The star lords said, "We dare not strike it."

Seven graphs, four of them the attribution. The refusal comes before the reason, which is the polite order for contradicting a superior in any language.

"This thing is a treasure of solid gold. Strike it and it will ring; when it rings it will rouse the demons; and then getting you out will be hard."

Two clauses of physics and one of tactics, and every step holds. 著 is zháo in 打著 — the reading for contact achieved, the one in bumping into somebody or catching a cold, not the aspect particle zhe. Strike it and connect, and it rings; and the whole objection turns on that difference.

"Let us try prising at it with our weapons instead."

捎 is to graze or scrape along a surface rather than hit it, so the counter-proposal is to work at the seam without ever striking the face. A quiet piece of tactical sense from somebody nobody has consulted.

"The moment you see any light in there, get out."

但見…就… is the everyday frame for the moment that. The plan needs nothing more than a gap wide enough to let light in, which tells the reader precisely how small a success would be enough.

Pilgrim said, "Just so."

Five graphs, carrying their own attribution and closing their own quotation, so the unit stands alone however short. He drops his own plan without a murmur — as he did when Sha Monk settled the argument at the gate, and as he has done for nobody else in this chapter.