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

Chapter 56 Shaking the Sky

The next morning, the smell of strong liquor in the courtyard had been diluted by the cold morning breeze.

The Tang Clan members are leaving.

When they left, they took the huge steel cage with them. The black cloth was put back on, but the heavy sound of the cage moving made the passing canal gangmen instinctively shrink their necks.

Jiang Zhen stood at the door, watching the group of assassins hidden in the darkness leave.

Last night, the courtyard was filled with Gao Yingcai's hysterical laughter, which lasted all night and sent chills down everyone's spines. Gao Yingcai didn't rush to kill Liang Ting; he simply sat in front of the cage, staring at Liang Ting all night.

The one who actually took action was Zhang Wang.

Zhang Wang's hands were still wrapped in thin bandages, a result of his swift and brutal attack the previous night. Liang Ting, now hidden under the black cloth, was barely recognizable as a human.

"Chief Jiang."

Gao Yingcai stepped forward and bowed deeply to Jiang Zhen. His eyes were bloodshot, but the original lifeless gloom had largely dissipated, replaced by an extreme coldness.

"I am deeply grateful and need no thanks. From now on, aside from those within the sect, if Chief Jiang has any requests for me, please just ask."

Jiang Zhen waved his hand: "You're too kind, Senior Gao. Now that we have an enemy, we have to walk our own path from here on out."

Gao Yingcai turned around, knelt on one knee before Tang Jiaren, and said in a hoarse but firm voice, "Master, I humbly request to resign. I must take this beast back to the gate and personally tell Xiaomei... personally tell her..."

At this point, Gao Yingcai's voice trembled slightly, and his eyes instantly turned red.

Tang Jiaren raised his hand, interrupting him. The eyes of this Tang Clan patriarch were filled with pity and decisiveness: "No need to say anything more, Yingcai, I understand. You take this beast back first, and I will have the best men in the clan meet you along the way."

He paused, his tone turning unusually sinister: "Remember, you must help Xiaomei overcome her inner demons. Liang Ting, that beast, has committed countless evil deeds; he must not be allowed to die a quick and painless death."

"Disciple obeys!" Gao Yingcai kowtowed heavily, then told Zhang Wang:

"I can go back by myself. You can continue to follow the master on his mission."

Zhang Wang hurriedly called out, "Master, it's inconvenient for you to be alone, this beast..."

Gao Yingcai raised his hand to interrupt Zhang Wang: "You stay. Because of him, I have to abandon the mission. This is a disgrace to the Tang Clan. As my disciple, you cannot leave again. Don't embarrass me by going alone on the next mission."

“…Understood…Master…”

Then, Gao Yingcai, dragging the iron cage, disappeared into the morning mist, escorted by a group of Tang Clan disciples.

Tang Jiaren turned to look at Jiang Zhen.

"Chief Jiang, thank you very much for this trip to Shanghai."

"We won't bother you any longer."

At Tang Jiaren's command, Li Ding, Dong Chang, Xu Xin, and the others clasped their hands in farewell. Just as they had come, they quickly dispersed into the alleys and harbors of Shanghai, disappearing in an instant.

……

Jiang Zhen looked at the empty street and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Chief, this favor from the Tang Clan is now irrevocably owed to us," Bai Fu murmured from the side.

Just as Jiang Zhen was about to reply, a deafening explosion suddenly came from the direction of the backyard.

"boom--!"

A huge plume of smoke and dark red flames shot into the sky, and the aftershocks of the explosion even shattered the windows of several nearby rooms.

"Oh no! It's Master Ma's workshop!" Master Feng exclaimed in surprise.

Jiang Zhen's eyelids twitched violently, and he exerted force with his feet.

"boom!"

In a few leaps, he scaled the many walls and headed straight for the smoke-filled ruins.

The workshop was already half collapsed, and the beams creaked and broke in the flames. Without thinking, Jiang Zhen channeled his supernatural power, creating an invisible shockwave that forcefully pushed the flames away, and he charged headlong into the fire.

