I am skeptical of the idea that CDE's upgrade will matter much in the upcoming scouting mission, it wasn't really designed for scouting in mind and though it can of course be used for it there exists certain things limiting its effectiveness as a scouting tool
Initiate's Viewing Pool: C
[Non-Combat]
Requiring a surface of calm water at least two handspans wide, the user concentrates on a familiar person or place within five kilometers of their current position. The user is able to view the person or location in clear detail with both sight and hearing with perception equivalent to their own at a one rank reduction. This viewing may be opposed by arts or talismans of various types, in which case the users combat perception is used to determine success.
Firstly the capstone
This scrying would be quite useful in scouting, except that it specifically
requires familiarity with the target location or person, of which we will have neither.
There are some ways which it may still be used in this scouting mission, but they are highly circumstantial and almost certainly have better solutions.
Seeking Moon's Eyes: C
Duration: Persistent
Conjures three reflective silver wisps the size of a coin. Expressions of the Diviner's curiosity, these wisps seek their parents interest eagerly. The wisps ignore wholly physical obstacles but cannot travel further than Close distance from their creator. The creator may see from the wisp's position as if they stood there themselves, though only in one direction at a time. This greatly increases their combat perception in the areas within which this sight overlaps.
Statblock
Health: G
Speed: C20, Initiative: D
Avoid: C10, Armor H
Secondly the wisps
Some people may believe the wisps could enhance our ability to scout by being sent out to cover ground around us in order to look ahead and multitask, this is not so; the wisps have a sharply limited range from us of 100 meters or Close distance, which is not a lot of distance at all for cultivators.
Furthermore they cannot multitask at all, as LQ can only see from their perspective one at a time.
Another suggested use is to take advantage of their ability to phase through walls, unfortunately we are unlikely to require this ability as the Cloud Barb territory we are scouting is likely to be open mountain ranges.
At the very least woodland dense enough to require phasing probably isn't going to pop up.
Alternatively people want to stack the wisps together and keep them with us to enhance our perception, this idea has some merit, but it comes at the cost of speed, since we will be limited to the speed of the wisps themselves.
There's also the fact that the wisps bonus to perception is based around examining one thing with multiple overlapping points of view, something meant for studying a single object of interest.
Depending on how Yrs wants to play it this may not translate well to trying to scout out a wide view of the countryside.