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

Lin Zhu calmly put in the last ingredient, looked up, and asked Duanmu Ying with a puzzled expression, "It's mine."

Duanmu Ying felt her head explode with a "buzz".

Who is Lin Zhu? He is the most homebody, the most indifferent, the least fond of joining in the fun, the least noticeable person on New World Island, who is either sleeping or making medicine. He is no different from a mushroom that hides in the secret compartment of a medicine cabinet and never makes a sound.

"I'm asking, whose child is it?" Her voice suddenly rose eight octaves, her fingertips gripping Lin Zhu's arm turned slightly white with excitement, and her voice trailed off with a tremor she tried to suppress but couldn't.

Lin Zhu tilted her head, seemingly finding Duanmu Ying's question strange, and replied matter-of-factly:

“Jiang Zhen’s.”

Boom!

If the previous "mine" was a bomb thrown into the medicine hut, then this sentence is an alarm sounded over the entire island.

The collective gasp of everyone present was like a small whirlwind. Everyone's ears perked up, and some pretended to bend down to pick up herbs, secretly moving towards the counter.

"Jiang Zhen?!"

Duanmu Ying gritted her teeth, her face contorted in a terrifying grimace. She gripped Lin Zhu's arm tightly, her fingertips almost piercing her own pounding pulse through his sleeve. "When did this happen? How come I didn't know!"

Lin Zhu thought for a moment and gave a time late at night.

Duanmu Ying was absolutely stunned when she heard that. She remembered that time all too clearly.

That day, she was so exhausted that she suffered from neurasthenia. Ma Ben had just finished a round of bombings over there. She repaired her severed limb overnight and was still busy making records in the early hours of the morning. She was so tired that she fell into a deep sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Half-asleep, I did vaguely hear noises coming from Lin Zhu's house next door, along with a few strange, low humming sounds that resembled vibrations. But that day I was so sleepy that my eyelids felt like they were weighed down by lead. I figured those two were probably up to their weird "taking pulses in bed" act again, so I pulled the blanket over my head and fell fast asleep.

For years, rain or shine, she had been like a gloomy ghost, peeping through the window at every interaction between Jiang Zhen and Lin Zhu.

As a result, he missed that day!

On that very day, they succeeded!

"Why should I?!"

Duanmu Ying stomped her feet in anger, crushing the dregs of medicine under her feet. A surge of bitterness and absurdity welled up inside her. "How did this happen? Jiang Zhen is a solid block of wood, and you? You're just a silkworm cocoon that stays in bed all day—two pieces of wood becoming spirits, how could they… how could they…"

Duanmu Ying grew angrier the more she thought about it, staring intently at Lin Zhu: "Tell me the details! I need to know every single detail! How it started, who made the first move, where it happened, what they said—I want to hear every single detail!"

Lin Zhu was startled by Duanmu Ying's frenzied and erratic state. The hemp thread in her hand had somehow become wrapped around her fingertips more than a dozen times. She shrank her neck slightly and said, "Yingzi... is this something I can talk about?"

Duanmu Ying looked up and around.

Everyone in the medicine shop was holding their breath. The knife used for cutting herbs had stopped for who knows how long, and no one was tending to the fire that was boiling the medicine. Some people even stuck their heads under the counter to hear more clearly.

"What are you looking at! What are you listening to! Don't you have any work to do?!" Duanmu Ying was furious and slammed her hand on the counter. "Get out of here, all of you! The medicine shop is closed today!"

When the last medicine boy was discovered by Duanmu Ying while hiding in the corner, he scrambled out the door. Duanmu Ying locked the door with her hand, drew the curtains, and pressed Lin Zhu down into a chair, even considerately placing a soft cushion under her.

Meanwhile, the people who had been kicked out hadn't gone far when someone outside grabbed their arm and asked, "What's going on inside?"

The news spread outwards from the medicine hut, like a pebble thrown into a calm sea, with ripples spreading outwards in concentric circles. When it reached the training ground, Zhao Jie was demonstrating the disassembly of a finger gun. Upon hearing the news, his index finger couldn't stop and pierced right through the training stake.

When the message arrived at the dock, Bai Hongyi was checking the list of supplies for the afternoon's departure. His pen hovered over the paper for a while before he silently wrote "Number of Crew Members + 1" instead of "Number of Crew Members" in the "Number of Crew Members" column.

