This only makes sense if the cards are on the board, so if they come from somewhere else you ignore this instruction.
If the card is pointing to an empty space, it points through that space to the first card it can hit. If it's pointing away from the board, it's obviously not poinnting at anything.
It's important to remember where a card like this was pointing, in case you need to execute this instruction after a series of other cards. Sometimes it's impossible to tell which card the card is now supposed to be pointing to; in this case, you must ignore the pointing instruction.

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Besides the affacking troops, the attacking player can indicate pieces in adjacent as supporting forces.

So, abandoning a territory to occupy another one makes no difference in victory points.