[{"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-78":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},2269724,4431,"Chapter 78: Tiamat","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-78",78,"\u003Cp>Kuku had already vaguely sensed why he was summoned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, the order of the heroic spirits should maximize Li En’s ability to face crises.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the demonic tide truly descends, the ancient beast herds awaken from their seals, and the primordial gods and outer deities gradually return, “Li En” will inevitably be unable to escape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He needs to adapt to the environment as quickly as possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Su Xing can grant Li En steadfast will and the courage to draw his sword, enabling his transformation from an ordinary person into a warrior.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lex will turn courage into a chance for victory in desperation—the greater the desperation, the stronger the Heroine becomes; if he truly inherits this potential, Li En will always have a sliver of hope in any situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But merely relying on desperate outbursts is not enough; to truly face world-level crises, personal strength is the only way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, it was Kuku’s turn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bad dragon! Strong! Bad dragon’s power! Useful!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he hated to admit it, in the development of dragon abilities, Kuku was likely the expert among experts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, while despising dragons, Kuku spent his entire life trying to free the kobold race from dragon influence—so he must at least understand the origin of this bondage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku continuously studied dragon power and dragon veins, and practiced wielding dragon power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Insect exterminators are often experts on insect behavior; dragon enemies are almost always dragon scholars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a weak dragon descendant, he once relied on dragon veins to survive, and through prolonged exposure to low- and mid-tier battlefields, he became skilled at progressing from zero to one, from weak to strong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was the finest mentor, capable of granting Li En immediately usable combat power (Dragon Tongue Magic) while also designing his long-term growth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He ultimately decided to give Li En, in his weakest stage, a powerful source that would accompany him for life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Dragon Evolution! Achievement of the Age! Opportunity!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Species evolution is a mature, proven technique of this era; enhanced bloodlines and physical bodies complement the professional system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in these past few days, Kuku had further refined his technique.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, risks still existed—but he wouldn’t tell Li En about them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Upper limit is high! Very high! Extremely high!” Let’s emphasize the benefits first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hydra of Greece! Xiangliu! Yamata no Orochi!” Multi-headed dragons and multi-headed serpents have always been top-tier beings in mythology.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En already knew that biological evolution in this world was individualistic, best anchored by a powerful mythological species as a reference point to avoid losing direction or losing control.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En fell silent. Why did this feel off? Kuku was describing Earth’s multi-headed dragons—were they real? Would evolving according to mythological blueprints cause problems? It felt like using web novel cultivation logic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There are ones in this world too! Otherplane dragons! Super big bad dragons!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instantly, Li En remembered: this multiverse did indeed have a famously notorious (or infamous) multi-headed dragon god.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tiamat. The Five-Colored Dragon Mother, the God of Evil Dragons.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was an evil dragon deity with five dragon heads, who, even outside this plane, constantly meddled in affairs—often the hidden hand and final boss behind countless rumors and tales.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Heroes and adventurers had been replaced time and again, yet she still appeared in every new era’s legends, continuing to serve as the final boss and disrupt the world—proof enough of her power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Notably, Li En was a red dragon type, one of the five colors; if he imitated her form for evolution, he might truly achieve greatness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ll think about how exactly to do it,” Li En relented.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Li En hesitate, Kuku immediately switched to teaching mode, striking while the iron was hot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You can’t use my soul-spirit because you have the software but lack the physical hardware to run it—like installing a graphics driver without installing the GPU. So I’ll install a GPU for you, acting as a multi-core auxiliary processor.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En had inquired about normal “species evolution” methods, but he’d never heard of anything like this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From raw ore to colored metals (bronze, silver, copper), one typically fused a single supernatural trait and enhanced physical strength—no one had ever heard of installing a head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not a head! That’s useless hardware! The head is just decoration!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clearly, Kuku looked down on Li En’s fixation on the physical head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fine, the head was just decoration—the key was what lay inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“GPU. The pseudo-brain requires dragon crystal! And dragon soul! Plus some brain cells!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dragons were children of the elements; their most precious components were not precious dragon teeth, scales, or claws, but their elemental dragon souls and dragon crystals—the aggregates of elemental origins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as dragon crystal and dragon soul were provided, Kuku could create another “dragon head,” allowing direct evolution to the peak of colored metal stage (gold), after which progression up to fourth-rank would be effortless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for other hardware growths, they would naturally follow as the dragon head matured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh, the dragon head won’t actually grow an extra head, right?” Li En thought being human was fine, especially given the kingdom’s general aversion to dragons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I said, the head is just decoration! As long as you don’t fully dragonize, no one will notice.” Kuku intended to create an “elemental dragon head”—invisible in normal state, usable instead as “equipment or tool.