Phantom Blade Zero Village of Lu Walkthrough and Route

The Village of Lu is the third region in Phantom Blade Zero, and the cleanest way through it is to follow the bells in order from the Place of Awakening to the Hidden Passage to Pangzhen, collecting the five Young Mistress ribbons before you fight the region's final boss. This walkthrough gives you that route, the bosses in sequence, the cellar key, the six tales and the handful of missables that catch people out. PowerPyx counts 76 collectible locations in the region, so a careful first pass saves a lot of backtracking.

We built this walkthrough from PowerPyx's Village of Lu route, Method's cellar key and ribbon guides, KeenGamer's boss and accessory guides and AllThingsHow's bell and Acolyte pages, all checked in November 2026.

Arriving in the Village and the First Three Bells

You wake in the Village of Lu at a bell called the Place of Awakening. Before you head out, check behind Jewel: the chest there holds Jewel's Knot, an accessory that counts toward the region's total. The route then runs through the Crossroads Bell and on to the Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Bell, which has a Memory Flower right beside it. The gate itself leads to the optional Mandate Encampment region and stays shut until you have the Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Key, so note the spot and keep moving.

Two hideout bells follow: Old Man Gen's Hideout, where you pick up the tale The Journey Home, and Young Master Lan's Hideout, home of the Young Master Lan tale. Talk to both NPCs now. PowerPyx's collectibles guide warns that several tales become missable if you push the story too far, and its general advice is to finish each region and speak to every NPC before you leave it.

The first real fight is close. Zhou Bi, the Gatekeeper, is the first boss on the route and drops the Bastion Phantom Edge, with a Blackstone Fragment in a chest in the arena. After him you reach the Well of the Three Puppets Bell, which works as the region's hub: a Memory Flower and a medicine sit nearby, and most of the side routes in this walkthrough start from here.

The Bell Route, in Order

PowerPyx lists 22 bells in the Village of Lu. Ringing them in the order below keeps you on the story path while passing almost every side objective. Bosses sit between some of these bells, and the next section covers them.

1. Place of Awakening, Crossroads and Mandate Encampment Outer Gate
2. Old Man Gen's Hideout and Young Master Lan's Hideout
3. Well of the Three Puppets, then the Temple of Blue Fireflies, where the Puppet Songstress gives you the tale A Puppet's Wooden Heart
4. Covered Bridge, where one of the Young Mistress objectives sits on the bridge itself
5. Zhang's Hideout (Village of Lu), covered in our Quick Hand Zhang hideout guide
6. Black Serpent House, which holds the Forbidden Concoction medicine, then the Statue Grounds Entrance
7. The Lady Grounds, Smuggler's Treasure Cellar and Smuggler's Tunnel Entrance
8. Terraces, Engine Giant Remains, Survivors' Courtyard and Broken Puppet Pit Entrance
9. Broken Puppet Pit Bottom, Beneath the Well and Puppet Testing Grounds
10. Hidden Passage to Pangzhen, after the final boss

AllThingsHow's walk to the Temple of Blue Fireflies is a good example of how much loot sits just off the path: a rubbish heap by a fallen tree holds Remnant Dust, a bamboo pile holds Twinned Metal, and dropping off the stone bridge to the stream bank leads to a Traversal Talisman and a Memory Flower petal. You reach the temple courtyard over a house roof, not from the field below.

Bosses in Order

Spoiler warning: this section names every boss in the region, including the final fight and its hidden extra phase. Skip to the cellar key section if you want to meet them blind.

According to PowerPyx's route and KeenGamer's boss list, the Village of Lu bosses arrive in this order, each with its reward:

• Zhou Bi, the Gatekeeper: Bastion, a Phantom Edge.
• Master Bi Yuan of the Tianxuan Sect: the Tianxuan Bronze Sword, a guard-focused weapon. KeenGamer notes its Natural Order trait lowers the Sha-Chi cost of blocking but disables parrying.
• Master Bi Hai of Kuye Temple: the Kuye Temple Prayer Beads, a Phantom Edge.
• Dusk, the Puppeteer: the Puppeteer's Bell, a Phantom Edge.
• Yuzan, No. 3 Musician Puppet: the Heartrend Pipa, a Phantom Edge.
• Mu Xiaokui, Young Mistress of the Order: the region's final boss. Her extra phase, and the rewards that come with it, depend on the ribbons covered next.

Beating Mu Xiaokui on any terms also unlocks the trophy Will We Meet Again?, which PowerPyx lists as a story trophy, so you cannot miss that one. What you can miss is her harder version and its weapons.

