A hunt begun without savvy of the lay of their land. Odds do not favour them, yet if ground must be covered, let them make attempt.

He hesitates, eyes faintly shuttered as if roads traversed and deeds done can align before him with military precision. A review, tidy.

Then, with a degree of finality. "I have covered the north." With grudging if middling efficiency. He lacks Wei Ying's charisma in outreach, but height and the dulled shine of his pale clothes draw the eye. He has traded enough of the portraits that word must have spread, like pox and plague, of the search of the strange man afflicted with a silent disposition.

"Take the south." Between them, the village covered. "What is your method?"