"Pant! Pant!"
With a series of sounds of sand being turned over, a large, brownish-deep pit gradually appeared on the beach.
From its color, the depth of this pit had already penetrated through the surface sand, reaching the soil below.
"I seem to remember Hu Tao saying that after a person dies, their head should face north and their feet south, right?" Ember said to Morgott as he jumped out of the deep pit below, clapping his hands.
"But this is Inazuma," Morgott said, picking up a corpse and tossing it in.
It landed perfectly, head north and feet south.
"Oh, right." Ember suddenly realized. The rules of Liyue might not apply in Inazuma.
After Ember finished speaking, Morgott's steps suddenly paused.
"What's wrong? Have they had a change of heart and come to clean up the battlefield?" Ember asked, seeing Morgott's movement.
Morgott shook his head, then looked at the trees to the side and said with a smile, "I thought there was no such profession as a scavenger here. Now it seems I was overthinking it."
"Come out, be quick about it, don't leave these bodies too messy."
After speaking, Morgott's eyes were fixed intently on the nearby vegetation, like a solemn statue. From a distance, it exuded an invisible pressure.
Seeing this, Ember wisely kept silent, knowing that if he spoke, the solemn atmosphere would vanish without a trace.
The monstrous figure, coupled with the blood-stained beach and the ground full of corpses, instantly spread an unspoken sense of terror.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
The shaking in the trees was so significant that it was clearly abnormal. A single glance was enough to know there was definitely something amiss.
"Mon... Monster! I... I'm telling you! We... We are... We are people of the great pirate Gui Long!"
Trembling, several people in old armor emerged from the bushes.
Although they were threatening, their trembling legs and shaking weapons had long betrayed their inner fear.
"Alright, if monsters were to kindly persuade you to come out, then what do the soldiers you're hiding from count as? Demons?"
Morgott was already accustomed to the fearful and terrified gazes of the people in the distance. Their malice was less than one ten-thousandth of what he felt in the sewers.
"You... You really don't want these things?" The fear in the hearts of the self-proclaimed pirates opposite them dissipated considerably upon hearing Morgott's words.
Yes, this "monster" in front of them would speak to them courteously, while the resistance and the Shogunate Army would not be so polite.
One wrong move, and they'd be branded with the big hats of "spy" and "colluding with the enemy." If they were caught, the rest of their lives would be spent in prison.
"No, look at my equipment, do I look like someone who scavenges?" Ember patted his chest plate several times with a 'clang, clang, clang,' then pulled out a gleaming straight sword.
"Look, how shiny this sword is." Ember held the straight sword, which was shiny enough to be used as a mirror, and ran to a person, reflecting their surprised face with the blade.
"Truly... Truly a fine weapon." The person swallowed, this weapon was much stronger than any other he had seen.
"There you go! Hurry up and clean up, otherwise, what if the bodies start to rot and cause a plague?" Ember patted the person's head, urging him on.
"Oh... Oh?!"
Only then did the person react, then shouted loudly to the others, "Everyone, hurry up!"
With that, they skillfully began to loot the corpses.
These people were very skilled. Whether it was the resistance or the Shogunate Army corpses, they were stripped bare in just a few minutes in their hands.
Fortunately, they still had a bit of conscience and didn't strip off people's underwear, otherwise Ember would have stopped them no matter what.
Watching them strip the bodies on the ground clean like locusts, Ember suddenly felt that they might be more familiar with the army's equipment status than the resistance and the Shogunate Army themselves.
Where were the weapons placed? Where were supplies stored? And where were the connection points of the armor? Ember estimated that they knew these things better than the soldiers.
As the bodies on the ground were stripped clean, the group began the burial work. Since Ember had dug the graves beforehand, they only needed to throw the bodies in and bury them.
During this time, Ember also ran over to take a look. As expected, except for the one Morgott handled, the orientation of the other bodies had no pattern whatsoever.
It seemed that the rules of Liyue really didn't apply in Inazuma.
"Do you usually bury bodies too?" Morgott suddenly asked, watching the group tamping down the soil.
"Res... Responding to your excellency, we usually just burn them and be done with it," the leader glanced at Morgott, carefully responding.
"Just call me Morgott."
"Ember, we are just Adventurers, no need to be nervous. What about you?"
"Li... Little one is named Sanda." Sanda cupped his hands to the two.
"Sanda, is it? Step back and speak once you're done cleaning up." Morgott nodded, then led the group into the small grove.
As soon as they entered the small grove, Sanda and his companions suddenly let out a sigh of relief, as if a great burden had been lifted.
"You seemed very nervous on the beach?" Ember asked, seeing the clearly relaxed group.
"Lord Ember, you don't know, besides us doing these kinds of jobs, deserters do too! And they are usually much faster than us."
"If we run into them, that would be troublesome!"
Sanda, seeing the place was secluded, began to talk freely.
"That's quite dangerous." Ember looked at Sanda and the others. Shogunate Army arm guards paired with resistance leg guards, and only half of them – this kind of combination should be unique to Inazuma.
Their protective capabilities could not be said to be non-existent, but they were merely passable. As for the weapons in their hands, with their swords held backward, could they even hope to cut anyone?
"Indeed, normally we only dare to pick up what others leave behind! But today we're lucky, thanks to you two, the things we picked up are better."
Sanda weighed the weapons and swords in his hands. These things were worth a good amount of money. This time, he had made a small windfall.
Thinking back to the scene he first witnessed, Sanda felt both fear and a surge of curiosity.
He cautiously asked, "Two lords, those people..."
"You're overthinking it, we're not that fierce." Ember smiled, then looked at Sanda and asked, "Since it's so dangerous, why do you still do this kind of work involving dead people? Aren't you afraid they'll come for you at night?"
Sanda's face wrinkled like a shriveled gourd upon hearing this. He sighed and said, "I'm still doing well, strong and healthy, able to make a living under Lord Gui Long. But for others..."
Sanda thought for a moment, then continued, "Even if evil spirits come knocking, it wouldn't be so bad."
"Gui Long?" Ember indicated that this was a name he hadn't heard before.
"He's a great pirate active in this area. Only under Lord Gui Long can the things we scavenge find a good market."
"Otherwise, these armors and weapons we pick up would just be a pile of scrap metal in our hands," Sanda explained.
Gui Long was the biggest pirate in this area. Most of the scavengers were his subordinates. Calling them subordinates was just a formality; in times of war and chaos, no one would care if they died.
Most of the items scavenged by the body collectors could only be exchanged for useful things like money and food through him.
"The market isn't good lately, I wonder how much money and food these things can be exchanged for?" Sanda sighed again, looking at the scarred weapons and armor in his hand.
If he could, he wouldn't want to rummage through dead bodies.
"Is that so?" Ember nodded, then wrote it down in his small notebook.
The number under the calm face in the notebook changed from "0" to "-3".
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