Deviant: No Longer Human

That sight left a bitter taste in his mouth.

In fact, he felt very weird.

The sensation was unsettling, a mixture of relief at his restored youth and horror at the loss that seemed permanent.

He reached up instinctively to touch his face, his fingers tracing the skin where his eyes should have been, only to confirm again that they were not there.

Hiiiiiiiiisssss!

At that instant, Wang Xiao\'s face twisted in sudden alarm as the earth beneath him vibrated ominously.

He was peering into his own unsettling reflection when the tranquility of the moment shattered.

Whooooosh!

Without warning, the water beneath his feet erupted as an enormous serpent, far more massive than its predecessor, surged upward and swallowed him whole.

Only then did Wang Xiao comprehend the reality — he had been standing atop the serpent\'s vast, submerged body.

Gulp!

The serpent, an immense behemoth stretching hundreds of feet, rose fully from the dark waters.

Its glaring yellow eyes burned with fury as they focused on the remnants of its slain sibling.

The beast\'s anger, far from being quelled by consuming Wang Xiao, seemed only to intensify.

Its scales shimmered omniously in the light of the three suns, its body tensing for a devastating retaliation.

However, just as it reared back, its fangs exposed in a fearsome snarl—

Bang!

Wang Xiao burst explosively from within the serpent.

Hisssssssss!

Tearing through its scales and flesh, he emerged, an ant like figure.against the monstrous predator.

"Spit..." he growled, spitting contemptuously at the serpent\'s twitching form as it thrashed in a futile attempt to destroy him and die in a blaze of mutual destruction.

The serpent\'s eyes, filled with an undying hatred and a thirst for vengeance, shimmered with a deadly light.

They bore into Wang Xiao, reflecting the depth of its primal rage, promising that this battle was far from over.

Sssskkreee!

However, every time the serpent lunged to attack, Wang Xiao cleverly dodged, weaving through the air with agility until the serpent, drained of all its strength, finally collapsed and died.

Wang Xiao, now hovering above the area, surveyed the dead body of the serpent, which floated limply on the water\'s surface.

He felt a stir of unease as he realized that the lake was not truly a lake, but rather a vast pond!

Tremble... Tremble...

In that moment, a sinking feeling hit Wang Xiao—something was terribly wrong.

The pond began to churn violently, and the surrounding forest shook with it.

From his aerial view, it appeared that the \'pond\' was actually nestled within a massive mountainous structure.

HISSS!

But in the next instant, water surged everywhere as the true form of the beast revealed itself.

The serpent, once coiled in deceptive stillness, was of a monstrous scale—hundreds of meters wide and tens of kilometers long, it had been encircling this place for ages.

Above the serpent\'s body, the forest had grown, camouflaging its immense form.

The pond in the middle was merely water that had been trapped by its massive coils.

As a chilling hiss echoed through the air, Wang Xiao\'s first instinct was to flee.

Whoosh!

But even faster, an eye—vast, impossibly large, larger even than his entire body—appeared before him, glaring down with palpable fury.

Hissss!

Wang Xiao clamped his hands over his ears, his body erupting in goosebumps, as the serpent hissed ominously.

And before he could react further, darkness engulfed him once again.

Once again, darkness enveloped everything...

It stretched on indefinitely...

Perhaps for a year... Perhaps for a century...

Time lost all meaning...

Until, suddenly—

"Gasp!"

Wang Xiao\'s eyes, or where they should have been, snapped open in shock.

"W... What?" He stammered, his voice thick with confusion.

"What\'s... going on?" His words tumbled out, muddled by his inability to grasp the situation.

These experiences couldn\'t be dreams. He was certain of it.

He remembered dying distinctly, so what was this now?

As he surveyed his surroundings, he noticed he was encircled by towering, ancient trees. Something felt amiss.

He realized he was lying on the damp forest floor.

"..."

Shaking off his bewilderment, Wang Xiao stood up, his senses tingling with a strange chill, as if death\'s shadow still clung to him.

A wave of anxiety washed over him.

Despite his unease, he began to cautiously explore the dense forest around him.

This time, he found himself stranded in an unknown place, unable to determine his exact location.

He attempted to take flight to gain a better vantage point, but above him stretched only the unending canopy of the forest, obscuring any view beyond.

His physical eyes were gone, yet mysteriously, he could still see.

As he moved carefully through the woods, Wang Xiao wrestled with the presence of Aether that was growing dense, weaving its way persistently into his being.

"Except for my eyes... Everything else seems to have been restored to the state when I first arrived..." Wang Xiao mused, but this realization also brought a grim acknowledgment: if he didn\'t act, his body would continue to be poisoned by Aether.

After finding a safe spot, he sat down to meditate, aiming to deepen his understanding of Aether and explore if he could repair his cells to achieve eternal youth, much like Eleanor had.

However, within a month...

Grumble...

His stomach churned unexpectedly.

Looking around, he realized he couldn\'t simply sit for years and cultivate as he had initially planned.

In fact, he was surprised he had managed this long without food and water.

Perhaps his body had been unconsciously absorbing a bit of Aether for energy.

After wandering through the forest, he soon spotted an apple tree.

After ensuring everything was safe, he carefully plucked an apple and took a bite.

Crunch!

Given his immunity to most poisons, Wang Xiao hadn\'t considered the possibility of being harmed.

Yet he had failed to account for the fact that things in this world might be drastically different from the outside world.

"!!"

"Vomit—"

The next moment, he coughed up blood and vomited.

Thud!

His body slowly fell backward, his eyelids fluttered shut as his body twitched desperately, struggling to survive.