Hearing her response, Yi Chen sighed internally.

Although the reasons he had given her were all true, he didn’t share the most important one that forced him to follow this method.

The fact that he couldn’t cultivate the Abyssal Blackglacial Arts.

’If she knew that, then knowing her, she would definitely try to take advantage of this information...’

Yi Chen thought to himself. After experiencing her emotional outburst, he had come to understand what kind of woman she truly was.

Therefore, not wanting her to gain an upper hand over him, he chose to obscure this fact under several layers of reasoning he came up with during this period.

"Then let’s eat something before resting. We’ve been awake for days now." Yi Chen said.

Gao Zhen nodded at those words and immediately saw him taking out six fish from his storage ring.

They were the last ones remaining from the mountain of fish he had caught earlier.

Earlier, when they had plunged straight into the cold waters, he had caught sight of several fish, so he wasn’t concerned about their food running out later on.

With a Qi Blade, he carved a rectangular pit inside the icy ground the next instant and turned towards Gao Zhen.

"Can you pass me your sword for a moment?"

"My sword?" Gao Zhen frowned and said, "Since it’s bound to me, the moment you hold it in your hand, it will return to my spiritual sea...It’s also why I couldn’t give it to you back then."

"Yeah...I almost forgot about that." Yi Chen paused briefly before saying, "Then just place it across the pit along its length."

Gao Zhen nodded and took out her curved great sword, resting it on top of the pit with a hint of curiosity in her eyes.

’Just what is he planning to do?’

"Good." Yi Chen nodded, seeing that the flat end was wide enough. Then, using a Qi blade, he gutted the fish before laying them one after the other across its surface.

"This..."

Seeing those actions, before Gao Zhen could comment on anything, Yi Chen lit the pit on fire and began roasting the fish.

A speechless expression instantly formed on her face.

’To think he would use the God Slaying Sword for something like this...’

"Since we don’t have anything else to use as a skewer, that was the only thing I could think of. You don’t mind, right?" Yi Chen asked the next moment while turning towards her.

"M-Mind...No, of course I don’t." Gao Zhen answered with a forced smile.

Unable to read her thoughts, Yi Chen simply nodded with a neutral smile before turning his attention back to the roasting fish.

Time slowly passed as the fire crackled and gently darkened the fish, and a mouth-watering smell began wafting in the air.

Grrr~

Gao Zhen’s stomach growled softly, and feeling the vibrations, she couldn’t help but swallow her saliva.

Her eyes then shifted towards Yi Chen, who was patiently ensuring that all the sides of the fish were cooked.

Under the crackling of the flames, she closely watched his actions as her mind began drifting towards thoughts she had been suppressing all this while.

"...I’m sorry."

She finally gathered enough courage to say it out loud and continued when she saw Yi Chen turn towards her.

"...for blaming and attacking you earlier. It was my fault for misunderstanding things from the beginning, and I blamed it all on you..."

Under Yi Chen’s gaze, she couldn’t help but continue explaining herself more and more. However, before she could continue on further, Yi Chen stopped her in the middle of it.

"It’s alright." He answered with a subtle smile, making her stop with a surprised expression.

’He’s going to forgive me so easily?’ she thought, finding everything very absurd. If she were in his position, she would definitely not be forgiving him so easily.

Seeing the expression of surprise in her eyes, Yi Chen smirked and stated, "Now that I look back on it, I was also a little more irritated than I should have been. Probably because the Void Traversal Pearl had given me an unexpected ray of hope."

As he said those words, he lightly chuckled to himself and continued, "When I entered the tomb, I was prepared to lose my life in order to achieve my goal.

So even if something like that were to happen, I wouldn’t have blamed you and would have instead blamed myself for being weak...so compared to dying in here, being trapped is much better, don’t you think?"

Gao Zhen furrowed her brows, seeing how calmly he said those words out and asked the next instant, "...But you won’t be able to participate in the Silver Cloud Tournament as a result..."

Although she said that with a tone of concern, in reality, a part of her just wanted to see a strong reaction from his side...of anger, of irritation that was directed towards her.

However, that didn’t happen.

"Indeed." Yi Chen exhaled while adjusting the fish as a bitter smile formed on his face, "...however, it’s something that can’t be helped now."

’Even if I fail that mission...I’ll still be able to use the rewards gained from this tomb to further amplify my cultivation speed and meet Yu’er in person as quickly as possible...’

He clenched his jaws as this thought ran through his mind.

Seeing his reaction, Gao Zhen didn’t say anything and decided to remain quiet.

A few seconds later, Yi Chen was back to his usual state and suddenly posed her a question.

"I was wondering...if you knew that I didn’t have the Void Traversal Pearl and you were mistaken...would you have still helped Zhou Lan?"

Hearing his question, Gao Zhen thought about it for a couple of seconds before finally shaking her head.

"No, I wouldn’t."

A sudden silence descended in the tent, the next instant lasting for more than just a couple of seconds.

"What’s with the silence? Now that I’m not hiding my true thoughts...are you disappointed by my answer?" She asked with a bitter chuckle.