As the three approached the camp entrance, they could all hear a peculiar sound in the distance.

"QIAAAAAAAN HOOOOOOOOONG!!!"

"W-what was that?" Xingchen asked.

"Your martial nephew." TaiFeng sighed.

It wasn't long before a blur of black and red came running towards them at full speed from behind a tent.

Following him were Zixuan, Huaisang, and Jiang Cheng.

"You. Said. You. Were. Taking. A. Nap!" He enunciated every word, while Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen just looked at the ground awkwardly.

"Why do you always sneak off like this and give everyone around you heart attacks!? We're in the middle of a war!" He screamed, still not noticing the other two.

"It's not like I went out for fun! I had stuff to do!" She said, throwing the sack into his hands.

"Um, who are these two?" Jiang Cheng finally said.

"So not only do you disappear. You also bring two random people back." Zixuan sighed. "How do you even know whether they're enemies or not? "

Everyone just raised an eyebrow and stared at him.

"Oh...right"

"Okay, look. I'm sorry for disappearing again, but I had a good reason! I brought food! And I found your martial uncle! You're welcome!"

"M-my what." He said, looking to his left to see two men standing there like default Sims.

"So, it seems you really are Cangse's son." Xiao Xingchen laughed.

"I ran into them on the way back. Your mother was his senior sister. Oh, and there's also this." She said, handing over the folded paper.

"Now, if you'll all excuse me, my premonition senses are tingling."

Which was just code for 'I don't feel like having an in-depth discussion about why I left, so I'm just going to leave.'

Because in all honesty, she was pretty bummed out about the fact that Xichen just left.

'Lan Huan! Where are you!? Why didn't you leave a note!? Now I'm sad and being self-destructive again!'
She sniffed, walking back to her tent.

Sitting down on a mat, she angrily stared at the ceiling.

Grabbing a small mirror and slamming it down on the table. She took a deep breath in and just started doing her hair.

She figured that she might as well find some way to make this look good.

Actually, she loved having long hair. And now it was so long, full, and bouncy, she loved it.

She tried her best to see the upside of things and, hey, right now she felt like a L'Oréal Paris model.

Gently working through it, she put it in a stylish half-up, half-down look.

'My body is falling apart, but at least my looks serve. Oh, well.'

Coming out of the tent, she could hear the sound of laughter coming from Wuxian.

'I hope he finds out what he wanted to know.' She smiled.

Going over to the main tent, she walked in to see Huaisang scratching his head in deep thought.

"Is the mastermind having trouble?" She chuckled, strolling in.

Looking up with tired eyes, he sighed.

"It's this mystery map you gave us. Although, where you got it from isn't a mystery." He glared.

"You just can't figure out how I got hold of it." She replied.

"Stealing a map is one thing. But stealing a whole sack of food?.... How did you do it? Did you invent some sort of invisibility talisman and not tell me?" He questioned.

"You know that supervisory office about thirty Li northwest of here? The one near the cliffs."

Instantly, he understood what she meant.

"... That, was you? So the Wens at the camp? They met the same fate."

"It's not demonic cultivation or anything like that. I... just have a lot of spiritual energy. All I did is give them too much for them to handle." She said, looking at the floor.

"It's pretty simple when you think about it. If you fill a dumpling with too much filling, it'll burst."

It was quiet, and she hated awkward silence.

"I understand" Huaisang reassuringly replied

 "It's just like any other form of cultivation. If Wen Zhuliu could melt cores with his hands, then this is just similar to that."

"I... suppose you're right. Yeah, it's just another form of cultivation."

'But will he see it like that?"

"But anyway, you, uh, said that you, were, well, having trouble with the map?" She said, getting her head back into the game"

"All these locations are hard to reach, and it's giving me a headache." He whined.

Going over to take a look, she scrunched up her nose in thought.

"Well, there are sixty-two bases in total. Including the ones in Qishan." She said, counting them on her fingers"

"There's twenty-five in cliffside areas,  twenty-three near rivers. Eleven are in dense forests, and three are in Qishan. And that's not even counting all the forces inside Nightless City."

"And we don't know how many people are in each camp either,"
Huaisang added"

"Well, let's just.. deal with it methodically?

People from Yunmeng are good at battles involving water, so we can assign these twenty-three to Yunmeng." She said, now pacing up and down.

"And most of the cliffside ones are on Lanling territory, so maybe they can do a co-op with Qinghe...

As for the dense forests, the YueYang sword style is specifically designed for these sorts of environments, so they could work with Gusu.... At least that's what I'm hoping for?"

"And we could put a reinforcement system in place!" Huaisang added in triumph.

"Reinforcement system?"

"If we look at the locations, some of these places aren't that far from each other. So when one battle is finished, we can send our remaining forces that haven't been injured over to the next battle." He said, putting his fist in his palm.

"Theoretically speaking, this war could be over in a month or so!"

"It's almost frightening how incredibly brilliant we are." She smirked.

"Indeed." He smirked back with a flick of his fan.

"But even so, it's all theoretical. I've never heard of a war being won in a month." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I've also never heard of someone taking out an enemy camp of sixty people in less than for hours, without so much as a scratch. And bringing back breakfast as well."

"... Fair enough. Maybe we can do this."

'Yeah, perhaps we can do this. It's not impossible. Nothing is impossible here."

"Then... What are we waiting for? Let's send out some communication talismans!" He yelled.

"...Talismans? Talismans!" She yelled.

"Do you have an idea for something?"

"Who's one of the best when it comes to making talismans? Aside from A'xian." She said in a statement, while Huaisang thought.

"The answer is me. Me. I'm the best at making talismans.

And I've got a whole office full of lethal weapons of destruction back in YueYang." She grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"I need to get to YueYang. I should fly out as soon as. I... I don't have a sword."

"Oh, right. I forgot about that. But YueYang isn't too far from here.." Huaisang suggested.

"If you walked, you might be able to reach there in about two days."

"And if I take a certain route." She said, tracing her slim finger over the map.

"I'll pass by two Wen camps on the way."

"I think we're going to win this war." He confidently replied.

"We just might."