Hang on, I know this is relatively old content, but I think this area has to be my favorite area in the past several years. It was based off the movie "Nanjing Road", which stems off of the "Mr. Vampire" series.
But first, some music to set the mood.
Eerie, isn't it? The track here is from a 2013 movie called "Rigor Mortis". The movie is a homage to the aformentioned Mr. Vampire series. It is also the most recent movie of it's kind since-
"What on God's green earth is Mr. Vampire?"
-My roommates, 2016
Erm, right. so Mr. Vampire is a series of horror (later classified as horror-comedy) movies in which the plot centers around a undead monster called a "Jiangshi" ( 僵尸). Such creatures are often referred to as Vampires, due to their tendency to feed via biting around the neck. However, unlike their western cousins, they aren't exactly intelligent; they seem to be more like zombies in that respect. In addition to their low intelligence, they also can sire other Jiangshi by biting them. Once more, this is why Jiangshi are often compared to Vampires.
Jiangshi aren't always sired by other Jiangshi, however. The mythology often says the following causes a Jiangshi to rise:
-Black Cats cross/touch a corpse
-Corpse is exposed to moonlight
-The person died with strong, negative feelings, such as rage, regret, and jealousy ("never breathed his last")
-The corpse is never given its funerary rights
I might note here that so long as a Yin element (ie. anything representative of the dark half of the yin and yang) comes into contact with a corpse, it may cause it to become a Jiangshi.
A few things Jiangshi share in comparison to Vampires are as follows:
-Sunlight
-Mirrors (As long as it's in a Bagua, or Eight-Sided Mirror for Jiangshi)
-Wooden Stake (Eh, sorta. You need a peach-wood sword to impale a Jiangshi)
-Fire (Cleanses EVERYTHING)
Now, for a few weaknesses they have unique to them:
-Glutinous/Sticky Rice (Uncooked; if it's cooked, at least you'll eat before you die)
-Ancient Coin Sword (only when empowered by a Taoist Priest)
-Fu, Taoist Paper Talismans (simply binds them in place, making them docile or just immobile at worst)
-Carpenter's Ink block w/ empowered ink (the lines they leave on coffins of the Jiangshi trap it inside, much like the iron bands of a barrel)
-Bells (much like the myth of vampires having the compulsion to count items dropped, the bell disorients them)
-Red Beans (Similar to Sticky Rice- DON'T COOK IT!)
Now that the
nerd-out technicalities are out of the way, down to why I love Yu Yuan so much. I love the area because it is a gorgeous area with a monster type that brings on the nostalgia of watching Jiangshi movies. It also pokes fun at how it's
always a Taoist priest who is the solution to the entire problem. Sadly, it's a Lv. 140-150 area, so it's largely irrelevant to me as a 213 Hayato. However, the one thing that I might remark about the area is that the set of totems you can get from it. It's a bit of a grind for a temporary totem, but it's repeatable once a month, and the totems last a month. There was also the night market and the ability summon Lv. 150 Jiangshi bosses in town, but that got removed since people (like me) kept using them to kill AFKs and newbs. (I fondly remember killing a bot in a Drakes map with one). You can still get the summon scrolls for 10 Diabloical Jiangshi Talismans each. Just... you can't use them in town, or in hubs, like the PQ room. Or near portals, for that matter. Aside from that, have fun.
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