Bai Chilian

A woman who fights with a pair of strange serpent swords. Her strikes are vicious and uncanny; her beauty is enough to make one forget the danger. Those who draw near seldom meet a kind end.

A year ago, when the Order and the Three Pillars of Kunlun joined to fight the four great Maskwalkers, Bai Chilian was one of them. In that battle, the Chord's pipa shattered, and a vast illusion poured out, drowning the woods and trapping Bai Chilian within.

This Mirrorwood, warped by Phantom Art, has neither sun nor moon, neither life nor death, only endless forgetting and void. All Bai Chilian can do is send her snakes to hunt for the pipa. Mend the pipa, and the Lady will save her... save her once more...

Snakes beget snakes; snakes replace snakes. The snakes go out and return. The pipa is never found. She begins to lose hold of herself: in rage, she hacks a few snakes apart, curses them for sloth, for running wild, even for conspiring to deceive her; then she buries those loyal creatures in tears and coos to the newly hatched not to fear her, not to resent her, not to leave her... She is still of use to the Lady. She will mend the pipa.

Red blossoms at the horizon, like the Lady's downcast eyes. Beneath that gorgeous glow, the red and green silks about Bai Chilian gather and bind, becoming four great pythons. They rear like scorpions and spin like saws. At times they strike and withdraw, waiting for an opening; at times they burst from the earth into a formation that shields her. Only by breaking the serpent array can she be brought down.

Her life was once worth less than grass. At the brink of death, in a hazy dream, she beheld the Lady. The Lady gave her a thread of red silk, like a snake, like a bond. It sustained her life and restored her from death.

So she wound snakes about her enemies' throats, tightening inch by inch, letting them die slowly in fear and pain. So simple. So satisfying. And still not enough! Only the Lady can truly cleanse the filth of the Wulin...

But how could she be so useless? Trapped in a place like this... she deserves this torment... Offer the snakes. Offer her body. Offer everything... What else has she left to give the Lady? What can she offer to attain true salvation?

Soul beats her in the Mirrorwood, and her notes become the trail for the Illusory Pipa. She appears once more near the end, as a vision, and hands the pipa back to Soul with a parting jab: play something worth hearing.

“Ah, fine. Take your pipa! Just be sure to play something worth hearing!”

In-game dialogue