Segiel's Plan
The Supreme Leader was supposed to be pursuing the leader of the Firestone Mines, but Jabez was hiding while moving with some of his remaining allies. Meanwhile, the Elders and most of the guild's Supremes moved against the enemy forces, some of them already stationed in newly conquered outposts.
The war of the powerful cultivators was also about conquering territory, acquiring new mines and plantations, and having the population at their disposal. In the long run, armies without territories tended to have terrible resource problems, while those with territories tended to grow stronger.
As a result, every territory conquered in the war was significant, and every week that passed with someone in control of it made its former owners more vulnerable and the new owners stronger.