Bai Chilian.

Deep inside the Mirrorwood, Bai Chilian, the Lady of the Twin Serpents, awaits as the Crimson Forest's concluding battle.

Seen from outside, she is simply a boss, a combatant using one long and one short serpent sword, whose silks tie themselves into huge snakes. The situation underneath is odder. An illusion has held her since a battle one year earlier, in woods where fog never clears and day merges with night, and all that time she has dispatched snakes to hunt for the fragments of a broken pipa.

This task defines who she is. In her mind, a repaired pipa will bring her rescue, and her dialogue circles back to a handful of themes: her entrapment, the unfinished pipa, and the pledges given to her.

Players have reasons to care about her apart from the combat. The Mirrorwood path leads directly to her, a concealed ally can be unlocked for the battle, killing her wraps up many open tales, and afterward Soul receives her swords along with a pipa piece.

A Strand of Red Silk

Before anyone called her a lady, her life was worth hardly anything. On the edge of death she dreamed of the Lady, who offered her a strand of red silk resembling both a snake and a tie. It revived her, and from that moment she murdered in the Lady's name.

The Conflict with the Four Great Maskwalkers

A year ahead of the game's events, the Order and the Pillars of Kunlun combined their strength to oppose four great Maskwalkers. Bai Chilian was among those four, as was Iron Fever.

Her freedom was lost in that fight. The Chord's pipa burst, and the illusion that came out of it spread through the woods and engulfed her with them. What remained has neither sun nor moon, neither life nor death, just emptiness and oblivion. This is the Mirrorwood.

Serpents Dispatched to Find the Pipa

When Soul arrives in the Crimson Forest, a full year has passed with her at this same job. Her snakes roam the illusion in search of the broken instrument, as she is sure the Lady will release her when it is complete. In her own words, the terms are these: the Lady told her that reassembling it would liberate her, and the Herald pledged that the Lady would take her out of this dark place. Those she appeals to are identified further on in the story; Lady of the Veil is a title held by Meng Hua, while Herald of the Veil is the title of Leng Tu.

Further background comes from the Illusion of Inanis, encountered by Soul on the way to the Mirrorwood Depths. According to her, the illusion in the deep forest began when a pipa she had built wrecked itself, and she begs Soul to rescue the pipa master she names the Chord-Wielder.

The Battle Past the Threadbound Great Tree

Clearing the mist requires Soul to solve two mirror sets; doing so opens the path to the Threadbound Great Tree Bell and her arena. She battles him in two phases, her later form being called the Sacrificial Serpent, and the main storyline of Snake's Reflection makes this duel unskippable.

Awakening in the Village of Lu

When the duel and the cutscene after it are over, Soul regains consciousness at a Village of Lu bell. Among what he gets are her paired swords and a Broken Illusory Pipa, so he now owns a portion of what she was hunting. That portion runs only between the neck and the frets. Elsewhere lie the remaining parts: the head, the strings and the backplate. Once Soul tracks them all down, Myst is able to put the pipa back together.

After that the story leaves her behind, although the forest does not return to what it was. Visiting again during the Mirage Estate chapter, you find the puppet Yucong looking after the now frozen Mirrorwood and the old tree on which she used to sit.

What defines her is loyalty that has hardened into reliance. Her life is owed to the Lady, and she settles the debt by murder; speaking to the Lady these days, she begs, promising to be of use and to return the pipa in one piece.

Her danger also conceals itself. Her attacks are savage and eerie, and her beauty lets people ignore the threat until too late, so those who get near her usually meet a bad end.

What she says hints that she senses a problem even while pressing on. She wonders how many days she has been held in the illusion, and she sees that the pipa remains unfinished.

Bai Chilian is a compulsory boss, met in a single battle. First take a rest at the Threadbound Great Tree Bell. Her starting figures are 8,000 HP in the first form and 9,000 HP in the second, with 2,400 Sha-Chi in both, and they climb with difficulty and in later playthroughs. She takes 16% extra from Fire, Ice, Bleed and Blood Burst, and holds back Lightning by 30%.

