He glanced at Ito, who was silent with a somber face, and, not knowing what was going on, gestured to the Wolf brothers and Elena.
The three immediately changed to new air tanks and prepared to go into the water again. Just then, the water surface churned and with a "splash," Zhou Xuan emerged from the sea.
The Wolf brothers were overjoyed. They reached out the steel ladder and pulled Zhou Xuan onto the boat. Once on board, Zhou Xuan took off his blindfold, chuckled, and said, "Perfect, I'm out of breath!"
Elena smiled and helped him remove the oxygen tank from his back, then took the water meter off his wrist. She was stunned when she saw the number "177"!
177 meters!
When Elena announced the number, everyone except Ito, whose face was grim, was so shocked that they couldn't close their mouths. The Wolf brothers even snatched the water meter and examined it carefully, as if they didn't believe what Elena said. They stared at the water meter and patted it, but the number remained fixed on "177" without any change.
Li Junjie didn't check the water meter again. He could tell from Ito's expression that Zhou Xuan's results were real. If someone as proud as Ito were more cunning than Zhou Xuan, he would never have such an expression.
Li Junjie had not expected Zhou Xuan's abilities to be so extraordinary! He had brought back five experts, while his cousin Fu Ying only had Zhou Xuan, who was stronger than all five of them.
Zhou Xuan couldn't understand what the Wolf brothers and Elena were saying, but seeing their enthusiastic and happy expressions, he knew they were genuinely happy. There wasn't much competition between them; Fu Ying and the others' condition wasn't that whoever was the most capable would get more money, but rather that everyone would work together to complete the mission.
Wang Jue occasionally translated a few words for Zhou Xuan from the side, but at this moment, silence spoke louder than words; although the words were different, the actions were universally understood.
Of all the people present, only Ito truly understood Zhou Xuan's strength at that moment. Zhou Xuan effortlessly dived deeper into the water right before his eyes. At that time, Ito believed that Zhou Xuan's two air tanks didn't have as much air left as his own. When he surfaced, he would only have enough air left to last for two more minutes, while Zhou Xuan didn't return until six or seven minutes after he surfaced.
This also includes Zhou Xuan's dive of another eleven meters. Ito could imagine the difficulty of those eleven meters. It's like climbing a mountain. Once you reach 6,000 meters, even if you go just ten meters further, you might not be able to do it. It's like practicing martial arts. When you reach a certain level and hit a bottleneck, it's like climbing a hundred-foot pole. Taking another step forward is as difficult as ascending to heaven!
If it were Ito himself, he wouldn't be able to reach that eleven-meter depth, let alone do it. Even if he could risk his life to dive down, it would take him quite a while, and returning to the surface would take at least fifteen minutes longer.
Fifteen minutes? Could Zhou Xuan's oxygen last that long? The key point is that he didn't actually spend fifteen minutes, but only six or seven minutes longer. This made Ito even more uncomfortable. This clearly indicated that Zhou Xuan's internal body could withstand seawater pressure that Ito had cultivated for fifteen years!
Did Zhou Xuan practice internal energy cultivation? It seems unlikely. Moreover, in such deep water, the pressure is beyond what an ordinary Qi cultivator could withstand. One would need to cultivate to a certain level of internal energy to protect their internal organs from the immense pressure of the seawater.
From the moment Ito first met Zhou Xuan and his companions, he could tell from their mannerisms and speech that none of them had ever practiced internal martial arts.
But Zhou Xuan's performance underwater was so extraordinary that it was unbelievable to Ito. Could it be that Zhou Xuan was a master who had cultivated his internal energy to its peak and reached the point of returning to simplicity?
Of course, Ito never dreamed that there would be such a bizarre ice energy in this world. The breathing method that Zhou Xuan practiced in meditation was not internal energy cultivation, but a health preservation method taught to him by the old Taoist priest. In ancient times, this was called "Qi Refining and True Cultivation Method", which is very different from the pure internal energy cultivation method of martial arts. Of course, whether there are immortals in this world is another matter. At least in Zhou Xuan's mind, he had never seen one. Moreover, the old Taoist priest had never explained the breathing method of meditation to him.
What's even more coincidental is that when Zhou Xuan's ice energy was greatly depleted, he actually combined it with his inner energy. This strange pill ice energy became a peculiar and unknown superpower, so Ito naturally couldn't tell from Zhou Xuan's appearance and actions!
Zhou Xuan didn't even glance at Ito Kinji, who was standing to the side in a daze, and opened a bottle of red wine with Elena and the Wolf Brothers. Li Junjie was naturally happy too, after all, having such a capable person was a joy for them.
Zhou Xuan took a small sip of red wine. It tasted sweet and quite delicious. The main problem was that he couldn't communicate with Elena and the others because of the language barrier. Otherwise, they could have exchanged some words. It would be troublesome if Wang Jue had to translate everything.
