If Orochimaru wanted to force the spores out of Manda's body, he would have to dissect Manda.
How could he have that much time right now?
He was busy trying to perform a Possession on Ryou; wasn't Manda asking for help just causing trouble?
"Manda, you're on your own!"
"Orochimaru, you bastard—"
Manda curled up in pain and then suddenly straightened out, opening its bloody maw toward Orochimaru as a foul stench mixed with its roar erupted; even if it died, it would take someone with it.
Tagorihime hovered over Orochimaru's head and blocked Manda: "Manda, stop!"
Manda placed all its hopes for survival on Tagorihime.
"Lady Tagori, save me!"
Tagorihime sighed; she had softened her heart after all.
The corporate culture of Ryūchi Cave was a "wolf culture," emphasizing mutual consumption—the big eating the small, and the young eating the old.
Theoretically, all snakes in Ryūchi Cave were delicacies raised by the White Snake Sage.
Within it, no snake could easily trust another.
Manda was rebellious, showing no respect even to the White Snake Sage, and towards the Three Great Snake Princesses, it acted as if it wanted to devour them to become the number one snake under the White Snake Sage in Ryūchi Cave!
The relationship between Manda and the Three Great Snake Princesses was quite poor, like fire and water.
But they were of the same clan after all, and the blood of the Three Great Snake Princesses flowed within Manda's lineage.
Tagorihime approached Manda, touched its scales, and injected Senjutsu chakra into the agonizing interior of Manda's body.
The level of Senjutsu chakra is above ordinary chakra, and under the injection of Tagorihime's Senjutsu chakra...
Manda's pain began to subside, but it was still very painful; the spores inside Manda had to be forced out.
Tagorihime watched a strange bulge moving somewhere on Manda's torso; that was likely Ryou's spores churning wildly inside Manda.
She grew angry: "Uchiha Ryou, how dare you insult my Ryūchi Cave like this?"
Tagorihime's Senjutsu chakra pursued the spores Ryou had implanted in Manda.
The spores reacted, hiding from the pursuit of Tagorihime's Senjutsu chakra.
But the range was too small, and the opponent was using Senjutsu chakra, which exceeded the Ninjutsu system.
Soon, the spores were caught by Tagorihime's Senjutsu chakra and were subsequently controlled by Genjutsu.
With a wave of her hand, Tagorihime tore open Manda's flesh and pulled out a white egg-like object.
Originally, Ryou's spore was only the size of a fingernail, but after devouring so much inside Manda, it had grown very large.
As the spore was exposed to the air, Tagorihime, Orochimaru, and the newly rescued Manda's eyes all lit up in unison.
What a good thing!
They could all sense that there was very pure chakra within this spore; it was life chakra representing Yang Release.
Eating it might lead to longevity.
Orochimaru reached out to grab it, but Tagorihime gave him a slap, sending him flying far away.
Manda followed right after Orochimaru, opening its giant mouth to swallow Tagorihime along with it.
Tagorihime suddenly turned invisible, leaving Manda with no trace to find, and then the surrounding stone pillars transformed into stone snakes that pierced into Manda's flesh.
This made Manda howl in pain.
"I knew an ungrateful snake like you would bite the hand that feeds you!"
Tagorihime looked coldly at the wailing Manda, ignoring its pleas for mercy again; such injuries wouldn't kill Manda.
It was just to make it suffer a bit.
Tagorihime personally swallowed Ryou's spore in front of Manda, and her strength immediately surged.
She could feel that she had improved by at least a hundred years of hard training.
If she swallowed Ryou, she would truly gain a thousand years worth of energy and surpass the White Snake Sage.
In fact, Ryou's spore wasn't that exaggerated; it was only because the spore had absorbed Manda's chakra and grown.
So Tagorihime had devoured both Ryou's spore and Manda's chakra.
Manda wanted to take back the spore also because its body had shrunk, as a large amount of chakra had been devoured by the spore.
Tobirama, Kagami, and Dan watched Ryūchi Cave's gut-wrenching corporate culture.
They didn't know what to say!
It really wasn't Orochimaru's fault for developing such a selfish personality; he had been assimilated by the "excellent" corporate culture of Ryūchi Cave.
What should be considered strange were the previous generation of Ryūchi Cave's successors—Orochimaru's parents; how could they have been heroes who sacrificed themselves for Konoha?
Following such vermin, how could they defeat Ryou?
Things were also very bad on Candy's side; Candy used the Mayfly Technique to flee, leaving Ryou free to deal with Ichikishimahime.
A blush spread across Ichikishimahime's face.
Her eyes were full of helplessness; she wanted to say something but couldn't, only able to make gurgling sounds like drinking water.
While Tobirama's side was lamenting the heartless corporate culture of Ryūchi Cave, on Ryou's side, Candy had already given up hope on Ryou.
How could such vermin become a transcendent Sage who exists outside the Three Realms?
This world was essentially a world where everyone competed to be the worst.
The secret to doing business was to do things right yourself first, and then wait for your opponent to do something stupid.
The truly smart people in a company were filtered out to do research, while the remaining ones in advancement, attendance, and auditing were all eccentric characters.
There was all sorts of nonsense, and a whole lot of stupid people.
The prerequisite for success was to reduce your own mistakes and wait for the idiots on the other side to blow themselves up.
Opportunities are found by waiting.
A look of bitterness appeared on Ichikishimahime's face, but there was a hint of joy in her heart.
Because her strength had improved.
These Snake Sages had a high floor, but their ceiling couldn't compare to creative humans.
Ryou was satisfied, while Ichikishimahime was a bit uncomfortable; Ryou was a bit too rough.
But what could she do? She had to endure it!
However, the benefits were real; Sages like Ichikishimahime hadn't seen an improvement in their strength for a long time.
The ceiling for these Snake Sages was already fixed.
Any bit of improvement would make them ecstatic.
The vile couple were both satisfied, while Candy the cat was the only one suffering, wishing she could turn back and let Orochimaru and Tobirama destroy this pair.
Candy felt a bit uncomfortable, but Ryou stroked her head, and after a little petting, she didn't feel so bad anymore.
Candy asked Ichikishimahime: "Bitch, where is Tagitsuhime's trial grounds?"
Ichikishimahime said: "Further inside."
Under Ichikishimahime's guidance, Candy moved toward Tagitsuhime's trial grounds.
Ichikishimahime leaned into Ryou's arms, her voice soft: "Master... I still want..."
Ichikishimahime thought Ryou would dote on her, this little gluttonous snake.
But Ryou slapped her away: "Want what? I need to save my energy for the battle! Solve it yourself."
Ichikishimahime felt some resentment and began to use Senjutsu chakra to devour Ryou's spores on the side.
Soon, Ichikishimahime devoured Ryou's spores and her strength improved again.
Controlling Ichikishimahime with spores wasn't a punishment for her, but a blessing.
It was like hitting someone with gold.