Chapter 164 Limit-Breaking Dive

Even professional swimmers have to train for long periods from a young age to adapt to the water pressure at the bottom of a pool.

For someone like Chen Jue, who hadn’t been in the water for ages, to dive straight to the bottom right after starting was clearly being reckless and making light of the danger.

"It’s fine! It’s fine!"

"It’s just a minor injury, and the pain isn’t intense."

"It should get better if I use some medicine or do some ear massages when I get back." Chen Jue comforted himself, then tried swimming in the shallow water after putting on earplugs.

The earplugs he bought weren’t the traditional, low-quality inner-ear type, but imported external adhesive ones. When worn, they only blocked the outer ear canal and didn’t affect the inside.

The sales staff at the swimming pool’s front desk had told him that inner-ear plugs could put pressure on the ear canal. If worn improperly, water could get trapped inside, leading to bacterial growth, which could irritate existing ear damage and worsen conditions like a middle ear infection.

Since Chen Jue’s eardrums were slightly damaged, he decided to try these external adhesive earplugs. To his surprise, they worked incredibly well after he got in the water.

He swam back and forth along the bottom a few times without any more water getting into his ears. The [Swimming] Skill Level on his panel was also increasing rapidly. Before long, the panel displayed another notification:

——————

[DING~]

[Skill Level reached 100%, Skill Level has increased.]

[Swimming Lv. 1 → Lv. 2]

[Your understanding of the sport of swimming has deepened. Your swimming posture has become more efficient. Your body is beginning to adapt to the effects of shallow water pressure, and your speed in the water has increased.]

[Due to prolonged exposure to water pressure, your lung capacity has slightly increased.]

[Constitution Attribute +0.01]

——————

HUFF... PUFF...

’I leveled up again!’

Chen Jue looked at the panel with a surprised and delighted expression. He hadn’t expected his newly acquired [Swimming] Skill to level up consecutively in such a short time.

Apparently, he had grasped the trick to improving his panel Skills, triggering a qualitative change.

Moreover, this underwater swimming was exceptionally effective for physical training. After less than half an hour of swimming, Chen Jue had already seen his Attributes increase by a total of 0.04 points.

’No wonder Teacher Li Rui scheduled swimming practice so frequently on the plan!’

’This sport really has a huge impact on improving physical fitness.’ Chen Jue mused, impressed. A professional’s plan was indeed much more efficient than his own blind training.

...

After half an hour in the adult section of the public pool, Chen Jue was starting to feel unsatisfied with the 25-meter short course. He felt a distance that short was no challenge for him.

Because every time he swam underwater to the other side, he felt he still had plenty of air left in his lungs and could probably swim even farther.

So, he climbed out of the public pool and slowly walked over to the standard competition pool next door.

The standard competition pool was 50 meters long and 30 meters wide. The depth was sloped, 3 meters at the starting end and 2 meters at the finish, with 8 lanes. It met the competition specifications for most swimming events.

A few student-athletes from the Jiang University swimming team were practicing in the pool, with a professional, middle-aged swimming coach instructing them from the side. After observing for a few moments, Chen Jue jumped into an empty lane at the edge.

Seeing this, the middle-aged coach didn’t stop him. The Jiang University indoor swimming pool was open to the public, and plenty of visitors came to try the competition pool on weekdays.

Besides, it wasn’t a competition day, so there weren’t many student-athletes training in the pool. Leaving an outer lane for a visitor wouldn’t affect their practice.

However, he hadn’t expected that after jumping into the lane, Chen Jue would first tread water, surface for a deep breath, and then immediately kick off the wall and surge toward the bottom in an underwater dive.

He was like a long, writhing fish, continuously burrowing forward through the water. Even after passing the 15-meter line, he showed no sign of surfacing.

This scene caught the middle-aged coach’s attention. He quickly glanced at Chen Jue under the water a few times, a thought bubbling up in his mind: ’Still hasn’t surfaced after the 15-meter line? Does he not know the rules? A master from the general public?’

’His speed isn’t slow, though!’

According to the swimming rules set by FINA, an athlete’s maximum underwater swimming distance after the start or a turn cannot exceed 15 meters. Going past that is a violation.

There’s an interesting little story behind the emergence of this rule.

In its early years, Huaxia produced a famous swimmer, Mu Xiangxiong, who was given the nickname "Frog King."

When this old master was young, he used an underwater swimming technique in breaststroke competitions.

Other swimmers would have to surface for a breath after advancing 2-3 meters with a single breaststroke movement, needing at least 38 breaths to complete a 100-meter race.

But the Frog King, Mu Xiangxiong, only needed to take three breaths after entering the water to finish 100 meters, pushing his lung capacity to its absolute limit.

However, this underwater swimming technique was too heaven-defying—so damn overpowered—that it was like a higher-dimensional attack on the other competitors at the time!

In addition, prolonged underwater swimming lacked spectator appeal and could cause injuries to athletes during training. So, FINA directly hit him with a "Great Sealing Jutsu," requiring the Frog King not to use his underwater technique in competitions. It wasn’t until 1998 that it was explicitly stipulated in the rules that the underwater distance could not exceed 15 meters.

With this rule in place, student-athletes practicing in the competition pool would never attempt to swim such long distances underwater.

Only a reckless hothead like Chen Jue, who ignored the rules, would dive and swim the whole length underwater.

But the more the middle-aged coach watched, the more he felt something was off!

Because Chen Jue’s underwater distance was truly heaven-defying; he had passed the 25-meter halfway line of the competition pool without any sign of lifting his head to surface.

When Chen Jue began to pull with his arms and kick with his feet underwater, the middle-aged coach became even more puzzled. ’What kind of technique is that?’

’A combination of freestyle and breaststroke?’

’Are kids these days all this reckless?’

Before the middle-aged coach could even process what he was seeing, Chen Jue’s underwater swim extended farther and farther.

First, he passed 30 meters, then 40. As he entered the final 10-meter stretch, Chen Jue, still submerged, felt a tightness in his chest.

The long-distance swim had consumed a massive amount of oxygen, and Chen Jue could already feel a faint sense of suffocation.

But seeing that the finish line wasn’t far, he used the upward slope of the pool floor to accelerate, finally managing to touch the end just before his last bit of oxygen ran out.

"He actually swam 50 meters underwater in one breath!"

"Where did this kid come from?"

"Is he one of our university’s students?"

This scene not only stunned the middle-aged coach but also left a student-athlete practicing in the lane next to Chen Jue completely dumbfounded.

"HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!"

"What kind of iron lungs does he have!"

And as Chen Jue raised his head, broke the surface, and gulped in a large breath of air, a notification popped up on his panel:

——————

[DING~]

[You have completed a beyond-the-limit underwater aerobic exercise. Your swimming posture has been enhanced, and your underwater swimming technique has been strengthened and improved.] [Under conditions of extreme oxygen deprivation, your body’s metabolic functions have been enhanced. Your cardiopulmonary functions are beginning to adapt to the underwater hypoxic environment, and your physical stamina has greatly increased.]

[Swimming Skill Level +100]

[Constitution Attribute +0.03]