I Was Forced To Marry The Phoenix Empress-Chapter 191: Uninvited Guests

"This..."

Yi Chen stared at the fifty or so fish he had caught with a strange expression on his face. A few of them were still very much alive and kept flapping their tails in an attempt to wiggle back into the waters.

"Well, whatever, I can just use them later..." he muttered to himself, and the next instant transferred them all into his storage ring, where they finally ceased moving.

The next second, he found a suitable spot for cooking in the middle of their camp and, using small pebbles, made a fireplace. A few moments later, he busied himself with gutting the fish he had caught.

"Got enough firewood?" Yi Chen asked Zhou Lan and Xie Rou when they returned to the camp a few minutes later.

"Since most of them were wet from the morning dew, it took longer than we expected to find them, but yes, we got enough," Zhou Lan answered.

As she said that, she took out the bunch of firewood from her storage ring, and Xie Rou too did the same soon after.

"Thank you for your hard work," he said, and after starting the fire, arranged the skewered fish on top of the flames one after the other.

He didn’t forget to sprinkle over all the spices he had brought with him on top of them.

Soon, a mouth-watering aroma pervaded the air, making all three of them gulp down their saliva in anticipation.

Since they had all woken up early, they had yet to eat anything.

Checking the texture of the fish, Yi Chen said, "It’s almost ready."

"We’ll go and call Madam Gao then," Zhou Lan glanced at Xie Rou and soon went to call her.

A few moments later, Yi Chen squeezed a freshly cut lemon on top of all the skewered fish and served it and passed it to Gao Zhen and the rest, who had an expression of anticipation evident on their faces.

For a moment, only the sound of eating could be heard as the four of them fully devoted themselves to relishing the fish.

It was Gao Zhen who broke the silence and said with praise apparent in her eyes.

"That was delicious. Young Master Chen is a really good cook."

"Haha, I picked up a few things during my travels, so it’s all thanks to that," he chuckled at the praise with delight and prepared another batch of fish for them to savour.

It was at that moment that a frown formed on Gao Zhen’s face as she turned to her left.

Seeing this, Zhou Lan and Xie Rou too did the same and soon noticed a group of four Meridian Refinement Stage cultivators making their way towards them.

A worried frown formed on their faces as well.

’Hm? Why did everyone grow quiet all of a sudden?’ Yi Chen thought with curiosity and glanced at the three of them, only to see them staring towards his right.

Matching the direction of their gazes, he turned his head to his right and saw a few haggard figures emerging from the forest.

’Cultivators?’

His eyes immediately fell on their status panel and checked their cultivation stage. A sense of relief welled in him when he noticed that all four of them were in the Meridian Refinement Stage.

There were three Ninth Level and one Eighth Level, and they seemed to be in a team.

His gaze then fell on their ’extra’ information, and seeing that nothing suspicious was written on it, he further relaxed.

A man in his forties seemed to be the leader of their group, and wearing a respectable smile on his face, he bowed towards Gao Zhen and spoke.

"Sorry for the interruption, esteemed cultivators. My team and I have just arrived at the lake after venturing through the forest for weeks, as you might have guessed from our dishev-"

Before the man could go on any longer, Gao Zhen cut him off and asked directly, "Don’t waste my time. Just state what it is that you want?"

There was a hint of irritation apparent in her voice.

"This..." with a forced smile on his face, the man pointed toward his team members and said, "Along the way, we were attacked by several beasts and even lost our supplies. None of us has eaten anything for the last two days, so we will be immensely grateful if you could help us with some food."

As he said that, his eyes momentarily went to the fish which were resting on top of the flames.

’Oh, so it was just that. Thankfully, I caught a lot of fish, so we have enough for all of them.’

Yi Chen thought to himself and was about to take out a bunch to give it to them.

However, before he could do so, Gao Zhen’s words rang out.

"Ten Spirit Stones per person. You are four people, so that would be forty low-grade spirit stones combined for all of you."

Hearing this, a forced smile formed on the man’s face as he said, "This... esteemed cultivator... can’t it be any cheaper... we won’t be able to exchange it with spirit stones. Moreover, it seems that you’ve already caught plenty of fish, so can yo-"

"Then you can go and fish for yourself. We are not running a charity." Gao Zhen cut him off and declared.

The man’s teammates, who were already getting frustrated at Gao Zhen’s unrealistic demand, finally lost their cool when they heard her remark.

"We’ll do just that!" their woman team member roared in anger, and walking towards her group leader, said, "Leader Tian, let’s go and fish for ourselves! One has to be mad to pay that much for just simple food! It was our own fault for expecting generosity from a bunch of misers!

If you don’t want to give, just say so. Why raise such an unreasonable demand in the first place?!"

When she finished those words, she hatefully glared towards Gao Zhen, who clearly couldn’t be bothered to answer back to her provocations.

Leader Tian’s expression suddenly darkened when he heard her, and the next second, he bowed towards Gao Zhen and apologised, "My team member is still young, so I beg forgiveness from the esteemed cultivator."

"Scram." Gao Zhen just waved her hand at them in irritation.

Seeing this, the man did exactly that and, along with his team members, scurried away.

When there was no sight of them, Yi Chen suddenly called.

"Uhm...Madam Gao."

"Yes?" she asked curiously.

"I think they really were just hungry and meant no harm to us..." Yi Chen stated with a hesitant expression.

"Young Master Chen is right. They indeed were only hungry." Gao Zhen answered the next second.

"T-Then why didn’t Madam Gao help them? We have more than enough food to help them out..." An expression of confusion appeared on his face.

"Young Master Chen." Gao Zhen said with a mature smile, "The kinder you are in this world, the more likely it is that you will be taken advantage of sooner or later."

"I see..."