"Whew."
Qian let out a soft breath and carefully sensed his surroundings. After confirming that Ryūchi Cave was no longer forcibly recalling Manda, he decisively deactivated his Mangekyō Sharingan.
The Black Sun in his pupils vanished, the Susanoo around him withdrew, and Qian looked back along the path he had come from.
His powerful perception told him that someone was currently rushing toward this place at high speed.
That made sense. Although he had deliberately left no markers during the pursuit, this place really was not that far from Sand Ridge.
Before he had used Susanoo, the commotion from the battle could still be hidden.
On top of that, Yamato and the others still had to inspect Orochimaru's lair and search for the possibly present Itachi, so it was normal that they could not find him right away.
But now...
Clearly, the other side had already locked onto his position.
Fortunately, he had already finished what he needed to do. Even if these people found him, it did not matter.
Withdrawing his gaze from the pitch-black desert in the distance, Qian looked up at the blood-soaked Manda in front of him.
At this moment, "miserable" barely began to describe the other party's condition.
Just now, in order to keep Orochimaru tied down, he had not cared about Manda's life at all and had used his Mangekyō Sharingan to forcibly control it in battle.
However, as one of the Sannin, even though Orochimaru had already been wounded by him several times before, he was still not someone a mere puppet Manda could deal with.
Therefore, Manda's injuries were extremely severe.
It was only because he had dealt with Biwa Juzo and the others quickly enough; otherwise, whether Manda could have survived at all would have been uncertain.
But as long as