Where the great river flowed eastward, Crescent Moon was struggling to climb, locked in a tug-of-war with the night. The ship, which had previously been drifting sideways, had not yet fully righted itself and still felt slightly tilted. Whether that was because of the ceaseless river water rushing beneath it, or the extraordinary "weight" on the foredeck, was hard to say.
Probably the latter.
At that moment, Ronan's heart was also oppressed by that same "weight." Thunderous vibrations pounded within his chest, pumping blood toward his brain to support the suddenly proliferating threads of thought.
Part of him had to translate the Martial Emperor's Tian Yuan Common Language.
Part of him had to understand her still thoroughly mystic, obscure phrasing.
Part of him had to consider the suddenly more complicated background.
Part of him had to analyze the real reason this scene had appeared...
It was also at that moment that Ronan understood more deeply, from another angle, the first sentence the Martial Emperor had spoken in Tian Yuan Common Language:
Knowledge had weight... and so did equivalent information.
So heavy it was like a massive celestial body in Dark Seclusion, warping space-time and generating irresistible gravity.
There was too much he wanted to know.
He had grown used to figuring things out alone, but that did not mean he had forgotten the irritation and fear accumulated through years of gambling-style verification, nor the bewilderment and anxiety he felt when facing ever more fog.
Did he really think he enjoyed doing this?
Now that he saw a glimmer of hope, Ronan instinctively wanted more.
As for the "weight" or the "distortion"... he could worry about that when he could no longer bear it.
Ronan shoved aside every irrelevant thought and wanted to ask a question, but the Martial Emperor currently