"Faster, Jiang Fan! You move like a tortoise!"
Princess Zhao Ling soared through the canopy of the Blackwood Forest on her Golden Griffin. She was laughing, the thrill of the hunt flushing her cheeks.
Far below, Jiang Fan was floating on a Nimbus Cloud (a prototype hover-cushion Gu Ling had built). He was lying on his back, hands behind his head.
"The tortoise won the race," Jiang Fan shouted up, his voice barely carrying over the wind. "Because the hare burned out and had a stroke. Slow down, Your Highness. This isn't a race; it's a nap with scenery."
"Boring!" The Princess spun her Griffin. "The Royal Scouts reported a Void-Tiger in this sector. I want its pelt for a rug!"
She was arrogant. She was a Stage 6 genius, royalty, and untouchable. She had never known true danger because her guards—or her father's reputation—always shielded her.
But here, deep in the forbidden woods, the Emperor's name meant nothing to the food chain.
[ System Alert: High Threat Detected. ] [ Type: Ambush Predator. ] [ Level: Stage 7 (Mutated). ]
Jiang Fan sat up instantly. "Ling! Pull back!"
It wasn't a Void-Tiger.
The trees to the Princess's right exploded. A massive blur of shadow and bone slammed into the Griffin.
It was an Obsidian Spine-Breaker. A bear-like monstrosity covered in natural armor that absorbed light.
"Goldie!" The Princess screamed as her Griffin was swatted aside like a toy.
The Princess fell. She was skilled—she twisted in mid-air, drawing her sword, her Golden Dragon Qi flaring.
"You dare?!" she roared, slashing at the beast.
But the beast didn't bite. It swiped.
Its paw, heavy as a boulder and hard as diamond, caught her mid-slash. It smashed through her Qi shield. It smashed through her royal armor.
CRACK.
The sound was sickening. It was the sound of a tree snapping in a storm, but wet.
The Princess was flung backward. She slammed into a massive oak tree, sliding down the trunk to the forest floor.
She tried to stand up.
She couldn't.
The beast roared, raising a paw to finish her.
ZOOM.
A figure appeared between the beast and the fallen girl. Jiang Fan didn't have his fan. He had a look of absolute, cold fury.
He didn't use a technique. He used the Heavenly Dao Token again, channeling pure kinetic force.
"Sit. Down."
He punched the beast. The impact created a shockwave that flattened the forest for fifty meters. The Stage 7 monster dissolved into mist.
Jiang Fan turned immediately to the Princess.
"Ling," he knelt beside her. "Don't move."
Princess Zhao Ling was staring at the sky. Her eyes were wide, filled with a confusion that was rapidly turning into horror.
"Jiang Fan," she whispered. "Why... why can't I feel the ground?"
She tried to lift her legs. Nothing happened. She tried to sit up. Her abs didn't respond.
She looked down. Her legs were sprawled at an awkward angle. They looked like they belonged to someone else.
"I can't feel them," she gasped, hyperventilating. "I can't feel anything below my chest. Jiang Fan... help me up. Please. Just help me up."
Jiang Fan looked at the dent in her armor. He looked at the angle of her spine.
He didn't lie to her.
"I can't," he said softly.
THE DIAGNOSIS
The Sector 01 Infirmary was silent.
Princess Zhao Ling lay on a bio-bed. She was stripped of her armor, wearing a simple white gown. Her red hair was spread across the pillow like a halo of blood.
Su Qing, the blind alchemist, pulled her hands away from the Princess's back. Su Qing's face was pale.
"Well?" The Princess demanded. Her voice was brittle, on the verge of shattering. "Give me a pill. Heal it. I have money. I have the Royal Treasury."
Su Qing turned her head toward Jiang Fan and Gu Ling, who were standing in the corner.
"The spinal cord is severed," Su Qing whispered, though in the silence, it sounded like a scream. "Vertebrae T4 completely crushed. The Qi meridians connecting the upper and lower dantian are... gone."
"Severed?" The Princess laughed, a high, hysterical sound. "Just reattach them! You are a genius, aren't you?"
"I can knit flesh," Su Qing said gently. "I can mend bone. But the nerves... the spirit channels... they are destroyed. Even the Heavenly Spirit Sap cannot regrow a destroyed pathway."
The Princess went still.
"What are you saying?"
"I am saying," Su Qing bowed her head, tears leaking from under her blindfold, "that you will never walk again. You will have no feeling or movement from the chest down."
The silence stretched for eternity.
"Get out," the Princess whispered.
"Your Highness—"
"GET OUT!" she screamed, grabbing a vase from the bedside table and throwing it. It shattered against the wall. "GET OUT! ALL OF YOU! LEAVE ME TO DIE!"
Jiang Fan signaled the others. They left the room.
THE REFLECTION
That night, the Princess lay in the dark.
She tried to wiggle her toe. Nothing. She tried to tense her stomach. Nothing.
She was a doll. A broken, useless doll.
I am the Golden Phoenix, she thought bitterly. Now I am just a bird with no wings.
The door slid open.
The Princess didn't look. "I told you to leave me alone, Jiang Fan."
"It's not Jiang Fan."
