Under One Person: The Sea Emperor Who Shattered Heaven and Earth

The smoke and dust cleared.

Jiang Zhen was still carrying his raw silk, but his face was slightly pale and the veins in his right arm were throbbing.

"Jiang...Jiang Erlengzi?" Old Wang was stunned.

"Old Wang, let's go."

Jiang Zhen lowered his head, pulled his hat brim down, and quickly disappeared into the chaotic crowd.

Unbeknownst to him, although the punch was not earth-shattering, its unique "qi-less vibration" had already startled a middle-aged man who was drinking tea at the Peace Hotel not far away, like a thunderclap.

The middle-aged man was wearing a dark blue long gown and was biting into a piece of osmanthus cake.

His eyes, which had been squinting, suddenly widened, and the pastry in his hand fell onto the table with a "thud".

"Hey, this is weird."

"I've never heard of any martial arts technique that has this ability; it looks like it's innate."

He casually tossed down a few copper coins, then vanished from the teahouse in a flash.

Jiang Zhen returned to his dilapidated shack, rubbing his aching arms and muttering, "This isn't a solution. This dead-end method is just a waste of energy; the maximum you can go is limited."

Chapter 2 It turns out to be Under One Person

Jiang Zhen took off the jacket with one sleeve shattered and threw it on the ground.

"Ouch—that fucking hurts."

He looked down and saw that his right arm looked as if it had been stung by hundreds of wasps, with a purplish-blue color spreading from his fingertips all the way to his shoulder. Although he had strengthened his muscle density over the past six months by using low-frequency vibrations to cleanse his marrow, the force of the shockwave from the ground fissure just now still put a considerable strain on his arm.

"As expected, the fragile nature of modern people can't be washed away by carrying sacks for half a year. Whitebeard is a born monster, while I'm just engaging in a physical battle, full of openings."

As Jiang Zhen muttered to himself, he pulled a shriveled, cold steamed bun from under the bed. Before he could put it in his mouth, he suddenly caught a strange frequency in his ear.

hum-

It wasn't footsteps, but a kind of deliberately suppressed "rhythm" that was extremely jarring to Jiang Zhen's sense of frequency.

"Who's up so late at night?"

Jiang Zhen suddenly stood up, his left hand instinctively pressing on the broken wooden table beside him. Although he was a little weak now, if he really went all out, he could shake half of the alleyway within a ten-meter radius to collapse.

"Hehe, young man, you have such keen ears and such a fiery temper."

The curtain was lifted, and a middle-aged man in a gray mandarin jacket walked in, carrying two bags of roasted meat wrapped in kraft paper and a pot of old wine. His small eyes revealed a shrewdness, but at this moment, his gaze was full of appreciation.

"Jianghu Xiaozhan, Liu Wei. In the dock business around here, I, Liu, have some influence."

The middle-aged man introduced himself and didn't seem to mind the messy room. He casually placed the roast meat on the broken table, and the aroma of the meat instantly made Jiang Zhen's stomach rumble like thunder.

"Liu Wei?" Jiang Zhen frowned. He had been working at the docks for half a year and vaguely heard that it was a small organization that specialized in finding strange people and events and occasionally taking on dirty work. Everyone called him Manager Liu.

"Just now at the dock, young man, that move you made... was truly impressive!" Manager Liu opened the wine seal and poured Jiang Zhen a bowl, his tone sincere. "Those Japanese ronin have been running rampant at the dock lately, and I've long disliked them. Young man, that punch you delivered brought honor to China, so I, Liu, came here specifically to bring some medicine and snacks to go with your drink."

After saying that, Manager Liu took out a bottle of liniment from his pocket.

Jiang Zhen didn't stand on ceremony, grabbed a piece of roast duck and stuffed it into his mouth, asking indistinctly, "Manager Liu, you're quite well-informed. Are you also a martial arts master?"

"A martial arts master?" Manager Liu was taken aback by the title, then chuckled and shook his head. "Young brother, let's be frank. In this chaotic Shanghai, practicing fancy martial arts is only good for defending against thieves. Like what you just did, shattering the dock embankment with a single punch without revealing a trace of 'qi'... This kind of innate physical training is something I've never seen before."