When the message reached the small courtyard behind the mountain, Fifth Master Feng was playing chess with Bai Fu, while Zhao Yuan was dozing off beside him, holding a teacup. The young disciple who delivered the message breathlessly leaned against the door frame to finish speaking. The entire courtyard was silent for two seconds, and then Zhao Yuan's teacup slipped from his hand and shattered on the stone slab.

Master Feng, Bai Fu, and Zhao Yuan, leaning on their canes, hurried toward the medicine shop.

When they arrived, the medicine hut was already surrounded by layers of people, and even the windowsills on the side of the hut were filled with several rows of people.

The three of them squeezed to the front row, leaning on their canes, their ears practically pressed against the cracks in the door. Bai Fu pulled out his old notebook to take notes, but Zhao Yuan pressed it down on him—"You're keeping track of this too? Do you want your superiors to know you're keeping this?" Bai Fu silently closed the notebook.

No one dared to make a sound; they held their breath and pressed their ears tightly against the wall. Someone muttered something.

"I can't hear you..."

"Shut up!"

"Don't speak!"

……

Inside the medicine hut, Duanmu Ying looked at the surging crowd outside the window, her face darkening. She used her Qi to create a sound barrier to ensure that no sound could escape.

“There’s no one here now.” Duanmu Ying sat opposite Lin Zhu, her expression extremely serious, even with a hint of tragic grandeur. “Lin Zhu, we’ve known each other since we were little. You can’t just dismiss me with a few words like that—even if I haven’t done anything great, I’ve still put in a lot of effort, right? Over the years, the number of windows I’ve peered through and the corners of walls I’ve eavesdropped on is more than the number of experiments I’ve conducted.”

"I need to know everything that happened. If you don't tell me, I won't die in peace!"

Lin Zhu looked at Duanmu Ying's bloodshot, almost manic eyes and sighed helplessly.

"Actually... it's nothing." Lin Zhu lowered her head, her voice soft. "That night, after he finished practicing, he felt hot all over and asked me to take his pulse..."

"Then, as usual, he reached his hand in."

"Okay, continue!" Duanmu Ying tapped the table. "How did you get into bed?"

Lin Zhu began to narrate slowly...

The hemp thread circled again and again between Lin Zhu's fingers. Duanmu Ying blinked heavily, but did not interrupt her. Her way of describing was the same as her way of speaking—plain, slow, without any adjectives or dramatic embellishment. But it was precisely this extremely simple and plain description that, when it fell into Duanmu Ying's ears, was more impactful than any embellishment.

As Lin Zhu described it, Duanmu Ying's expression began to change rapidly, and she leaned forward again and again.

"Wait, is this...so direct...?"

"You're so proactive!"

"No, you really arrested him?"

Wow, that's incredible!

"Wow, you can actually handle this?!"

"You guys even used 6... that's insane..."

...Lin Zhu continued her story.

Duanmu Ying's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets: "That kind of thing... you actually agreed? What's wrong with his brain? He even used his innate superpower!"

Duanmu Ying recalled Jiang Zhen's innate superpower—the ability to shatter the atmosphere, overturn rivers and seas, and split mountains and earth—and then looked at Lin Zhu's delicate body, and couldn't help but shudder.

Lin Zhu blushed slightly, nervously clutching the hem of her clothes, and whispered something that left Duanmu Ying speechless: "He said that would help to unblock the flow of qi and blood—and it did seem to work a little. I felt like all the meridians in my body were open at that time."

Duanmu Ying's reactions after hearing those words could no longer be called "reactions." She was in a numb, buffered state, forced into it by overstimulation of her brain.

"You actually believe that kind of nonsense? Are you a doctor or is he a doctor? Do you know more or does he know more? And you're talking about 'unblocking'... never mind, forget I said anything, you can continue."

……

"From night until morning! Is this some kind of animal?" Duanmu Ying's mouth was dry from listening. The air had become stifling and hot. She took a sip of her cold tea, only to find it was completely cold. "This is outrageous... No wonder you were off duty that day and I couldn't find you anywhere..."

Duanmu Ying slumped into her chair, feeling her worldview reshaped after hearing all the "details".

"Yingzi, are you alright?" Lin Zhu asked softly.

Duanmu Ying remained silent for a long time. She stared straight at Lin Zhu, whom she had known for so many years but who had almost never spoken on her own initiative and who would only reply with two words at most when others spoke ten. Then, she squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth: "So you were the one who was hiding your true abilities the most."

Then, with tears welling up in her eyes, she stared at the ceiling, "I've been peering out the window for years, and the one time I missed was the final chapter. My fate..."

She suddenly remembered something and sat up abruptly: "Does Jiang Zhen know about this?"