The hum of an engine filled the room. Violet lights cut through the darkness.
Gu Ling rolled to the side of the bed. She adjusted her chair so she was sitting at eye level with the Princess.
"Have you come to gloat?" The Princess hissed. "The Iron Queen finally sees the Royal Princess brought low? Do you enjoy this?"
Gu Ling looked at the Princess's legs. Then she looked at her own.
"When I was five," Gu Ling said quietly, "the frost took my legs. My father, the Clan Head, threw me into a shed. He said a crippled cultivator was a waste of rice."
The Princess blinked. She looked at Gu Ling—really looked at her—for the first time. Not as a rival, but as a mirror.
"I spent ten years crying," Gu Ling continued. "I hated the world. I hated my legs. I hated myself."
"How did you stop?" the Princess whispered. Her arrogance was gone, replaced by the terrified child she really was.
Gu Ling tapped the armrest of her chair.
"I didn't stop hating the injury. I just decided that if I couldn't walk, I would fly."
Gu Ling reached out and took the Princess's hand. It was the first time she had shown physical affection to anyone besides Jiang Fan.
"You are paralyzed, Zhao Ling. Your life as a warrior who runs and jumps is over. That is a fact."
Tears streamed down the Princess's face.
"But," Gu Ling squeezed her hand. "Your life is not over. Look at me. I run a Sect. I kill monsters. I have a man who..." She paused, glancing at the door. "...who treats me like a queen, not a cripple."
"He doesn't look at you with pity?" the Princess asked, her voice trembling.
"Never," Gu Ling smiled. "He looks at me like I'm annoying. It's very refreshing."
Gu Ling wiped a tear from the Princess's cheek.
"You are not useless. You just need an upgrade."
THE UPGRADE
The next morning, the door opened again.
Jiang Fan walked in. He looked tired. He hadn't slept—which, for Jiang Fan, was a sign of extreme distress.
He wasn't holding flowers. He was holding a large roll of blueprints.
"Morning," Jiang Fan said, pulling up a chair.
The Princess looked at him, shame burning in her cheeks. "Don't look at me. I'm half a person."
"You're actually about 60% of a person by volume," Jiang Fan corrected, unrolling the blueprints on her lap. "Which is fine, because I'm usually only operating at 10% capacity."
He pointed to the drawing.
"Gu Ling and I stayed up all night. Your injury is higher than hers. You have no core stability. So, the standard chair won't work."
He pointed to a design that looked like a sleek, golden floating throne.
"We designed this. The Golden Lotus Drive. It uses a neural link connected directly to your brain stem, bypassing the spine entirely. You won't just sit in it; you'll be strapped into it. It will hold you upright."
The Princess stared at the drawing. It was beautiful. Intricate.
"Why?" she asked, looking up at him. "Why do this for me? I was annoying. I invaded your home."
Jiang Fan shrugged. He reached out and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear.
"Because you're part of the furniture now," he said gently. "And I take care of my stuff."
He didn't offer empty words of hope. He offered a machine. He offered a way to move.
He looked her in the eye.
"You're going to be okay, Ling. Different. But okay."
For the first time since the accident, the Princess felt a warmth in her chest that had nothing to do with Qi. She looked at this lazy, strange man who had built her a new pair of legs overnight.
She didn't just feel gratitude. She felt love. A deep, terrifying ache of love.
"Jiang Fan," she whispered, grabbing his hand. "Thank you."
THE JEALOUSY
Outside the room, the door was cracked open an inch.
Yun Xi and Su Qing were watching.
Yun Xi gripped her broom so hard the wood splintered.
"He touched her hair," Yun Xi muttered darkly. "He never touches my hair. He just tells me to tie it back so it doesn't get in the soup."
"She is in pain," Su Qing said softly, though her grip on her potion vial was tight. "He is being kind."
"He is being too kind," Yun Xi narrowed her eyes. "She is a Princess. Now she is a tragic Princess. That is a dangerous combination. He has a savior complex hidden under that laziness."
Gu Ling rolled up behind them. She looked at the scene inside—the Princess holding Jiang Fan's hand, looking at him like he was the sun.
Gu Ling felt a pang in her chest. It wasn't the machinery this time. It was jealousy.
She had mentored the Princess. She wanted her to recover. But seeing her look at Jiang Fan like that...
"We have a problem," Gu Ling stated logically, though her voice was cold.
"What problem?" Yun Xi asked.
"The harem dynamic has shifted," Gu Ling said. "Before, she was a guest. Now, she is a dependent. He will spend time with her to calibrate the chair. He will carry her until it is ready."
Yun Xi's eyes burned with fire. "I will carry her. I will carry her everywhere. He doesn't need to lift a finger."
"Agreed," Su Qing nodded. "I will brew her extra-sleepy tea. So she sleeps. A lot."
Inside the room, Jiang Fan felt a sudden chill go down his spine.
[ System Alert: Harem Animosity Rising. ] [ Warning: Your Maid is looking at a broom like it's a murder weapon. ]
Jiang Fan gulped. He looked at the Princess, who was smiling at him with teary, adoring eyes.
"Great," he thought. "I saved the Princess, and now my own team is going to assassinate me."