"The army has encamped for the night."

Liu Wei didn't move from his meditative position. His soul sense had just barely picked up on Yue Zhong's approach; her presence was miniscule, standing out from the background no more than that of a falling leaf.

He wondered whether the other two were also using this opportunity to train the sharpness of their senses. If they weren't, they were losing out: this trip had done wonders helping him improve his detection ability. It wasn't often that you were around the perhaps most capable stealth specialist on the peninsula while she was using that capability – or at least it wasn't often that you knew you were.

"They plan on marching through the night tomorrow to reach the school by noon on the day after, so they are taking an extended rest today."

Having access to information like this was a major advantage and half the reason Liu Wei had wanted Yue Zhong to be part of this group. Tracking an army's movements as they happened, like they had been doing for the past few days, was one thing, but moving directly among the enemy and overhearing their plans was quite another. No other elder of their sect would have been able to pull this off.

It had made scouting for information and planning for action a whole lot easier, which was especially fortunate since they had arrived in the warzone several days later than planned. Almost two weeks had already gone by since their departure from the sect, and they hadn't yet seen battle.

They had spent most of that time negotiating with their subordinate sects, a delay they hadn't properly factored in when planning. There hadn't been outright resistance, but from troop contributions over safety concerns to distribution of the spoils of war, there were a lot of issues that they found themselves having to address.

By now, the relief force was certainly on its way already and it wouldn't be too long until they too entered contested territory. By then, Liu Wei and his group had to make enough noise to draw attention towards them, so the others could try and slip by undetected.

All of that was to say: They needed to act soon. Sun Liang was the first to address that fact.

"So this is their last rest before the attack. The last time their guard will be down. If we want to stop them, now would be the time to strike, wouldn't it?"

"Doesn't seem like a good idea to me. We'd be assaulting a major army on our own.", Liu Wei retorted.

"We don't need to defeat the army, taking out the leadership is enough. Without anyone of the Dao Contemplation Realm, they'll have no choice but to surrender or retreat."

Going after the leaders was a common tactic during sect warfare. So common in fact, that most troops below the Dao Contemplation Realm were usually deployed specifically with this goal in mind, either to facilitate it or to prevent it.

It went beyond just destroying the chain of command: Most conflicts between cultivators were driven entirely by that very same leadership's interests. Without them, the lower ranks would have little reason to fight on. Still, Liu Wei didn't think that it was the right approach here.

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"Their leaders' senses won't become any duller just because they're stationary. Elder Zhong might be able to escape them, but that doesn't mean that we can too. Pulling of a stealth strike would be difficult. Even if we managed to do it, we are only four people. At maximum, we can take out four enemies at once, but they have nine Dao Contemplation Cultivators amongst them."

"…If they were to react quickly, we'd be isolated in the middle of the enemy army. Good point, Elder Wei.", Long Zhao interjected.

"I mostly agree with your thoughts. I think Elder Liang's plan could work out, but I also feel like it would be a waste to give away our element of surprise for a coin flip. Hmm… Elder Zhong, you are the stealth specialist among us. Would you care to share your opinion?"

"I understand Elder Wei's reasoning, but I think he is being overly cautious. None of the enemy elders are particularly powerful and though their army is large, getting caught in the middle would be more of an inconvenience and less of a threat than we're making it out to be.

"We need to act at some point. We could wait for a better opportunity, but there is nothing guaranteeing us that it will present itself. And every day we are waiting, the enemy continues to make progress here and elsewhere. However, this isn't Elder Wei's first war, and he certainly knows all of these things himself. If he's making a case for waiting right now, I'd wager he already has an alternative plan in mind."

"Perceptive as always, Elder Zhong."

Liu Wei paused for a moment before continuing.

"I'd like to coordinate with the school."

The School of Blooming Dawn, the target of the army they were pursuing, was a curious outlier among the minor sects. Even calling it a sect wasn't entirely correct in itself. While it outwardly functioned as one, its internal structure differed greatly from traditional sects. Despite, or perhaps even because of that, it was an old and well-respected institution across the alliance. They weren't strong enough to resist an army of this size for long, but they wouldn't need to.

"As far as I'm aware, they have a good amount of combat ready members. If we fought alongside them, that would mostly solve our numerical issue."

Sun Liang was quick to dissent.

"You simply want us to join them in a standard battle? That's just as wasteful of our element of surprise, if not more."

Liu Wei rolled his eyes. Between all the things that had changed in the last year, his and Sun Liangs mutual dislike had been one of the few constants.

"If you'd have let me finish my explanation, you wouldn't have needed to ask that question. I don't want to join the school in a normal battle, I want to get there ahead of the army and coordinate with them to set up an ambush. Let the army approach them and try to move into a siege, then burst out with full force to attack them. As soon as they are engaged in battle, we move in."

"What if they realize that something is off and refuse to engage. If they retreat early, there is little we could do to stop them."

"We can easily assault them while they retreat. The fact that they can't turn and fight back alone would still give us a major advantage. Also, if they were wary enough to refuse an engagement just on the basis of a bad feeling, they'd also be wary enough to ward off a stealth strike right now."

"But…"

"Elder Wei is right, Elder Liang. We can take out the entire army that way, instead of just the leadership, and there is less room for things to go wrong. Elder Zhao?"

"Large-scale ambushes like this are not exactly my area of expertise, but it does seem like a sound plan to me. We'll hardly be detected while they are already dealing with the school's defensive formations and we're certainly strong enough to turn the tide of the battle in our favor."

Clearly outnumbered, Elder Liang gave in.

"I suppose so."

"Very well, then we are in agreement. Let's give Elder Zhong time to rest for a few more hours and then move straight to the School of Blooming Dawn.", Long Zhao declared, his voice carrying a tone of finality.

Liu Wei nodded, before returning to his meditation, satisfied with the outcome.

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