Chapter 673 - 296: You Call These Photos Rejects? (Part 3)

Most of the area is buried by underwater mud.

His eyes lit up, clearly very interested in those two small things.

Li Younan looked left and right, found a passage from another direction on the wall that he could enter, quickly adjusted his body posture, and swam over.

...

What Li Younan didn’t know was that shortly after they split up, Chen Chong finished taking the necessary photos and had already started surfacing with his partner.

Before surfacing, they looked around for Li Younan but didn’t find him within their field of vision.

They judged Li Younan’s tank situation based on their own gas tank levels; at this point, their gas could only sustain a few minutes of breathing.

Therefore, even without finding Li Younan, the two didn’t dare to delay any longer, confirmed the surfacing directive with hand gestures, and went up together.

When they emerged from the water, climbed onto the side of the boat, and checked with the people on board, they found out Li Younan hadn’t surfaced yet, and Chen Chong was instantly shocked: "Could he be in trouble?"

Everyone on the boat exchanged glances; if Li Younan ran into some mishap underwater, it would be a big issue.

Chen Chong’s heart raced, and he quickly said: "No, give me a new oxygen tank, I must go down to find him."

Once Chen Chong swiftly replaced the oxygen tank, he plunged back into the sea to search for Li Younan.

Time ticked by slowly, and Chen Chong’s second oxygen tank soon ran low.

Truth be told, the range of the underwater Dragon Palace is vast, and visibility is rather poor underwater, making anything slightly distant hard to see amid endless seawater; searching can only be done piece by piece.

Inside, Chen Chong was anxious yet had no options; as his oxygen tank neared depletion, he helplessly chose to surface again.

Upon resurfacing, the other people on the boat shook their heads at him, and Chen Chong’s heart sank to the seabed: It’s over, is it true something happened?

Right at this moment, a crew member suddenly exclaimed with joy: "He’s up, he’s up! Over there!"

Following the direction the crew member pointed, Chen Chong quickly looked over and saw a figure slowly rising from beneath the water.

As soon as Li Younan broke the water’s surface, seeing everyone staring at him, he was immediately baffled: "Huh? What’s going on?"

...

After Li Younan got on the boat, despite not being very close with him, Chen Chong couldn’t help but complain: "Brother, we are, after all, part of the same team; we already emphasized repeatedly on the boat to reserve a certain safety buffer at least."

He said this while helping Li Younan with the oxygen tank.

At this time, his inner feelings were mostly of confusion because, according to the boat crew’s account, Li Younan hadn’t surfaced at all; so how did his tank last so long underwater?

It’s important to note that Chen Chong is not a novice diver; his oxygen tank usage rate is already among the better ones among divers.

Judging by his own oxygen tank, generally speaking, even an experienced diving coach slightly better than himself may only use about 20% more time than him.

Most people aren’t nearly as efficient with oxygen tanks as he is.

However, just after he said this and took off Li Younan’s tank, he froze entirely upon seeing the gauge on the oxygen valve.

He rubbed his eyes, checking to make sure he hadn’t seen wrong.

Indeed, he hadn’t seen wrong.

Li Younan’s oxygen still had a whole half remaining!

Huh?

Chen Chong’s expression completely solidified, doubting himself, he checked it several more times, even compared the tank capacities, confirming everyone had the same sized tanks.

Recalling when they went down, everyone filled their tanks completely.

Otherwise, he would suspect his own tank was a substandard product.

At this point, the other crew members also noticed the strange expression on Chen Chong’s face, and one asked curiously: "What’s wrong, Chen Chong?"

Chen Chong looked at Li Younan incredulously: "You... you didn’t surface at all?"

Li Younan replied with some innocence: "I always kept our agreement in mind, to reserve enough safety buffer, so when I saw my tank still had 50% oxygen remaining, I decided to surface."

50%?

Chen Chong’s mouth twitched slightly.

He used one entire tank of oxygen to get back to the surface, changed tanks, dived back down again, while Li Younan had only used half of his first tank.

What does this mean?

This means Li Younan could use one tank like others use four!

And you should know, Chen Chong isn’t a diving newbie; his oxygen tank usage efficiency already surpasses many beginners. Comparing with a rookie, Li Younan’s one tank could possibly match five or six.

But, of course, what Chen Chong didn’t know was that Li Younan had the combined advantages of deep-sea and high-altitude ancestry skills, inherently using oxygen far more efficiently than average. Coupled with his top-tier diving skills, control over breathing, body condition, and environmental response abilities greatly minimized oxygen consumption.

With such compounded advantages, it’s quite normal for Li Younan’s oxygen usage efficiency to be several times higher than typical divers.