They stood before the entrance to a seemingly ordinary residence.
But that so-called ordinariness was judged by the standards of the Dragon Nation's modern era, or even its ancient times.
The residence had no particularly tall buildings. It resembled a traditional ancient courtyard estate, yet it was unlike the gardens of Jiangnan. With red walls and green tiles, it looked rather like a grand northern mansion.
Of course, Beihan City itself was in the far north.
The one striking difference, something impossible to forget after a single glance, was that the things standing on either side of the entrance were not stone lions or similar sculptures.
Instead, they were two extremely peculiar things.
Two enormous toads sat on stone pedestals.
That was right. Two giant toad statues sat on either side of the gate.
They added an indescribable quality to this imposing, dignified estate.
Yet that was not all.
Two creatures were carved into the upright black gates as painted designs.
They were two brilliantly colored giant centipedes.
Their spreading multitude of legs formed symmetrical patterns across the gates, joining along the gap between the doors to create a strange, mirrored design.
Good grief. Just the entrance alone featured two of the five poisons.
Sure enough, just as Su Ping had previously learned, the Rong Family truly was a leading hereditary family of Poison-type breeding.
Although the restrictions placed on Beast Tamers from hereditary families over the past few decades had left families like the Rongs far weaker than before, their foundations remained.
Just as Su Ping was examining the toads on the large stone pedestals in front of the gate, trying to determine what species of Pet Beasts they were, the gate was pushed open.
A man who looked fairly young, yet bore a distinctly weathered air, walked out