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Master Jizhou
May 23, 2026 at 03:59 PM
Added internal wikilinks
Master Jizhou is the resident master of Jizo Temple, a sunken-marsh temple visited during the four-trial sequence of Chapter 9 in Crimson Desert. His trial is one of the four required for Kliff to face Master Du. Jizhou appears in person as the second part of his trial, after Kliff has dealt with his disciple Trukan.
Jizo Temple sits in the difficult-to-reach sunken marsh north of the Crimson Desert. The temple itself is somewhat run down, but it is still maintained by a small number of monk children who visually resemble the shade people. The architecture, the statues, and the teachings posted around the grounds all closely echo the look of a traditional Buddhist temple.
The first task at the temple is to repair the broken Jizo statues scattered across the surrounding islands. Completing the repairs raises additional islands out of the sea, producing a network of small parkour courses that Kliff has to clear in turn. The trial frames this as a practice in overall balance, both physical and mental.
The statue-repair work brings Kliff into the path of Trukan the Ascendant, a blind disciple of Master Jizhou who never attained inner peace. Trukan believes the only way to fix a twisted world is through feats of overwhelming strength. Like many of the antagonists in the main story, he fell under the influence of an Abyss Artifact that granted him the power to act on that belief.
Kliff defeats Trukan in combat and in the process ironically disproves Trukan's own philosophy by being the stronger warrior. Trukan's final words echo what his master taught him but he himself never accepted: True strength can only come from humility. Those are your master's words.
Master Jizhou himself appears after the Trukan fight. He is presented in-game as a child monk, very different in tone from the other three trial figures. Where Master Du, Alustin, and White Crow continually poke and prod Kliff in different directions, Jizhou simply tells him he is doing fine on his own. His advice is to stop overthinking and just keep doing what he does:
Guidance? What do you need that for? You're doing well enough on your own. I like you just the way you are. Good or bad, life goes on. So it's best to just go with the flow. Try too hard and you'll just trip over your own feet. Stop overthinking and just keep doing what you do. Go help a few lost souls and you'll see what I mean. That'll teach you a real lesson. May peace and light be with you.
The trial completes there. There is no boss fight against Jizhou himself.
Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
Chapter | Chapter 9 |
Location | Jizo Temple in the sunken marsh north of the Crimson Desert |
Role | Master of Jizo Temple; presides over one of Master Du's four trials |
Disciple | Trukan the Ascendant (blind, fell to an abyss artifact) |
Appearance | Child monk |
Combat | None; trial is purely dialogue and parkour |
Master Jizhou's trial is the tonal counterweight to the other three. The two Crimson Desert trials before Master Du focus on combat: an aerial dragon-rescue against Blackstar and a duel against Gwyn. The Hex Marie trial confronts the antagonist directly. Jizhou's trial provides the philosophical foundation that the other three trials never explicitly state.
His advice also rhymes with the conclusion the abyss guardians reached after their cycle 60 to 66 experiments with Kliff's character. They tried granting him confidence, then subtlety, then fearlessness, then heightened responsibility, and each time a different fatal flaw emerged. Jizhou's framing, that overthinking and over-tweaking might themselves be the problem, lines up with that long history. Whether Jizhou himself arrived at this conclusion through countless cycles of trial and error or whether he was always this way is left for the player to decide.
The Axiom Archive Cycle Records mention a Master Jajong who first taught Kliff the Force Palm in cycle 16. The in-game text does not explicitly identify Master Jajong as the same figure as Master Jizhou, and the records do not name a fourth guardian outright, only stating that four guardians exist. Players have noted the similarity in name and role and treat it as a strong hint, but the game leaves the identification open.
