Most of the sea fire was higher up. Only the flames surrounding the edge of the frozen underground river were close to them.
Mei Chengyu followed Zhongli Shan. The ice beneath their feet was solid, and before they reached the sea fire, Mei Chengyu stopped and looked down. "What's underneath?"
Zhongli Shan looked down at the ice with him. "Water?"
"Let's break it and see," Mei Chengyu said.
Zhongli Shan instinctively reached for his sword, but when his hand touched his hip, he remembered that he had lost it in the sea eye. He shrugged helplessly and looked at Mei Chengyu.
Mei Chengyu gestured for him to move aside, then crouched and placed his palm on the ice. Golden Body Protection Qi ignited around him as he gathered his strength and struck the surface. A dull thud sounded from below, but the ice didn't budge.
Zhongli Shan crouched beside him and knocked on the ice. It didn't look very thick, yet it was remarkably stable, as hard to break as Mysterious Stone.
"You're poisoned, so you can't fight at full strength. I'll do it," Zhongli Shan said.
Zhongli Shan had made it through the Five Elements Rebellion. Now that he was awake, he was feeling much better. He waved Mei Chengyu aside, gathered Five Elements Qi, and struck the ice himself, but still couldn't move it in the slightest.
The two of them hammered at the ice, but only managed to shake loose a few chips.
"The temperature isn't high, and I can't sense any Five Elements Qi beneath us." Zhongli Shan withdrew his hand from the ice and fell into thought. "It might be farther down, too deep for us to sense."
"Doesn't look like we can get out by going up. The only ways I can think of