As these words were spoken, Shen Bai's gaze also fell upon the terrifying, grotesque man.
"You're the Sect Leader?" Shen Bai asked, rubbing his chin.
The Five Heart Sect Leader's gaze was cold. "Whether I am or not, what does that have to do with you? You're just a dead man walking."
Cheng Shuang tightened her grip on the short spike in her hand, a trace of fury in her eyes. "You're the traitor!"
'A traitor?'
Hearing those words, the Five Heart Sect Leader seemed to recall something. He slapped his head and said with a look of utter disdain, "So, you're a spy from the Five Immortals Sect. No wonder you suddenly came looking for me. It seems you've found yourself a pretty good helper."
The "helper" he mentioned was, of course, Shen Bai.
Ever since the Five Heart Sect Leader had admitted it, Shen Bai had been sizing him up and down.
After a moment, Shen Bai suddenly asked a question.
"Are you still you right now?"
The Five Heart Sect Leader was taken aback, wondering why he would ask such a thing at a time like this.
He couldn't quite figure it out.
Shen Bai continued, "Look, your head isn't yours, your hands aren't yours, and even these legs aren't yours. So, if you have children with someone in the future, should they call you 'Dad,' or should they call the people you took these parts from 'Dad'?"
"In other words, your child would have many fathers."
When he finished saying this, everyone present fell silent.
Cheng Shuang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She desperately wanted to say that Shen Bai's words had completely derailed the terrifying and solemn atmosphere.
But after thinking about it carefully, she had to admit he had a point.
'If even his hands, legs, and head aren't his own, would the child he fathers truly be his biological offspring?'
Veins throbbed wildly on the Five Heart Sect Leader's forehead. "You whelp! Are you trying to provoke me?"
Shen Bai shook his head and fell into deep thought. A moment later, he said, "If you embrace your woman, is it you embracing her, or is it the owner of your hands? Sounds like you're being cheated on pretty badly."
The Five Heart Sect Leader's entire face darkened. "Did you come here to cause trouble, or just to provoke me?"
Shen Bai smiled. "To cause trouble, of course. And it's about to be over."
The Five Heart Sect Leader froze for a second, then burst into manic laughter. "You say it's about to be over? How dare you? Do you see this stitched-together monster beside me? It is my most perfect masterpiece."
As he spoke, the Five Heart Sect Leader leaped high into the air.
The giant stitched monster next to him extended its right hand, catching the Five Heart Sect Leader in its palm.
A crazed look appeared on the Five Heart Sect Leader's face. "The Five Immortals Sect's Cultivation methods are wrong! What Five Immortals? That's just borrowing external power. Only my method is correct! Our hands, our feet, even our heads—they are all our own strength. I love this feeling of being stitched together."
"I have researched and continuously fused this body day and night. I have eliminated the drawbacks of merging different bodies, turning it into a single, cohesive whole."
After saying this, the Five Heart Sect Leader opened his left hand.
Upon his palm, an ancient Scripture materialized.
"When the ancient masters practiced Cultivation, they also focused on cultivating their own bodies. I am currently lacking a perfect torso. I could never find one, but now, I have."
"As long as I fuse your torso onto my body, I will no longer suffer the pain of repeated replacements."
Shen Bai pointed at himself. "Are you talking about me?"
The madness in the Five Heart Sect Leader's eyes intensified. "Of course, it's you. Ever since you killed that old woman and the man in the black robe, I could sense there was something extraordinary about you. Your Qi and blood are so strong—more than enough."
Shen Bai rubbed his chin. "In that case, if you have kids in the future, they'll all have to call me 'Dad'."
"Insolent!"
The Five Heart Sect Leader couldn't take it anymore.
'We're all trying to be serious here, so why do you keep harping on about children?'
'I'm speechless.'
'He's completely ruined the atmosphere.'
'When other people fight, there's always an imposing aura, but now, there's no aura left at all.'
Following the Five Heart Sect Leader's outcry, the enormous stitched monster finally stirred.
The Five Heart Sect Leader leaped high and landed back on the coffin, while the stitched monster raised its left fist and smashed it down toward Shen Bai.
This fist was composed entirely of arms, giving it a grotesque and exaggerated appearance, filled with a sickening, cobbled-together feeling.
The powerful gust of wind from the fist sent surrounding stones flying into the walls.
Shen Bai felt the fist approaching, then thrust his Rusted Longsword straight forward.
The Longsword carried a brilliant, righteous energy. As his Qi and blood surged, the power of this strike was pushed to its absolute limit.
The Blood Sword Dance made Shen Bai's movements seem as leisurely as a stroll in a garden, yet the pressure from the clash was as immense as a mountain.
"THUD!"
With a dull thud, Shen Bai's Rusted Longsword injured the massive fist.
Shen Bai was also forced back two steps. He ran a finger over his Longsword, which was now covered in cracks.
"Your strength is impressive. Very interesting. This trip was worth it after all."
As Shen Bai spoke, his eyes remained fixed on the Five Heart Sect Leader's left hand.
Above the Scripture, a line of text formed from smoke appeared.
[Ancient True Scripture]
[Identification Progress: 0%]
[A wisp of Evil Qi can quicken identification.]
'A Deceitful Object! It's another Deceitful Object!'
For Shen Bai, this was an incredibly rare find.
All he wanted to do now was kill this Five Heart Sect Leader, grab the ancient True Scripture, and take it back for a quick identification.
"So strong."
Shen Bai took a breath. Without another word, he strode toward the stitched monster.
From that last strike, he had already gauged its strengths and weaknesses.
The stitched monster possessed immense strength and its Speed was maxed out. It was a real problem in this cavern, since there wasn't much room to dodge.
But Shen Bai was no fish on the chopping block.
"In a moment, I'll let you see something even stronger."
The Five Heart Sect Leader said slowly as he flipped through the True Scripture in his hand.
As if it had received an order, the stitched monster raised both fists and brought them down on Shen Bai like raindrops in a storm.
At that moment, from Cheng Shuang's perspective, the scene was utterly breathtaking.
Because of the cavern's low ceiling, the stitched monster was half-crouched, yet its fists were incredibly fast. Each punch left a massive crater in the ground.
Logically, under such terrifying power, anyone else would have long since been reduced to a pile of mush.
But Shen Bai was different.
On the ground, Shen Bai had put away his Rusted Longsword. A sacred golden light now flickered over both his fists.
Every one of his punches collided with the stitched monster's massive fists.
Besides the golden light, Shen Bai's fists also carried the sound of a Buddha's chant, as if a Buddha had descended upon the world.
In that instant, there were no fancy techniques—only a clash of pure power and Speed.
Amidst the collisions, the component parts of the stitched monster were turning into black smoke and vanishing, one by one.
Cheng Shuang felt that witnessing this scene was enough to last her a lifetime.
She had never seen any genius fight with such a wild, head-on brawling style.
It wasn't just Cheng Shuang. Beads of cold sweat, unnoticed by others, had appeared on the Five Heart Sect Leader's forehead.