Deviant: No Longer Human-Chapter 798: Beating Eveline: The Day a Goddess Learned Fear! (2)

Chapter 798: Beating Eveline: The Day a Goddess Learned Fear! (2)

"♫ ♫ ~"

"♫ ♪ ♪ ~ ~"

After dealing with the three inside, Wang Xiao strolled out, humming softly, lips curled in a lazy, satisfied smile. His steps were light, almost deliberate, as if the afternoon had put him in a wonderful mood.

At the end of the hallway, Ning Xue stood quietly near the staircase. She was the picture of understated grace, soft hair falling to her shoulders, hands folded, eyes downcast but clear.

Despite everything, her voice was reserved, as she spoke up:

"... do you ever... feel sorry for them?"

Wang Xiao paused mid-step, tilting his head like he’d just spotted a fresh lamb for the altar, his humming dying off. "Sorry? Why would I feel sorry?"

His smile stretched a shade too casually.

Ning Xue’s brows creased just a little, lips pressed in a delicate frown. "It just seems... you enjoy hurting people. Even when they beg you to stop. Is it really fun?"

Wang Xiao blinked, studying her for a second, the question echoing in the hall. He shrugged, "People only cry when they’re alive, and living means feeling everything, pleasure, pain, fear, even humiliation. Who am I to deny them what life has to offer?"

She bit her lip, looking at him with a helpless, almost innocent bewilderment, struggling to wrap her mind around the monstrous nonchalance.

"... Does it ever end? Or do you just keep pushing until there’s nothing left?"

Wang Xiao’s smile deepened, becoming almost affectionate. "End? Where’s the fun in that?"

Before she could say another word, a steel golf club materialized in Wang Xiao’s hand out of nowhere.

Without warning, he strolled up to her with that innocent look she already didn’t trust.

"What’s wrong with yo—"

She never finished. He slipped behind her and, without hesitation, brought the club down with a sharp crack across her backside.

"Ah-!"

Ning Xue jolted like she’d been electrocuted, hands flying to her butt as she spun around, face blazing. She stared at him, wide-eyed, too shocked to even decide whether to be angry or mortified.

Wang Xiao just leaned in, caught her chin, and pinched her cheeks between his fingers, squishing the soft flesh until it flushed gentle pink.

"I like these chubby cheeks, they’re just like Aurora’s," he said casually. "But don’t puff them up too much. Get too angry, and they’ll only get fatter."

"..."

Ning Xue, originally gearing up to yell about the smack, froze. ’Chubby? Fat? From which angle do I look fat?’

Then another thought hit her, Aurora?

Isn’t that her mother’s name?

"You... know my—" She tried, but the words wrapped in her shock.

Wang Xiao didn’t bother waiting. He simply tossed the golf club onto the floor with a careless clatter. "Don’t make me pick that up again. Next time, I won’t go easy on you."

And with that, he turned and walked down the stairs, leaving a casual threat hanging like incense smoke.

Ning Xue stood there, backside stinging, blinking rapidly. ’Did he just hit me for no reason? And I didn’t even fight back?’

Her curiosity about how he knew her mother evaporated.

He knew Velkhara.

He knew Athene.

Knowing Aurora wasn’t even surprising anymore.

No, what burned was the insult.

He really smacked her and walked away like she was background furniture.

Revenge...

She wanted revenge!

She glared at the golf club on the floor, face twisting into a rare stubborn pout. After a moment of hesitation, she darted back, snatched it up, and gripped it with both slender fingers.

"I need to beat him at least once..." she muttered, determination lighting her eyes.

Before she could form a plan, Wang Xiao slipped out of view with the lazy grace of a seasoned villain, his low chuckle drifting down the staircase like a taunt.

Her grip tightened! Murder filled her eyes!

She stormed down after him and, reaching the bottom of the stairs, swung the club at his head with all the fury of a humiliated goddess.

Wang Xiao merely stepped aside, like dodging a floating leaf. He chuckled, "Homicide now? You really want to go to jail for this?"

Before she could sputter a comeback, he grabbed her ankle and tugged.

BANG!

She crashed onto the floor with a thud so dramatic even the furniture seemed to flinch.

Silence.

"..."

No one had never witnessed a goddess faceplant quite so spectacularly.

Ning Xue didn’t move at first, face smashed against the cold floor, pride bleeding out faster than her breath.

A beat.

Two.

Then softly, through clenched teeth:

"...I’m going to kill him."

