When Meng Zhang reached the Cold Chill Grotto, that wondrous place in the Dragon Palace, he descended the winding Ice Crystal Stairway and entered the ice cavern's main chamber.
Beneath the boundless South Sea, the Dragon Domain held many places cut off from the world, and the Ice Crystal Cave known as the Cold Chill Grotto was one of them. Though the grotto lay deep in shadow, and the winding crystal-jade stairway shut out the bright sea sunlight, the main chamber was filled with banks of ice and snow and clusters of crystalline jade. Even the faintest gleam, refracted again and again, became like a lamp casting radiance in every direction. Thus, in the vast Ice Crystal Cave where Meng Zhang now stood, a single soft, luminous pearl the size of a hen's egg, set into the icy dome overhead, lit the entire cavern as brightly as day. Had Meng Zhang not possessed divine eyes, the dazzling white light might have blinded him the instant he descended.
Of course, although cold light glittered throughout the Ice Crystal Cave and icy air assailed all who entered, many strange vines still grew stubbornly in the snowy crevices of its walls. Emerald branches wound among the pillars of ice and snow, looking like green dragons carved from jade upon a tablet of snowy white stone. Between these vine-entwined snow pillars and icy rocks lay five or six openings, deep and dim, with wind and snow whispering through them; no one could tell where they led. Like most limestone caverns in the world, the Cold Chill Grotto had further chambers beyond its main cavern, smaller caves nested within larger ones, all interconnected in a bewilderingly complex maze.
As for Meng Zhang, after entering the ice cavern with its whistling chill, he paused briefly to