Chapter 45: Discovered

After leaving, Li Yan quickly made his way back toward his room.

To his surprise, however, the moment he reached his doorstep, he found it surrounded by numerous guards—faces that looked entirely unfamiliar to him.

His heart skipped a beat. There had never been any guards posted outside his quarters before.

Li Yan suspected he might have been exposed.

Yet, lacking any concrete evidence at present, he had no choice but to feign ignorance and walk briskly into the room.

Upon entering, he saw that the doppelganger left behind in his place had been slashed to pieces, confirming that his cover had indeed been blown.

He would need to tread much more carefully from this point on.

As Li Yan was pondering how to talk his way out of this predicament, a loud crash echoed through the air.

His door was violently kicked open.

Frowning, Li Yan took a step back and angrily demanded of the bizarre entities that had barged in, "What do you think you are doing? Have I never taught you any manners?"

In truth, he knew full well these entities were here to capture him, but he had to maintain his composure and refuse to panic.

Losing his cool now would only reveal further flaws.

One of the entities stepped up to Li Yan, smiling as it said, "Lord Li Yan, our boss requests your presence. You had better cooperate with us; otherwise, the boss gave orders that we are to drag you there by force if necessary."

Li Yan nodded, then said with a stern expression, "Fine, I will go with you."

Seeing that Li Yan was willing to comply, the entities breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing none of them could actually defeat him in a fight.

Li Yan followed them to the exterior of the Hall of Oddities.

The heavy doors of the hall were tightly shut, leaving him completely unable to discern the situation inside.

He gave a tentative knock on the door and called out, "Boss, are you in there?"

Of course, this wasn't entirely a pointless question; he merely wanted to test the entity boss's current disposition.

After waiting for a long while, Li Yan finally received a response from the boss.

The entity boss replied, "I am. Come in."

The voice sounded ice-cold, carrying a palpable trace of anger.

Li Yan's heart instantly sank to the bottom. It was over—the boss was furious, beyond a doubt.

Even so, he took a deep breath to steady himself, pushed open the door, and stepped inside.

Walking in with a smile, Li Yan saw that the entity boss had assumed a human form.

He was strikingly handsome, yet his face was draped in a terrifying, gloomy scowl.

Surrounding the boss were numerous other entities, all fixing their gazes on Li Yan the moment he entered.

Wearing a smile, Li Yan addressed the boss, "Boss, is there some urgent matter that required you to summon me at such a late hour?"

The entity boss looked at Li Yan with a thin, menacing smile and said, "Nothing much, just wanted to catch up with you. What were you up to tonight? I went to your room to check on you, but you were nowhere to be found."

A cold sweat broke out across Li Yan's skin, making his heart race. He swallowed hard and forced a calm exterior, replying, "I just stepped out to use the restroom."

Hearing this, the entity boss's smile grew even more sinister as he walked straight up to Li Yan.

He trailed a long, sharp fingernail across Li Yan's cheek, sending an eerie, tickling sensation down his spine.

Li Yan wanted to pull away, but he didn't dare.

After toying with him for a moment, the entity boss turned serious and said, "Spit it out. What on earth were you really doing? Otherwise, the consequences will be grim."

With an easy laugh, Li Yan replied, "Boss, I truly didn't do anything."

At those words, the expression on the entity boss's face shifted entirely. The lingering smile vanished, replaced by a towering rage.

Without warning, he struck out, knocking Li Yan flat onto the floor.

With a cold sneer, the boss glared down at him and said, "Did you really think that by keeping quiet, I wouldn't find out you've recovered your memories? Tonight, you tried to fool me with a decoy and snuck off to see your parents, didn't you? Even you are planning to leave me, aren't you?"

Clutching his chest, Li Yan endured waves of agonizing pain before he could finally catch his breath.

He couldn't help but marvel inwardly; even though half of the entity boss's power now resided within his own body, the boss was still terrifyingly formidable.

His strength was indeed not to be underestimated.

Struggling to push himself up from the floor, Li Yan looked at the entity boss and said, "Boss, it is true that my memories have returned, but I have no intention of leaving you. I only went to see my parents out of concern for them, with no other motives whatsoever."

Knowing that launching a direct attack at this moment would be foolish, Li Yan resorted to desperate excuses.

The entity boss found his words utterly laughable.

He was truly incensed by Li Yan's deceit.

Transforming once more, he reappeared right beside Li Yan and unleashed a barrage of needles forged entirely from his own concentrated energy.

Frowning, Li Yan tried to dodge, and while he managed to evade a few, he could not escape the fate of being pierced like a hedgehog.

Shocked into silence, Li Yan could only knit his brows as the needles sank completely into his flesh.

An excruciating pain wracked his internal organs, drawing a miserable shriek from his lips as he frantically channeled his energy to force the needles out.

To his horror, however, instead of expelling the foreign objects, mobilizing his energy only drove the needles deeper into his body.

The agony intensified twofold.

Yet, far more terrifying than the physical pain was the sudden rebellion of the energy within him.

Kneeling on the ground in utter torment, he pleaded pathetically with the entity boss for mercy, crying, "Spare me, please! I beg you! I would never dare betray you."

Squatting down in front of Li Yan, the entity boss grinned maliciously and said, "You call this anything? You can't even handle this much? This is only the beginning."

Hearing this, Li Yan's brows knitted tighter as waves of despair washed over him.

He cursed inwardly, thinking that this entity was an absolute psychopath who truly intended to torture him to death.

While cursing, he tried once more to mobilize his internal energy, only to find an even more dire situation.

The needles in his body completely suppressed his abilities, allowing him to muster only a negligible fraction of his power.

This sliver of energy was utterly useless against the entity boss.

He groaned in agony, but the entity boss ignored his cries entirely, watching the torture unfold with detached amusement.

As time dragged on, Li Yan's suffering multiplied exponentially.

His screams grew piercing and desperate.

Beside him, the entity boss laughed heartily.

Finally, at Li Yan's most desperate entreaties, the entity boss used his magic to extract every single needle from Li Yan's body.

Li Yan thought it was finally over.

To his dismay, it was far from finished.

Even after removing all the needles, the entity boss turned to the surrounding creatures and commanded, "Kill him."

Clenching his fists, Li Yan dragged himself up from the floor with immense difficulty.

He braced himself for battle.

Every single step he took, every flicker of energy he summoned, sent searing pain through his frame.

The surrounding entities, long harboring deep grudges against him, leaped at the chance to finally rid themselves of him, eagerly scheming how best to finish him off.