As they walked through a palace corridor, a gust of wind blew in their faces. Despite the high temperature of the day, the wind felt strangely cold.
After passing the corridor, Leo noticed an inconspicuous sign with the name “East Sandwich Road.”
This name made Leo slightly uneasy.
You see, East Sandwich Road was the most famous Yin-Yang Path in the Imperial Palace, surrounded by various legends.
There were different versions of the Yin-Yang Path legend. It was said that during moonlit nights, the long path would display two different realms, one yin and one yang. It was believed that ghosts only appeared at night and would avoid people.
If a person walked on the yang path, the ghost would take the yin path, and vice versa.
However, if a person stepped with one foot on the yang path and one foot on the yin path or walked on the middle line, the ghost would have nowhere to go and would collide with the person after one hundred steps.
In the early 1980s, there was a man who lived in the thirteenth row of dormitories in the palace. He was a strong young man in his thirties. When someone mentioned the Yin-Yang Path to him, he didn’t believe it at all.
Although he wasn’t tall, he was muscular and had dark skin. It was said that he could eat eight steamed buns and a small basin of rice in one meal!
To prove that he wasn’t superstitious, he boasted that he would walk the Yin-Yang Path that night, no matter what anyone said.
The next morning, everyone asked him how his walk on the Yin-Yang Path went.
Originally meant as a joke, no one expected the young man to say, “Guys, please don’t mention this again. I don’t even dare to think about it anymore!”
His face turned pale as he spoke, trembling all over.
Everyone knew something had happened and quickly asked him what had occurred.
It turned out that while he was washing rice in the courtyard yesterday evening, he suddenly heard someone ask him, “I heard you’re going to walk the Yin-Yang Path?”
He turned around but saw no one!
Thinking he misheard, he continued washing the rice. But then, the voice sounded again, “Are you really going to walk the Yin-Yang Path?”
This time, he was so scared that he dropped the rice bowl and ran back into his house.
His mother ran to the neighboring courtyard to call for help, but since no one had seen anything with their own eyes, they couldn’t confirm if it was true or not. They helped clean up together and then dispersed.
After hearing the young man’s story, everyone thought he was just scared and made up a story because he didn’t dare to walk.
Not long after, his health deteriorated rapidly, and his appetite decreased significantly. He became plagued with various illnesses.
Another story took place in the horse path inside Meridian Gate.
On a night like any other, two guards were patrolling together. Wally and Sonny were patrolling south from the Bridge of Desolation.
They strolled leisurely with flashlights in hand, chatting as they walked. Suddenly, Sonny’s sharp eyes caught sight of a figure moving near the corner leading to Meridian Gate.
Both of them became tense and hurriedly chased after the person.
When they got closer, they realized it was their colleague Curtis.
Wally asked Sonny, “Isn’t Curtis supposed to be on duty at Meridian Gate? Why is he here?”
Sonny signaled for them to quietly follow Curtis.
They saw Curtis walking slowly as if he hadn’t noticed them behind him. Then, he turned and entered the restroom.
Wally and Sonny found it strange because the restroom should have been locked. How did Curtis open the door?
When they reached the entrance and looked inside, they were even more puzzled.
Why did Curtis enter the women’s restroom?
They exchanged glances, prepared to catch him in the act and then tease him about it.
After entering and searching every room, they couldn’t find Curtis anywhere.
They shouted outside the restroom, “Curtis, come out! We saw you!”
They shouted for a while but received no response.
Could they have been mistaken?
But it was unlikely that both of them had made the same mistake!
Just then, they saw Curtis drinking tea inside a small red house after turning around the bend east of Meridian Gate.
They hurried over to ask why he sneaked into the women’s restroom.
When Curtis heard about it, he denied it vehemently and called their captain.
The captain told Wally and Sonny, “I just walked past here when you two arrived. Curtis really didn’t go anywhere!”
At that moment, they heard a knocking sound on the window. When they looked outside, they saw two ethereal figures walking away.
From their backsides, they recognized Wally and Sonny…
As they shared these strange stories, it didn’t take long for them to reach the area separating the open and closed sections.
Sophia pointed at a weathered locked gate in front of them and said, “Look, it’s locked.”
Leo approached and examined it from all angles but didn’t find any surveillance cameras. He then reached out and grasped the iron padlock.
With a click sound, the padlock opened in his hand.
He removed it and pushed open the iron gate with a creaking sound.
After exchanging glances, they quietly entered.
The feeling of doing something forbidden gave Sophia an unusual thrill. She couldn’t help but tightly hold Leo’s hand.
Entering felt like stepping into two different worlds.
Not only did the surroundings appear desolate and dilapidated, but even the temperature seemed several degrees colder than in the open area.
Imperial Palace had undoubtedly witnessed countless deaths over hundreds of years.
As a center of power, it was bound to be filled with endless power struggles and treachery. There were certainly many unjust deaths as well.
If a place had experienced numerous deaths, it would accumulate negative energy.
Once this negative energy reached a certain level, that place would become an ominous land where inexplicable and eerie events occurred.
Ordinary people were not very sensitive to negative energy. At most, they could sense temperature changes caused by it.
It was dangerous for ordinary people to enter places with dense negative energy as it could seep into their bodies and directly affect their health. That’s why some people fell ill shortly after visiting certain places.
Holding Sophia’s hand, Leo secretly used his Spiritual Power to protect her from being harmed by negative energy.
The place they were currently in was a courtyard of a building. The doors of the building were tightly shut and showed signs of disrepair.
The courtyard wasn’t large either. It had undergone minimal landscaping with some green plants planted around.
The plants grew lushly but hadn’t been pruned for some time.
Could this place be the Cold Palace?