"Qi?"

Jiang Zhen paused in his chewing motion. The word, coupled with the sight of those men with green glowing fingertips he'd seen at the dock earlier, created a sense of unease that raced through his mind.

"Yes." To show his friendliness, Manager Liu casually demonstrated his skills, raising his right hand slightly. A pale blue, mist-like light slowly rotated in his palm, emitting a soft hiss.

Jiang Zhen stared intently at the pale blue "qi," his mind instinctively activating vibration perception.

"That's it? It's not even as good as the Tremor-Tremor Fruit."

Jiang Zhen's heart skipped a beat, and his previous awe of the "martial arts master" instantly diminished.

"It seems that this 'Qi' is just so-so now, but we still need to play it safe. We don't want it to start with a chaotic mess and end up being a fantasy melee."

Of course, he also knew that the reason he was in this situation was probably because the Tremor-Tremor Fruit within him had an extremely high starting point. If the fruit's power was a cataclysmic tsunami, then the Qi in Manager Liu's hands was at most a giant flamethrower.

"Manager Liu, do many people practice this stuff?" Jiang Zhen asked tentatively.

"Many? In this circle of 'extraordinary people,' even one in a hundred would be considered a lot." Manager Liu withdrew his Qi and sighed, "These days, the world is unstable. The Quanxing demons are causing a ruckus in the north, and life in the south is not peaceful either."

"According to my information, I heard that there is a young Taoist priest in the Celestial Master's Mansion of Longhu Mountain. He is a real prodigy. It is said that he has mastered the Golden Light Mantra and is immune to water and fire."

boom!

It felt as if a Tremor-Tremor Fruit had exploded in Jiang Zhen's mind.

Quanxing, Longhushan... Zhang Zhiwei?

He stared intently at Manager Liu, nearly crushing the duck leg in his hand.

"I... I didn't transmigrate to an ordinary Republic of China era, I transmigrated into 'Under One Person'?!"

He finally realized who it was. No wonder those people's moves had special effects; he'd actually stumbled into a group of supernatural beings.

"Young man? What's wrong?" Seeing Jiang Zhen's ever-changing expression, Manager Liu thought his injury had flared up. "Your body is still too weak. Although you have superhuman strength, I think your meridians have been severely damaged by that punch. Although our circle of 'extraordinary people' looks impressive, many of them die young."

Jiang Zhen took a deep breath to calm his heart, which was pounding in his throat.

If this world is truly second only to one person, then aside from a small minority, the vast majority of the extraordinary individuals in this world are only capable of a few things, and my current "Tremor-Tremor Fruit" is considered to be in the "medium" stage.

"Let's double-check."

"Manager Liu, thank you for the food." Jiang Zhen raised his wine bowl, downed it in one gulp, and his eyes held an unprecedented seriousness. "You just said that the young Taoist priest from Longhu Mountain is named Zhang Zhiwei, right?"

"?"

"You've heard of it!"

"I overheard the Taoist priest on the boat mentioning this while we were unloading things at the dock."

"I see." Liu Wei glanced at Jiang Zhen, but didn't say anything more to question him. Instead, he continued.

“However, I think you’re not bad either, young man. If you can cultivate your ‘vibration’ technique to develop ‘qi’ to protect your body, you might just make a name for yourself.”

Jiang Zhen sighed inwardly: Cultivate Qi? I have this god-level fruit, why would I need to cultivate Qi? No, I'm not a fully equipped player who doesn't need to eat beef from the start. I need to improve my own level. I still need to cultivate Qi. Moreover, in order to better activate the fruit's ability, life skills are quite crucial. After all, I don't have the kind of alien physique that can do sit-ups like a tank.

"Manager Liu, if I may ask, does your Jianghu Inn have any medicinal formulas that can strengthen the body and consolidate one's foundation? Or any training methods that can make one as tough as an iron block?" Jiang Zhen stared at him.

Now that it's confirmed to be the world of "Under One Person," his "work hard" mentality needs to change.

"Strengthening the physical body?" Manager Liu stroked his beard. "Yes, we do. If you really want to train and can afford the price, I can help you keep an eye out for someone."

