Intensive Training

"Ha, ha, ha..."

On the sports field, most of the Eighth Team members were squatting by the track, panting. Even Jie Qiansi, who liked to chat, had no energy to speak, only gasping for air. His face was a mix of sweat and tears. The others were similar, their faces looking like they were about to melt.

"Are we being screwed over?" Yuan Dang wiped his face with his sleeve and looked at the other teams on the sports field. "Why does it seem like only we are exhausted like dogs?"

"Dogs aren't as tired as us," Qiao Muyi said faintly. She didn't have much sweat on her face, but she was sitting on the grass with the other girls, slowly adjusting her breathing.

They followed the method taught by Zhao Jingzhong, running and breathing on the sports field. Although the breathing method was quite complex, it wasn't difficult to develop muscle memory after trying it a dozen times. After that, it was just repetition – the breathing method was like calisthenics; calisthenics has many movements, but they are all built from simple actions.

Many of them were still afraid that the so-called cultivation method would be some 'profound and mysterious' heavenly scripture. They didn't expect it to be a very ordinary breathing technique, which they had already encountered when learning yoga online, so they weren't afraid at all. The intelligence of these civil servants was at least above average, and it only took them an hour at most to completely master it.

However, the difficulty was that they couldn't complete 64 cycles.

Each breathing cycle took an average of one minute, so 64 cycles would take an hour. However, when running according to this breathing method, they found that they got tired faster. Even if they were just jogging or speed walking, they couldn't keep it up.

Every time they interrupted, they had to start over, but the fatigue wouldn't reset, it would accumulate. Most of them collapsed from exhaustion after getting familiar with the breathing method. Only a few could persist for about 10 cycles, but they also quickly collapsed by the roadside. Even Zhao Huo only completed 24 cycles before collapsing directly.

Jie Qiansi felt something was wrong and suddenly left to go to other teams. Not long after, he returned with a livid face. "Damn, the Instructor tricked us!"

"What's wrong? Did he teach us a fake one?" Zhao Huo touched the iron ring on his earlobe and narrowed his eyes.

Jie Qiansi said, "My friend's breathing method only needs to cycle 4 times, and it's not as complicated as ours. He asked the Instructor, and the Instructor said there are actually three types of breathing methods: the basic one only needs to cycle 4 times, the intermediate one cycles 16 times, and the advanced one cycles 64 times. The more difficult the breathing method, the higher the efficiency of absorbing Aura."

"They all teach the basic breathing method first, allowing the body to slowly adapt to the Aura Constitution. Otherwise, in this environment with a high concentration of Aura, unless someone has a very strong physique, ordinary people simply cannot persist in cultivating the intermediate and advanced breathing methods!"

The trainees immediately became agitated: "The Instructor actually tricked us like this!?"

"But it's allowed," Jie Qiansi's face was very grim. "The Instructor only needs to teach the breathing method. Their Instructor said that most soldiers start directly from the intermediate breathing method because they have been trained and have good physiques. A few can even use the advanced breathing method directly, which is much more efficient than the intermediate breathing method."

"Even if we question him, he can say that we have good talent and teaching us the advanced breathing method first is for our own good. Because if the average efficiency of the basic breathing method is 1, the intermediate breathing method is 2, and the advanced breathing method is 4!"

"Cultivation requires physical strength, and the physical strength for a day is limited. If you can master the advanced breathing method from the beginning, your speed will naturally be much faster than others."

Li Qingxuan said, "Now, not only have we failed to complete a full breathing cycle, but our physical strength is also almost completely depleted... The Instructor has at most wasted our morning, and there's nothing we can do about it."

Yuan Dang asked, "Then, Young Master Jie, did you get the basic breathing method?"

"Naturally, I did," Young Master Jie raised his head and said, "The basic breathing method is very simple, listen to me..."

"It seems none of you can complete a full breathing cycle."

Suddenly, Zhao Jingzhong, who was also practicing the breathing method on the sports field, walked over and looked at the trainees who were covered in sweat and staggering. He shouted loudly, "Eighth Team, assemble!"

His voice seemed to use some kind of Aura Technique. Although the sound wasn't particularly loud, the speed at which it diminished was very slow, and everyone on the sports field could hear his voice. The scattered trainees resting elsewhere also came back to assemble.

"Originally, I thought you Heaven's Chosen would be able to quickly pick up the breathing method." Zhao Jingzhong seemed regretful. "I overestimated you. Now I have no choice but to teach you the simpler basic breathing method to get you started quickly."

Without exception, the trainees' faces twitched. What else could they do – blame themselves for not being geniuses?

They didn't expect Zhao Jingzhong, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, to be so vengeful, slightly annoying them in this place.

"Okay, remember this, the basic breathing method is... Hmm? Someone is missing?"

The trainees were slightly startled and looked at each other. They weren't familiar with each other, so they could only check if their Roommates were present. Soon, Yuan Dang said, "Ren Suo isn't here!"

"Ren Suo?" Several people who knew Ren Suo looked around and quickly found him: "He's on the track!"

Everyone looked over and saw that Ren Suo was indeed jogging on the track, his expression focused and oblivious to everything else. Every time he walked a certain distance, a wisp of white mist about a finger's length would gently emerge from his mouth, an extraordinary phenomenon!

