Gaze and you will become stronger: starting from Doupo

Meng Tianzheng, Wang Changsheng, and Zhao Haotian wore solemn expressions as they continuously reinforced the barrier, fine beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. They could feel the terrifying power within the barrier and were secretly astonished; the battle between these two had exceeded their expectations.

The Stone Clan members clenched their fists tightly, their eyes filled with anticipation and tension. They silently cheered for Jiang Han, hoping he could defeat Jin Taijun and clear the Stone Clan's name.

The other cultivators within the Imperial Pass City held their breath, watching the chaotic battlefield and awaiting the final outcome. This battle not only concerned the lives of Jiang Han and Jin Taijun, but also the future of the Imperial Pass and the final verdict on the truth of the "Sinful Blood."

In the chaos, Jiang Han and Jin Taijun's figures flashed and clashed repeatedly. Jiang Han, relying on the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, constantly tore apart the shackles of time, while Jin Taijun, relying on the supernatural power of the cycle of time, continuously depleted Jiang Han's power. The two went back and forth, neither giving an inch, both on the verge of exhaustion.

"Pfft!" Jiang Han was struck by the power of time, and wrinkles appeared on his body, as if he had aged decades in an instant. However, his eyes remained firm, and he knocked Jin Taijun back with a backhand punch.

Jin Taijun was also not in good shape. Struck by Jiang Han's powerful strike, cracks appeared on her body, and the effects of the broken Purple Gold Mace began to show, her breath growing weaker and weaker.

Finally, the two stopped and faced each other from a distance. They were both exhausted, covered in wounds, and barely breathing.

"I'm not reconciled!" Jin Taijun looked at Jiang Han, her eyes filled with resentment and venom. "I've schemed for so many years, and I've been defeated by you!"

Jiang Han looked at her coldly, his voice hoarse but with a hint of relief: "Good and evil will be rewarded in the end. Everything you did has long been destined for today's ending."

Just then, a mad glint flashed in Jin Taijun's eyes, and the divine power within her body began to expand rapidly. She actually wanted to self-destruct and take Jiang Han down with her.

"Not good!" Meng Tianzheng and the others' expressions changed drastically; it was too late to stop them.

Jiang Han also realized Jin Taijun's intention. His eyes narrowed, and he used his last bit of strength to concentrate the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit into one point and threw a final punch at Jin Taijun.

"boom!"

Just moments before Jin Taijun was about to self-destruct, Jiang Han's fist struck her. Jin Taijun's body was instantly disintegrated by the force of the shockwave, disappearing completely without even a chance to explode.

As Jin Taijun died, the chaos on the battlefield gradually dissipated, revealing a scene of utter devastation. Jiang Han, leaning on his fist, gasped for breath. The wrinkles on his body gradually faded, restoring his youthful appearance, but his breath remained extremely weak.

A hush fell over the Imperial City; everyone was still reeling from the fierce battle. After a long while, a deafening cheer erupted.

"We won! Ancestor Hongjun won!"

"Jin Taijun is dead! We finally know the truth!"

"The Stone Clan are not of sinful blood! They are descendants of heroes!"

The Stone Clan members embraced and wept, their tears filled with joy and excitement. They had been waiting for this day for tens of thousands of years.

Meng Tianzheng stepped forward, looked at Jiang Han, his eyes filled with admiration: "Fellow Daoist Hongjun, thank you for eliminating a great scourge for Diguan and restoring the innocence of the Shi Clan."

Jiang Han waved his hand, his voice weary but with a hint of relief: "This is what I should do. The truth will eventually come to light."

Wang Changsheng and Zhao Haotian also came over, their faces showing complex emotions. They clasped their fists in greeting to Jiang Han, saying, "Fellow Daoist Hongjun, your strength is truly admirable." They understood that after this incident, the landscape of Diguan would undergo a tremendous change, and Jiang Han's name would resound throughout the heavens and the earth.

Jiang Han looked at them and said calmly, "The past is the past. I hope you will prioritize the safety of the Imperial Pass in the future and not repeat the mistakes of Jin Taijun."

Wang Changsheng and Zhao Haotian nodded in agreement without daring to refute in the slightest.

Then, Jiang Han looked at the Stone Clan members and said in a gentle voice, "From today onwards, there will be no more talk of sinful blood. You can live openly in the sunlight, inherit the glory of your ancestors, and protect this Imperial Pass."

