal and the Confinement — the Order’s twin instruments of control. By the time Soul arrives, the doctrine is already collapsing. The Baishan Sect has been destroyed, its master Bi Taotao is dead, and the camp’s enigmatic figure, Red, is not what she seems. The chapter’s quests — Pillars of Kunlun, Secrets of the Baishan Sect, and Daughter of the Dark Sect — are all purple-icon tales tied to the True Ending checklist, so treat this region as mandatory even though its bosses are not.

Step-by-Step Route

1. Ring the Sunset Path bell and traverse to the Main Encampment Gate.
2. Enter the camp and explore the Mass Grave area. Defeat Corpse-Eating Xue here to begin her tale.
3. Clear the Gatehouse yard; defeat Wan Jun for the Bashpole.
4. Find Red at the Dovecote rooftop and defeat her. Do not kill her at the first encounter — this locks out Daughter of the Dark Sect.
5. Reach the Three Towers and defeat the Chief Disciple for the Swordsman’s Summon.
6. Enter The Confinement and defeat Wu Lengshuang for the Soft Snake Sword.
7. Push to the Encampment end and defeat Yubi for the Baishan Stormswords.
8. Examine Bi Taotao’s body to trigger Secrets of the Baishan Sect; defeat his puppet form.
9. Return to the Training Grounds to complete Pillars of Kunlun.
10. Let Red reappear to receive the Training Grounds Key and finish Daughter of the Dark Sect.
11. Fast-travel back to Pangzhen and continue the main story.

Mandatory Bosses

There are none. The Mandate Encampment is the only chapter in the game with no strictly mandatory boss fight. The region’s story objectives are all resolved through exploration and optional encounters. If you are on a pure critical-path run, you can pass through the camp, ring the bells, and leave — but you will forfeit the region’s best loot and two tale chains.

Optional Bosses

The camp’s six optional bosses are the real content here. They are listed in the order you will most naturally encounter them.

Boss	Location	Reward	Difficulty
Corpse-Eating Xue	Mass Grave	Starts Xue tale	2/5
Wan Jun	Gatehouse yard	Bashpole	2/5
Red	Dovecote rooftop	—	2/5
Chief Disciple	Three Towers	Swordsman’s Summon	5/5
Wu Lengshuang	The Confinement	Soft Snake Sword	3/5
Yubi	Encampment end	Baishan Stormswords	4/5

Fight notes:

• Corpse-Eating Xue spawns copies; clear them with wide attacks before focusing her.
• Wan Jun has long recovery windows after his slam — punish, don’t trade.
• Red is a parry check; do not overcommit.
• Chief Disciple is the camp’s hardest fight. Kill his six attendants first, then sprint across the thread fans to close distance.
• Wu Lengshuang — parry the snap of her sword, not the wind-up.
• Yubi — stay off-axis and parry the blue finisher.

Tales and Collectibles

Three purple-icon tales anchor the region. Complete all of them before leaving; they feed into the True Ending checklist.

• Pillars of Kunlun — continues at the Training Grounds. This chain eventually leads to Huangxing on the Mountain of Imprisonment and the Yin Crystal Eye.
• Secrets of the Baishan Sect — examine Bi Taotao’s body after clearing the camp. Defeating his puppet form yields the Soft Snake Sword and Baishan Stormswords.
• Daughter of the Dark Sect — requires sparing Red at the first encounter. Let her reappear to receive the Training Grounds Key and Swordsman’s Summon.

What Is Missable Before Leaving

The Mandate Encampment has no point of no return of its own — the region’s cutoffs are tied to the broader game structure. However, two things are time-sensitive:

• Daughter of the Dark Sect — locked permanently if you kill Red at the Dovecote rooftop.
• Purple-icon tales — leaving the region before completing them can fail them. The game does not warn you.

The larger cutoff is ahead: entering Mirage Estate via the Green Serpent House in Pangzhen is the first True Ending cutoff. Everything in the Mandate Encampment must be finished before that point. The Mountain Shrine objectives — including Huangxing and the Yin Crystal Eye — are also cut off at the Green Serpent House, so plan your route accordingly.

Next Region

Return to Pangzhen and continue the main story: defeat Flame at the Lion Dance Hall for the Dormant Flaming Mane, take it to Lei Dang at Jingyang Hall, then clear the remaining Pangzhen bosses — Xie Qiudong, Chang Hong, and Soulclaimer — before the Green Serpent House. See the Pangzhen walkthrough for the full route, or check the boss order to see where the Mandate fights sit in the overall sequence. For True Ending preparation, review the missables checklist before you commit to Mirage.

Sources & confidence

Primary sources: PowerPyx’s played route, Fextralife’s Game Progress Route, and the kungfupunk walkthrough, cross-referenced with the pbz.gg boss database. The biggest uncertainty is the Mandate Encampment’s exact story role: sources agree it has no mandatory boss, but whether a Normal run can skip the chapter entirely is unconfirmed. Boss rewards and locations are high-confidence across sources.