Only after becoming emperor did he realize he was in a fantasy world of immortal cultivation.

As Lin Ye moved forward, Gongsun Yan, Zhou Ru, and other important officials also stood up and found a place to stand.

Their gazes were all fixed on Lin Ye's back.

At this moment, dusk seemed to arrive with boundless rosy light to welcome the emperor.

Its light spilled onto the forest floor, the ground beneath their feet, and onto the white jade platform.

Everyone looked at Lin Ye, who was standing in the center of the jade platform. His back seemed to stretch to the vastness of the heavens and the earth, and the endless mountains and seas. His majestic and domineering aura was evident even though he was standing still.

"Master Gongsun."

After a soft call, Lin Ye did not speak immediately.

At this moment, he stood with his hands behind his back, gazing into the distance, with the sea of ​​clouds clearing a path for him. The empire he had conquered seemed within reach in an instant.

After this address, everyone bowed and waited for Lin Ye to continue.

Even Gongsun Yan was no exception.

It wasn't that he didn't want to activate the formation immediately.

But for some reason, after Lin Ye's shout, his words seemed to be restrained by something invisible.

He could no longer distinguish whether it was the aura of an emperor or... the destiny of humanity.

"Let's begin."

Just then, Gongsun Yan heard a few short words drifting from the high platform.

"I will begin now."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gongsun Yan's state of mind suddenly changed.

The gaze directed at Lin Ye's figure on the white jade platform carried a hint of darkness hidden in his eyes.

finally......

The moment has finally arrived.

Gongsun Yan suppressed his excitement and slowly raised his hands, changing several complex hand seals in a short time.

Once the formation is activated... Lin Ye's life is mine.

Gongsun Yan secretly rejoiced.

When he first proposed building the Pill Palace—

Firstly, it is to waste resources and harm humanity and the overall fortune of the people.

Secondly, every brick, tile, blade of grass, and tree designed in the Dan Palace was for the purpose of creating his current "Spirit Sword Formation".

Once this formation is complete, it can trap all things within it with spiritual light, and then the light will transform into ten thousand swords, within which all things will perish.

In that case, Lin Ye would surely die.

Seeing this, Zhou Ru couldn't help but give Zhou Wanwan a meaningful look.

Although she had long anticipated that Gongsun Yan's insistence on having Lin Ye step onto the White Jade Platform must have some ulterior motive, she never expected that Gongsun Yan had already quietly begun setting up an array when he proposed building the Pill Palace, and that the array he set up was such a large one.

Once the formation is activated, how will they have a chance to take Lin Ye's life?

Thinking of this, Zhou Ru couldn't help but feel a little anxious.

Zhou Wanwan, who was standing beside Zhou Ru as a maid, naturally saw through Gongsun Yan's intentions.

Spirit Sword Formation?

If the formation is successful, it will indeed be troublesome.

but......

A hint of doubt quietly surfaced in Zhou Wanwan's eyes. She had just seen that the array patterns when Gongsun Yan activated the array were indeed the Spirit Sword Array.

But looking at it now, this formation seems to be...

Having made a guess, Zhou Wanwan used the blood pact to send a telepathic message to Zhou Ru, telling her not to act rashly.

As the one who set up the formation, Gongsun Yan naturally realized that the formation he was currently activating was not the Spirit Sword Formation at all, but the Backlash Formation.

The core of this formation is the activation hub for other formations. Once someone activates another formation, the core will trigger a backlash mechanism, trapping the person who activated it within the formation and subjecting them to the backlash of the formation they themselves activated.

"How could this be..." Gongsun Yan's eyes were filled with disbelief.

However, the formation was already complete, and Gongsun Yan could only watch helplessly as the spiritual light that had surrounded Lin Ye surged towards him like a tidal wave. The spiritual light flickered with an eerie glow, as if it carried some invisible force, locking him firmly in place.

Gongsun Yan's heart sank. He knew clearly what this meant—ten thousand swords would strike, and he would not die without them.

But he couldn't understand why the planned spirit sword formation had turned into a backlash formation.

Who is it? It is...

As his thoughts raced, something seemed to flash through his mind.

This made him realize something.

Gongsun Yan hastily dodged a sword that flashed towards him from the formation, and shouted at Lin Ye's back, "Lin Ye, it's you—"

"You wicked Taoist, how dare you address His Majesty by his name!" Zhao Fei shouted, raising his spear and aiming it at Gongsun Yan in the formation.

However, Gongsun Yan was racing against time in the battle, and didn't even have time to give Zhao Fei a glance.

His Taoist robe was tattered and torn by the continuous slashing of the spirit swords, and his former "immortal demeanor" was nowhere to be seen.

Just then, Lin Ye seemed to have enjoyed the scenery outside enough and slowly turned around.

Gongsun Yan's gaze suddenly entwined around Lin Ye like vines, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "Lin—Ye—"

His meticulously planned scheme had failed at this crucial moment; how could he accept that?

When Zhao Fei and the other ministers saw that Gongsun Yan had once again addressed the emperor by his name, they immediately stepped forward to reprimand him.

However, at Lin Ye's signal, they all stopped in their tracks.

"Master Gongsun, I trusted you so much, but I never expected you to have such wicked intentions, to try to harm me with such a vicious formation." Lin Ye's tone was slow, and he sighed slightly at the end, his eyes revealing a hint of regret and disappointment.

Upon hearing this, Gongsun Yan was momentarily distracted, his mind racing with a multitude of thoughts.

Lin Ye was ultimately just a mortal, so how could he possibly understand the profound mysteries of the Dan Palace's structure?

Those who can understand and are capable of setting up this backlash formation...

Gongsun Yan struggled to mobilize all his spiritual power to deflect another wave of spiritual swords surging towards him, and opened his mouth to question Zhou Wanwan.

But before he could speak, Lin Ye's voice rang out again: "Master Gongsun, considering that you once served me, if you reveal your accomplices, I will grant you a proper burial."

Gongsun Yan initially wanted to ask who needed a complete corpse, but then he thought that he was now trapped in this formation, and his life or death was already predetermined. Since that was the case, why didn't he "reveal his accomplices"?

"Your Majesty, I am a Taoist practitioner. I have made a mistake and even harbored the intention to harm Your Majesty. How can I make another mistake?"

After speaking, Gongsun Yan covered the wound on his waist where the spirit sword had pierced him with one hand, and tried his best to maintain his posture to deal with the spirit swords that kept flying towards him, so that Lin Ye would not forget his former status as an enlightened master.

Even though Gongsun Yan looked disheveled at the moment, the cultivator's demeanor, which was deeply ingrained in his bones, could not be easily erased. Therefore, it did not seem out of place for him to refer to himself as "this humble Daoist."

Then he said, "Just as Your Majesty said, I do indeed have accomplices."

"Who is it?" Lin Ye pretended not to know.

Gongsun Yan: "Princess Tao, my accomplices are none other than Princess Tao and her maid."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ru secretly gritted her teeth.

If it weren't for the backlash array separating her from Gongsun Yan, she wouldn't have let this guy talk so much nonsense.

He's going to die himself, but he insists on dragging them down with him.

Zhou Ru's eyes darted around, her gaze asking Zhou Wanwan whether they should make a move now.

"My beloved concubine?" Lin Ye turned his gaze to Zhou Ru upon hearing this.

Gongsun Yan couldn't discern from Lin Ye's tone whether Lin Ye believed him or not, so he said hastily, as if he were using his last breath to finish speaking, "Your Majesty, if that weren't the case, why would Consort Tao have been so eager to help me facilitate the establishment of the Pill Palace?"