Burning the Dead, Returning Through Blood

After piling all the corpses together, Huo Hai had the Star Gu gather the sundries as well. Since he could not dig a huge pit and bury them, he might as well set a fire and burn all the bodies. One clean sweep would settle everything—how convenient.

However, there did not seem to be enough fuel. Huo Hai suddenly realized that the mercenaries had brought very few sundries. Or rather, very few of the things they had brought could be burned. He did not care in the slightest about the valuables on their bodies. Even the combined wealth of three thousand mercenaries probably amounted to less than he could earn with hardly any effort.

"Star Gu, go get me some wood." After some thought, Huo Hai decided he had better prepare the fuel himself. The Star Gu were model workers, tirelessly accepting every task without a word of complaint or regret. Huo Hai was very pleased with that.

They had only just finished dragging the corpses when he immediately sent them off to fell trees, yet they still obediently went about their work. Their teeth were extremely sharp, so gnawing through wood was a breeze. Before long, lengths of timber began arriving.

The Star Gu were clever enough to choose large, dead trees, which would catch fire more easily. After a little processing by the Star Gu, the many trees became rough planks that would readily burn.

Meanwhile, Huo Hai also found fire oil used for lighting fires on some of the mercenaries. He had no idea what they had originally intended to do with it, but now it could serve only to burn their own corpses. It had no other use.

Carrying the fire oil, the Star Gu sprinkled it evenly over the planks and corpses. Soon, a strong,