Chapter 741: Battlefield Opens
Max smiled lightly, the corners of his lips curving upward as quiet satisfaction glimmered in his eyes, pleased beyond measure that his experiment had worked perfectly. Through his Three Dimensional Body, he could perceive Alice as vividly as though she were standing right before him, every detail of her aura, posture, and energy clear as day in his mind’s eye, despite the physical distance separating them.
All it had taken was the delicate addition of a thin strand of vital essence interwoven into his spatial awareness, enabling him to transmit his thoughts directly to her across the battlefield.
"It’s my ability," he explained calmly to Alice, his mental voice crisp and confident, tinged with the faintest note of pride at having refined such a powerful technique. "I want you to keep your vital essence active at all times when you’re in battle. That way, even if we don’t see each other, we can still talk—as long as you’re within range of my ability."
Alice’s voice chimed back almost instantly, carrying warmth and bright admiration despite the looming tension in the air. "That’s such a good ability," she said, and even without seeing her face directly, Max could picture her eyes lighting up, her long red hair shimmering like fire beneath the stormy sky.
But before they could speak further, a thunderous voice boomed over the battlefield, cutting through the murmurs of gathered experts and the restless rustle of weapons shifting in scabbards. "Open the town gate and attack!" commanded the mayor, his voice ringing out with iron authority from atop the massive stone walls.
In an instant, the colossal town gate groaned and shuddered as it began to swing open, ancient metal hinges screeching like tortured beasts under the weight of the towering, rune-etched doors.
As the gate fully yawned wide, a tidal wave of warriors from every corner of the Middle Domain surged forward in a roaring stampede, joined by the heavily armed soldiers of the Town Army who descended from the towering white walls to reinforce the charge.
The earth itself seemed to tremble under the pounding of countless feet, and a gale of battle cries swept through the crimson air as they streamed into the scarlet wilderness beyond the gate. When the front ranks landed on the churned, blood-drenched soil, they were instantly met with the sight that had haunted every cultivator’s nightmares—a heaving tide of Nulls surging forward in a dense, relentless wave.
It was as if the very shadows had come alive, monstrous figures with twisted limbs, vacant eyes that glowed like pale lanterns, and skin that shimmered with an unnatural, oily sheen. Their snarls and screeches filled the air like the cries of a thousand beasts, but this was no mere beast tide—it was a tide of Nulls, horrors born of twisted mutations and void energies.
Yet despite the sheer terror that gripped the battlefield, the warriors held their ground. In the early stages of such battles, it was almost always the first-level Nulls that rushed in a frenzied swarm at the front lines, weaker creatures whose purpose was to test the defenses and soften up the resistance.
The stronger Nulls—the monstrous high-level threats—lurked further back in the mass, waiting for the moment to strike when chaos and exhaustion had taken their toll. As long as warriors didn’t become isolated or stray too deep into enemy ranks, there was usually little risk to their lives in these initial waves.
Seeing the seething mass of Nulls right in front of them, the experts or hunters in this scenario unleashed their pent-up energy with savage fury, a storm of radiant techniques and elemental power exploding across the field.