After coming ashore, the museum entrance lay not far from the lake.
The museum's main gate stood along the lake's central axis, its doors tightly shut; slightly shorter side gates stood to either side. Wooden thresholds and stone steps lay beneath the gates, flanked by tall dark-red pillars. Above them, upturned eaves and bracket sets supported the roof, while chiwen crouched beneath the corners, their mouths wide open toward the moon. Moonlight flowed down from the heavens like water, pouring into the little dragons' mouths.
"The main gate is not opened except on major holidays or for important visitors," Xiao Xiao explained quietly as he led everyone toward the left side gate. "From now until we reach that mirror, none of you are to speak. Let me handle the negotiations."
Just as Zheng Qing was about to ask what there was to negotiate in the middle of the night, a fierce gust swept overhead, and a gruff voice shattered the silence before the museum gates.
"Visitors, halt!"
Whoosh!
The five-person team stopped in unison.
A figure emerged from the pitch-black doorway, clad in resplendent armor, stern-faced, and holding a golden halberd. Zheng Qing had seen this figure in many places around the school, except there it had hung on doors or been printed on red paper, much smaller and lacking the overwhelming pressure radiating from the one before him.
It was the left Door God, Shen Tu.
Where there was a left Door God, there had to be a right one.
Zheng Qing stared at Shen Tu for several seconds, then immediately turned to the right side gate. Though the doorway there was silent, he vaguely spotted a furry massive head and a pair of gleaming golden eyes peering curiously from behind the stone steps before the gate.
*That should