"Thank you, Ancestor Hongjun!" The Stone Clan members all knelt down, bowing to Jiang Han, their eyes filled with gratitude. The cultivators within Imperial Pass City also expressed their apologies to the Stone Clan, acknowledging their past mistakes. After this great battle, the entire Imperial Pass finally ushered in a new dawn. And Jiang Han's name became a new legend in Imperial Pass, forever remembered by its people.

"Kim Dae-in and Kim Il-sung have been killed!"

A piercing roar, like a blade tempered with ice, ripped through the ancient, ever-present misty immortal aura above the Jin family's cave. The one who shouted was a middle-aged cultivator dressed in a blue robe. He was a renowned stargazer from a neighboring star field, and today he had specially traveled 30,000 miles across the star sea to come to the Jin family, just to admire the two supreme beings who had just emerged from seclusion. But at this moment, his usually calm face was filled with bloodless terror, his right hand gripping the star compass at his waist so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the force, and the runes on the edge of the star compass were being squeezed so hard that they emitted a faint, mournful sound.

Beside him, another elderly woman with a full head of silver hair staggered back half a step, bumping into an ancient pine tree that required ten people to encircle. That ancient pine was a protective spiritual root planted by the Jin family millions of years ago; ordinary cultivators who touched it would be burned by immortal fire. Yet, when she bumped into it, the pine needles fell in a rustling sound, every leaf trembling—not because of the old woman's collision, but because the fear in her words made even the sentient pine feel an overwhelming chill. "Although...although they just emerged from seclusion, they have already ascended to the Supreme position..." The old woman's voice trembled uncontrollably, her cloudy eyes wide and fixed on the area deep within the cave where the golden blood mist had just exploded. "Supreme...looking across the nine heavens and ten earths, those who can achieve the Supreme position in billions of years can be counted on one hand. How...how could they be killed so easily?"

The surrounding cultivators were already in an uproar, yet dared not utter a sound, only able to convey their shock through suppressed whispers. At the outermost edge of the crowd, several young cultivators who had just entered the Nascent Soul Realm were deathly pale. One of them, a girl in green, couldn't help but cover her mouth, barely managing to suppress a gasp—just three days ago, she had been led by her family elders to pay homage to the Jin family's mountain gate. At that time, the two young masters, Jin Da and Jin Er, had just emerged from seclusion and were standing on the clouds receiving the worship of all races. Golden immortal light flowed from their bodies, and even the passing stars bowed before them. That divine might made her believe that this was the most unshakeable power in the world. But now, those two supreme beings whom she looked up to were nothing more than two pools of blood splattered on the white jade floor tiles.

"To kill Jin Taijun's own son right in front of her..." A burly man clad in black armor and carrying a long sword bobbed his Adam's apple as his voice became hoarse, as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper. "Who is Jin Taijun? She's an ancient monster who lived from antiquity. Within the Imperial Pass, her word carries more weight than the laws of Heaven! Back then, when the extraterrestrial demons attacked the pass, even the combined might of seventy-two supreme beings couldn't stop them. In the end, it was Jin Taijun who gave the order and with a wave of her hand, she refined a million demon soldiers... Who would dare to harm her son in front of her?"

His words were like a boulder thrown into a boiling pot of oil, silencing the crowd for a moment before erupting into an even greater commotion. Some people subconsciously looked up at the white jade palace suspended in the heavens at the deepest part of the cave. The pure white mist swirling around the palace was like an eternal curtain. For millions of years, no one had ever seen what lay behind the mist, only knowing that it was inhabited by Jin Taijun—a legendary being who had already lived a second life, with the appearance of a young girl, yet capable of changing the world with a flick of her finger.

"Looking across the nine heavens and ten earths, perhaps only this Ancestor Hongjun could have done it!" Finally, someone uttered that name in a trembling voice.

The moment the words "Ancestor Hongjun" were uttered, even the howling mountain wind seemed to freeze. Everyone turned their heads in unison, looking at the figure in the center of the battlefield, clad in a long black robe, his posture as upright as a solitary peak. Jiang Han stood there, at his feet were fragments of the lingering souls of Jin Da and Jin Er. His face remained expressionless, as if he had casually crushed not two newly ascended supreme beings, but two obstructive ants. Sunlight fell on his hair, yet it reflected no warmth whatsoever, only an icy chill that pierced through eternity, making one's heart tighten.

"Die!"

