Chapter 185: Squad 07

Chapter 185: Chapter 185: Squad 07

The massive Imperial flagship touched down smoothly on the central landing pad of Sol-Aethel City, its anti-grav runic hum fading into the ambient warmth of the homeland.

Before the boarding ramp even fully lowered, a regiment of elite Imperial Guards in gleaming golden armor formed a defensive corridor around the vessel. Draped in the prestige of a global victory, Rowan stepped down onto home soil, flanked by Jeremy and escorted directly by the Crown’s private vanguard toward the lush outskirts of the capital where Sunny Vale lay resting beneath the sky.

As the armored convoy pulled up to the estate’s perimeter, the familiar scent of rich, turning soil washed over Rowan. But today, the estate’s boundaries were already swarming with activity.

Standing near the primary ley-line marker at the center of the original 25-acre boundary was an elderly man in flowing silver robes etched with shimmering geometric runes. Staffed with an intricate adamantine compass array, Array Grandmaster Kaen—the Empire’s premier barrier architect personally commissioned by Emperor Aurelius—was poring over holographic land blueprints, flanked by a dozen senior assistant formation masters.

"Grand Champion Vance," Grandmaster Kaen greeted, turning with a sharp, respectful bow as Rowan approached. His keen eyes, bright with runic light, glanced over the young harvester with genuine intrigue. "His Imperial Majesty alerted us to your immediate return. Doubling the estate’s footprint to fifty acres requires a complete overhaul of the regional spirit barrier, perimeter warding, and elemental filtering grids."

"It’s a pleasure, Grandmaster Kaen," Rowan replied smoothly, tipping the brim of his Enchanted Straw Hat. "I trust the land deeds and new territorial markers have been synchronized with the capital’s central array?"

"Precisely," Kaen nodded, unrolling a floating holographic map that outlined the new 50-acre boundary extending deep into the rolling, untouched hills behind the estate. "However, expanding a high-grade defensive and environmental array to cover fifty acres usually requires embedding four massive, high-density spirit-crystal batteries at the corners. They are costly, require weekly mana recharges, and inevitably bleed minor elemental radiation into the surrounding soil."

Kaen sighed slightly, tapping his compass. "I was preparing to set up localized dampening arrays to protect your soil from that radiation, but it will take days to balance..."

Rowan offered a calm, knowing smirk. "That won’t be necessary, Grandmaster."

Reaching into his spatial storage, Rowan drew out the silver box bound in anti-magic seals—his grand prize from the Swiss Royal Vaults.

The moment Rowan opened the lid, a heavy, invigorating pulse of primordial earth vitality exploded outward. The grass beneath Grandmaster Kaen’s feet instantly turned a deeper, vibrant green, and the surrounding air cleared so thoroughly that even the assistant formation masters gasped, feeling their tired core channels soothe in seconds.

Kaen’s jaw dropped as he stared into the silver box at the petrified grey slab pulsing with golden, heartbeat-like veins. "Is that... an Origin Earth Pulse Fragment?!"

"It will serve as the beating heart for the expanded fifty acres," Rowan explained softly, lifting the glowing relic with practiced gentleness. "Instead of using dirty crystal batteries that bleed elemental radiation, we will anchor this slab directly into Sunny Vale’s central ley-line hub. Its natural spirit-veins will power your defensive barrier while continuously scrubbing the soil and atmosphere of all impurities across the entire domain."

Grandmaster Kaen stood frozen for three full seconds before letting out a breathless, awed laugh. "You’re going to power a sovereign-grade defensive domain using a primordial earth relic... It’s brilliant! The array won’t just protect the estate; it will turn the entire barrier into a self-sustaining ecosystem!"

Without losing a moment, Kaen and his team quickly adjusted their formation pillars, recalibrating the runic conduits to align with the pure, golden frequency of the pulse stone.

Rowan knelt at the central hub of Sunny Vale, gently placing the Fragment of the Origin Earth Pulse into the deep, dark loam beneath his feet. Channeling a soft stream of his golden mana—[Breath of Eden - Lv. 5]—he bound the relic to the land.

THUM-THUMP.

A deep, silent heartbeat resonated through the ground beneath Sol-Aethel. A brilliant, translucent golden dome flared into existence, expanding rapidly across the entire 50-acre boundary. The runic barrier shimmered brightly against the sky before fading into an invisible, impenetrable shield that sealed Sunny Vale off from toxicity, foreign interference, and unwanted eyes.

Standing atop the crest of his newly doubled farmland, Rowan looked out over the vast, hyper-fertile expanse. The air within the barrier was as crisp and pure as a forgotten realm, ready for the next era of Eden International.

***

The sun began its low, golden descent over Sol-Aethel City, casting long shadows across the freshly expanded fifty acres of Sunny Vale.

With the defensive array fully stabilized and the subterranean Fragment of the Origin Earth Pulse humming beneath the soil, Rowan tapped his comm-link, issuing a private, encrypted summons to his core team: Barney, Mirei, Caelen, and Seraphina.

Within forty minutes, a heavy tactical transport pulled up to the estate’s new perimeter gates. As the four squad members stepped out onto the cobblestone path leading up to the main terrace, all four of them froze in absolute astonishment.

"Whoa..." Barney breathed out, his jaw practically dropping as he took a deep breath. The massive, broad-shouldered vanguard pulled in a huge chestful of air, his eyes widening as the pure, slag-free vitality washed over his core like an icy mountain spring. "Guys... tell me I’m not crazy. My lingering shoulder stiffness from last week’s sparring session just completely vanished in three seconds."