Amidst the ruins and blazing flames, Jiang Zhen spotted Ma Benzai lying beside the furnace.

He strode forward, lifted Ma Benzai with one hand, and rushed out of the fire.

In the open space outside, Jiang Zhen gently put Ma Ben down.

Ma Ben was in a terrible state. Half of his messy hair had been singed off, his face was covered in black ash, and his heavy apron was torn to shreds. Even so, as Jiang Zhen held him in his arms, he was still muttering incoherently:

"It's done... Brother Jiang... It's done... It's finally done!"

Bai Fu and his gang rushed over with buckets of water.

"Quick! Put out the fire! Check Master Ma's injuries!" Bai Fu stamped his feet anxiously.

Ma Ben shook his head, then plopped down on the ground, panting heavily. His eyes were bloodshot, and the thick layer of dark circles under them indicated that he had barely slept for the past two weeks. Although he looked miserable, a closer examination revealed that apart from superficial wounds and being stunned by the explosion, he hadn't suffered any serious injuries.

"Phew... It's alright, I'm lucky to be alive." Ma Ben chuckled and pointed to the several broken jade pendants hanging on his chest. "These protective magic artifacts I made for myself saved me from disaster. Otherwise, if that furnace had exploded just now, I would have really died inside."

Seeing that he could still curse, Jiang Zhen finally breathed a sigh of relief. He asked with concern, "Benzai, what are you up to? What happened? How did you manage to tear the house down?"

Ma Ben didn't speak. He helped Jiang Zhen to his feet, his eyes filled with an unprecedented frenzy and excitement. After the fire was brought under control, he pushed away the gang members who tried to help him and staggered back to the ruins.

"It's all here! Quick, help me move that pile of garbage away!" Ma Ben pointed to the center of the workshop, where the main furnace used to be.

The gang members quickly went to clean up. As the broken bricks and charred wood were moved away, a huge, long object appeared before them.

The object was encased in a layer of still-warm, dark red liquid, radiating a chilling warmth.

Jiang Zhen took a few steps closer and asked curiously, "Ben Zai, what kind of treasure have you refined?"

Ma Ben wiped the soot off his face, his expression becoming incredibly proud: "Brother Jiang, ever since I heard that you killed that ninja leader in the north with your bare hands, I've been thinking about something. Your domineering innate ability to shatter the heavens and earth is indeed astonishing. But you've always fought bare-handed, haven't you?"

You need a weapon!

He paused, his tone becoming professional and fervent:

“I realized that ordinary weapons simply couldn’t withstand your power. If it were just a simple steel blade, it would shatter on its own with one punch. So I originally wanted to find a material that could completely withstand your vibrations. But I looked at many, and none of them were inanimate objects that could withstand them. So…”

Ma Ben walked to the ruins and pulled hard.

"Thorn--!"

The coolant was torn apart, and water vapor rose up.

"So I changed my mind. Since the material can't bear the weight, I won't try to make it bear the weight completely, but rather guide it! I mainly used a variety of high-quality steels and various top-grade materials that I brought from the sect to forge together, and constructed a spiral-shaped conductive core inside. The vibrational force you input will not accumulate inside the blade, but will be guided along the core and finally explode at the blade edge!"

Ma Ben's eyes lit up: "Today, this guiding core withstood the explosion at the last moment, it's a success!"

As the ruins were completely cleared away, the true appearance of the weapon was revealed to everyone.

It was a huge and imposing Guan Dao (a type of halberd).

The entire knife is approximately 3.3 meters long. The handle is jet black, covered with dark red patterns resembling human meridians. These patterns seem alive, shimmering and shifting in the setting sun. The tip is extremely wide, and the blade, due to repeated folding and forging, exhibits a texture similar to broken ice crystals.

