It was clear the two beasts had been waiting for an opportunity, as they had appeared only after the Evil Saint's view had been blocked for that one fraction of a second. Their eyes were red with anger after having seen the corpses of their comrades – slaughtered by Xiao Lan – lying on the ground, and their two sets of talons were extended, clawing in the direction of Xu Ling's chest, as if wishing to pounce and tear apart upon the blue-eyed youth's heart...
The two dragons had a serpentine body, with one being silver-scaled and the other golden-scaled, and the fully released pressure emitted from both of their humongous bodies caused even the earth to sink in and the clouds to disperse in the range of a thousand miles! This was the might... of the last stage of the Ageless Realm!
The might of the God stage!
Dodge!
Xiao Wu could only watch as the talons grew closer and closer, without any sign of Xu Ling having noticed them: ever since the two's appearance there had been no change in his disposition nor had his vision shifted in any way. Although time had been slowed down noticeably, the two dragons were still fast enough that Xiao Wu had trouble keeping up with them with only her naked eye! In the fraction of a breath, the tips of the silver claws were already mere centimeters away from the blue-eyed youth's jugular, while the golden claws were roughly only the same distance from his heart!
As Cheng Hao also relived the same memory, unlike the young girl that had already screamed once due to panic, he was in no way as disturbed as Xiao Wu. After all, he knew first-hand that it actually was not that Xu Ling had not seen the two attacks coming that he apparently showed no intention of dodging the blows. In fact, back then, Xu Ling had already noticed both dragons approaching when they were still several miles away. The reason he had yet to act... was simply because he had no need to!
Just as the blows were about to land, Xiao Lan's emerald eyes, that at some unknown point had begun to shine a bright violet, had already locked on the two oncoming beasts' bodies! Just as the attacks were on the verge of landing, Xiao Lan's speed surpassed that of the two dragons as he vanished and reappeared in front of Xu Ling like a ghost!
The purple-haired youth merely had to wave his sleeve, and a pressure even greater than the one emitted by the two dragons combined rained down from the sky!
Whoosh!
Without a moment of notice, the dragons' paths were suddenly blocked off by a gigantic white shield! The shield was round, semi-transparent and absolutely gargantuan, its main body extending for thousands of feet and growing! A thick mass of Qi danced on top of its surface, giving the shield the outline of a mighty tree that reached to the sky! And even beyond the main body of the white shield, the residue mass of Qi strands - so thick it resembled a liquid rather than having its usual gaseous appearance - poured down its surface like a waterfall, giving birth to countless white oaks! In the blink of an eye, the dark-red ground that should not have been able to carry life had been terraformed and transformed anew: an entire forest of white oaks birthed from the mere surplus energy of the white shield's overflowing Qi.
The shield, of course, was the White-Tree-Qi Martial Way that Xiao Lan had obtained from the Xiao Clan Armory; White Oak Shield!
"Unforgiveable... To have dared to try and hurt Boss... These two really don't know what's good for them!" Although Xiao Lan had said that, he was really laughing without too much of a care. Even his expression was as relaxed as it could get. He had long since summoned the White Oak Shield, and had only been waiting for the moment the two would ambush to release its might! The mysterious violet glow coming from his eyes had also always been present and had simply been suppressed by him in order to lure the two dragons into attacking. And even if he had not acted... Xu Ling would have! Xu Ling's grip on Mirror also eased as he lowered the massive greatsword.
Xiao Lan continued, "Furthermore, to have dared attack Boss with mere clones at the Ageless Realm, this servant was so angered that as soon he had noticed these two Qi Clones one thousand miles away, he had chosen to use a slightly heavier hand in a fit of rage! To be bullying these two poor clones, looking back at it now, this servant is really, truly, embarrassed... But at least, the fact that I am not the most embarrassed person here allows this mere servant to be able to heave a sigh of relief..."
[AN: just to clarify, Xiao Lan's referring to himself humbly in the third person. He's not talking about some random servant or something.]
Xiao Lan shook his head with a dejected sigh as his pair of emerald eyes gleamed with pity, "To have sent their two mere Ageless Realm clones to assassinate Boss, this servant is sure the real bodies must have already ran to their parents' grave and cried for three days and three nights, wondering why exactly had their daddy and mummy been so careless to drop them on their head as a child!"
"Still, why is it that Tyrant Dragons are so few in numbers? Oh! This servant is now finally beginning to understand! It's really just because Tyrant Dragons are so stupid that they are nearing extinction in these last few years! Talk about natural selection..."
"But still, calling Tyrant Dragons retards out aloud just seems... untactful. After all, saying something so insulting to all retards such as comparing them to a Tyrant Dragon... it really isn't nice!"
Xiao Lan's mouth began to spout even more absurd and obscene profanities as he went on. His incessant stream of words that had started off by sending a few jabs at the two dragons now saw the two poor beasts staring wide-eyed at the young, emerald-eyed youth with pure, undisguised shock! From things such as giving stupid answers to riddles ("Who could have guessed that the young Tyrant Dragon would actually answer that a kilogram of iron was heavier than a kilogram of feathers!"), it escalated to exaggerated myths ("And so, taking the fresh shit of a seagull and merging it with a bull's buttocks, the Tyrant Dragon Ancestor was born..."), but the way Xiao Lan told these stories, as if he was not aware that his words were in the least bit improper and even made himself sound like a stern teacher, made the crowd go absolutely insane! The humans and beasts, members of the Evil Saint's army, who had been witnessing the scene from behind Xu Ling were all long since roaring with laughter!
Each and every single one of them, no matter how much they attempted to hold it back, by the time Xiao Lan finally stopped, were all panting, out of breaths due to the laughter! Even a powerful cultivator rumored to have an heart of ice and that had never been seen smiling, called the Stone-Faced Monarch by some and Cold-Hearted Paragon by others, had long since dropped his image and was even laughing louder than any other! In order to stop laughing unsightly and regain their cool, all of them had to rotate their cultivation bases more than once... and each of their cultivations weren't any lower than the Ageless Realm! Although some were only in the middle to upper tier stages of the Ageless Realm, such as powerful Ancient stage cultivators, there were many others surpassed them and were of the peak Ageless Realm, cultivators of the God stage... with a handful amongst them being like Xu Ling, just a half-step away from the Immortal Realm, peak God stage powerhouses!
Due to the unlikely situation, it took a while for the two dragon clones to recover from their shock. But even then, faced with such insults, the two clones that were so enraged they wished to tear Xiao Lan apart inch after inch couldn't do anything as the toughness of the flying shield was such that, even if they were to use their full strength, they would not be able to scratch it! Furthermore, they were mere clones, constructs that had been created on the spot, and so did not have a consciousness developed enough to allow them to retort! As such, even though Xiao Lan was spitting such venomous insults, the two of them could do nothing but roar with rage and endure!