350. Breaching the City, Taoist Ritual Array

New Yu Era 1331, August 13, Noon

The autumn sun shone warmly, a day that should have been favorable. However, Qingmiao City, situated twenty li west of Fei Peng Mountain on the plain, seemed as if it were paused in time at this moment. The air around was stagnant; there were no insects buzzing or birds flying as usual, and even the sky appeared somewhat dim. The silence within and outside the city walls was deafening, casting a stillness over the heavens and the earth.

This scene was most evident at the East Gate.

On the approximately twenty-li-long East City Wall, the soldiers of the Nanjiang Allied Forces were densely packed. By rough estimates visible to the naked eye, there were three to four hundred thousand of them, all clad in Green Armor, their faces solemn and their expressions tense as they looked at the military formations outside the city walls.