The trainees immediately remembered that when they saw Zhao Jingzhong cultivating on the sports field, he could also exhale a wisp of white mist as long as his arm. Otherwise, they wouldn't have believed so easily that this breathing method could actually be cultivated. Some of them had tried to exhale white mist themselves, but they couldn't keep it up for long.

Being able to exhale white mist proved that he had completed one breathing cycle!

Zhao Jingzhong motioned for the trainees to be quiet. "Let him run, let's see when he collapses from exhaustion."

However, five minutes passed, ten minutes passed, and Ren Suo was still cultivating on the track. Everyone's expressions became increasingly surprised. When it was almost fifteen minutes, Ren Suo finally stopped, but he didn't collapse from exhaustion. Instead, he walked over refreshed!

"Why isn't he tired?" Someone was very surprised.

Zhao Jingzhong said indifferently, "The advanced breathing method I taught you, after a complete cycle, the Aura flows back, which can restore at least one-third of your physical strength, and the recovery speed will also increase. It won't take long to perform the second cycle."

"The basic breathing method doesn't have this benefit, so overall, the cultivation progress of the basic breathing method in a day is only one-tenth of the advanced breathing method, because the cultivation time of the advanced breathing method is longer than the basic breathing method!"

"However, this is only for individuals. Some people have good aptitude and cultivate with the basic breathing method, but their speed is ten times the average level; some people have poor aptitude and cultivate with the advanced breathing method, but they can't even reach half of the average level..."

"Aptitude?" Everyone was startled. Yuan Dang asked directly, "Is it Spirit Root!?"

"What Spirit Root? You've read too many novels. Aptitude is just a manifestation of physical fitness," seeing their nervous expressions, Zhao Jingzhong didn't scare them and said, "Don't worry, aptitude is like physical fitness, it can be slowly improved. For example, mine was about 2.13 at the beginning, and it was already 2.33 when I tested it last week."

Ren Suo walked over at this time and perked up when he heard them talking about aptitude. He asked, "Then how can we know our aptitude?"

"After you all generate a Qi Vortex, you can go for aptitude testing. It's scheduled for the fifth day in the itinerary." Zhao Jingzhong glanced at Ren Suo and said, "Completed one breathing cycle?"

"Yes."

"You have a good physique. Were you in the military before?" Zhao Jingzhong said, "Everyone else is exhausted, only you are still looking decent. The advanced breathing method only has Aura backflow at the end. The first 63 breathing cycles have to be endured with physical strength. Ordinary people can only cultivate the advanced breathing method after opening a Qi Vortex... You're good."

"No." Ren Suo looked at the others and said, "I just... liked fitness before."

Zhao Jingzhong didn't quite believe it, but he didn't care. "Then rest for a while and continue practicing on your own. You can also listen to the basic breathing method, but the efficiency of the basic breathing method is much lower than the advanced breathing method you are using. Listen up! The basic breathing method is..."

Ren Suo knew that he was definitely able to complete one advanced breathing cycle because of the "Physical Fitness Optimization" reward. Otherwise, he, a homebody, would have been exhausted.

However, he could clearly feel a heart-like pulsation in his lower abdomen, and throughout his cultivation process, he didn't feel any fatigue at all!

The effect of "Physical Fitness Optimization" seemed to be even more powerful than he imagined. It didn't just enhance one aspect of him, but fundamentally improved all aspects of his physical fitness. For example, Ren Suo's waist became a little stronger, and his kidneys also became a little stronger, and the effect manifested was that he might have become much stronger in that area – although it was useless.

After Zhao Jingzhong finished explaining the basic breathing method, Ren Suo was surrounded by Zhao Huo and Qiao Muyi. They hoped to practice the advanced breathing method with Ren Suo later.

"Before, it was because people were falling down one by one, and we didn't have a leader to take the lead. Now that you are in front, I think we can challenge the advanced breathing method."

Ren Suo naturally had no problem with Zhao Huo and the others saying this. Several other trainees heard Zhao Huo's words and also came over.

He didn't know that he wasn't interested in being low-key, and low-key meant 'being low-key in life, high-profile in work'.

During the Intensive Training, one should try their best to show their abilities in order to expand their network and be noticed by those above. Then, their future would be very promising. Although Ren Suo was not as calculating as Jie Qiansi, he naturally wouldn't refuse such readily available benefits.

Most importantly, this was his chance to get closer to Qiao Muyi!

He hadn't forgotten that there was still a treasure chest in his game console at home!

It was strange to say, Ren Suo originally thought that 'talented people' and keys overlapped, but until now, he had only found Qiao Muyi, Li Dan, Yu Kuangtu, and two other Black Vests, a total of five people with keys. The other trainees and Instructors didn't give him any 'heart-pounding' feeling at all.

He thought he could get dozens of keys during this Intensive Training and use them slowly...

Meanwhile, in Kamiya Village near the Taidamia Mountain Range, a strange rumor was circulating: someone saw a blonde woman wearing thin clothes, crossing mountains and forests in the jungle, moving at an astonishing speed and with agile movements.

The only problem was that there were sighting records of this blonde woman in two villages five kilometers apart in a straight line. However, the Taidamia Mountain Range was high and densely forested. Even without considering wild beasts, just climbing the mountain could kill someone. No one could walk such a long distance on foot in a single day