Suddenly, a heart-wrenching roar came from the direction of the white jade palace. The sound was not human, but rather the wails of countless vengeful spirits in the deepest hell, carrying the unique pressure of an unparalleled supreme being, causing the blood and qi of all the cultivators present to surge. Those with weaker cultivation directly spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered to their knees; even those who had reached the Great Saint realm summoned their magical treasures to protect themselves, their faces as solemn as iron—Golden Lord Jin was enraged.

Following the sound, everyone looked and saw the white mist outside the jade palace churning violently, as if it had been thrown into molten lava. In the center of the mist, a figure slowly emerged.

At first, the figure remained as everyone remembered: clad in a moon-white Taoist robe, with skin as smooth as jade, delicate features like an innocent young girl, and a faint ethereal glow emanating from her. Every gesture exuded a transcendent grace, as if she were about to ascend to immortality at any moment. But the instant she completely emerged from the mist, a terrifying change suddenly occurred.

Her once-black hair turned snow-white at a visible speed, as if frozen instantly by the frost of time; her once-smooth skin quickly became covered with wrinkles, like parched and cracked earth; in her clear, stream-like eyes, the last trace of girlish innocence was swallowed up by a thick, inky killing intent, replaced by a sharp and ruthless gaze that seemed to have seen through the vicissitudes of time. In an instant, the graceful young woman who had lived a second life transformed into an old woman with a hunched back, yet exuding an aura that made heaven and earth tremble.

Strangely, the celestial aura surrounding her did not dissipate; instead, it intertwined with the sharp killing intent, forming an extremely contradictory and terrifying aura—like a snow lotus blooming atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, beauty and destruction perfectly fused at this moment. A knowledgeable old cultivator's pupils constricted, and he exclaimed in shock, "It's the 'Immortal Slaughtering Dao Aura'! Legend has it that when Jin Taijun was young, she obtained half of the Immortal Slaughtering Array Diagram from the outer battlefield. Who would have thought she would integrate the Dao of the Array Diagram into herself… She's about to transform into a sword!"

Before the words were even finished, Jin Taijun slowly raised her withered right hand, her five fingers curled like an eagle's claw. Although there was no fluctuation of divine power, the surrounding air seemed to be gripped by invisible pincers, creaking and cracking. The distant sea of ​​clouds instantly froze, the sun in the sky seemed to lose its heat, and the entire perimeter of the Jin family's cave, and even the farthest reaches of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, were enveloped in a deathly, oppressive silence.

"If I weren't in this world with my cultivation suppressed, how could you possibly have the audacity to spout nonsense and be destroyed with a flick of your finger!"

Jiang Han's voice suddenly rang out, shattering the suffocating silence. He frowned slightly, his gaze fixed on Jin Taijun as if examining a troublesome object. The instant he spoke, an aura far more powerful and profound than Jin Taijun's erupted from his body!

That aura wasn't an outward manifestation of divine power, but rather a pressure originating from the very source of the Dao. Centered on Jiang Han, it transformed into visible, semi-transparent ripples that spread in all directions. Wherever it passed, mountains bowed, rivers surged backward, celestial birds that had been circling in the sky were terrified and lost their feathers, and ferocious beasts hidden deep in the mountains awoke from their slumber, unable even to muster the thought of resistance, they prostrated themselves on the ground, trembling, emitting whimpering sounds of submission.

Further away, countless beings across the heavens and earth felt a violent tremor deep within their souls, as if a god who had created the world had opened his eyes in their sea of ​​consciousness. Mortal emperors were performing a ritual to the heavens, their sacrificial vessels clattering to the ground as they repeatedly kowtowed in the direction of Jiang Han; reclusive sect elders rushed out of their secluded chambers, their faces filled with disbelief and awe as they gazed towards the Jin family's cave dwelling; even the fragments of stars floating in the cosmic dust began to slowly revolve around the star field where Jiang Han was, as if performing a pilgrimage that transcended time and space.

“Suppression?” Jin Taijun’s voice was hoarse and sharp, filled with sarcasm. “You dare to use the word ‘suppression’ on my territory? Today, I’ll let you taste what true despair is!”

Before she finished speaking, she moved.

This time, she didn't unleash any fancy immortal techniques, didn't summon heavenly lightning, didn't manipulate the stars, and didn't even let a trace of divine power leak out. She simply slashed down with her right hand as smoothly as a falling leaf, as natural as the wind blowing across a lake.

But the instant her right hand fell, the entire world seemed to be muted. The sounds of the wind, heartbeats, and breathing of the spectators vanished. All they could see was Jin Taijun's right hand slowly cleaving down. (End of Chapter)