Chapter 167: Hiding His Breathing

Chang Ba watched Chen Chuan walk onto the sand, looking completely relaxed and at ease. The rising sun cast a long shadow behind him. Chang Ba grumbled under his breath, “He actually did it...”

He had always known that there was a disparity in regards to talent between people, but he had never known that this disparity could be so great.

He Xiaoxing got up after Chang Ba parked the SUV.

Once he saw Chen Chuan maintaining internal breathing with complete ease without using his mouth or nose, he knew he had gotten familiar with the technique.

“You’ve passed. We can head to the next stage of your training today. Pack up. We’re going somewhere else,” he declared.

“Okay,” Chen Chuan answered. He went back and packed up, then got into the SUV with his things. The SUV soon left the place.

Even after Chen Chuan got into the car, he didn’t change to external breathing, even though he no longer needed to expel any stone algae.

After he discovered the right method, he found that using the internal breathing produced the same effect as guiding the growth of his mutated tissue in his mutated organs, and it even targeted specific areas.

The breathing technique he had used before relied on his original organs as a foundation to guide the growth of his mutated tissue. Meanwhile, internal breathing used the mutated organs as a foundation.

With it, he could get an even deeper understanding and control over his mutated organs. Their tissue would also grow faster.

But he had only gained basic mastery of internal breathing. Also, making his mutated tissue grow through daily guidance and using it during battle were two different things.

He needed more time to master internal breathing.

Setting aside everything else, Chen Chuan thought that learning internal breathing alone made the trip worth it.

After they headed north for half an hour, they arrived at a place with bizarre terrain. The place was covered in pits of various sizes. The smaller ones were around one to two meters wide, while the big ones were around twenty meters wide.

These pits were filled with red liquid that seemed to share the same water source as Cinnabar Lakes. The difference was that the surface of the water here swelled upward. From the distance, they looked like red eyes etched into the surface of the earth.

Even though this place wasn’t that far from Cinnabar Lakes, the scenery here was completely different. If the lake was beautiful and majestic, then this place was just bizarre.

Chang Ba knew what was going to happen next and was familiar with the place. Without waiting for any instructions, he stopped at a spot, and all three of them got out.

He Xiaoxing said, “Some of these pits formed naturally, while some are manmade, and beneath these pits are underground well shafts. The shallow ones are around ten meters deep, while the deep ones stretch several kilometers. There might be even deeper ones too.

“Next, you’re going to enter one of these well shafts and use the unique nature of the water and the pressure under the well to train your tolerance.

“You can only use the guided internal breathing technique to breathe when you’re underwater, but you must also use your mutated tissue to withstand the pressure so your body doesn’t give way. This will train your mutated organs more comprehensively and let them know when you need them urgently. They will become stronger and more energetic the longer you stay, so try to last as long as possible.”

As he spoke, he went to a pit and stepped on it. “Let’s start here.” He turned to Chang Ba. “Give him the stuff.”

“Alright, Uncle He.” Chang Ba ran back to the SUV and grabbed a sealed diving suit. He placed it on the ground and explained proudly, “This is the Koi Diving Suit created with technology from Central City. You practically won’t feel it on your skin, and it’s really breathable too. When taking sharp corners during your swim, you don’t have to worry about getting scratches either. This is good stuff. Not even I have used it before.”

Of course, he wasn’t going to say that it was because he was unable to last long during this stage of training, which was why he had never needed it.

Chen Chuan walked up and took the suit. “Thank you, Chang Ba.”

Chang Ba huffed smugly. No matter how good Chen Chuan was, he still had to respect him and be polite to him, no? He ran over happily. “Come, I’ll help you. Open it here, and do this here...”

Once Chen Chuan put on the diving suit, he moved around and found that it really felt comfortable on his skin. It didn’t make him feel like he was tightly wrapped in something. It was light and breathable, just like an extra layer of skin.

This stage of training was bound to take quite a lot of time, so Chen Chuan drank some water and took a tube of nutritional paste before standing beside the pit.

Its diameter was less than two meters, which was quite narrow.

He squatted down and reached out to touch the water. It felt viscous. The buoyancy of the water was also really high, as if it wanted to lift his palm. The stone algae from Cinnabar Lakes was also here, which meant that if he was submerged inside, he had to constantly expel it from his body.

This was going to be hard.

Chen Chuan stood up and composed himself before taking a few steps back and jumping into the pit.

When he was under the water, he moved his limbs to fight against the buoyancy while he slowly headed deeper. The pit was only about twenty meters deep, but he could sense a pressure pressing down on him from every direction.

This was just the beginning. He Xiaoxing had asked him to last as long as he could in the pit, so he sat down cross-legged at the bottom and started using the guided internal breathing technique to breathe.

***

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Chang Ba went to the side of the pit. The splashes Chen Chuan had caused when he jumped in soon disappeared, and the surface of the water returned to complete calmness again.

He remembered going into another pit when he first started. That pit had been around ten meters deep. How long had he lasted back then? Around twenty minutes, maybe?

