Intelligence Leaked, Plan Temporarily Adjusted

That stone had come loose on one side, revealing an etched mark beneath: three slashes and a dot.

Chen Wuya stared at it for two breaths without moving. The wind had already died, yet his knuckles tightened slightly, as though he were still gripping the charcoal stick from earlier. Bai Zhi stood just behind and to his side, breathing softly, her left hand hanging at her side, fingertips less than an inch from her sword hilt.

"It didn't fall naturally," he finally said, his voice low. "Someone came down from that direction."

Bai Zhi nodded and turned to signal the two patrolling soldiers behind her. They immediately split up—one circled north, while the other hurried back to camp to call for reinforcements. When she turned back, Chen Wuya had already approached the stone and crouched down, using his thumb to brush away the loose dirt around the mark.

"Three slashes and a dot..." he murmured. "That's their old rule for sending warnings."

"So he didn't get the full map, but he took away the key terms." Bai Zhi stepped to his side, her gaze sweeping over the cracks between the stones. "'Misaligned Force into the hammer,' 'Double Vibration Combo'... those words are enough for Tuoba Lie to guess our direction."

Chen Wuya rose and dusted off his hands. "The problem isn't what he said. It's that he knows how we think." He looked toward the forge yard, where the outline of iron frames flickered in and out of the night. "We changed the foundation plans three times, switched materials, adjusted the rhythm. But now the enemy is following our train of thought too."

Bai Zhi frowned. "You mean they've begun reverse-engineering our tactics?"

"More than that." His tone darkened. "They're waiting for us to be 'ready.'"

He said no more