[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces":3,"chapter-the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-234":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Dragon of a Thousand Faces",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2269880,4431,"Chapter 234: Life's Ladder","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-234",234,"\u003Cp>“Not a beast?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not at all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Pure-blooded dragon descendant?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Pure, ultra-pure, and the bloodline rank is very high—at least above dyed diamond.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To show sincerity, Hela was quite friendly, even permitting a blood test.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The result showed no “beast” reaction; besides confirming her pure royal bloodline (despite the illegitimate child’s potion), it also revealed her 100% dragon lineage. This meant she had rejected her mother’s power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not a magic girl, not a beast,” Dainya plopped down, staring at her cheerful, relaxed “sister,” with no reason even to yawn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In bloodline, she and Hela were the closest, and in their relationship, they could even be called “bound by life and death.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A sixteen-year-old dyed-diamond bloodline, and on the hardest-to-advance dragon line”—this alone was hardware of an absurdly extreme nature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But considering her living conditions, it seemed perfectly natural.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The dyed diamond has turned red; the flame of life is burning fiercely.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The real-world rank system is quite crude, only roughly distinguishing strength levels; professions are marked solely by ring count and class, while only bloodline and supernatural abilities (race) carry direct identifiers—this is essentially a species-level marker.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some groups or races are inherently powerful, typically marked by their adult bloodline strength as their species level—for example, orcs are raw-stone species, while adult dragons possess diamond bloodline.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The most basic is raw stone (inferior stones are not included), meaning uncut ore; according to the Spirit Atlas records, species at this level are roughly single-digit in number.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next comes not gold or silver, but “colored metal.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Copper, silver, and similar are categorized under colored metal, referring to ore that has been mined, refined, and turned into usable material.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This stage roughly corresponds to the core and backbone of each race; peak gold bloodline means the peak of colored metal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is a continuous refining process, during which the organism’s food intake often increases dramatically, with heat and supernatural materials serving as fuel for “refinement,” allowing life to accumulate “quantity.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next step, “diamond,” is a qualitative transformation; the transparent diamond signifies “purity,” for at this moment the bloodline becomes even purer, and the path ahead becomes clearer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From this stage onward, the organism’s food intake generally begins to decrease; they gradually ignite their internal “flame of life,” beginning to “radiate light and heat” on their own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As non-humans, they no longer rely entirely on external sustenance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dyed diamond, colored diamond—these terms describe the “brightness” of life at this stage, gradually becoming more “vivid” along the solar spectrum.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Minor sub-levels like red diamond or blue diamond are not significant, as their distinctions are subtle; they are usually just called colored diamond. If all goes well, this stage tends to be brief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it is extremely dangerous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Igniting the flame of life and the soul’s fire—if one does not smoothly enter the next stage, when time runs out, one is utterly “burned out.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet “diamond warriors” at this stage, viewed purely by physical form, have already achieved a degree of “eternity.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They heal themselves naturally, can survive even with minimal food, and their stamina and sustained combat capability reach inhuman levels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Miss Hela is likely not far from Star Rank.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When an indestructible diamond begins to “radiate light” on its own, it naturally becomes an immortal star.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The brightness of the soul’s fire slightly dims and becomes stable and enduring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The most direct effect is a dramatic increase in lifespan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are minor sub-levels within this stage, but the differences are now quite pronounced; high-end “stars” and newcomers to “shattered stars” are on entirely different levels, yet to mortals, their strength is already comparable to legendary heroes—just go on a rampage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for what comes after—Sacred Spirits (Divine Envoys), Demigods, Eternal Thrones—these involve true eternity; there’s no need to discuss them now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clearly, these so-called ranks actually indicate the degree of species evolution, a genuine hardware standard; supernatural professions naturally don’t use this system, but bloodline abilities and supernatural traits rooted in the body and hardware can still draw from this evaluation framework.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also, one can see the arrogance behind this system—it was never designed for ordinary people; the most numerous silver and gold ranks were simply lumped into colored metal. To them, diamond rank is probably just the beginning.\u003C\u002Fp>",705,"2026-06-19T21:45:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","b882937e0d769a3d05d09c4c55649b46dce497743ae0b011cdf89342957c91c3","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-235","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-233",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-cover.jpg"]