"Alright, I'll consider it a favor from you. Please keep an eye out for me, and if it's true, I'll try to raise the money."

Manager Liu waved his hand, indicating that it was no trouble for him and that he would keep an eye out for Jiang Zhen. After meeting Jiang Zhen and becoming acquainted with him, he would not disturb Jiang Zhen's rest any further.

Watching Liu Wei's departing figure, Jiang Zhen pondered.

"Under One Person... the water is clearer than I imagined, but those deep abysses haven't surfaced yet. As long as I master this body, what Zhang Zhiwei, what Eight Extraordinary Techniques..."

He threw a punch into the air, and the air made a muffled sound.

"I'll wait until the day I can unleash a devastating attack that shatters the void without taking any damage."

Chapter 3 Nighttime Murder

After finishing the package of roast meat and half a pot of old wine that Manager Liu brought, Jiang Zhen felt like a boiler that was about to go out had finally been refueled.

He sat cross-legged on the wooden bed, closing his eyes and concentrating. By using his strength, he could feel the vibrations of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit within his body emanating a subtle, high-frequency fluctuation as his blood circulated, as if it were smoothing over the muscle fibers damaged by the recoil.

It took several hours to finally calm down.

"Tsk, the food is still too poor. If there were enough meat, even without ginseng or other tonics, the speed of physical improvement would at least double."

Jiang Zhen rubbed his right arm, which had become much less swollen, and was just thinking about where he should get money once Manager Liu got news about the medicinal herbs and the method to temper his life. Suddenly, the chaotic sounds of the alley outside the door fell silent.

hum-

That frequency sensation stung his skin like needles.

Those were three extremely sharp, metallic frequencies, fanning out from three directions.

"You arrived so quickly? Without even taking a break?"

Jiang Zhen slowly stood up, grabbed the remaining food and shoved it all into his mouth, his eyes turning cold. He knew that attacking the Dongyang Chamber of Commerce would not be something that would pass peacefully.

Swish!

A cold glint suddenly cleaved through the thin curtain, making Jiang Zhen's already dilapidated and drafty shack even worse. It was pure sword energy, imbued with a certain chilling aura, that flew straight in through the door.

Jiang Zhen twisted his body and, like a heavy cannonball, instantly bounced into the corner of the shack.

"Oh!"

The dilapidated wooden bed that had served him for six months of hard labor was neatly cut in two with this one stroke, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror, and even emanating a faint chill.

“Ishikawa style, Hokushin Itto.” A broken Chinese voice reached Jiang Zhen’s ears.

Jiang Zhen watched as three figures stepped in through the door. The leader was a man dressed in a black kimono and wooden clogs, holding a long, narrow sword horizontally in his hand. Behind him, two masked assassins stood on either side, their auras sinister.

"So it was you who injured Ishihara-kun of the Chamber of Commerce?" The leading man spoke in broken Chinese, his eyes filled with the indifference of someone looking at a dead man. "To be able to withstand one of my iaido attacks and survive, you 'laborer' are rather interesting."

"Your mother's ass."

Jiang Zhen cursed. In his eyes, this man's "qi" was far weaker than that of Manager Liu of the Jianghu Inn. If Manager Liu was a high-powered flamethrower, this man was at most a small lighter.

But the frequency of the blade's movement caused him a slight stinging sensation on his skin—it was a slashing technique specifically designed for flesh and blood.

"Kill him."

The man waved casually.

The two masked assassins moved instantly, their speed incredibly fast, their wakizashi trailing two intersecting streaks of green light. This was the method of the supernatural beings; their Qi could not only enhance speed but also apply a layer of sharpness or armor-piercing buff to the blades.

If it were six months ago, Jiang Zhen probably wouldn't have even been able to catch a glimpse of the other person. But now, he doesn't see people, but rather senses their vibrations; where there is vibration, there is frequency.

"too slow."

Jiang Zhen let out a low shout, clenched his left fist tightly, and swung it sideways at the dark figure rushing towards him from the left.

This time, he did not attempt widespread destruction, but instead concentrated the vibration within the small area of ​​his fist.

"Small-scale...resonance!"