To Zhou Xuan's surprise, Ono Yuriko suddenly walked over, bowed deeply to him, and said softly, "Mr. Zhou, you are truly remarkable. My fellow disciples and I are no match for you and we humbly admit our inferiority. We hope to have a good exchange with you and ask for your guidance in the future!"
Zhou Xuan paused for a moment before asking, "You... can speak Mandarin?"
Yuriko Ono replied in a soft voice, "Chinese is my first foreign language. I studied at Shanghai University of Economics and Business."
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Volume One: The First Signs of Growth, Chapter Twelve: The Black Family
Yuriko Ono speaks Mandarin with exceptional standard and fluency, far superior to Zhou Xuan's slightly accented Mandarin. (WenXueM)
As the saying goes, the capable are respected. This world is all about strength. If you are more capable than others, you will earn more respect from them.
At this moment, everyone on the yacht began to look at Zhou Xuan, this seemingly unsophisticated Chinese youth, with new eyes. No matter what, his strength was undeniable, and he was here to prove himself through his abilities!
Although I absolutely cannot stand the Japanese, I won't hit someone who's smiling at me. If the other party isn't going too far, I still have to be polite. After all, China has always been known as a land of etiquette.
Zhou Xuan nodded and said calmly, "I wouldn't call it giving pointers, but we can exchange ideas. However, I only know a little bit about it, so I'm afraid we won't be able to exchange anything meaningful."
Yuriko smiled sweetly and said, "Mr. Zhou, you really know how to joke!"
Since the super wetsuits ordered by Fu Ying and Li Junjie have not yet arrived, there has been no substantial testing. This ordinary wetsuit diving test has basically achieved the ideal stage of success.
Li Junjie was also quite happy and immediately retreated, taking everyone to a bar in Chinatown to celebrate.
Of course, this was also to save face for Zhou Xuan, since Zhou Xuan was the most outstanding among them. Because Zhou Xuan didn't understand foreign languages and wasn't used to other places, Li Junjie specially found a bar owned by a Chinese person.
Normally, Li Junjie likes to party at bars with North American traditions in Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Li Junjie booked three tables. The bar manager, a Chinese man in his thirties, seemed to know Li Junjie and addressed him as "Young Master Li."
It seems there is still a connection with the Fu family. From the past few days, Zhou Xuan has realized that Fu Ying's family is not just ordinary rich.
Li Junjie made another phone call, then chuckled and said, "I'll invite my cousin over too, so we can all have some fun together!"
The beer was served in tiers, and the waitresses who poured the drinks weren't all Chinese girls. For example, the girl who poured the drinks for Zhou Xuan and his group was a white girl. Under her super short skirt, you could vaguely see a glimpse of black lace underwear, and her neckline was incredibly low. When she bent over to pour the drinks, most of her white breasts were exposed. Of course, whether it was the Wolf Brothers, Elena and Yuriko Ono, or even the cool-looking Kinji Ito, everyone was already used to this kind of scene.
Zhou Xuan couldn't help but glance at it sideways. There was no harm in looking, since it didn't cost him anything.
In the middle of the bar, there was a round bar counter with a band and singers performing. The singer who had just come on stage was a woman. The lights were flickering, so it was hard to see what her face looked like, but she sang quite well. However, Zhou Xuan couldn't understand her voice, as she was singing an English song.
Zhou Xuan is quite fond of listening to music and listens to all kinds of songs. However, he prioritizes good melodies and then chooses singers who sing well. He doesn't understand English, but he has listened to a lot of English music and knows a lot of it quite well.
About twenty minutes later, Fu Ying arrived, accompanied by a very tall white man, at least 1.85 meters tall, who looked to be about thirty years old. Zhou Xuan had never been able to figure out the age of foreigners, because from his perspective, there wasn't much difference between teenagers and those in their twenties or thirties, since they were all hairy and had very developed hair glands on their faces and bodies.
Li Junjie paused for a moment, then introduced him to Zhou Xuan: "Xiao Zhou, this is my cousin Johnny Black, which is pronounced 'Qiao Ni' in Chinese!"
The tall white man extended his hand to Zhou Xuan and said, "Hello, Mr. Zhou!"
Zhou Xuan was ashamed of his own Chinese! It seemed that all these foreigners spoke more standard Mandarin than he did.
"Hello, Mr. Johnny!" Zhou Xuan shook hands with him. His first impression of Johnny was that he was very polite, which was different from Li Junjie's straightforward personality.
Fu Ying smiled and said to Zhou Xuan, "He is my eldest cousin, the son of my eldest aunt. Junjie is the son of my second aunt. My eldest cousin graduated from Harvard Business School and is currently the vice president of investment at our Fu family's venture capital fund. He was free today and had just finished talking with his grandfather at home, so I invited him to come and have some fun."
Johnny was really tall; even sitting down, he was half a head taller than Zhou Xuan. Then Johnny continued, "My name has two interpretations in Chinese, which are different in the north and south of China. In the north, it's called Johnny, while in the south, it's transliterated as 'Johnny.' My surname is Black, which means black, so our family is known as the 'Black Family'!"