For a natural hunter, instinct comes before thought.
The prey can't sense a killing aura as fast as the best hunters.
If this moment, the seventh prince's instincts, eliminating the ten years of growing up in the environment, stuffed into his heart of the rooted warmth, he would not see in the third prince's face "brother" two words.
His instincts told him to start his kill course with the man with the word "brother" on his face, which caused a brief conflict between his body and his mind.
For only this brief moment, the prey was a beat slow to sense the crisis.
The long knife in the third prince's hand was still dripping blood, he turned his head, giving his younger brother a mocking smile, but when his eyes met, a heart in his chest suddenly contracted violently for no reason, because the seventh brother's eyes made him feel fear.
That's probably what it feels like when you're being watched by a wild animal or a snake or python.
The instinct to survive made the Third Prince immediately light up the hand he had kept before he came--
"You two brats really make your brother careless, all brought down by that Xue Yao who surrounds you all day long, Third Brother just sent someone to take him away first."
Seeing the eyes of his two younger brothers change from hostile to terrified at the same time, the Third Prince was even more certain that he had hit a soft spot, and couldn't help but show an amiable smile, threatening in a gentle tone like an elder teaching a younger student, "If you guys make any more trouble, Third Brother will take Xue Yao to ask for punishment."
"Where did you take Xue Yao!" The Sixth Prince's voice was shaking.
"A safe place." The Third Prince bent over and wiped the blood on the blade of his sword clean on the corpse, put it back into its sheath, and spoke leisurely: "You two be obedient, follow my brother and lead the troops to exterminate the remnants of the Khitan and avenge my father's death, and I'll let Xue Yao return to the palace with you."
"We've already accepted the Khitan's surrender, if we go back on our word, what will Fifth Brother do?" The Sixth Prince did his best to negotiate calmly.
"Your fifth brother won't agree to just let these Khitan dogs go." The Third Prince raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"Brother, Yao Yao return it to my son."
Hearing his seventh brother's tone suddenly change from forceful to petulant, the third prince almost laughed out loud.
Don't look at this fat brother's brain problem, is a fool, but some time wit is very clever, for example, although his self-proclaimed often wrong, but still have a pattern to follow, "son of the court" this self-proclaimed, the seventh brother will only be used in the show of weakness.
This sudden show of weakness refreshed the Third Prince, who had lost touch with the throne of the Crown Prince.
As a rule, such a show of weakness should be followed by submission.
So when the Third Prince wanted to laugh or not, he completely did not expect the Seventh Prince to suddenly rush over with an arrow, and the action was so fast that while the Third Prince was reacting, a tooth inside his left cheek had been broken by the sudden onslaught of fists, and his body was smashed to the ground by this heavy blow.
And with the taste of blood with a hint of sweetness, the half of the tooth slipped at the base of his tongue and was nearly swallowed by the Third Prince.
"Yao Yao give it back to my son?"
Being held at the throat by the seventh prince's blade, the Third Prince with his eyes glowing with gold heard this request with a petulant tone again.
Tong Ningzhao only reacted at this time, and just as he was about to draw his sword and step forward, he saw the Seventh Prince, who had one knee pressed against the Third Prince's chest, coldly raise his eyes, and the blade of his sword pressed downward by two points.
"Your Highness don't be impulsive!" Tong Ningzhao took a step back sensibly.
The Third Prince blinked hard as things in front of him finally stopped spinning, the shame of being knocked out by a blow from his youngest brother overcoming his fear and making him raise his hand to draw the sword at his waist at the first opportunity.
The Seventh Prince's knee was on his chest, his left hand gripped the hilt of the blade, and with a sidestep from his right hand, he instantly toppled his half-drawn blade back into its sheath, and in the process, he slammed a fist into his upper abdomen.
"Uh!" The Third Prince's eyes widened violently, the intense pain preventing him from making a sound, his mouth opening and closing like a fish on the verge of drying out as he gasped for breath.
"Yao Yao give it back to my son?"
Under the successive heavy blows, the Third Prince once again heard this word with a petulant undertone.
He suddenly realized that the seventh brother was not showing weakness to himself, but to the matter of "losing Xue Yao" itself.
It was surprising that this companion who had grown up with Chitti was really so important to him.
"Do it." The Third Prince gasped and showed a vicious smile to the Seventh Prince: "You treacherous sinful animal! In order to retain the position of temporary Crown Prince, you kill your brother and collaborate with the enemy, disregarding the death of the Crown Prince. Make a move! When this king goes to hell, he will definitely grab your little companion and ask him properly how he raised my brother to be such an animal."