The Young Mistress Ribbons and Mu Xiaokui's Extra Phase

The Young Mistress tale asks you to find five ribbons tied around the village. Method's ribbon guide places them like this: the first on a tree right of the footbridge nearest the Well of the Three Puppets Bell; the second on the far side of the Covered Bridge, once you clear the red thread blockade with the Dread Axe and cross with the chain sickle; the third automatically after you beat Master Bi Yuan and ring The Lady Grounds Bell; the fourth on a tree left of the temple entrance across the river from the well; and the fifth near the Beneath the Well Bell, along a wooden walkway attached to a pillar in the room to the right.

With all five collected before the final fight, Mu Xiaokui gains an extra phase. Winning that harder version earns the Fiend Saws, a dual-wield weapon KeenGamer places in its top tier for its unblockable Fiend Form, plus the Fist Fragment: Core. PowerPyx also lists the Wild Oriole Sword, found at the dock after the fight. Method's guide is blunt about timing: all five ribbons must be in hand before the chapter's final boss, so check your tale log before you take the lift up to her.

The Wild Oriole Sword deserves a quick extra note. PowerPyx marks it, along with a Sha-Chi Amber Fragment at the same dock, as something to grab before you leave, because the lift there breaks. Some commenters report the lift still works afterward, but there is no reason to test it.

The Cellar Key and the Smuggler's Tunnel

The Smuggler's Treasure Cellar is one of the region's best rooms, and it is locked until fairly late. Method's guide lays out the steps. Inspect the bodies near the well to start a search for three bodies, which you find along the main path. Clearing the thread blockade on the well opens the Smuggling Tunnel and then the Puppet Testing Grounds, where a prisoner sits in a locked cell. The Tunnel Cage Key is on a table in a nearby room; PowerPyx puts it in the room with a Blackstone Fragment. Free the prisoner, talk to him, and he hands you the Village of Lu Cellar Key.

Inside the cellar, one enemy guards the loot. Method lists the haul as a Traversal Talisman, a Phantom Reforge Talisman, the Remnant Spark Cage accessory, nine Incense Ash and a little over 2,100 Remnant Dust. The Remnant Spark Cage gives Phantom Edge follow-ups a chance to restore a spark, which makes it a natural pick if you are leaning on the four Phantom Edges this region hands out. Our build guide covers how to fit it into a spark-heavy setup.

Tales, Missables and the Scarecrow in the Pond

PowerPyx counts six tales in the Village of Lu: The Journey Home, Young Master Lan, Young Mistress, A Puppet's Wooden Heart, Dahuang and Cui, the last of which starts when you speak to the crying child puppet at the Puppet Testing Grounds. Two smaller rewards are easy to lose:

• Arrowward: give the Thief's Manual to the Wounded Thief. He dies if you advance too far without doing it.
• Agarwood Prayer Beads: when the Stately Monk asks, choose "Do not believe" and hand him the Prayer Beads. Choosing "Believe" turns him to stone, and the accessory is gone.

The region also has one challenge location: a talisman scarecrow standing in a shallow pond under a tree hung with red lanterns, near the Terraces and Engine Giant Remains. AllThingsHow notes you must clear the pond's enemies before the prompt appears, and that a similar figure by a fence is a decoy. Behind it waits Acolyte Yanru, who drops Yanru's Blazing Mask. KeenGamer suggests coming back with the Flameward from Pangzhen first. Our scarecrow locations guide covers all four Acolytes and what their masks open.

Collectible Totals and What to Leave for Later

PowerPyx's breakdown is a useful checklist for whether you have actually finished the region:

Village of Lu collectibles (PowerPyx, November 2026)

Category	Count
Bells	22
Memory Flowers	16
Accessories and medicines	10
Weapons and Phantom Edges	7
Tales	6
Sha-Chi Amber Shards	4
Blackstone Shards	4
Treasures	3
Tempering materials	3
Challenge locations	1

Some items simply cannot be reached on the first visit. PowerPyx flags three clean-up trips: the Flaming Mane opens a route to the Black Serpent Fang and related items, the Bashpole breaks a crack near Young Master Lan's Hideout for the Border Banner, and the Tiger Cannon breaks a wall near the Hidden Passage to Pangzhen for the Border Poems. The Mandate Encampment Outer Gate also waits for its key. If you are coming from the previous region with loose ends, our Weeping Creek Valley map guide lists what that area holds back for later in the same way.

Skipping Straight to a Loaded Character

The Village of Lu is where the game starts handing you Phantom Edges in bulk, and the harder Mu Xiaokui fight sits between you and two of its best weapons. If you would rather experiment with the whole arsenal than earn it piece by piece, the store's mega modded save for PS5 and PC includes the full weapon roster, every accessory and medicine fully upgraded, 99,999,999 currency and resources at 9,999, with four fresh Cycle 1 slots for different difficulties.

You need your own copy of the game, the save does not cover Xbox or Nintendo Switch 2, and the platinum trophy is sold separately. Everything else for the game is on the Phantom Blade Zero store page.

Frequently Asked Questions