The Empty Illusions of the Sabzeruz Festival opens right after the Causality of the Sabzeruz Festival. You still find yourself in the middle of the Sabzeruz Festival time loop mystery in the previous quest. After getting closer to answering the mystery of the Sabzeruz Festival, you dedicate a day to heading outside the city to interrupt the flow of time.

You’ll wake up the next day, fully intent on leaving the city. After recapping with Nahida, Paimon tells you that you’re missing two days’ worth of memories. Paimon and Nahida will then recall what happened in the prior two days when you presumably left the city. The remainder of the quest will then proceed in a flashback of what happened in your lost memories.

How to complete The Empty Illusions of the Sabzeruz Festival quest

In your flashback, head to the city gates of Sumeru City to leave. The location of the city gates are close to your current location:

A guard is watching the city gates, prohibiting anyone from leaving the city. This is an order from the Grand Sage. Not even the guards know why this ordinance was put in place. You and Paimon head off to come up with another plan. Paimon suggests that you climb over the walls of the city, as the guards can’t be everywhere at once.

However, you tell Paimon to stay behind so that she can gather memories of what happens inside the city. Paimon reluctantly agrees, and immediately after you start climbing over the walls, the day resets. Paimon hysterically reveals that as soon as you crept over the wall, you disappeared and never returned.

You and Paimon ask Nahida for a way to leave a message for those outside of the city. Nahida gives you an altered Akasha Terminal, which is capable of sending messages to any node. You had sent a message to yourself that explains that your Sabzeruz Festival is just one of many.

Another Contemplation will begin:

Do the following:

  • Interpret “The Space Where We Were Yesterday.”
  • Submit that conclusion.

You find out that the “beep” is you traveling from one space to the next. Head to a nearby bench to organize your thoughts.

The day will turn into night, and you reveal that you think you found the answer. Head back to Nahida to confirm your suspicions. One final series of Culminations will begin.

  • Interpret “Spaces Without Human Presence” to unlock “Dreams With No Human Presence.”
  • Interpret “People From Sumeru Do Not Dream” and associate it with “Dreams With No Human Presence.”
  • Interpret “The Truth Behind Dreams.”
  • Submit this conclusion.

The real answer: the Akademiya is stealing people’s dreams. Another Culmination will start:

  • Interpret “The Akasha is a Manifestation of the God of Wisdom’s Power.
  • Submit this conclusion.

You realize the Akademiya is stealing people’s dreams to harvest “wisdom” from their dreams. The next Culmination will begin:

  • Interpret “The Appearance and Disappearance of Spaces” to unlock “The Appearance and Disappearance of Dreams.”
  • Interpret “The Appearance and Disappearance of Dreams” and associate it with “The Sabzeruz Festival Samsara.”
  • Submit “Mass Production of Dreams.”

Nahida confirms your suspicions. The Akasha is keeping everyone’s brain in a constant dream state while also separating their consciousness from their dreams. This consciousness is placed within a “collective dream” of the Sabzeruz Festival, with other dreams being harvested by the Akasha.

One final Culmination will begin:

  • Interpret “The Moon” and submit that conclusion.

Nahida reveals one final piece of the mystery: she is the Lesser Lord Kusanali, or in other words, the Dendro Archon.

Kusanali will allow you to ask a series of questions if you are curious about some of the more vague aspects of the story. If you would just like to move on, you can pick “I don’t have any more questions” and proceed.

The quest will continue as Kusanali promises to tell you how to leave the samsara tomorrow. The next quest will automatically start.