[{"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-356":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},2270002,4431,"Chapter 356: The Magic of Change","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-356",356,"\u003Cp>Meteor Burst, a range attack spell in the ninth circle, is theoretically powerful but rarely used in practice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The disgrace of ninth-circle spells.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Theoretically, it pulls a meteor down to earth, delivering a devastating area attack with both fire and physical damage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in actual combat, it has several extremely serious flaws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, its mana cost is enormous; second, it has a long delay—especially the fall time—and such a huge mana investment is wasted if it misses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, pure evocation damage suffers from resistances in top-tier duels; physical damage faces even more specialized defenses, and most importantly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Death, Dragon’s Breath, Wail of the Banshee, Modenken’s Blade, Disintegrate—each has hundreds of variants, upgrades, and sibling spells. Do high-tier mages lack attack spells? Why would I use that slow, unstable fire meteor?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, most casters above the ninth circle still learn this spell first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, as a team caster, you may not excel at—or even disdain—the role of an evocation artillery tower, but you cannot truly lack it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Which version of Meteor Burst is this? I want to learn it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The senior mage in the party, Ma Dun, an evocation master and Li En’s senior, stared at the apocalyptic scene before him and instantly locked onto it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He thought if he brought it back, his master would be delighted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not just his master, but all evocation fanatics who love explosions adore the sight of falling stars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Boom!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Boom!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire world plunged into a sea of fire; several magical arrays in midair periodically spat out medium-sized meteors, which accelerated, broke apart mid-fall, and ultimately became vast infernos covering entire regions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The desert temple and the Spider Mother’s hall were already engulfed in flames; the screams of spider monsters echoed throughout the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Li En spotted Kuku’s technical signature at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Although Meteor Burst is the evocation spell with the most variants (the original was too pathetic), this barely resembles the original anymore.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En had studied the records of “Kuku’s Chain Meteor Burst (ninth to tenth circle)” and found it matched the current description exactly—it was a theoretical spell, yet now theory had become reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One layer, two layers, three layers of spell arrays—how did they achieve this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meteor Burst does not directly pull down a meteor; instead, it opens a spatial array, allowing the meteor to emerge from the array before falling and being guided.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In reality, this involves multiple steps and precise control: from spatial summoning to evocation fusion to fall trajectory management—all testing the evocation mage’s elemental control and transformation abilities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, Li En saw three Meteor Burst arrays stacked atop one another, overlapping yet transforming a single mana input into summoning “three dragons,” then further subdividing the mana into a continuous rain of fire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Without Kuku’s multi-threaded thinking, how could they simultaneously control three spatial arrays—or is this one array with three spatial rifts?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Others saw only the spectacle, the explosive power of a powerful spell; Li En saw that Kuku’s technical challenges had been solved in reality—the relentless rain of fire descending made his heart tremble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially the miniature “pattern” at the array’s center: a three-headed dragon—this was Kuku the Sage’s personal signature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the array in his memory, this one was far more complex.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How was such a high-difficulty array precisely controlled simultaneously?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En didn’t believe the caster possessed the ability to focus on three tasks at once to draw an array of this level—that would require stable modular casting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En’s Fire Rain series has never been mass-producible and remains awkward precisely because it was tailor-made for Kuku’s multi-focus ability; without multi-casting or multi-focus specialization, such spell effects are unattainable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I want this spell.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even though using it was still far off, Li En resolved to obtain its data.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, this wasn’t the time to consider such things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t get drawn in—procure supplies, then head to the Great Magic Realm.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They won’t sell? Then we’ll take it by force. This isn’t crime—it’s striking down evil! First cast Detect Evil, then loot—it’s not robbery.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While the city’s attention is distracted by these sudden attackers, we’ll handle our own business.\u003C\u002Fp>",689,"2026-06-19T21:45:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","f4e8da475bbeaf88fa4f8fe83973c8cd3c2714df2c96d58dce38b0a35ef1a28a","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-357","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-355",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-cover.jpg"]