Chapter 529 - Inner Focus (1/2)
“Official Yu...how about you…” The eldest imperial prince was merely a child around seven to eight. It was only him and Xiaocao now. He looked at the gloomy forest around them and had a bit of uneasiness in his eyes as he asked hesitantly.
Although the thickets here were quite dense, it wasn’t really considered much compared to the West Mountain’s forests that were near her home. Xiaocao had even dared to run into the forests there when she was young to set traps. However, after sensing the prince’s uneasiness, she decided to play the role of the weak one here for the sake of his little ego. She stated, “This official is a bit cowardly and I rarely use the bow. I’d be quite scared by myself. Imperial Highness, just let this official accompany you!”
Zhu Hanwen immediately puffed up like a little man and thrust out his small chest, “Alright ah! Then just obediently follow me from behind and don’t run off!”
The vegetation became thicker and thicker as they went deeper into the forest. The sky was completely covered by the criss-crossing branches of the trees and the full foliage created a tightly packed canopy. Consequently, the amount of natural light in the area had dimmed considerably. From time to time, some wild hares and pheasants would dart across their feet from nearby shrubbery as they ran away in panic. The two of them would also occasionally cry out in fear.
An unknown creature flitted lightly across Xiaocao’s head, bringing about a small breeze. She screeched and hunkered down. Zhu Hanwen had also been scared into a tremble by her scream and turned around to look in her direction. Apparently it had only been a mischievous little squirrel that was holding a nut in its paws. It sat high above on a nearby tree, regarding them with blatant curiosity.
“Didn’t Imperial Father say that when you were in the countryside you often went out to hunt? Isn’t your father a hunter who can even bring down a bear?” Zhu Hanwen felt quite speechless at the moment. He didn’t understand why his imperial father insisted on him accompanying a little coward.
Yu Xiaocao also felt quite helpless and stated somewhat huffily, “Do you know of any rural countryside girls who use bows and arrows? The so-called hunting I did was setting some snares and digging pit traps ah! As for hunting bears, my father had killed one together with someone else. Ah! That’s right, he was with the current Young General Zhao at the time…”
The Zhao generals were at the border last winter and had pushed back another Tartar attack, seizing a total victory. From that battle, Young General Zhao had also received the t.i.tle of ‘Battle G.o.d’. Naturally, the eldest imperial prince knew all about this. He curled his lip and said, “If the Battle G.o.d Young General Zhao went out hunting, he’d be able to kill a tiger easily, let alone a bear. Imperial Father is truly too much, why did he have to trick me?”
“Perhaps it was because he knew that this official is cowardly and doesn’t dare to go to any dangerous areas. If you stayed with me, you wouldn’t encounter any bad situations. The emperor also did it because he has a fatherly heart ah!” Yu Xiaocao explained her thoughts.
Zhu Hanwen drooped his shoulders down in dismay and remarked unhappily, “With you dragging me down, it looks like I won’t be able to make Imperial Father see me in a different light today!”
“Don’t we also have Little Black and Little White ah? We can have them work a little harder and then won’t we end up with plenty of game ah?” Yu Xiaocao tried to comfort the prince.
“The two of them always kill their prey by biting at the throat, so everyone can easily tell that it wasn’t me who killed them. I even told my imperial father and mother that we would be able to taste the game that I personally shot tonight!” The eldest imperial prince sighed. Although there was a decent amount of game around, they were all too perceptive. Before he could even pull his bow open, they disappeared without a trace. After thinking a bit, he realized that the first pheasant he encountered was truly a stroke of luck for him and that he had only killed it because of that.
Yu Xiaocao looked at that tiny childish face that was full of worry and fell silent for a second before she proposed, “Then how about….this official can set some snares to catch prey. After we catch some game, you can then shoot them with an arrow. How’s that?”
Zhu Hanwen blinked his large eyes twice and looked at her for a bit before he finally nodded, “Although I dislike lying, in order to not disappoint my imperial father and mother, we can only do it this way. However, are you sure you’re able to catch animals with your snares? Did you bring any rope along?”
Yu Xiaocao looked around and picked a pretty pliable and strong piece of rattan from a large tree. She used the small dagger kept in her boot to trim off the branches and leaves and set a snare in an area where small animals often appeared. After she finished crafting her snare, she stealthily added a few drops of diluted mystic-stone water to act as bait.
[Why does this divine stone have such a stupid master. Even after drinking my bathing water, you haven’t become one iota smarter!] The little divine stone used a deadpan voice to speak to her mind as it sighed.
‘Can you not use the word 'bathwater’ to describe it? Just thinking about it makes me feel nauseous!’ Yu Xiaocao was teaching the eldest imperial prince how to set snares as she quarrelled with the stone.
The little divine stone huffed and said, [Don’t call it bathwater? Fine ah! Then let’s change it to saliva, how does that work?] Sometimes when it was releasing spiritual energy into well water, it would deliberately take its golden kitten shape and pretend to spit into the water. However, if one thought about it more carefully, how could a small stone possibly have saliva?
‘If you have anything to say, just say it! Stop using those disgusting terms to make other people feel sick!’ Yu Xiaocao continued to give pointers to the eldest imperial prince as she asked the divine stone what it wanted. This fellow had somehow been provoked by something and was often cultivating studiously inside the stone in order to return back to the astral planes sooner. She very rarely saw it these days.
[With your current level of inner focus, if you want to shoot down an animal, it wouldn’t be a hard task. Why do you have to do something so idiotic like set traps ah? Truly doing more than is required!] The little divine stone didn’t forget to insult her this time either.
What was this ‘inner focus’? Yu Xiaocao expressed her confusion, ‘How do I use this so-called inner focus? No one has taught me anything. Do you think I’m a genius and just know how to do everything?’
[Concentrate all of your attention on the prey and tell me what you see.] The little divine stone reminded her.