Chapter 5: Small Fire Pile: [Please Add More Fire!]

Small Fire Pile: Significantly raises air temperature within a ten-meter radius, has deterrent and damaging effects on Chujiguiguai , but strongly attracts cold beasts.

Daily consumption: 2 wood (first ignition provided free, no consumption for first ten minutes).

Xia Hong had no time to carefully examine the so-called camp system; he frantically scanned the flood of information for what he needed.

Has deterrent and damaging effects on Chujiguiguai !

This—this was what he needed.

Xia Hong turned his head toward Xia Chuan, who was nearly dead, forced himself to stand, and fixed his gaze on the fake Xia Ding.

A single spark suddenly appeared before Xia Chuan.

The fake Xia Ding looked down at the flame before him, frowned, and sensed something was off.

But the spark was weak, seemingly harmless.

Yet the next second, the spark exploded violently, and a crimson flame over three meters tall surged upward.

The flame spread like wildfire, rapidly expanding its reach—not only engulfing the fake Xia Ding who gripped Xia Chuan, but also directly consuming two other fake lumber team members nearby.

“Ahh… What is this? What kind of fire? Aahhh…”

In an instant, the fake Xia Ding, consumed by flames, let out a terrified, agonized scream.

The other two fake lumber team members didn’t even have time to cry out—they were instantly reduced to two clouds of black smoke.

The fake Xia Ding’s body twisted and writhed within the flames, clearly trying to escape, but the fire clung to him like a parasite.

His once-intact body was swiftly burned to a crimson skeleton, then the skeleton itself was utterly incinerated, turning into a cloud of black smoke like the other two fake lumber team members, vanishing completely.

Meanwhile, Xia Hong had already lifted Xia Chuan up and turned to watch the fire pile still burning in place—his face filled with hope.

“Big brother, what is this fire pile?”

“I don’t know—but we’re saved.”

The fake Xia Ding didn’t die even when his head was split open.

Yet this small fire pile reduced him to ash in an instant.

“Everyone, stop fighting! Come to the fire pile right now!”

Xia Hong shouted toward the others still fighting desperately inside the cave.

Some had already seen the fake Xia Ding burn to death; combined with this shout, all remaining survivors immediately rushed toward him.

Soon, the hundred-odd survivors of the camp all broke off combat and gathered behind Xia Hong.

The camp had suffered heavy casualties, but among the Guiwu , aside from the three accidentally burned by the small fire pile, the remaining twenty-three were completely unharmed.

Another Xia Ding led the remaining twenty-two fake lumber team members toward the fire pile.

But when they were still over ten meters away, he stopped.

Looking at the fire pile, the fake Xia Ding’s eyes were filled with wariness.

Yet he seemed unwilling to let Xia Hong and the others escape; after a moment, he sneered:

“Little brat, how long can that fire of yours last?”

“For a very, very long time!”

Xia Hong sneered back and turned to Xia Chuan and the others: “Bring all the wood from behind—expand the fire.”

The camp’s wood had been stacked right against this wall.

At once, everyone rushed to drag the wood from the wall side.

As more wood was thrown in, the small fire pile’s flames grew steadily larger.

Moreover, Xia Hong and the others deliberately directed the wood toward the front of the fake Xia Ding’s group.

Soon, the firelight illuminated the entire cave.

As the flames spread, the fake Xia Ding’s group grew increasingly wary, their bodies retreating step by step.

The fake Xia Ding held his ground against them for over an hour.

Only when forced to the cave entrance, seeing them still bringing wood endlessly, did he finally show a look of bitter hatred, stare deeply at Xia Hong, then turn and lead the fake lumber team members away.

It was now daylight; Xia Hong and the others dared not leave the fire pile’s vicinity, only watching the retreating group from afar.

When they could no longer see them, and confirmed the enemy had gone far away, Xia Hong finally exhaled—a wave of intense exhaustion washed over him.

“Brother, this bonfire… seems off.”

“I know. It only works within ten meters. Outside that range, the flame’s heat is no different from the fires we lit before.”

Xia Hong’s back was soaked in cold sweat.

He had already realized it the moment the flames exceeded ten meters.

The fire inside the cave had spread fifty to sixty meters, but beyond the original ten-meter radius of the small fire pile, the temperature rise matched exactly that of the fires they’d lit earlier.

At that moment, recalling the small fire pile’s system description, Xia Hong understood.

The small fire pile only functions within a ten-meter radius.

Even if you expand the fire by other means, it has no effect.

Similarly, only the small fire pile has deterrent and damaging effects on Guiwu —any other fire they lit is useless.

Everything he did afterward was just bluffing, scaring off those Guiwu .

Fortunately, they fell for it.

After surviving the ordeal, there was not a trace of joy in the cave.

Because disasters are always accompanied by endless suffering.

At this moment, many had realized: the real Xia Ding and his group were all dead.

The twelve lumber team members meant twelve families.

Add to that the massacre inside the cave—over seventy lives lost.

The entire cave erupted in wailing and sobbing.

“Leader… is he really dead?”

“Is my husband dead too?”

“My son… he was killed…”

“Mother, Mother, wake up!”

………………

Xia Hong felt not only sorrow, but a far stronger sense of suffocating frustration.

From start to finish, he knew nothing about the Gui of Redwood Ridge.

He didn’t even know what the real thing looked like.

Initially, when the two fake Xia Dings were exposed, the one attacked by Xia Chuan was leading; the other, whose head he had split open, merely moved mechanically, as if lacking awareness.

After the first fake Xia Ding was burned, the mechanical one stepped forward to speak.

This proved that neither fake Xia Ding was the real body.

In other words, the Gui of Redwood Ridge had never even shown itself—and still inflicted such devastating damage.

And those two Xia Dings, those twenty-four fake lumber team members—how did it create and control them?

He knew nothing.

It made a single move, and you suffered heavy losses.

And after sacrificing so many lives, they still hadn’t gained even a shred of useful information about the enemy.

This helplessness filled Xia Hong with unbearable frustration.

But even more than that, it was fear.

Looking around the cave and seeing most still lost in grief, Xia Hong took a deep breath, walked alone to the cave entrance, picked up stones and logs, and began sealing the entrance.

After all that chaos, dawn had broken, and the temperature was dropping faster by the minute—if they didn’t seal the entrance quickly, people would freeze to death.

Worse, if they accidentally attracted cold beasts, it would only make things worse.

Xia Hong’s actions reminded the others.

Xia Chuan was the first to step forward and help, then a second, then a third.

Eventually, men, women, even children all came to assist.

Xia Hong glanced back at the camp survivors; though the cold bit deep, a faint warmth stirred in his heart.

(End of Chapter)