(An extra update in progress. Was today also a certain Daoist Sheng's birthday?) Although every corner was spotless, the place was desolate to an extreme. Apart from a few palace gates, there were no guards or soldiers in sight, let alone another soul.
A feeling soon stirred in Tang Changsheng's heart, and he spoke half deliberately, half before he could stop himself: "Jade towers and jeweled halls—at such heights, the cold is hard to bear!"
"Across the crimson pavilion, beneath the low carved windows, it shines on the sleepless," Chief Steward Zuo Qiu added with a chuckle.
Tang Changsheng's heart gave a jolt, but Zuo Qiu was already smiling. "Don't think I've forgotten where your Taiyi Immortal Sword Order came from...
"The texts the Taiyi Immortal Sword Order brought back then were all copied by the Heavenly Court!"
He continued, "That Big-Bearded Su was quite something. When he wrote, 'I wish to ride the wind and return,' he cast himself as an Immortal descended from the Heavenly Court.
"A pity he isn't in this world. Otherwise, he would surely have a place among the Heavenly Court's Hanlin court poets!"
Tang Changsheng smiled. "I didn't think that far. I only wondered why the Heavenly Palace was so deserted, and the words came to me!"
"The older people grow, the more they favor quiet. After experiencing splendor in their youth, they often come to prefer peace in old age... The Heavenly Venerable has existed for so long that pomp and ceremony no longer interest him! We're here..."
As he spoke, Chief Steward Zuo Qiu led Tang Changsheng up several hundred steps and into a great hall.
The hall was vast enough to hold tens of thousands of people.
Yet it, too, stood empty. There was not a single unnecessary furnishing or decoration,