After Zheng Xuan and Ma Jun's teams secured the quarry, they gathered the remaining stone miners together. Some who had previously escaped into the woods and were rescued by Zheng Xuan and his group were now following them back down the mountain.
Looking at the situation now, some of the escaped stone miners chose to go home down the mountain, while others returned to the quarry. Almost none went toward Bright Moon Mountain.
After all, from their perspective, there's nothing over at Bright Moon Mountain. If they go there, they'll face hunger and cold with only a dead end ahead. It's better to follow Zheng Xuan and his group back to the quarry; maybe there's a chance of survival. In the worst case, they might end up becoming bandits.
As night approached, Zheng Xuan directed the stone miners and captured soldiers to move the surrounding corpses to one place and burn them on the spot. After finishing these tasks, he let everyone have a good meal and sleep at the quarry for the night.
