In fact, Long Xiyue and Hu Xiaotian had already passed the Cloud Temple on their way to the Spirit Firmament Palace. Hu Xiaotian had recognized it by the familiar scent of sandalwood. Their eyes were still blindfolded on the return journey. Long Xiyue asked to visit the Cloud Temple to offer incense, and after their guards reported her request, permission was granted.
The Cloud Temple was small, with only three rooms and a very cramped courtyard. A single osmanthus tree grew there, now completely withered, its bare branches like an old man stripped of his clothes, standing shivering in the cold wind.
A statue of the Buddha stood in the main hall, while the side halls on either side housed the memorial tablets of various imperial consorts. In the years before Long Xuan'en abdicated, he had become obsessed with cultivating the arts of immortality and withdrawn from his consorts. For five years, not a single new woman had entered the imperial harem, and during those years, many consorts had died of melancholy, including Long Xiyue's mother, Consort Li. When Long Yelin successfully usurped the throne, more consorts had been killed in the coup, while many others had been sent out of the palace. Thus, when the old emperor was confined to the Spirit Firmament Palace on Misty Mountain, not a single consort accompanied him. Two palace maids had originally come along, but later, for some unknown reason, they had angered the Retired Emperor, and he had strangled them to death inside the Spirit Firmament Palace. Since then, only the devoted Old Eunuch Wang Qian had remained to serve him.
After Long Xuan'en was forced to surrender the throne and became the Retired Emperor, he made two requests. The first was to have his own dragon throne brought to him; the