Ronan's eyelids twitched. "Styx... the River of Silent Extinction?"
"There's no such term as 'River of Silent Extinction,' though that is what it means."
Jin Cong spoke as he set down a generous supply of high-grade energy bars for officers beside Ronan, thoughtfully including water as well.
Ronan did not even remember to eat.
Captain Mashben spoke up at the right moment, conveying the views of the Fang Piercer's officer corps. "That is a remnant of the Dominator. Its power is unfathomable. We cannot take the risk."
His face seemed cast from black iron, maintaining a captain's dignity, but at heart, he was still trying to persuade Ronan.
"If we wait nearby, we may only lose ten hours. But if we force our way through the Star Gate and accidentally crash into the Styx, we could lose ten years of our lives in an instant. Or we might waste ten years in some unfamiliar starfield... perhaps even longer."
Ronan's attention had long since drifted elsewhere, and he asked a question that left everyone speechless.
"Why is it fluctuating?"
"Perhaps it sensed Lady Wei Su Yi's arrival and is welcoming an old friend?"
Hayden, a priest of the Echo Congregation like her, was a skinny, unremarkable man. Yet his mouth had an astonishing talent for freezing an entire room in an instant.
Quite a few people wanted to laugh, but they forced themselves to hold it in out of consideration for Pu Ren.
Ronan laughed first. "If that's the case, then we can head straight through and see where the Lord of Silent Extinction intends to take her old friend—and us, her attendants."
That joke was even worse than Priest Hayden's.
Then Ronan knowingly asked, "Why not discuss it directly with Lady Wei?"
"We did. She said it was enough to