Black Smoke rolled with seething resentment!
Chen Cuo's will mingled with it and quickly found its thread.
He sensed an intense feeling of worship.
It was worship of strength, of raw force—pure and direct, yet divided into two camps as distinctly as the Jing and Wei rivers—
On one side were those who relied on strength to commit violence and had grown confident in their power;
On the other were those who endured that violence, left with resentment and awe in their hearts!
But as the worship of countless believers emerged, the once-thick Black Smoke gradually dispersed, as though it were about to vanish from the world!
At that moment, a bull's horn appeared in Chen Cuo's hand, and a wisp of gray mist seeped into it.
"The Ox is one of the Twelve Yuanchen, yet the authority it wields is the Power Authority. I thought it would have to do with farming, diligence, or clearing land. It seems a Divine Authority can indeed be interpreted from many angles."
The source of the Black Smoke was the bull-headed man, and his identity was easy to guess: he had to be the Ox of the Twelve Yuanchen.
The Ox was a Deity and possessed Longevity of Nature and Life, allowing him to shift between them. A Deity of the Incense Way had a life closely bound to his believers. The Black Smoke Chen Cuo had taken into the Gourd was, in fact, Incense Smoke Aura infected and transformed by the Heart Plague. Now Chen Cuo released it and joined his will to it, not to comprehend the faith entrusted to that Incense Smoke Aura, but to...
He tightened his grip slightly. The horn trembled, sending out ripples that bound Chen Cuo's will even more closely to the black Smoke Aura!
Hum!