Where Winds Meet 9 Types of Fine Wine: All Locations & Raging Tides Initiation

The Raging Tides sect gates entry behind nine specific wines. You find them across three regions, two merchants, two minigames, one Mystic Skill activation, and optionally one pickpocket target. The timer starts when you take your first drink. Finish all nine before it expires.

This guide lists every wine, its source, its cost, and the exact NPC and location for each one. It also covers the initiation ceremony, the drinking contest against Xiang Dinghua, and the sect benefits unlocked on joining.

▍Prerequisites

Before the wine hunt: reach level 10 (minimum to join any sect), complete the Jianghu Legacy quest "Echoes of Old Battles," travel to Northern Vow Ruins east of Battlecrest Slope in Qinghe's Verdant Wilds, find the large red jar next to a pot, drink from the pot to teleport to a ritual chamber, interact with the Yanyun Oath object, and pick up the Letter of Initiation behind the statue. The letter enables the nine-wine hunt. Without it, the wines are just consumables.

▍Wine Order Strategy

The timer starts with the first drink. Do the four Honest Merchant wines first — they cost Coins and sit in one location. Then the two Ghostlight Market wines — they require Commerce Coins and the Ghostlight Mask. Then the Mystic Skill drink, Pitch Pot, and Madiao — these take seconds each. Buying all wines before drinking any of them is the safest approach. The timer only triggers on consumption, not purchase.

▍Wines 1-4: Honest Merchant (Hao Jiu)

Location: Harvestfall Village or Blissful Retreat. Total cost: 39,992 Coins. Farm dailies or sell junk gear if short — the amount is modest relative to mid-game income.

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▍Wines 5-6: Hao Xian at Ghostlight Market

The Ghostlight Market hides beneath Kaifeng City. Enter through any underground access point. Equip the Ghostlight Mask from your inventory — NPCs remain invisible without it. Hao Xian runs a stall near the market center. For Netherworld Wine, Hao Xian must be at friendship level 1. Gift 5-8 food items before attempting the purchase if starting from zero.

▍Wine 7: Mystic Skill Drink

Equip Dragon's Breath or Drunken Poet Mystic Skill from your skill menu. Activate the skill. Drink any wine-type consumable through the skill interface. The Mystic Skill is what counts, not the wine quality. Free to complete. If you do not own either Mystic Skill, Dragon's Breath drops from Qinghe exploration objectives and Drunken Poet is a quest reward.

▍Wine 8: Pitch Pot Participation

Challenge any NPC offering Pitch Pot. Complete one round. Throw one set of sticks. You do not need to land a single stick. Participation is the requirement, not victory. Pitch Pot NPCs appear in Harvestfall Village (central square) and Kaifeng City (market district).

▍Wine 9: Madiao Game

Sit at any Madiao table in a tavern or gambling hall across Qinghe and Kaifeng. Play one full game. Drink at least once during play. The drink prompt appears as a button in the Madiao interface — do not skip it. Playing without drinking fails the requirement. Winning is irrelevant.

▍Alternative Source: Buddha Hand Pickpocket

If the Commerce Coin grind feels slow or Hao Xian's friendship is taking too long, travel north of Mount Wuwei in Hexi Liangzhou. Find the Buddha Hand NPC near a rocky outcrop on the mountain's northern face. Pickpocket wine from his inventory. The stolen wine replaces either Oblivion Crossing or Netherworld in the nine-wine count. This skips the Ghostlight Market entirely. The Buddha Hand pickpocket has roughly 60-70% success rate. Failing triggers a brief combat encounter. The NPC resets after a few minutes.

▍The Drunken Dream Sequence

Drinking all nine wines in rapid succession can trigger a drunken dream sequence — a 30-60 second hallucination cutscene. It does not break the quest or reset the wine counter. To avoid it, space out your drinking: consume two or three wines, wait for the intoxication meter to drop below 50%, then continue.

▍After the Ninth Wine

Return to Xiang Dinghua, the Raging Tides Senior Brother, in Harvestfall Village near the training grounds (marked by a sect banner). He challenges you to a drinking contest — the same timing-based minigame from Sandstorm Tavern. The elder's difficulty is moderate. Win the contest to receive the formal invitation. Accept to join.

▍Sect Benefits on Joining

• Heavenquaker Spear — wide AoE crowd control

• Stormbreaker Spear — debuff application and knockdown combos

• Phalanxbane Blade — charged heavy attacks for single-target burst

• Sect shop access — exclusive cosmetics, wines, and consumables

• Flowers in Bloom ranking — five-rank hierarchy from Soldier to Division General

The sect imposes two binding rules: no retreating from Hero's Realm or Sword Trials (penalty: -10 Battle Will), and a weekly 300-point intoxication quota (penalty: -10 Battle Will for missing it, with a +50% open-world intoxication cap).

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▍Common Failure Points

• Forgetting the Ghostlight Mask. Market NPCs are invisible without it. Equip from key items before entering.

• Hao Xian friendship at zero. Gift 5-8 food items first, or skip to the Buddha Hand pickpocket.

• Timer anxiety. The nine-wine timer is roughly 30-45 minutes — generous unless you get lost.

• Not drinking during Madiao. Press the drink button at least once. Playing without drinking fails the requirement.

• Drinking wines before buying them all. The timer starts on the first drink. Buy all merchant wines first.

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