[{"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-69":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},2269715,4431,"Chapter 69: Dragon Marks and Dragon Language Magic (Third Chapter, Ten Thousand Words, Requesting Moon Tickets)","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-69",69,"\u003Cp>“Book. Useful. Don’t rely on it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rarely encountering a spirit that could communicate directly, Li En naturally asked about the Spirit Codex.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To Kuku’s eyes, the Spirit Codex was indeed a rather excellent divine artifact, perfectly suited for the growth of “New Li Ensu.” But that was all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Growth, self, more important. Subjectivity required.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku was confident; compared to the Spirit Codex’s “auxiliary growth,” an alchemical master could do far more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn’t a difference in ability, but rather that automated tools could only passively assist—you had the material, and it could minimally process it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But an alchemical master could tailor-make for you based on your condition, even provide a material list for you to procure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Drink. Sleep.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a bottle of blood-red potion, its liquid viscous, with faint flames flowing across its surface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Can you drink this? It looks like it would burn off your tongue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En sighed, gritted his teeth, and downed it in one gulp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh? So cold… and a little sweet.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before he finished speaking, he toppled backward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This dream felt unusually complete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside, Kuku, for the first time, grew calm. Kusula seemed powered down; after a long while, he sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, Li Ensu, the Dragon of a Thousand Faces.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He walked over, picked up the Codex, and flipped through its contents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En had tried—others couldn’t open this book, but for Kuku, it offered no resistance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned page after page, scanning the records.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Canned food. Sun-canned food.\" The first spirit was Su'er.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even though the Spirit Card was gone, the Codex still bore the illustration of that naive, righteous figure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the first spirit, he inevitably left a profound impact on Li En—perhaps Kuku, as an observer, saw it most clearly: this Li En was already markedly different from “the Transmigrant Li Ensu,” and it had only been a month.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A clerk who merely drifted through life had become a warrior adapted to this cruel world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The youth, emboldened by courage and rage from Su'er, now likely dared to swing his sword at anyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But was this truly all good?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Again, sun! Blinding! Too bright.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The second spirit, the hero who faced every enemy alone, was simply too brilliant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku quickly flipped past the pages of his own Codex—he had no interest in himself—and found only blank pages beyond.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cruel. Too hard. For him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Putting down the Codex, Kuku now understood much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first few spirits were destined to be the most important—they would play a core role in reshaping “Li Ensu’s” personality, and personality determined fate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since fate had repeatedly guided him warriors and heroes who defied fate, and the first two were even worse-off victims trapped in utter despair, it meant the fate Li Ensu would face this time would likely be even more hopeless than theirs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed Kuku himself had also faced too many hardships and dead ends.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The force of fate meant little to this book; one of its latent rules was to provide the user with the best, most suitable “nurturing conditions.” A battlefield requiring glory bullets and nuclear bombs was hardly a good thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps what awaited Li En was hell-level difficulty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gur… Worth it? Really… worth it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku stared at the moon outside the window, sighing and questioning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one could answer him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only the evening breeze stirred the pages, turning them one by one through empty sheets until they stopped at the final page.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Ultimate Quest: Find Humanity!】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the empty room, besides the sleeping Li En, only Kuku’s whisper of “Worth it?” echoed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whether it was worth it—that’s for future generations to judge.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Too tragic. Too tragic.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Can you help him? He’s a good child.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m hungry. I’ll find something to eat later.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh my god, we got fooled—we forgot to go to the underground cave.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Success! My potion worked! We’ve achieved our dream!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To celebrate, let’s go eat late-night snacks! I’m hungry.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All along, Kuku, who appeared silent or distracted, had been holding tea parties inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, after Li En fell asleep, Kuku’s “friends,” now fully idle, cheerfully began their night talk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En himself, of course, had no idea this spirit was acting schizophrenic in his room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku’s Gold-Rank soul ability was Triple Thought—three possible personalities. The complete spirit’s potential thought lines far exceeded three, and these “personalities” did not vanish with ability degradation—they were integral to Kuku.