"It’s the air," Mirei whispered, holding out her palm as faint, golden motes of environmental earth mana danced across her skin. The squad’s agile scout looked around at the vast, rolling green fields stretching twice as far into the horizon as before. "The barrier... the entire domain feels like a high-tier primordial sanctuary."

"Rowan didn’t just win the gold medal," Caelen said with a quiet, reverent laugh, adjusting the strap of his longbow. "He brought back a piece of paradise."

Seraphina, the squad’s brilliant resident alchemist, walked up the steps toward the wide outdoor dining terrace where Rowan and Jeremy were already waiting. Her sharp, discerning eyes took in the subtle atmospheric changes, her fingers twitching as if already measuring the invisible elemental balances in the air.

"I knew Eden produce was revolutionary," Seraphina said, her voice filled with genuine wonder as she greeted the group. "But standing inside this new array feels like being suspended inside a high-density, slag-free ley-line fountain. My personal cauldron wouldn’t even need a pre-purification furnace cycle in air this clean. Congratulations on sweeping the global stage, Rowan."

"Welcome back, everyone," Rowan replied smoothly, rising to greet them with a warm, genuine smile as he adjusted the brim of his Enchanted Straw Hat. "Sit down. Before we talk tactics, we eat."

At the center of the broad wooden table sat a magnificent, steaming spread prepared personally using Sunny Vale’s finest morning harvest. Bowls of rich, golden vegetable stew infused with Sun-Dappled Tomatoes, crisp platters of Primordial Dew Lettuce tossed with wild spirit-herbs, and loaves of uncorrupted, mineral-rich grain bread filled the air with an intoxicating, mouth-watering aroma.

The squad didn’t need to be asked twice. As they dug into the meal, audible sighs of satisfaction echoed around the table. With every bite of Eden’s uncorrupted produce, the squad felt subtle impurities and residual core heat built up from days of intense training evaporating out of their meridians. Their core channels smoothed out, their mana reserves refilled to absolute capacity, and a deep, invigorating warmth settled into their limbs.

"If we ate like this every day," Barney mumbled around a massive mouthful of stew, his eyes gleaming with enthusiasm, "I could take a full-force warhammer blow to the chest and laugh it off."

"That’s precisely why you’re here," Rowan said, setting down his glass of pure spring water as the plates were cleared.

With a smooth flick of his wrist, Rowan retrieved the crystal-clear optical recording stone from his robe and placed it at the center of the table. Channeling a tiny thread of [Breath of Eden - Lv. 5], the optical crystal lit up, casting vibrant, high-definition three-dimensional holograms into the air above the dining spread.

The ambient light around the terrace dimmed as battle footage, furnace diagrams, and spatial trajectory maps from every single category of the Global Awakener’s Tournament unfolded before their eyes.

"The tournament has concluded, and while the world is busy fighting over our crop quotas, we need to focus on our primary objective," Rowan stated calmly, his golden-amber eyes locking onto each of his teammates. "The upcoming Tower Ascension."

The squad’s relaxed atmosphere instantly shifted into razor-sharp professional focus.

"The higher floors of the Tower are designed to wear down ascending teams through three specific vectors," Rowan explained, gesturing to the glowing holograms floating between them. "Environmental toxicity, sustained kinetic attrition, and complex boss mechanics that mimic high-tier foreign combat styles."

Rowan tapped the crystal, bringing up the slowed-down footage of the Freedom Association’s championship marksmen and the British Barony’s spatial mages.

"Caelen, Mirei," Rowan said, pointing to the ballistic trajectories and spatial displacement runes. "Look at the Freedom Association’s kinetic delay technique. They don’t aim at where the target is; they pre-charge kinetic anchors in the surrounding air to redirect their projectiles mid-flight. By studying this recording, you can learn to predict spatial trajectories before foreign tower-climbing guilds or high-floor elite guardians even release their bowstrings."

Caelen leaned forward, his sharp eyes tracking every frame of the recording with intense, analytical fascination. "The kinetic delay leaves a subtle mana ripple two frames before the shift... Rowan, this data is invaluable. I can completely recalibrate my defensive positioning around this."

Next, Rowan zoomed in on the five-hour marathon of the Ding Dynasty and the heavy furnace work of the Northern States.

"Barney, Seraphina," Rowan continued, showing the internal stress fractures within the Northern blacksmiths’ titan-plate gear alongside the heat-control seals used by the championship alchemists. "Notice how foreign teams handle sustained thermal and physical impact. The Ding Dynasty spent over three hours of their five-hour final just burning off slag from market-bought ingredients. Seraphina, with access to our 50-acre uncorrupted yields, your elixir concoctions and recovery pills won’t just brew in a fraction of the time—they won’t leave a single trace of pill-toxin in our meridians during high-floor Tower pushes."

Seraphina leaned over the holographic display, her eyes sparkling with professional brilliance as she analyzed the Ding Dynasty’s pill-refining vectors. "Without slag interference, my recovery brews will achieve absolute fusion in minutes. We can stack high-tier buff elixirs during boss raids without worrying about toxicity overload or meridian backlash."

"Precisely," Rowan nodded, a calm, unshakeable confidence radiating from his voice. "We now hold the complete tactical ledger of every major superpower on Earth. We know how they fight, how their gear fails, how their alchemists bottleneck, and where their physical endurance breaks down."

Rowan tapped the table, extinguishing the holograms as the peaceful evening breeze of Sunny Vale swept across the terrace.

"With fifty acres of uncorrupted land supporting our supply lines, the Fragment of the Origin Earth Pulse protecting our home base, and this tactical ledger in our hands," Rowan concluded, looking around at Barney, Mirei, Caelen, and Seraphina, "Squad 07 isn’t just going to climb the Tower. We are going to shatter every floor progression speed record in recorded history."