Su Xiao’s objective this time is to rescue Deidara, and his enemies have consistently been the Rock Ninjas, with little relation to the civilians.

Su Xiao stepped into the stone house; the only entrance to the underground prison lies within.

The interior of the stone house is simple, with a stone statue on the inside. Offerings carved from rock are placed before the statue. According to the intelligence provided by Bai Jue, the entrance to the underground prison is in front of the statue, requiring a mechanism to be triggered to open it.

Su Xiao certainly won’t look for that so-called mechanism. He pretended to slash forward with the Dragon Slash in his hand; blade aura flew out, dust and stone fragments splattering, carving four deep slash marks on the ground.

Su Xiao lifted one foot and stomped fiercely on the ground.

Boom!

The entire stone house shook; spiderweb-shaped cracks formed on the stone slabs on the ground, and a large, dark pit caved in.

Footsteps came from behind Su Xiao. Without looking back, he headed straight to the large pit on the ground.

Inside the pit was a stone staircase leading diagonally underground, littered with rubble and dust.

Su Xiao descended the stairs towards the underground prison. Moments later, Bubu Wang ran inside the stone house, and it was the source of the earlier footsteps.

Bubu Wang first surveyed the situation inside the stone house. Seeing the stone statue taller than a person, its eyes lit up, and it quickly ran to the statue.

Bubu Wang remained motionless next to the statue, activating the divine skill it had self-taught, ’You Can’t See Me,’ successfully blending into the environment and disguising itself as a sculpture, with no sense of dissonance.

Bubu Wang was thus guarding the exit for Su Xiao. If anything went awry, it would immediately notify Su Xiao underground.

The cries and explosions resounded within Shuyan Village, the most active being A Mu. A Mu was holding two Chunin at the moment and charging tactically within a group of ninjas. Various ninjutsu occasionally hit A Mu, but A Mu was indifferent. As for shuriken or kunai and other ninja tools, A Mu directly ignored them.

In the passage leading to the underground prison, Su Xiao held a bundle of military glow sticks, occasionally throwing one forward.

After descending about ten meters underground, an iron door appeared ahead; a small white spider crawled out from Su Xiao’s sleeve, crawling along the wall to the iron door.

Su Xiao paused, forming a 50-point strength energy shield before him, as explosions in such semi-sealed terrain could easily affect him.

Boom!

A broken hole was blasted on the iron door. Curved iron bars surrounded the hole, and Su Xiao stepped forward to observe the situation inside the underground prison.

The underground prison was pitch black; Su Xiao tossed a military glow stick inside.

Whoosh~

A shadow flew straight at him; Su Xiao tilted his head to one side, and the shadow flew past his cheek—it was a kunai.

Su Xiao kicked at the iron door, which crashed loudly and flew into the underground prison.

Suddenly, firelight appeared, dimly illuminating the underground prison. From the entrance, Su Xiao could see the situation inside the prison.

The underground prison wasn’t large, about two hundred square meters in size. One side had four cells, the first three of which were empty. Due to the angle, Su Xiao couldn’t see the situation inside the fourth cell; he could only see shadows cast by the firelight, indicating the prisoner might be hanging with their arms bound.

In front of the four cells was an open space; one side of the wall was hung with various torture instruments, on which dried black bloodstains were still visible.

"Been waiting for you for quite some time."

A figure stood in the corner’s darkness; upon hearing this voice, Su Xiao was momentarily stunned.

"Just what I’d expect from an old fox."

Su Xiao dropped the military glow stick in his hand, moved his neck; he originally thought the guardian within the prison was Huang Tu, just as Bai Jue’s intel indicated.

In reality, Huang Tu wasn’t even in Shuyan Village; he was guarding Iwagakure Village, while the one within the underground prison... was the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki of Both Scales!

No need to think, Bai Jue was outsmarted by Ōnoki. This is just how it is when dealing with old foxes; a moment of negligence might lead one into their trap, especially since Bai Jue wasn’t particularly intelligent either.

Reflecting now, the previous calmness among civilians and ninjas was precisely because Ōnoki was overseeing Shuyan Village. With their Tsuchikage present, their confidence was naturally boosted.

Earlier, Obito had sensed something amiss; from his height, he managed to see the orderly retreat of the civilians, which Su Xiao hadn’t witnessed.

"Deidara, someone has come to keep you company." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Ōnoki slowly floated upwards. Despite being only 1.3 meters tall, his aura was not weaker than that of Raikage Ai, who was as tall as 2 meters.

"Huh?"

A slightly confused voice came from inside the cell, belonging to Deidara.

At this moment, Deidara was sporting a pair of ’panda eyes,’ bloodshot eyes, with arms hung, looking dazed, seemingly not understanding what Ōnoki said.

Is Deidara tortured to the point of losing the ability to think? Not at all. In the days since capture, Ōnoki hadn’t dispatched anyone to torture him—he had three meals a day promptly, and the food was quite good.

Was Ōnoki protecting Deidara? Certainly not. Regardless of his relationship with Deidara, as Tsuchikage, he naturally couldn’t protect Deidara, a member of the Akatsuki Organization.

The reason Deidara ended up like this was because he hadn’t slept a wink since being captured.

Prior to Su Xiao and others’ attack on Shuyan Village, three ninjas were tasked with watching Deidara around the clock. Their mission wasn’t to interrogate him but to prevent him from sleeping.

Whenever Deidara attempted to sleep, whether it be by slapping or pricking him with a needle, as long as it kept him awake, it was enough.

Initially, Deidara didn’t think much of it, but a few days later, he was utterly bewildered, having not anticipated how agonizing it would be to be unable to sleep.

In the latter days, Deidara became so exhausted that even if people slapped him, he could sleep. Tsuchikage promptly ordered preparations of ice water; whenever Deidara appeared to want sleep, he’d be doused with ice water.

This truly tormented Little Di, preferring harsh interrogation from the Rock Ninjas over enduring such agony. He felt the prolonged insomnia was dulling his brain. At times, in hazy moments, he heard voices speaking to him, and on several occasions nearly responded, mistaking them for Su Xiao or Obito.

At that time, Deidara knew he wouldn’t last much longer, as his brain grew increasingly sluggish, and amid the stupor, he might inadvertently divulge something.

Su Xiao temporarily ignored Deidara; if Huang Tu had been guarding the underground prison, he’d have a sixty percent chance of rescuing Deidara. Regarding personal guard by Ōnoki, the result was uncertain, as the Dust Shield’s destructive power was exceedingly strong, and even Counter Shield couldn’t withstand it.

Undeniably, Ōnoki is a ninjutsu-type ninja. Due to advanced age and a back injury, his taijutsu may not even measure up to a Chunin’s.

Of course, this doesn’t imply Ōnoki is slow; the old man can fly.

The underground prison’s small space, excluding the cells, is only a hundred-plus square meters, a terrain evidently advantageous for Su Xiao.

This advantage intrigued Su Xiao; would Ōnoki, this old fox, be unaware of the terrain’s disadvantageous position, yet still wait here for Su Xiao? Impossible.

After pondering briefly, Su Xiao kicked off the ground and charged at Ōnoki.