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En himself had merely fallen into a long slumber; in this dream, he felt as if he had returned to ancient times, to history, to his homeland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His will sank into confusion, into the cosmos, even momentarily lost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damn, the dosage was too strong! He’s not breathing!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Will lost? Soul—soul, are you there?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He’s so weak! I already halved the potion!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Quick, save him!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Make more medicine! Make more medicine!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No materials left… go steal some!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En would never know that when Kuku realized something was wrong, he was already half-dead. Entrusting your life to a professional screw-up goblin—especially a schizophrenic one—could only mean Li En was blissfully ignorant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a while, having been doused with another flood of potions and materials, his breathing finally stabilized.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the very end of the spiritual ocean, he finally encountered his goal, the origin of his bloodline—a vast, boundless red dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He—or it—merely glanced at Li En once, then exhaled a dragon’s breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Aaaah!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Agony wracked his entire body, causing violent convulsions—he was instantly jolted awake by pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next moment, he fainted again from pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He convulsed constantly on the bed, muscles swelling and tensing—but this time, Kuku paid no attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Blood boiling. Dragon veins awakened.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good. Guess how many character glyphs he’ll awaken?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How can we bet now?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Two. I back him. Loser makes the late-night snacks!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The result disappointed them—perhaps Kuku’s dosage was too harsh; by dawn, Li En was still convulsing on the bed, and the bet was canceled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as a cost, the “result” he produced was slightly beyond expectations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Three glyphs?! Three Dragon Language runes?” This clearly abnormal outcome made Kuku decide to stay silent and pretend nothing happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, most dragon-blooded individuals awakened only one origin glyph.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm, but I feel I can only use the first ELDER (fire); the second SOL (sun) won’t activate, and the third SKERVA (sword) is only half-formed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Awakened—but unusable? That was clearly wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku rubbed his metal chin, still pretending everything was normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your first ancestral Dragon Mark is the Furnace Flame. Looks like you’re pure fire affinity. Good.” Kuku, now switching to teaching mode, gave a brief explanation of the power Li En had awakened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dragon Language Magic was magic of “command,” but command required recognizing the element and uttering its name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And this process of “recognition and utterance” was also a form of shaping the element.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each element was ambiguous; even among fire Dragon Marks, Kuku knew at least nine varieties, yet their meanings and subtle distinctions differed entirely, and thus their combinations varied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, for Li En now, smelting Furnace Flame was still just “fire.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Utter its name, summon it forth—that was all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku stopped Li En’s attempt—he liked this room and didn’t want to move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Second is SOL (sun). A good combination. But it’s Su'er—the sacred sun?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku sighed. He already knew where this Dragon Mark came from.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dragon Language Magic was about plunder, acquisition—you could command only what you possessed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En obtained it not only through fate’s guidance, but also because he had a material source.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The main reason was that he had previously consumed the shattered Dragon Soul of “Volcanic Roar,” absorbing the concept of “fire,” which enabled his successful origin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He obtained the concept of “sun” from the Silver-Rank material, Lion’s Tear, which also formed the foundation for awakening his second Dragon Mark; his ability to digest the sun’s concept for species evolution proved his innate compatibility with the “sun” attribute.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the final result was SOL (Su'er)—“sacred sun”—clearly demonstrating the spirit’s influence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the third…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“SKERVA—the concept of tearing objects. Calling it a sword isn’t wrong, but it carries the ideas of wound and cut. A good fusion rune. Good for direct attacks too. Try it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku was very satisfied with the Dragon Marks Li En had acquired.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Excluding minor mishaps, this indeed proved Li En’s potential in this area.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Kuku will teach you how to use it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You can only scream single words now, but the Dragon Marks and Dragon Symbols must be fused into “words”—that is, Dragon Speech. Don’t use it yet! Unless you want to die. You absolutely cannot handle two characters right now—that’s a multiplicative surge in power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dragon Speech magic is actually quite simple: it’s just the process of continuously collecting Dragon Marks and combining them to develop new forms. Even if I’m gone, you can still learn it on your own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dragon Marks you currently possess are not the end—you must continuously feed and cultivate them. Their evolution is your evolution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1496,"2026-06-19T21:45:41.002Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","02a88c40cbf9f2f1f64a05d0ef10a45470c57be94da840c1c55ad29d5ae18010","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-70","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-68",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-cover.jpg"]