I Was Forced To Marry The Phoenix Empress

Chapter 230: Exploring

Fourteen minutes later, he finally reached the top of the cliff and found Gao Zhen waiting for him near the edge.

By now, she had changed into a set of dry clothes, but not having any warm robes in her storage ring, she was still shivering from the cold.

"A-Are you okay?" She asked with a hint of concern in her voice while pulling him up the cliff’s edge.

"Y-Yes..." Yi Chen answered while taking deep breaths, his hands resting on his waist. His gaze soon fell on the small tent that Gao Zhen had set up during this period.

"C-Change into a new set of robes quickly, or you’ll freeze to death here," Gao Zhen said while pointing towards the tent as the cold wind ruffled her hair strands, causing her teeth to clatter.

"T-Thanks." Yi Chen’s eyes brightened when he saw the tent, and he soon went inside.

A few minutes later, changing into a new set of robes, he called Gao Zhen’s shivering figure inside.

"I’m done. You can come inside."

Hearing him, Gao Zhen immediately walked in to shelter herself from the wind. A wave of comfort appeared on her face the moment she did so.

However, the temperature inside the tent was still very cold, and their teeth still clattered like the undead skeletons they had faced several days ago.

Therefore, after Gao Zhen had entered the tent, Yi Chen started a fire just near the tent’s entrance using his Crimson Fire Arts.

With no trees or shrubs to use as firewood around them, he just relied on his spiritual energy to keep the flame alive.

’This...’

Gao Zhen’s expression immediately brightened when she saw the flame. Seeing this, Yi Chen smiled and said, "Let’s warm up then, shall we?"

Gao Zhen immediately nodded, and the two of them soon huddled next to the flame, stretching their hands out towards it.

"So warm..." Gao Zhen said in a pleased manner as her stiff fingers began to feel alive again.

"Yes...I’ve never been more thankful than now to have fire-natured Qi," Yi Chen chuckled the next instant, which also caused Gao Zhen to giggle.

"Thank you." She suddenly said the next second while staring towards the flames, "...if not for your help, I would have drowned to death."

"Aren’t we a team, Madam Gao? I only did what I was supposed to." Yi Chen grinned the next instant, seeing that a warm smile formed on Gao Zhen’s face.

Seeing that she wasn’t saying anything else, Yi Chen also smiled and focused his attention back on the flames.

"Let’s rest here for a while. We’ll start our exploration after that." Gao Zhen said a few minutes later, and with that, took out several Qi-enriched dishes from her ring.

"Sounds good to me." Yi Chen nodded as a sudden pang of hunger hit him when he glanced at all the delicious dishes.

After about half an hour, they both were well rested and had recovered much of their body heat.

"So where should we go now?" Yi Chen asked Gao Zhen the next moment.

"Let’s move towards the island’s centre, there has to be something there." Gao Zhen said after a moment of thought.

"Alright," Yi Chen nodded, and a few moments later, they packed up their tent and soon left towards the island’s interior.

’A frozen desert...’

The following words rang in Yi Chen’s mind as he looked around his surroundings. The place was like a completely flat plain covered with ice, with a few icy boulders poking out of the ground here and there.

There were no trees or shrubs anywhere at all, and from what they had observed so far, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they were the only living beings on this entire island.

"If we didn’t have food in our storage ring, then we would be in great trouble..." Yi Chen muttered the next instant.

"Indeed. This place is entirely barren," Gao Zhen muttered while taking in the surrounding view as the two of them kept rushing towards the interior.

Strong cold winds kept blowing above the cold, barren plains as wisps of cold white fog swirled along with it.

With no warm clothes in their storage ring, the two of them had worn several layers of robes on top of what they were already wearing to somewhat battle the cold.

It wasn’t very effective, but when compared to moving around in this environment with only one layer of clothing, it was far better.

Time passed, and several minutes elapsed with the two of them finding nothing of significance around them at all.

"Just how are we going to clear this trial if there’s nothing for us to even do here?" Yi Chen asked in frustration as they kept on moving towards the centre.

"Let’s be patient. We’ve yet to reach the centre. There surely must be something there..." Gao Zhen stated, though the frustration had started to well up in her eyes as well.

The white, cold air incessantly rising from the frozen ground had made it impossible for them to look past a few kilometres, which only further added to their frustrations.

Continuously circulating their Qi, they kept rushing towards the centre as fast as possible while trying hard to keep the irritation and bitterness welling up within their hearts in check.

All of a sudden, a portion of an enormous structure that was shrouded by a dense layer of fog revealed itself to them.

"This!"

Both of them immediately locked eyes with each other.

Seeing the same expression on each other’s faces, they realised that they weren’t mistaken.

Nodding at each other, they rushed in the direction of that structure

A few minutes later, the two of them arrived right at the island’s centre, craning their neck up to get a full view of the enormous tablet in front of them that was completely made up of black ice.

"Black Ice?"

Yi Chen frowned and glanced towards Gao Zhen, only to see a similar expression of confusion plastered on her face.

As if sensing their presence, the entire tablet began to shake, and gold-colored characters began taking shape on it.