Jiang Zhen originally wanted to say that he was more used to using his fists, but the moment he saw the knife, he felt that it wasn't unacceptable.

The creations of a weapon refiner are indeed extraordinary.

"Give it a try?" Ma Ben looked at him expectantly.

Jiang Zhen stepped forward and gripped the black hilt of the knife with one hand.

"Buzz!"

My first impression upon receiving it was that it was heavy, extremely heavy. Its 3.3-meter length was just right for Jiang Zhen's height of over 2 meters.

When Jiang Zhen tried to inject a wisp of vibrational energy into the blade, a change occurred.

The dark red patterns lit up instantly, and the originally scattered vibrations were instantly gathered at the tip of the blade after entering the handle.

"Snap—!"

Jiang Zhen did not swing the sword, but merely injected energy. The air in front of the sword tip was like a mirror being shattered, with visible white cracks appearing!

This was precisely the visual manifestation of Jiang Zhen's Tremor-Tremor Fruit power. The Guan Dao not only withstood this vibration, but even forcefully concentrated the originally aimless energy into a destructive surface that lunged towards the sky.

"What a fine weapon!" Jiang Zhen couldn't help but exclaim.

He could feel that with this knife, he wouldn't need to directly bear the pressure of the recoil with his own body; all the destructive force would be channeled through the blade and directed at the enemy.

Ma Benzai said regretfully, "It's just a pity that this is the best I've ever learned and been able to create so far. It's not perfect. It will break as Brother Jiang uses it more or the vibration exceeds its limit. But it doesn't matter, I can still improve, and it can still be improved!"

Then Ma Ben looked at Jiang Zhen with eager eyes: "It doesn't have a name yet, Brother Jiang, why don't you give it a name?"

Jiang Zhen held the Guan Dao horizontally with one hand.

"Shattered the void and shook the heavens and earth."

Jiang Zhen slowly uttered two words:

"Shaking the heavens".

“Shaking the Heavens…” Ma Ben repeated, then clapped his hands and laughed, “Good! Shaking the Heavens and Earth! Your name is Shaking the River Dragon, and your weapon is named Shaking the Heavens. These names suit you perfectly!”

Jiang Zhen carried the "Hantian" and looked at the ruins all over the ground. Although a workshop was lost, it was definitely worth it.

"Master Bai, go prepare some wine. We'll have a welcome feast for Master Ma and celebrate the birth of 'Hantian'!"

Chapter 57 Solitary Illumination of Mount Emei

Ever since Ma Ben handed Jiang Zhen that Guan Dao called "Hantian" (Shaking Heaven), Jiang Zhen has become a completely different person.

In the past, aside from managing gang affairs, he spent most of his time researching cultivation in Tongfang Cave or helping Lin Zhu with herbal medicine. But now, he has almost become a knife fanatic.

At night, Jiang Zhen even slept in each other's arms.

This feeling of being unable to put it down was only interrupted by the arrival of two replies.

That was Duanmu Ying's reply.

When someone knocked on the door, Jiang Zhen was sitting cross-legged on the mat, slowly wiping the blade of the Heaven-Shaking Blade.

"Chief, the letters from Jishetang have arrived. Two letters, one for you and the other for Miss Lin Zhu."

"Oh? Doctor Duanmu replied?" Jiang Zhen's eyes lit up as he took the letter.

The man picked up the letter meant for Lin Zhu and instructed, "Little Li, take this letter to Lin Zhu at the medicine shop first. Also, tell her that if she needs any rare medicinal herbs, she should just ask. The Canal Gang is not short of money or connections."

Jiang Zhen then opened his own letter.

Duanmu Ying's handwriting, like her personality, was beautiful and dignified yet lively. The letter was concise; she first expressed her admiration for Jiang Zhen's righteous act of unifying the canal gangs in Shanghai and resisting foreign aggression. Then, the conversation shifted directly to Jiang Zhen's earlier mention of his penicillin idea, which indeed piqued her great interest.