Tasks to Complete Prior to Her Death

Her death alters the Outpost and Thieves' Camp, so any quests still open in those places can no longer be done. If left undone when she is beaten, Purge the Sect, Festering Secrets, Honor Among Thieves and A Healer's Mercy all fail.

Two further cutoffs are simple to overlook. Lanlan offers Secrets of the Baishan Sect on the bridge by the Thieves' Camp Bell, and you must take it on before the battle or it is gone for good. The Flesh Lily likewise needs to be delivered to Yu'er before she dies.

Summoning the Chord to Help

Inanis left six numbered Memory Flowers, laid out from the cave beside the Mirrorwood Entrance, across the Burial Grounds and the misty forest, as far as the first set of mirrors. Taking the first one kicks off the collection quest called Resonant Strings. If you own all six before walking into the arena, the Chord shows up in the second phase and drains Bai Chilian's Sha-Chi from a distance. The Memory Flower Left by Inanis close to the region's first bell is not one of the six.

Phase 1 (opening form)

Counterattacks are difficult when she vanishes and charges, so focus on holding enough Sha-Chi to endure her approach and look out for the black flash at close range. Her combos while standing still leave you more space and are your best chance of dealing damage in this phase. If snakes fan out over the ground, run in a single direction, since they keep going the way they were heading once they emerge.

Outlaw Warblade is a good match, as it restores health when it connects. Keep its weapon skill for when her guard breaks and she recovers, because it is unreliable on a target that moves.

Phase 2 (final form)

Her whole moveset is different now. Dodge the spinning thrust on her approach: it lands three hits, and blocking it drains your Sha-Chi. If she climbs slowly and exits the screen, avoid the slam, then prepare for another right afterward, a red-flash attack.

Whenever a big cluster of summoned creatures shows up, quit going after her and strike them instead. Killing two breaks Bai Chilian's guard, which gives you a window to attack.

She is known for White Serpent & Crimson Viper, twin serpentine blades, with a light short one and a strong long one. After she is beaten they become Soul's dual swords, handed to him as he wakes in the Village of Lu. This fight also awards the Resonance Talisman accessory.

When she wields them herself, silks accompany the blades. Her red and green cloth knots into four huge pythons, which lunge and pull back or erupt out of the earth to shield her.

The Mirrorwood, in the Crimson Forest, is where she lives, in a manner of speaking: illusion-drenched woodland entered after passing the Burial Grounds and the Mirrorwood Depths. Mirror puzzles block the road to her, and just before her arena you find the Threadbound Great Tree Bell, the last one on the way.

A Hand-Picked Murderer Turned Prisoner Losing Her Memory

Bai Chilian changes by gradually losing her grip. Prior to the Mirrorwood she is an assassin working in the name of her saviour. After a year alone, that foundation erodes. Her hold on herself slips, and she slices up snakes that return with nothing, charging them with laziness and with scheming to trick her.

Then her fury reverses. She weeps over the very same snakes as she buries them, and persuades the newly hatched ones not to dread her, hold a grudge or leave her. Throughout, her faith in the Lady stays intact. It becomes all she has left, and she repeats over and over that she remains useful and is still able to repair the pipa.

Her portrayal is of a stunning beauty, and that is part of what makes her dangerous. The most memorable visual features are the pair of serpent-shaped swords and the red and green silks that swirl around her into her pythons, linking her appearance straight to her title, the Lady of the Twin Serpents.

Caught in the illusion

“How long have we been trapped in this illusion?”

Concerning the Mirrorwood prison.

“No... this won't work... the pipa... it's incomplete...”

Regarding her inability to repair the pipa.

Begging those she serves

“The Lady said if I put it back together... then I'll be free...”

Pledge that drives her search.

“Lady of the Veil... I'll be useful to you, I swear it!”

Spoken to the Lady.

“I'll bring you the pipa back whole!”

Oath she swears about the instrument.

“Master Herald... You promised me... that the Lady would get me out of this dark place!”

Spoken to the Herald.

• Both swords are required for the name to fit: a single blade would be merely half a snake, and the name belongs to the long and short ones as a pair.
• Defeating her unlocks the silver achievement The Shattered Mirror, and since the battle belongs to the story, there is no way to miss it.