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It sounded great, yet Li En still insisted on thinking it over—after all, an extra brain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Will I develop multiple personalities?” That was the real issue—he suspected Kuku’s occasional muttering stemmed from his soul-spirit ability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No. Others might, but you won’t. No matter how many thought lines split off, you remain you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was the technology this advanced? Li En was surprised. Something felt off, but his knowledge wasn’t sufficient to challenge an expert.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku merely sneered, expression dismissive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone already insane wouldn’t notice if they became even more so.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All Kuku’s earlier experiments on other creatures failed—only he succeeded. Back then, he thought it a miracle, a breakthrough from soul-spirit awakening in despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now he recalled: it was the “singularity” of the Thousand-Faced Dragon’s soul—any split consciousness remained the Thousand-Faced Dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Thousand-Faced Dragon’s soul was inherently “singular”; even adding countless “extra heads” would only serve as tools and aids—branching tentacles under the soul network.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the final product was only Kuku himself, this research became exclusively “Li Ensu’s” proprietary technique.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh, I can’t seem to find a reason to refuse.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It sounded tempting, but such a major decision naturally made Li En want to ask more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Notably, it really was good—imitating the Five-Colored Dragon God’s evolutionary path and adding an evil dragon head might even grant an additional elemental affinity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what most attracted Li En wasn’t even Kuku’s proposal—it was the possibility of a secondary brain constantly analyzing, mimicking, and assisting his spellcasting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh, when my main body uses the Paladin ability, can the secondary brain use other class abilities?” That was a dreamlike power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En’s Thousand-Faced Dragon trait meant his future abilities would inevitably be numerous and varied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An ordinary person might learn many skills, but could only use one at a time; if he truly could multitask, the improvement would be exponential.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ll think about it some more,” Li En still resisted—he still felt something was off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he saw Li En still arguing, Kuku wasn’t in a hurry—he simply began preparing the surgery and ritual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku had always known Li En would eventually agree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ensu was never someone bound by constraints; on the contrary, he excelled at adapting to environments and was insatiably greedy for unknown supernatural forces and magic—especially under Kuku’s soul-spirit possession, this greed was utterly uncontrollable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How do we get dragon soul and dragon crystal? Can we buy them?” After agonizing for so long, asking this question meant Li En was already compromised.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Kill a dragon.” Materials suitable as core components for the pseudo-head must be fresh; purchased dragon crystals were long dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fake dragon?” Li En felt a foreboding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine! If you’re willing to accept a temporary substitute—a dragon head that grows and then becomes useless.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En fell silent. At his current level, challenging a real dragon? Even without using breath weapons, the dragon’s minions could overwhelm him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And according to this logic, he’d need to kill a fresh five-colored great dragon? Was that a boss a rookie could challenge?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li En silently stared at Kuku—he knew this “kid” wouldn’t waste time saying so much; Kuku must have more planned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is there another way?” Li En grumbled, but had to respond.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This pattern—first painting a grand picture, then revealing it was impossible (due to cost), then presenting a pre-prepared inferior alternative, and saying “choose”—was far too familiar. Wasn’t this the same PPT tactic he’d once used to fool his superiors?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes. I’ll make you a fake one for now. But within six months, find a real one. Complete the evolution! Otherwise—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuku casually pulled out a vivid red crystal—it looked familiar. Wasn’t this the crystal drawn from Li En’s blood?! He’d already prepared it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Otherwise—” Li En sighed. He was completely arranged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ll regress. True regression. Irreversible regression.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, Kuku wasn’t exaggerating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fake dragon crystal” was destined to fail under the continuous growth of Li En’s dragon soul; when it finally shattered, he would begin regressing from his evolved state—and once this collapse began, it could not be stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the deep red “fake dragon crystal” in Kuku’s hand, Li En sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, do it before I change my mind.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Kuku approached with the scalpel (the same dinner knife) and the blood dragon crystal, Li En hesitated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh, do you have anesthesia?! That knife still has cake frosting—can’t you at least disinfect it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No!” Kuku was annoyed. How delicate—just a simple craniotomy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Will I really grow an extra head? Will I suddenly become ugly?” Thinking of that volcano-head, Li En grew uneasy again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You won’t notice! Trust my technique!” What a troublesome test subject. Patiently, Kuku maintained composure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh, I’m faint at the sight of blood—can I—” Li En silently stepped back, nearing the door—he needed a moment more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next time. Next time for sure!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No!” Kuku cast a sleep spell. Li En, with no resistance, collapsed instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, the kid chuckled and dragged him onto the dining table as an operating table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“At least… at least wipe the table clean! Don’t put me on cake and cookies—put a napkin down at least!” This was Li En’s final protest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1745,"2026-06-19T21:45:41.002Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","ac569f45b98940496cefd460e689dff47a24dce3e54c54fea9bc0de01178663e","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-79","the-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-chapter-77",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-of-a-thousand-faces-cover.jpg"]