Chapter 582 - 380: This Battle

Chapter 582: Chapter 380: This Battle

Lu Hongyan’s initial panic subsided. Survival instinct overpowered her fear. She slowed her breathing, feigning submission, while her peripheral vision rapidly scanned her surroundings. Yang Wanli’s exhaustion and the faint trembling of the blade pressed against her neck offered a glimmer of hope.

"Old man..." Lu Hongyan rasped, deliberately softening her voice to appear weak. "Wang Yi... what exactly did your boss offer you? Black Wind Stronghold can give you ten times as much! Gold? Women? Or... your son’s life?" Noticing Yang Wanli’s advanced age, she threw out the bait to test the waters.

"Bullshit!" Yang Wanli spat. His grip tightened, pressing the blade deeper into her skin until a thin line of blood welled up. "I’m from Stone Village! The boss saved my entire family’s lives! Who gives a damn about your filthy stronghold’s—"

This was the moment! Lu Hongyan had been waiting for the exact second his emotions surged, breaking his focus and weakening his grip. She jerked her head back, her neck narrowly scraping past the blade. At the same time, all her gathered strength exploded into her right leg as she viciously kicked Yang Wanli’s unhealed, most vulnerable left leg.

"Agh!" Agony shot through him. Yang Wanli’s left leg gave out, and his tall, burly frame lost its balance. He stumbled backward, completely out of control, before crashing to the ground. The large broadsword flew from his grasp with a sharp CLANG, landing in a distant pile of dead leaves.

"Old fool! You’re dead!" Lu Hongyan flipped to her feet in an instant. Her agile movements sharply contrasted her delicate appearance. A cruel, triumphant light flickered in her eyes. She couldn’t care less whether Yang Wanli was dead or alive; only one thought consumed her: she had to escape! She needed to flee to the dungeon entrance, or deeper into the dense forest! As long as she found Lu Junsheng or any of her men, she would still have a chance to turn the tables.

She didn’t even bother delivering a finishing blow to the man on the ground. She spun around and lunged toward the depths of the thicket.

But the moment she turned, a figure charged out from the flank. It was Pang Damao!

Pang Damao had been the first one out after they cleared the dungeon. Seeing Wang Yi, the ground littered with corpses, and Lu Hongyan nowhere in sight, he immediately guessed she was trying to flee. He had tracked her footprints all the way here, arriving just in time to see her kick Yang Wanli down from afar. He could have stayed hidden in the shadows, waiting for Wang Yi or Man Datou to arrive as backup. But seeing Uncle Yang—a man who had once given him food, warmth, and respect—fall to the ground, an uncontrollable surge of hot blood rushed straight to his head.

"Scum! Don’t even think about running!" Pang Damao roared. Like a cannonball fired from its barrel, he recklessly threw himself at Lu Hongyan’s back.

Hearing the rush of wind behind her, Lu Hongyan flinched. She instinctively dodged to the side while reaching back to grab him. RIIIP! Though she couldn’t evade him completely, she managed to seize the front of Pang Damao’s robes with all her might.

"It’s you, you backstabbing traitor!" Lu Hongyan seethed, recognizing the arrival as the clever, boot-licking personal guard. Her fury boiled over. Twisting her body, she used the momentum of Pang Damao’s charge to violently hurl him against a thick, sturdy tree trunk.

THUD! With a muffled impact, Pang Damao felt his internal organs shift. The back of his head slammed against the bark, sending stars dancing across his vision. A coppery sweetness surged up his throat, and he violently coughed up a mouthful of blood. The agonizing pain left him crumpled on the ground, his consciousness slipping. He regretted it now. This sudden burst of heroism was going to get him killed! He should have waited for the boss!

Breathing heavily, Lu Hongyan looked down at the paralyzed, blood-spitting Pang Damao. She spat in contempt. "You overestimate yourself! Does a worthless mutt like you really think you can stop me? If the stronghold wasn’t—"

She stopped abruptly, realizing she had let something slip, and clamped her mouth shut. But that single word—"stronghold"—struck like a bolt of lightning, violently cleaving through the haze of Pang Damao’s mind!

Stronghold? Pang Damao struggled to lift his bloodstained face, staring dead at Lu Hongyan’s beautiful but severely blood-streaked features. A long-buried memory—one etched deep into his bones, swirling with terror and boundless hatred—erupted like floodgates bursting wide open!

That night where blood flowed like a river... The agonizing screams of his parents... The silent little face of his baby sister in her swaddling clothes... The burning thatched cottages... And the faces of those beasts roaring with unrestrained laughter... The Second-in-Command leading them had worn a mask, but he remembered that distinct, piercing female voice, sharp as a viper flicking its tongue. He remembered the mountain bandits crying out, "Mercy, Second-in-Command!" It was exactly this voice! It was this exact tone!

"You...!" Pang Damao fought to sit up, his voice rasping like sandpaper. "Black Wind Stronghold... You’re the Second-in-Command of Black Wind Stronghold?! That night, when our village was slaughtered... you were the venomous bitch who led them!"

Lu Hongyan took a half-step back, startled by the sudden, demonic fury exploding in Pang Damao’s eyes. She had never expected this slippery coward to share such a deep blood feud with her. Her gaze flickered, quickly hardening into a deeper, more vicious malice. "You’re quite tough to kill, little brat! That’s right, I am the Second-in-Command of Black Wind Stronghold, ’Blood Swallow’! It was your village’s bad luck for getting in our way while we were looking for something! What, you want revenge? Wait until your next life!"

It was confirmed. The woman standing before him was the sole reason he was still alive—the target of his revenge! His last shred of hesitation, his final trace of fear, and the remnants of his survival instinct were all entirely incinerated by the blazing inferno of his hatred!

"My next life?! I’m dragging you to hell with me in this one! Pay for the lives of my parents, my sister, and the villagers of Stone Village!" Pang Damao bellowed, his voice as shrill as a vengeful ghost’s. An unimaginable strength burst forth from his heavily injured body. Like a dying beast surging with one final, desperate burst of life, he sprang from the ground and threw himself at Lu Hongyan once more!