"Yao Yao is not going to hell." The Seventh Prince firmly told Third Brother, "Your Highness take him back to the palace."
"Do you know where he is?" The Third Prince snorted, a mouthful of blood-stained teeth extraordinarily creepy, slowly raised his head, not caring about the blade cutting through his skin, staring at the Seventh Prince and whispering, "Wherever I go, I will definitely bring him with me, do it, Seventh Brother."
*
Blindfolded, gagged, and with his hands and feet bound, Xue Yao had given up grunting for help, and the punches and kicks that continued to be exchanged for grunting would probably cause him to bleed out violently from internal bleeding.
The completely unknown environment would make people feel that the time was infinitely prolonged, after holding out for a short while, Xue Yao began to grunt again, he would rather overdraw part of his life to confirm that there were still people around him that existed, and that he wasn't left in the middle of nowhere waiting for the wild beasts to gnaw on him.
When he grunted again, the man who had kicked him in the leg said, "What's all the screaming about in the middle of the night?", which was a relief to Xue Yao.
There would be no soldiers left with him in the Wild West in the middle of the night, and it had only been an afternoon since he had been sneaked up on, and he had thought it had been a day.
After determining that his situation wasn't so dire that he would die at any moment, Xue Yao began to worry about the little fat cub.
The fact that the Third Prince's people dared to lay hands on him meant that they had already had a showdown with the Seventh Prince.
What's the situation now?
Is there an internal fight?
Whose side is the Northwest Governor on?
All this worrying paused as he held his breath and was about to pee his pants when he heard the sound of someone's trotting footsteps approaching, and then the person said something to someone, as if it was a coded message that Xue Yao didn't understand.
Immediately afterward, the guard untied his feet, helped him to his feet, removed the ball of cloth from his mouth, gave him another shove on the shoulder, and said, "Let's go."
"Where to?" Although he could hear that the other party didn't want to chat, Xue Yao still asked insensitively.
The other man didn't answer, added force and pushed him again.
The blindfolded Xue Yao was just half-pushed, half-assisted forward, turning, forward.
I don't know how long he had been walking, but the guards beside him helped him untie his blindfold and bindings.
It was slightly light at this time, and Xue Yao took a moment to adjust before opening his eyes, realizing that he had already returned to the entrance of the barracks, and had physically traveled five miles, completely unclear as to where exactly he had been taken in the party.
The guards pulled his arm until they reached the Seventh Prince's tent, while then said, "Go in."
Xue Yao a moment not sure whether this person is a friend or foe, actually let him go back to see the little fat cub, simply grateful, scattered and drilled into the tent.
As he wished, the first time he saw the little fat cub sitting on the couch, after a short period of excitement, only to realize that the little fat cub on both sides, is standing two Tong Jiajun higher guards.
The little fat cub had changed into a royal son's regular clothes, and he didn't even have his saber anymore.
The little fat cub who had never experienced such a parting of life and death in his life was surprisingly calm at the moment, sitting there with his eyes raised and asking Xue Yao, "You're fine."
Xue Yao saw the little chubby cub's paw paw resting on his leg, but instead of a relaxed position, his fingers pinched and pressed against his leg, pale from the exertion.
For the first time, he realized that the fat cubs would show their composure in the face of real danger, but this didn't make Xue Yao feel relieved, instead, his heart ached so much that his eyes reddened and he couldn't show the same kind of aura as the Seventh Prince in front of the two Tong Clan troops.
For the first time, he's holding the cub back.
But quickly still adjusted, Xue Yao pretended to be fearless and smiled, "I'm fine, Your Highness got up so early? Have you had your meal?"
The usual master-servant conversation and contempt for the two guards.
Xue Yao walked to the edge of the cave-in with his head held high and asked a few everyday questions like nobody's business.
Discovering that the little fat cub's middle garment was crumpled and a section of it leaked out of the front, Xue Yao thought that he must have changed these clothes by himself, and with no one to wait on him, so he sat down, leaned forward, and unclipped the front for the little fat cub, and put it back on to flatten it out.
So close.
The little chubby pup's thumb suddenly pressed against the bruise at the corner of his mouth.
"Who hit it."
This question from the little fat cub with a hidden little purr, hearing Xue Yao suddenly couldn't control it, and the tears that she had managed to hold back rolled down her face.
"Wait, Master smashes his mouth." A promise made by the Seventh Prince with such a serious expression had never been broken, and he would smash the mouths of those who bullied Yao Yao.
"Uh-huh!" Xue Yao answered as forcefully as he could while frantically wiping away his tears with his sleeve, not daring to look at the two guards beside him for fear that his humiliating scene would be discovered and once again affect the little fat cub's majesty.