“I haven’t told him yet.” Lin Zhu shook her head and flattened the folded cardboard in the medicine packet. “I only found out this morning, and I haven’t had time to think about how to bring it up.”

Duanmu Ying revealed a sinister smile, cracked her knuckles, rummaged through the medicine cabinet and took out several boxes of wax-sealed medicine, placing them steadily into Lin Zhu's palm: "You take these first, one a day after meals. From now on, you are not allowed to touch any water above 60 degrees Celsius in the medicine-making room."

"And those lunatics over there, Ma Ben, from now on, leave those dangerous tasks to the interns. From now on, you stay away from any place that's smoking."

"Jiang Zhen!"

"Good, very good. Don't tell him yet, and no one is allowed to tell him before me. I'm going to personally 'congratulate' this person on his ascension to the throne. I want to see if he can still maintain his airs of a maritime emperor after finding out he's going to be a father!"

Outside the medicine hut, the sun shone brightly.

Duanmu Ying pushed open the door and stepped out. All eyes immediately focused on her, and the people in the front row instinctively shrank back half a meter. Duanmu Ying stood on the threshold, closed the door behind her, and the sound of the hinges closing made everyone hold their breath.

Until she nodded.

Chapter 122 The Carnival of the New World

Jiang Zheng had just finished signing a few routine documents in his office. He put his pen back on the pen holder, opened the door, and planned to take a stroll through the market, enjoy the sea breeze, and see if the new cook at the noodle stall had improved his skills.

However, as soon as Jiang Zhen stepped out of the building, he sensed that something was wrong.

As they passed the patrol team's sentry post, the guards, who should have simply saluted and continued standing guard, now stood tall and proud, their eyes filled with a kind of suppressed but barely contained excitement.

"Good day!" the captain roared, his voice twice as loud as usual, with a slight upward slant at the end.

Jiang Zhen was taken aback. Why were these kids so energetic today? He waved his hand and continued walking forward.

As Jiang Zhen passed by the training ground, he became even more puzzled.

Zhao Jie, the captain of the first team who was known for "training to the death as long as he doesn't die," who would lead his team out to practice before dawn every day without fail, rain or shine, was not at the training ground leading his team in practicing the Six Forms.

This martial arts fanatic was sitting under the shade of a tree with several other fleet captains, holding bottles of wine and chatting animatedly, with a lot of side dishes spread out on the table.

"Zhao Jie, you've changed your ways, haven't you?" Jiang Zhen walked over. "Why are you drinking so early in the morning instead of practicing your skills?"

Zhao Jie turned around, and upon seeing Jiang Zhen, he grinned, exchanged glances with the others, and then took the lead in raising his wine bottle:

"Congratulations on your rise! That's all I have to say, it's all in the drink!"

"Yeah, we're so happy to be promoted, let's drink and celebrate!" another captain chimed in, holding up a bottle.

"Yes, yes, you go about your business, don't worry about us!"

Jiang Zhen was completely bewildered: "What are you all talking about? What congratulations? Speak clearly!"

The group just chuckled and didn't say anything, continuing to drink.

Jiang Zhen scratched his head and walked along, discovering that the atmosphere of the entire new world had changed, now filled with a festive atmosphere like that of the Lunar New Year.

......

After taking a stroll around and returning to his office, Jiang Zhen had just opened the door when he saw someone sitting on the sofa.

Duanmu Ying sat with her legs crossed, swirling a cup of tea in her hand, her gaze fixed intently on Jiang Zhen. Her eyes held the gaze of someone looking at an extremely rare biological specimen, or perhaps a habitual criminal returning from a crime.

"Yingzi, what brings you here? Perfect timing, those kids outside are acting like they've taken the wrong medicine today." Jiang Zhen pointed towards the door. "Go check with them later, see if Old Ma's research on some kind of biological weapon is leaking?"

Duanmu Ying chuckled, put down her teacup, leaned forward slightly, and clasped her hands on her knees: "I couldn't possibly not come. If I didn't come, how could I possibly see our renowned 'Sea Emperor' with my own eyes?"

Jiang Zhen: "Speak your mind directly, don't be sarcastic with me."

"Alright, then I'll get straight to the point." Duanmu Ying gritted her teeth, her expression becoming somewhat complicated. "I heard that our Sea Emperor is not only physically strong, but also possesses a very powerful blood circulation technique? He gave our little Lin Zhu a very thorough massage—he even used vibration. Are you really not afraid of breaking her little body?"