[{"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-310":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},2269956,4431,"Chapter 310","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-310",310,"\u003Cp>A rusted sword stained with blood lies buried in stone; a child searching for kin drapes shrouds upon his father and brothers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The battle cries of a hundred years past have faded; war banners and crowns have lost their masters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The choir of the sanctuary still lingers; the dead’s lament turns to frost upon the stars’ soil—why do the living on this scorched earth endure? For the crown and banner of the past, or for the corpses of loved ones beneath the earth?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ancient song was shaped in Old Elvish; without “Serpent’s Tongue,” merely understanding it is exceedingly difficult, let alone pronouncing it correctly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is a poem that feels awkward even in translation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its general meaning is that war brings nothing, and participation in war yields only suffering and meaningless loss—an extreme rarity among bards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, heroes, princesses, and dragons are the bards’ favorite tavern tunes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A simple tale—hero slays dragon, rescues princess, gains happy life—is enough. Overly complex or unsatisfying stories are far too unfriendly to weary adventurers seeking rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They crave heroic epics—simple, direct, and thrilling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This, perhaps, is the root of why Hero Cards and Mage Chess are so popular.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh, this is a lethal dose, even for me—that’s excessive. Explain.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What does it feel like to be hit with a fireball by your master? Li En felt dizzy; he took a deep breath, suppressing his agitation and the flames threatening to burst forth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Boom!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sneeze unleashed a burst of flame—like a tiny dragon’s breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En’s furnace-like body is truly absurd.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huff…” The Archmage still gasped heavily; this was an unusual exertion for him, especially after hearing Li En was trying to “mediate peace.” He had truly panicked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He roughly knew what Li En had acquired; seeing him recite in Old Elvish, he instinctively interrupted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This bardic ballad is a true ‘plague’ capable of destroying all. I don’t know where you got it, but if it’s tied to that man, it must never be sung.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What? A song linked to a plague?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Archmage was no riddler; he had no intention of beating around the bush.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Confirming no one else had heard the song, he finally sighed and relaxed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He told Li En to find a private place for a quiet talk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fortunately, you hinted you found his legacy, so I asked someone knowledgeable in my clan.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Archmage wasted no time and handed Li En the sealed letter to read himself. He had assumed the obscure Elvish script would require his interpretation—yet Li En understood it at a glance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damn, this is a trap.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This little tune, or “Song of Silent Peace,” was invented by Fiestrion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stole the Elven King’s divine relic to stop the Elven civil war—and became a criminal. But this was not the full story; it was only the beginning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a criminal, he was subjected to the cruelest punishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elves, in their official histories, were the very embodiment of torture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They stripped his eyes, hearing, and tongue; sealed his eloquent, singing mouth; ruined his beautiful face meant for feasting; even severed his arms used to play instruments and hung them on the palace walls, waiting for him to dry and die.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone believed he was dead—but he struggled on for a full month, still alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One night, he vanished. The Elven King suspected a half-elf had taken pity and rescued him, so he punished the half-elf clan by exiling some from the royal court.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But looking back now, it was likely just an excuse to vent his rage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So far, there’s been no massacre of half-elves?” Li En was surprised; this contradicted the description of the “Great Criminal.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Archmage shook his head; he hadn’t expected a childhood fairy tale to differ so drastically from reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Actually, it wasn’t just half-elves who were slaughtered. Three years later, Fiestrion reappeared.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By then, the Elven civil war had already erupted fully; losing one divine relic wouldn’t alter the war’s course for long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the death of an Elven King could not halt this fated war—the internal contradictions had reached their inevitable breaking point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that time, battlefields extended beyond villages and cities; any elf of different lineage or bloodline slaughtered one another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gods fought gods, heroes battled heroes, and ordinary elves picked up hoes to crush their neighbors’ skulls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The glorious ancient royal court became a pool of blood; the current Elven Blood God was born from that slaughter. The Elven era ended utterly—shared blood became the very guide to mutual annihilation.” The scene described by the Archmage filled one with dread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this moment of despair, the bard who had lost everything returned along the main avenue of the royal court.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bard, with wooden prosthetic limbs, wore a smiling mask to conceal his disfigured face.\u003C\u002Fp>",800,"2026-06-19T21:45:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","b593da5bc35100e00b49e9112190a4421936703cbfe1b81b82ec0bb4925b1d8c","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-311","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-309",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-cover.jpg"]