Chang Ba cleared his throat. Back then, he was just trying out this training, anyway. His mutated tissue didn’t grow in the direction that would allow him to do this kind of training, so no matter how much he stayed at the bottom of the pit, it was useless to him. Even if he managed to spend long periods of time down there, it would just show that he had a good physique.

But at the same time, he knew that the true test of this segment wasn’t the external pressure pressing down from all fronts; it was within the heart. That was the real torture.

Chen Chuan had only meditated at the bottom of the pit for a while, but he felt as if a long period of time had passed.

The pressure from all directions was not the worst thing. The worst part was that he couldn’t hear any sounds from outside, nor could he see any light. The place was completely dark and cramped, which was incredibly depressing.

The only thing he could do was focus on using the guided internal breathing technique.

He had no choice but to do it. Being at the bottom of the pit was completely different from being on the surface. It was really hard trying to get any oxygen here, and he had to focus all his attention on getting it while finding all the mutated tissue that he could logically use to help him breathe. This was the only way for him to last for a long while.

This time, He Xiaoxing didn’t leave. Instead, he waited by the side.

Chang Ba also watched for a while before he took out a foldable bench and a picture book to read as he waited. After going through it ten times, he checked the pit and wondered,

It’s been two hours now, and he’s still not out. Is he okay?

But he knew that he was worried for nothing. After all, even though He Xiaoxing was just standing there, he knew exactly what was going on under the water. If anything had happened, he would have pulled Chen Chuan out no matter what it took.

When it became clear that Chen Chuan was not going to come out of the pit any time soon, he brought out a barbeque stand, grabbed skewers of mutton from the ice box in the trunk, and started barbecuing them.

Soon, a nice aroma filled the air. Fat oozed out of the mutton. He flipped the skewers over with familiar ease and seasoned them.

Once he was done, he gave He Xiaoxing a dozen skewers before eating his own. While he ate, he mumbled, “If you don’t come out soon, I’m going to finish all the skewers.”

But Chen Chuan lasted longer than Chang Ba thought he would. At the fourth hour mark, He Xiaoxing motioned at him, and Chang Ba quickly got up to grab a rope tied to a heavy object. He lowered it into the pit.

***

Chen Chuan remained still at the bottom. He had found all of the unnecessary uses of energy and eliminated them. He now used it only to keep his body alive and fight off the invasion of the stone algae.

He felt something falling down, and he opened his eyes, as if waking up from a deep, quiet sleep. He moved his body a little, then grabbed the rope and climbed up.

When he got out of the pit and stepped on solid ground again, he felt as if he was finally able to see light again after being submerged in darkness for a long, long time.

At the same time, he felt his body grow heavy, as if it was filled with lead, and he felt lightheaded. This was because he had used up a lot of energy to get out. He used both internal and external breathing, and more oxygen entered his blood, which quickly filled him back with energy.

Chen Chuan went over to his backpack and ate more than ten tubes of nutritional paste in one go before finally feeling like he had recovered somewhat.

This was the only thing that could replenish his energy expenditure. The food he usually ate didn’t have a lot of nutrients, so eating it was a waste of time. Aside from satisfying his taste buds, it served no purpose.

He could only guess how many resources the martial artists of the old era had to use. Without powerful organizations providing for them, they would have been unable to get enough calories for their daily expenditure.

He Xiaoxing waited for him to recover before asking, “Have you reached your limit?”

Chen Chuan thought about it and said honestly, “Even if I haven’t, I was close.”

If he had used his second self, he would have been able to last longer, but otherwise, he was nearly at the point of collapse. Despite being on the surface, He Xiaoxing had been able to accurately judge his condition and pull him up in time. Chen Chuan didn’t know how he did it, but it had to be a technique that could only be learned after reaching other limits past the Second Limit.

“The goal of the training isn’t to drain your energy, but to make you grow. You should train like this and get used to it, but you must have a clear understanding of your limits.

“Once you know them, your mutated tissue will know them too. This way, with sufficient nutrients and stimulation from medicine, the mutated tissue will go on adjusting and steadily raising your physical limits.”

Chen Chuan pondered over his words and asked, “Are you saying a martial artist’s will plays a big role in this?”

“I’m glad that you managed to figure this out on your own. A martial artist’s will is important. A firm belief in their own abilities allows them to draw out more of their strength and bring it to the surface. It’s how the seemingly impossible miracles are created.

“But there’s an explanation for everything. Some martial artists are able to bring out strength greater than what they usually display only because they never developed the potential of their mutated tissue, so it remains in a dormant state.

“It’s only when you use a unique method to wake it up that it will listen to you. Your will plays an important role in this. Usually, you can’t mobilize your mutated tissue. Most martial artists are only able to force their mutated tissue into activation during life-and-death situations.

“But we don’t need to go to such extremes. Through external influences and stimulation, you can make the mutated tissue in your body gradually become active. Then, use your mind to mobilize it step-by-step until it’s completely under your control.”

Chen Chuan nodded. He could understand what He Xiaoxing was saying when he put it this way. He asked, “Mr. He, how long do I need to last in the pit to be considered to have finished this training?”

“You’ve already reached the requirements to proceed to the next step of your training. Figure out the time to train in the pit more later. I’m going to set up your next training now,” He Xiaoxing said sternly.