"Oh?"

Wang Xiao, already halfway turned, paused. His voice dropped into something dry and mocking. "Murder? The man you sleep with? Really?"

He glanced back at her, one eye narrowed, her backside annoyingly prominent after the fall.

"That needs flattening," he muttered with terrible sincerity.

"!!"

Ning Xue’s face darkened. "I don’t sleep with y-"

She didn’t finish.

A sharp kick landed on her backside, firm, not gentle, enough to make her whole body jolt.

"—!"

She sucked in a breath, outrage swelling—

Another kick!

"..."

Silence.

Her face turned cold, the kind of cold that made the room quietly tense.

"...Brother, I don’t think she likes that," a woman in a black top finally said from the couch.

She had been pretending to ignore, but the faint wisp of heat rising from the marble floor around Ning Xue was... concerning.

She didn’t want to be involved, but ignoring that temperature spike was impossible.

Wang Xiao didn’t look bothered at all.

He nudged her again with the calm confidence of someone flattening a pillow.

If it weren’t for the rising heat, Wang Xueying would have honestly found it hilarious.

"Here... use this. She needs to cool down."

Yue, barely restrained and tired of this rebellious phoenix attacking her father every five minutes, passed Wang Xiao a plastic bucket filled with water.

He blinked in surprise at her.

Yue only smiled shyly, as if she hadn’t just encouraged an escalation.

"..." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Wang Xiao sighed. "Sweet girl. Too sweet, sometimes..."

He took the bucket and, without ceremony—

SPLASH!

"!!!"

Ning Xue froze.

Hiss~~!

The water hit her back, instantly turning into a burst of white steam that rolled across the floor.

The threat of her explosion died in a hiss.

She stayed flat for a moment, drenched, breath shaky, hair sticking to her cheeks. Then she sucked in a slow breath and pushed herself upright.

"Feeling better?" Wang Xiao asked with a small smile, right before her cold, dripping gaze snapped to him.

"Don’t."

Her hand came up and pressed over his mouth, stopping him mid-sentence.

Wang Xiao blinked, genuinely surprised. "Hm?"

She leaned in slightly, eyes burning hot despite being soaked. "Do not finish that sentence."

And without another word, she turned and walked away.

No shouting.

No arguing.

Just... walked out.

"..."

Her wet clothes left a trail across the marble floor as silence settled over the room.

Wang Xiao slowly turned to Yue with a mildly accusing look. "You angered her."

Yue shrugged. "She gets angry too fast. She needs patience."

Wang Xiao blinked, considered that, and nodded.

His daughters rarely got angry, not anymore. They weren’t always like that, of course. When they were younger, he used... unconventional methods.

Throwing them off cliffs, for example.

It sounded strange at first. A lot of screaming.

But at the bottom, when they didn’t die because he brought them back, and he repeated it until the panic wore off?

Eventually, they stopped screaming.

Eventually, they stopped fearing death.

Once they learned calm, he stopped throwing them.

It wasn’t always necessary, but as he glanced at little Eirene sitting with Eveline, then turned his head to the opposite side, toward the pool, and through the open doorway connecting both spaces, his eyes rested on the Empress Tree shedding violet flowers.

A tree that absolutely did not shed in winter.

Which meant he had no other choice with some children.

She looked so small, but the moment her fingers brushed the bark earlier, the tree had aged a decade.

At first, he assumed it was Ning Xue acting out again.

But no the culprit was smaller.

Far more innocent-looking.

First the random teleportation earlier... now this?

Eirene’s large eyes blinked as she noticed him staring.

The corner of her mouth twitched upward in a tiny excited smile.

Wang Xiao returned a faint smile of his own, but his thoughts were far from gentle.

If left unchecked, she could destroy half the city.

Just like Ning Xue nearly burned an entire floor not even a minute ago.

Unlike him, someone who climbed through stages of power one by one, these were born with catastrophic strength and no time to learn control.

Wang Xiao exhaled quietly. Part test, part discipline... the bullying was just his own habit. The fiery little phoenix could be dealt with later.

His gaze shifted to Wang Xueying, who had called him out earlier.

"Call Isabelle. We’ll meet her after I’m done with this."

Wang Xueying blinked, unsure what "this" referred to.

But Eveline knew. She saw Wang Xiao walking toward her, his shadow falling across her lap.

She lifted her head and greeted him with a soft, natural smile.

Her heart, however, was nowhere near as calm!