Compared to the danger of his body being out of control, Ye Yan's vacant eyes and disbelieving expression made it clear that he was completely immersed in his own thoughts, with no attention to spare for the battle before him.
Although the situation looked favorable, Xu Zhi inexplicably felt that something was wrong.
She did not step forward to finish Ye Yan off just because he had lost control. Instead, she trusted her instincts and swiftly retreated the moment she sensed something amiss, putting distance between herself and Ye Yan.
Under the Eye of Secrets' gaze, the Cup energy within Ye Yan's body was wandering wildly through him, just like his chaotic thoughts, thrown into disarray by its owner's confusion.
Yet faintly, there seemed to be something unusual amid that chaos—something unsettling.
As if it were "boiling."
Kneeling where he was, Ye Yan did not even notice Xu Zhi's rapid retreat. Violent tinnitus and dizziness battered him, as though his fragile self-esteem were loudly demanding to know why he had knelt before a human Transcendent!
As humiliation, embarrassment, and regret seemed about to drag him into an abyss and shatter him completely, something within him was also being remade.
Ye Yan saw his "miserable" past once more. He remembered that he had never truly understood what "dignity" was. His Pride had been rootless, and the sudden power he had gained had gone straight to his head.
If—if—if he had faced his current self more honestly and studied the power he had gained more carefully, would everything have been different?
He should not have lost. Xu Zhi clearly had not been one hundred percent certain she could kill him.
Then why was he kneeling here now?
Of course. Because he had been too shallow!
He had never grasped the true essence