Chapter 66: Shocking Zhu Xiaotian, the Record Broken Again!

The five of them followed Zhu Xiaotian's lead and quickly walked into the training ground.

What came into view was a giant pool, which Qi Tian roughly estimated to be at least one hundred and fifty square meters in size.

The water inside wasn't crystal clear, but it was reasonably clean.

At just a single glance, Qi Tian and the other four vaguely guessed the training content of this afternoon's so-called frogman special training.

"As expected of an amphibious combat unit, the very first thing we do upon arrival is get into the water!"

Zhang Meng frowned. Known for his bravery and competitive spirit, he found himself feeling uncharacteristically intimidated in the face of this underwater training.

Ever since he was a child, Zhang Meng had been a complete stranger to swimming; he had never touched the water in that way.

Looking at the large pool now, his heart was beating much faster than usual!

"Brother Meng, don't tell me... you've never swum before?" Lin Mang asked, looking at Zhang Meng in astonishment.

The gazes of the others also shifted onto Zhang Meng.

"I've been studying at a martial arts school since I was a kid, and later, when I got into the sports academy, my instructors always trained me to be a traditional martial arts athlete. Getting into the water like this... I've honestly never tried it."

"Not being trained in it is even better. Today, I'll let you get a taste of it!"

Zhu Xiaotian interrupted sharply, taking a stopwatch from behind his waist and looking at the five of them with a half-smile.

"The first item of the frogman special training: breath-holding training. Everyone into the water to hold your breath. The passing time for breath-holding is two minutes and forty seconds, three minutes and fifteen seconds is considered excellent, and four minutes gets a full score."

"I've looked at your files. Except for Zhang Meng, the other four of you know how to swim to varying degrees, but none of you have reached top-tier levels."

"With your half-baked skills, there's no need to separate your training. Get into the water together, and I'll handle the timing on the bank. Without my command, no one is allowed to surface!"

"Understood!"

The five of them responded in unison, including Zhang Meng, the novice swimmer, who was also making thorough preparations at this moment.

"Brothers, take short inhales and long exhales before entering the water. Try your best to stabilize your emotions and keep a calm mindset."

"Once you're in the water, make sure your whole body is completely relaxed to slow down your heart rate, lower your metabolism, and reduce your body's oxygen consumption."

"As long as you do these few things, holding your breath for three minutes is definitely not difficult. I'll count to five, and we'll enter the water together!"

Qi Tian turned his head to glance at the four men beside him and unhesitatingly recited the breath-holding techniques from his memory of the special forces instructor handbook.

Hearing this, Jiang Chong and the others didn't have the slightest doubt.

Nodding in unison, they followed Qi Tian's command, taking short inhales and long exhales before entering the water one by one.

Then, Qi Tian counted down from ten. With lungs full of air, all five of them simultaneously plunged their heads underwater to begin their first breath-holding training!

"This kid knows this much?"

On the bank, Zhu Xiaotian was still chewing over the techniques Qi Tian had just blurted out.

After recalling it carefully, Zhu Xiaotian remembered that he hadn't started the stopwatch yet.

Hastily pressing the start-stop button on the stopwatch in his hand, Zhu Xiaotian frowned and muttered to himself, "Everything he said is practically my script!"

"I wanted to let these five greenhorns suffer a bit with breath-holding first, and after they realized how terrible they were, I would teach them the techniques so they would remember them more firmly in their hearts."

"Never expected a hidden expert to be among them, and the techniques he mentioned were even more complete than what I had prepared!"

"This kid Qi Tian is truly a freak without a doubt. Every step he takes is the absolute standard answer, without a single flaw."

"Now even I'm starting to wonder if this kid is playing the pig to eat the tiger, a veteran reenlisted in the army. But judging by his file and age, that's impossible!"

While Zhu Xiaotian was marveling to himself, the five of them had already been holding their breath underwater for a full minute.

At this point, all five of them were still in a very stable state.

Qi Tian focused particularly on Zhang Meng, seeing that he clearly still had energy to spare.

Only then did Qi Tian relax, thinking to himself, "Training is so much easier when you have walkthrough techniques."

"It's just that this kind of progressive special training is still too slow in pace for the five of us."

"I need to think of a way to speed up the training process and save some time!"

Two minutes later.

Underwater, Zhang Meng's brain began to suffer from oxygen deprivation due to holding his breath, forcing him to burst out of the water and take deep, heavy gasps of air.

