[{"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-252":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},2269898,4431,"Chapter 252: Sacrifice","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-252",252,"\u003Cp>“For the kingdom, what are you willing to sacrifice?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Hero Lex is indeed me, but not entirely me. At least, not all of me. His story is real, his life is real.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There’s no point discussing with those swept away by emotion—the evil dragon first seeks to dispel some misunderstandings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hero’s life of Lex, from birth to death, was that of an ordinary human, a good soul who lived his life fully and well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This story probably begins in the distant Age of Dragons. I know you have no interest in my ancient tales—skip all that. People must look forward. Due to the foolish act of some idiot, I’m willing to make amends, but interfering with fate carries a price—one I cannot pay myself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But perhaps he had been holding it in too long, or perhaps he had seen through everything, knowing Laina could never leave with her memories intact—the evil dragon showed remarkable patience and talkativeness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though their time together had been brief, Laina had already gained a deep understanding of the dragon’s perverse sense of humor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If you’re willing to release me, or give me a complete set of clothes, I’ll listen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her beautiful body remained motionless; she deliberately stayed calm, ignoring the tentacles writhing and coiling around her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a hero, she had endured countless wounds—freezing, corrosion, fire—this level of obstruction meant nothing; she treated it like a stray dog’s bite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, Li En, watching naked and helpless, covered his face—he was growing increasingly familiar with this D-09 Red Dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike before with Su Er, Ku Ku, and Lex—this perverse creature was 100% Li Ensu!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a personality nearly identical to his own! His expressions, his thought patterns, his habits—they were Li En himself!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ahh!!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sudden tightening of restraint made the complaining female hero let out a soft cry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next moment, the furious female hero glared fiercely at the “man” before her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That familiar yet alien face made her feel as if she were dreaming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who are you? Is Lex, the former hero, just your disguise?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Laina, with her low cultural education, could not be so detached—if all of this was just a lie, just a performance, then her life was nothing but a joke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The kingdom meant nothing anymore! What was Lex really?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Pfft, already forgotten your original goal? No wonder you’re such a genuinely emotional woman.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The evil dragon laughed, playing with the Hero Crown, symbol of boundless courage—nostalgic, yet weary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, the hero Li En not only existed—he was real. He was a good man. That was truly a beautiful memory—well, except for the ending.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Snap.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a finger snap, the evil dragon’s black-haired “man” transformed the scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The former dragon’s nest became a vast library—a boundless grand hall of books.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bookshelves burst open, colorful volumes swirling into the air, transforming into countless “butterflies.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the pages, the hero Laina saw the same face—repeated across different scenes, different eras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the edge of the battlefield between giants and dragons, the giant king’s tent was in heated debate over battlefield deployment—and the giant king’s nearest attendant, a little giant, bore the exact same face as this evil dragon!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath a starry sky on a high ridge, a black rat-man with a similar face adjusted astronomical instruments, calculating the distances between stars and their directions. The next moment, he squeaked, “I’ve figured it out! The star paths interfere in circular patterns—I can create a new star disc! We now have new guidance for planar travel! My discovery will be engraved in the annals of the Astronomical Society!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Laina remembered—she had seen this rat-man’s statue in the royal mage tower. He was the legendary sage who forged the Law of Stardust.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the next scene, a man of the wasteland, draped in a lion’s pelt, followed a towering figure wearing a crown as he raised a rebellious banner. The battle cry—“Dragon-blooded will never be slaves!”—echoed across the entire wasteland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Laina did not recognize the man’s identity, but she recognized the figure he followed and the banner—it was the Dragon-blooded King, the pioneer of the age, the pivotal figure in countless history books—he ended the Age of Dragons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a majestic fortress-city within a volcano spewing magma, a bearded dwarf craftsman summoned thunder and flame, shaping a divine weapon in his hands—and that very spear ended another great era.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next scene, the hero Laina recognized—it was sixteen years ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the desperate battlefield, the hero Li En faced a monstrous beast that blotted out the sky, raising his sword aloft.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The crown upon his head was identical to the one now held by the evil dragon—two faces, perfectly matching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, all the faces merged into one, becoming unified.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only the evil dragon smiled, amused and enigmatic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He, and he, and he—they’re all me. For reasons I can’t explain, I usually seal away all of myself, turning ‘the traveler Li Ensu’ into an ordinary person, sinking into the tide of the age. Only in rare cases—like now—do I awaken. Hmm, well, awakening just one fragment counts as awakening, doesn’t it? Whatever.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Red Dragon Solgaien (D-09) was not lying—every Li Ensu, until death, whether soul or body, was an ordinary member of his time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their experiences, their lives, were all real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their pain, their despair, were all part of the age.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And everything they ultimately gained became the age’s legacy—and also part of the Thousand-Faced Dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You—you why? Are you insane? Are you playing with lives?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, no, how could you think that? I’ve always loved life, always loved this world.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The evil dragon smiled, uttering words the hero would likely never understand in her lifetime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am an ordinary person—Li Ensu, child of coal miner Li Fengdou and company accountant Fang Yun.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have an older brother, Li Yong, two years my senior, and a younger sister, Li Xiaoyu. I’m called Li Ensu (Uncle) because I was born during a heavy snowstorm that blocked the mountains—without the coal miners pushing their bread carts out of the mountains, I wouldn’t have been born.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1010,"2026-06-19T21:45:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","e1702b559b2130d83971b76f04e51b1bde66dd8fc882d5d712fb802c38cf8f32","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-253","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-251",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-cover.jpg"]