The compass pointed directly to the southeast, which made life much harder for them.
With Arulion's shape, the land to the southeast of Fort Halleya was either mountainous to the point where flat land was hard to find, or submerged below the sea as a result of the conflicts that took place in Qinglong's era.
For a group of twenty geniuses, it was an extremely large swathe of land that they wouldn't be able to easily explore. The sea was August's territory. If the crown was within, then he'd feel it as soon as he got close. Otherwise, it would take more than just some planning to figure out exactly where it was.
The benefit of a starting point like Fort Halleya was that it was closer to their intended destination than anyone else's starting points, so August and Melania weren't forced to move immediately.
Instead, they waited and planned the other aspects of the overarching scheme and waited for the people they called to arrive.
