On May 9th, the secret of Jinghua Garden was leaked. The Westerners coming to make peace truly were a cover. But instead of seizing the opportunity to attack the city, they had sent troops to the west of the capital to rob Han Qi halfway.

After struggling in death, Han Qi finally lost the battle. Decisively taking this opportunity, he lit a fire, burning 50 tonnes of Ziliujin, directly exploding the secret passage; everything was razed to the ground.

This big flame devoured the whole western suburbs like wildfire. The endless Ziliujin was like the fire of karma brought from the underground. It torched the entire Imperial Army escorting the Ziliujin, along with the surprised Westerners and even the beautiful landscapes and pavilions in Jinghua Garden.

The unique purple smoke reflected half of the sky like an auspicious sign, like glorious sunlight flowing down from the horizon——

The heart of the earth was burning, the entire capital was trembling.

The heat stretched for tens of miles, slowly flowing from the western suburbs into the rock-solid Nine Gates, and the capital which should have still been cool in the early summer was momentarily comparable to the stove that was the Southern Frontier.

The originally light and indistinguishable odor of the Ziliujin flowed with the easterly wind, everyone could finally have a taste of that special flavor — it was some kind of an indescribable fragrance.

It seemed to be like rosin mixed with a scent of grass.

All the remaining Heavy Armors were mobilized by Gu Yun, the strings of the Baihong bows were tightened.

And as he had expected, the Western Army had also indeed begun moving at this time.

Gu Yun did not know how many Western soldiers had been burned with that fire, nor how long the Pope could last under such severe loss. After many days of siege, both sides had reached their limit.

Just after that, the first wave of desperate offense arrived. Heavy Armors and chariots moved alternately. Artillery and Baihong arrows fell one after another. There was hardly any gap between the fierce fire power on both sides.

Dust and noise were everywhere. The afterheat of the Ziliujin fire in the western suburbs continued to rise, people were dripping sweat. In the distance, the screeching noise of Eagle Armors taking off could be heard. The anti-air net had not completely failed, but the Western army could no longer wait, using countless Eagle Armors of their own to test it out.

This Western Army was dragged around by Gu Yun for more than a month, then was blocked by the Nine Gates city defense and the anti-air net. Every day's consumption had become enormous, and with each day of futile effort, it had also damaged the patience of the Westerners who came from far away for this expedition which had been planned for more than ten years.