"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Li Xiaoya's coughing suddenly came from inside the blue barrier. Then blue light flashed, and the barrier vanished. He stood unharmed where he had been, though a patch of clothing over his left shoulder and a lock of his hair had been sheared away, with wisps of heat rising from them.
"Tch! I nearly died!" Li Xiaoya cursed, cold sweat pouring off him as fear still gripped his heart.
"Thank goodness!" Seeing that Li Xiaoya was safe, everyone let out a long breath of relief. Without him, they would probably have been trapped here until they died.
"Tch, this Vacuum Ring might be useless now!" Li Xiaoya looked at the Vacuum Ring on his hand. Countless hairline cracks covered its surface. Although he had dodged that lightning-fast red light, it was only because the Vacuum Ring had blocked it for a fleeting instant, giving him time to react. Otherwise, the red light might have pierced straight through his body and reduced him to smoke and dust, ending his life in the Southwestern Ancient City.
But when Li Xiaoya looked closely, he noticed that the Mechanism Beast King had gone completely still after firing that deadly red light. A thought stirred in his mind. Could firing that red light leave him frozen for a moment?
Boom! With that thought, Li Xiaoya thrust his palm backward through the air. A burst of flame erupted, and he shot toward the Mechanism Beast King like a cannonball.
"Gaaah!" Just as Li Xiaoya reached the Mechanism Beast King, Red Radiance suddenly flashed in the beast king's eyes. With an angry screech, he regained his ability to move.
"That fast?" Li Xiaoya cried out in surprise, momentarily stunned, but his movements did not slow. The Fire Dragon Sword blazed in his hand, and