Deviant: No Longer Human

But those outbursts were rare, maybe once a month.

These two, though? Xuelan and Yanyan could sit perfectly still, and the next thing he knew, they were locked in a verbal sparring match, as if they were competing to see who could out-grumble the other.

\'Do wom with large breasts have a habit of constant grumbling?\' he wondered, his eyes drifting briefly to Xuelan\'s chest.

She definitely took after her mother in that departmt—soft, big, and impossible to ignore.

But th again, Eleanor rarely complained like this. She was an anomaly, though—hardly someone you could use as a standard for "normal" wom.

---

"Here, take this." Wang Xiao placed a stack of old books on Xuelan\'s desk with a nonchalant air.

"Hm? What\'s this?" Xuelan blinked, surprised. She picked them up, and as she flipped through the brittle pages, her eyes grew wide.

"I noticed you had similar books here before… so I brought these back from the Obsidian Library," Wang Xiao said casually, as if it were just a minor errand.

"..."

Xuelan stared at him, speechless. How could he just stumble upon such treasures?

She stood up abruptly, scouring the shelves for a particular .

Pulling out an old, rusted tome, she oped it beside the new books and compared them. Her face lit up. "It\'s… so similar!"

"What is?" Wang Xiao asked, pretding ignorance.

"Look here!" Xuelan practically glowed as she showed him the intricate diagrams. "The books you brought—they\'re fully fleshed out! These here detail the creation of Aetheric Talismans. The ones in Mother\'s incomplete book are ancit, with fragmted pages.

But if we combine the techniques, we can create a dual-circuited Runic Talisman—one that can run either on Aether or on Mtal Resonance Conduits." She paused, her excitemt building. "These inscriptions ar\'t just decoration—they act as Catalytic Nodes to channel raw Aether into Dynamic Amplifiers."

Wang Xiao blinked, now mildly intrigued.

Aether had all but vanished from the world eons ago.

Ev in the Greek era, it was a rare and coveted resource, long replaced by Psychokinetic Fields and Telepathic Constructs in divine bloodlines of gods.

Those cultivated Mtal Projections and harvested ergy from the subconscious realms, like gods refining the souls of their followers.

Zeus himself had built complex Soul Harvest Arrays in Tartarus, where raw psychic ergy could be siphoned from mortal souls, to fuel his own \'Divinity.\'

Yet here Xuelan was, talking about forgott runic inscriptions.

They were no ordinary symbols; they were \'Celestial Glyphs\', capable of interacting with universal constants—tapping into Resonance Frequcies of reality itself.

He\'d se something similar in the Graveyard of the Gods, where ev the Call of Death had used an ancit form of Runic Compression.

Yuriko, during their last battle, had attempted to harness such power using God\'s Authority, though they had no effect on him.

Being a Transcdt Entity, Wang Xiao\'s Divine Signature was too complex for mere runes to affect him.

His presce alone altered the flow of reality a him.

That was the advantage of being a Transcdt,a higher being whose very thoughts were translated into Cosmic Law. He didn\'t need to learn runic languages—his existce was already coded into the universe.

Still, if he bothered to learn this system, he\'d likely be able to wield Runic Energy Constructs better than anyone.

Yuriko\'s attempts were clumsy in comparison, and ev the ancit Greek gods seemed like childr playing with toys they didn\'t fully understand.

Most of this knowledge—whether Talismans or Runic Frameworks—was likely handed down by the Pangeans or some surviving Gods reincarnation like Eveline\'s.

Xuelan continued, lost in her own world. "With a fully aligned Runic Circuit, I could bypass the need for Aether altogether, converting Mtal Energy directly into tangible effects. The Aether pockets that once existed are gone, but that\'s no longer an issue! We could activate dormant formations and create functioning amulets that run on Aether, or talismans that run on Runic inscriptions!"

Her thusiasm reminded Wang Xiao of the first time he\'d countered the Amulet of Protection of Morpheus.

He had originally be intrigued by its capabilities, but later abandoned the research wh his divine abilities proved far superior.

Still, Xuelan had clearly inherited Eleanor\'s reltless thirst for knowledge. Her vast library was proof ough of that.

"Dad, I need Aether," Xuelan suddly said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Aether? Here?" Wang Xiao blinked.

"Yes," Xuelan folded her arms. "Mom mtioned she\'s be planning to gradually allow Aether back into Xianthera in small quantities. Why hasn\'t it started yet?"

Wang Xiao thought back, recalling vague conversations. "Right… we did have that plan."

"Th get on with it!" Xuelan huffed, clearly not in the mood to wait. "Aether is esstial if I\'m going to stabilize these Talismanic Designs and incorporate Runic Hieroglyphs properly. The barriers you put in place isolate Xianthera\'s ecosystem from Aetheric influce, and I need it reintroduced—just a small crack in the space-time fabric should do."

Wang Xiao chuckled under his breath. "Okay," he said, shrugging.

Oping a crack in the Temporal-Spatial Barrier isolating Xianthera wasn\'t hard for him.

Without warning, Xuelan stepped forward, rising on her toes and pressing a quick, impulsive kiss to his cheek. "Thank you," she said, pulling away just as quickly.

Wang Xiao blinked, tak aback.

Though he tried to keep his expression neutral, the lingering fragrance of sweet honey filled the air.

"Now go out," Xuelan added, waving him off dismissively. "I have work to do."

"You\'re kicking me out already...? Such a selfish daughter... Sigh..." Wang Xiao raised a brow, pretding to be pitful.

"You\'ve done your part," she replied, her eyes already glued to the ancit books. "Go tertain yourself with your other woman or try to hit on Yanyan; she would definitely be more than eager to throw herself at you! The longer you linger here, the more perverted you\'ll become. Bye-bye!"

With a half-smile and a sigh, Wang Xiao turned to leave.

As he stepped out, a flicker of pride crept up on him—Xuelan had definitely inherited Eleanor\'s sharp intellect, and perhaps a bit of his own stubborn streak.

But wh it came to his daughters\' behavior, Wang Xiao had learned over time that no matter how he \'guided\' them, each reacted differtly, never in the same way.

Wxi, Anran\'s daughter, was soft and shy. She accepted his touch, ev seemed to joy it, as long as he didn\'t push too far.

Yue, on the other hand, approached things with a sse of duty, as if it was something she allowed because it was expected. However, she wasn\'t about to strip and throw herself into his arms until he asked her to do the same.

Her demeanor was a reminisct for Eveline\'s daughters, Ji Xuehong and the crew—tolerant but with the thusiasm of a wet sock. "Go ahead, take advantage of us. It\'s not like we can stop you…" they seemed to sigh with a collective eye-roll.

Th there was Yanyan—Amelia\'s daughter.

Now she was someone Wang Xiao carefully avoided.