Holding back choking sobs made my throat hurt.
Xue Yao had many, many things he wanted to ask, such as where the commander of the forbidden army had gone, such as where the Sixth Prince had gone, such as what had happened, such as why the Third Prince's people were allowed to stay in the tent.
But obviously this is not the right time for a detailed exchange.
It would be some time before he realized that the little fat cub had spent two pieces of the soldier's talisman to exchange him back with the Third Prince.
At this moment, he could only blankly maintain the last vestiges of his dignity, pretending to be at ease under two pairs of strangely hostile eyes as he accompanied the little chubby cub to his meal.
In the middle of the day, the fish and roasted leg of lamb that had been the lunchtime meal was turned into a thin porridge with a few spoonfuls of rice that couldn't be fished out of half a grain of rice.
The little chubby cub, however, didn't gag and pout with the adults for meat like he used to, but rather, like a true crown prince, he dined with poise, rinsed his mouth and wiped his lips, while quietly passing the time by playing chess with Xue Yao.
The confused Xue Yao couldn't maintain the true calmness that the Seventh Prince had, staring at the two guards with his afterglow every moment, and from time to time, he would collide with the other party's line of sight, and be caught with traces of his own panic.
However, Xue Yao quickly realized that the real reason for the little fat cub's calmness was not because of having a backbone, but because of having an escape plan.
Sneaking up on the two guards on shift was not difficult for the Seventh Prince, what was difficult was the three layers of guards outside the tent, and what was even more difficult was escaping by taking Xue Yao with him.
As he lay down that night, Xue Yao heard the little fat cub whisper a sentence in his ear, "Don't go to sleep."
Xue Yao guessed that the Seventh Prince was ready to make a move.
The third prince's people did not know that there are children with the so-called "return to travel physique" in the world, did not know that such children can sense their breath through the heavy tent curtains, and even through dozens of feet of air, a little bit of slackness in the middle of the night will become an opportunity for the child to get away.
After lightning fast knocking out the two guards inside the tent, the Seventh Prince unclasped their swords, one for each of them with Xue Yao.
Xue Yao followed the Seventh Prince to the tent door, waiting for the Seventh Prince to judge the state of the airflow outside and seize the right moment to gently drill out the door.
When Xue Yao followed and rushed out, he thought that there was no one outside, but he didn't expect to look up and see two soldiers not far away, adding wood to the front of the fire, only with their backs to themselves, about to turn around at any moment.
Xue Yao's heartbeat stopped two beats in fear, gritting his teeth to maintain his composure, following the Seventh Prince as he silently scurried from the south into the gap where the two tents met.
There happened to be a patrol of guards in front of them, trotting past.
Xue Yao held his breath to the limit, slowly exhaling a little and inhaling a little, the group of soldiers seemed to slow down, he immediately held his breath again, his body tensed and shivering.
The cold body was suddenly wrapped by an arm behind itself and swept backward into a warm and reliable embrace.
Xue Yao's flowing and uneasy phoenix eyes suddenly widened, and she could feel the seventh prince's slightly hot nostrils brushing against her ears, her tense body immediately relaxing a little.
Xue Yao felt that at this moment, even if he was caught and destroyed, it wasn't so scary, as long as he was with the little fat cub.
Courage sustained him as he followed the little fat cub's sure-footed escape from the main barracks.
Flying like a mad dash in the early summer night as black as the bottom of a pot, not discerning the direction, only following the sound of the seventh prince's footsteps.
The legs and feet that were injured by last night's kicks and beatings quickly went out of control, Xue Yao could no longer feel the existence of his two legs, but out of nowhere his instincts were still able to drag them along to follow the little fat cub, only his footsteps were getting more and more disorganized and slower and slower.
Xue Yao was afraid of losing him, yet he didn't want to call out to the little fat cub, talking at a time like this was a waste of energy.
Might as well just drift away into this dark night, he thought, as long as the little fat cub could escape back to the capital.
Soon, he realized that he really couldn't hear the little chubby cub's footsteps anymore.
Having lost his backbone, Xue Yao finally gave up on himself and allowed his two legs to go on a complete strike, the long hours of running filling his throat with a fishy-sweet taste.
He wants to lie down.
A hand suddenly grabbed his hand in the darkness, and the voice of the little fat cub rang in his ears, "Yao Yao, run to the post within half an hour's time, their horses can't catch up."
As if Xue Yao had suddenly come to life, it turned out that the Seventh Prince had stopped and walked back to look for him and had not left.