Zhu Xiaotian's eyes widened on the shore, but he still instinctively shouted out the number on the stopwatch: "Zhang Meng, two minutes and fifty-eight seconds!"

As Zhu Xiaotian's voice fell, Lin Mang broke through the water surface right after him. His time was exactly three minutes.

For a first-time breath-holding training session, such a result was already considered quite impressive!

Meanwhile, Qi Tian, Jiang Chong, and Song Wei were still underwater, and the three of them faintly sensed a feeling of competing against one another.

Especially Song Wei.

The feeling of secretly competing with Qi Tian back at the Iron Fist Regiment recruit company had returned.

As someone who trained in sprinting, his lung capacity was inherently better than others, relying entirely on holding a single breath and dashing forward desperately!

Song Wei knew that this breath-holding training was his best chance to surpass Qi Tian!

Therefore, he gave it everything he had, vowing to fight to the very last breath.

As for Jiang Chong, he had long since made up his mind that once he arrived at the Sharp Blade unit, no matter what the training was, he would go all out.

Most importantly, the event he practiced at the sports academy was the triathlon, which inherently included swimming training.

Among this five-man squad, if anyone was most familiar with the water, it was undoubtedly Jiang Chong.

Performing this breath-holding training right now felt like stepping into his most proficient domain!

As for Qi Tian, he hadn't thought about that much; right now, all he wanted to do was challenge his own limits, nothing more!

The three men underwater could all be said to have reasons they could not afford to give up.

Thus led to the current situation where none of them would yield, and none of them was willing to submit to the others.

"Instructor Zhu, how long has it been?"

Zhang Meng, who had been forced to surface early because he couldn't hold his breath any longer, asked in bewilderment when he saw that the three underwater still showed no signs of coming up.

Zhu Xiaotian took a deep breath, his expression shocked: "Three and a half minutes. That has already broken the longest record for a recruit's first breath-holding training since the establishment of the Sharp Blade Amphibious Unit."

"And this record keeps extending!"

As he finished the last word, Zhu Xiaotian couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

At this moment, he truly realized just how high the talents of the five recruits before him really were.

Seeing the time reach three minutes and forty-five seconds, Song Wei finally reached his limit and struggled to break the surface of the water.

"Pfft! Brother Tian, you're damn beasts! How are you still not up yet?"

Following Song Wei's words, Jiang Chong also exhausted the last trace of oxygen in his body and burst out after him.

"Song Wei, three minutes and forty-six seconds; Jiang Chong, three minutes and fifty seconds!"

Zhu Xiaotian blurted out, announcing their breath-holding training results in an excited tone.

Hearing this, the men present exchanged glances, each seeing an undisguised astonishment in the eyes of the others.

Could it be... that Qi Tian was aiming for a perfect score on his very first breath-holding training attempt?

"Damn it, no way, Brother Tian..."

When he heard that his own breath-holding score was close to three minutes earlier, Zhang Meng had been very satisfied.

After all, this was his first special breath-holding training, and being able to exceed the passing mark by nearly twenty seconds was already quite good.

Yet seeing Qi Tian's performance now, the pride Zhang Meng had previously held was thoroughly ground down again, shattering completely into dust!

"Truly, comparing people drives you mad, and comparing goods makes you throw them away!" Jiang Chong sighed as well.

Ten seconds passed in the blink of an eye, and the five of them knew it clearly.

A four-minute full score might be their limit, but it was definitely not Qi Tian's limit!

Especially Zhu Xiaotian, who knew it even better.

When he first pressed the start-stop button, he was actually about five seconds late.

Taking another look at the time displayed on the stopwatch, Zhu Xiaotian couldn't help inhaling a sharp breath: "Hiss..."

"Pfft!"

Just at that moment, Qi Tian struggled to break through the water surface and began taking deep, heavy breaths.

Song Wei was close by Qi Tian's side and hurriedly reached out to pat Qi Tian's back.

"Brother Tian, how is it? Are you okay?"

"No problem, just pushed breath-holding to the limit, got a little water in my lungs."

Qi Tian waved his hand at Song Wei, responded, and after taking a deep breath, looked toward Zhu Xiaotian on the shore: "Instructor Zhu, how are my results?"

"Full score! To be exact, four minutes and fifty-భి seconds, breaking the longest breath-holding record of the Sharp Blade Amphibious Unit! This... good lord!"