[{"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-332":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},2269978,4431,"Chapter 332","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-332",332,"\u003Cp>“I know what you want.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can give it to you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But you lack the ability to take it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This meeting, Fiestrion did not waste time—he directly voiced Li En’s thoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En was startled; he never expected the other to lay his cards on the table so bluntly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally, he thought they would probe each other for some time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m busy. I don’t have time to play with children.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Master of the Three Phases' personality rejected the system's reconnection request while directly confronting \"himself.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En saw this as a battle of wits and strategy, but for Fiestrion, it was truly just amusing a child—winning was expected, losing was impossible; the gap between them was too vast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Simply wasting time playing with a child was already embarrassing for him; an adult with too much work to do, abandoning duties to play games with nephews, nieces, or grandchildren, was simply indefensible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I need deities, need divine magic and faith support—at least one church as cover.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Agreed. I can let you use one divine power server, requiring only minimal faith maintenance. You can gather some of my believers—though few in number, they do exist.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh, I’ll revise your doctrine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Lord of Drama and Pleasure had a relatively decent reputation, but it didn’t match Li En’s style—he needed something harder, more forceful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most of those believers were actors and bards, of little use to Li En now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Agreed. I can forge a virtual divine core for you—don’t expect much strength, just a pseudo-deity tier, but it can provide certain divine arts. As for domains—choose two from Sun, Hero, War, Life, Art, Nature.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En fell silent. After dropping the act, he realized he had still underestimated the man before him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was a virtual divine core? What was a pseudo-deity? And why were there so many domains?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En knew basic theology: if a deity could grant corresponding domain abilities, it meant He held the corresponding divine office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Lord of Drama and Pleasure clearly should have been a weak deity with only the “Art” domain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the domains the other now offered were all famously powerful—meaning this deity’s true divine office was absurdly immense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Powerful domains usually meant fierce competition, even divine wars; surviving proved strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh… can I pick all of them?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You can—if you want to be besieged by countless churches tomorrow. This is a virtual divine core, a fabricated pseudo-deity; granting low-tier abilities is its limit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since it’s a false god, it can be omnipotent? Nonsense—this made no sense at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Actually, it’s common. Many true deities have ‘masks’—some use chosen champions, others incarnate themselves. Shall I tell you which benevolent gods have evil incarnations?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, thank you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En felt numb. Were these secrets even meant for him to know?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fiestrion briefly explained: deities weren’t eternal or fixed in stance—sometimes, to compete for parishes or divine artifacts, they donned masks, acting under the names of obscure deities, quasi-deities, or divine beings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If such incarnations successfully ascended to godhood, the original deity naturally became a dual-faced entity, indirectly expanding its domain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some powerful divine offices were originally stitched together from others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some new deities were once fragments of older ones, growing independently to fill gaps in the old god’s domains—then merging, forming pantheons with incarnations, or playing duets—all normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, some went too far—there were several cases where incarnations became mortal enemies of their true selves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“During wartime, the God of Art accidentally got wiped out—hiding a few incarnations and switching roles was perfectly normal,” Fiestrion seemed to have accidentally revealed something huge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fiestrion said this; whether Li En believed him was another matter entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Li En’s gaze toward the other grew strangely nuanced—merely the existence of these domains suggested the other was not the so-called weakest deity, but among the strongest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps the Lord of Drama and Pleasure was merely this elder’s “incarnation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En shook his head. No matter how powerful he was, he was already of the past; what mattered now was always the future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“These domains…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Domain power was the greatest leverage to attract divine servants; a priest’s power system consisted of two parts: one, standard priestly abilities (divine spell list), with minor differences; the other, the domain granted by the divine office.\u003C\u002Fp>",713,"2026-06-19T21:45:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","038c3377203661ba1d86e9047e45b4804ba8b09d2ed2c9dd0a260585762487c5","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-333","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-331",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-cover.jpg"]