Jin lay on his side. He stared at the dark bark of the giant tree. The rough moss scratched his cheek. He did not care. He focused on staying perfectly still. Every tiny movement sent a spike of fire through his lower back.
He watched Nyx.
She sat a few feet away from him on the wide branch. She folded her legs into a perfect lotus position. She kept her spine completely straight. She rested her hands lightly on her knees, palms facing up. She closed her eyes behind her cracked obsidian visor.
She began to meditate. She needed to recover her Aether.
The planet Zenith was entirely different from the capital world of Chimeria. Chimeria was choked with pollution and the genetic runoff of a trillion people. The Aether there was harsh and metallic. It tasted like blood and oil.
Zenith was wild. The Aether in the air here was heavy, pure, and ancient.
Jin could actually see it. Because his own genetic code was completely empty and flawless, he was highly sensitive to the ambient energy. He saw faint, shimmering ribbons of light floating in the humid jungle air.
Nyx pulled those ribbons toward her.
She breathed in a slow, measured rhythm. The air grew noticeably colder around her body. The shimmering ribbons of Aether drifted toward her dark figure. They touched her skin and vanished, soaking directly into her empty core.
She did not relax. Even in deep meditation, she remained entirely alert.
Jin watched her head tilt a fraction of an inch every time a branch snapped in the distance. Her ears tracked the screech of nocturnal hunting birds. Her body was a coiled spring. If a predator climbed the tree, she would snap out of the trance instantly and fight.
Time moved incredibly slowly.
Jin counted his own breaths to distract himself from the burning pain in his back. He reached five hundred breaths. Then a thousand.
Twenty minutes passed in the dark.
A faint, black aura began to glow around Nyx. It hugged her skin like a second layer of tight clothing. It was the physical manifestation of her Divinity Realm power returning. The deep exhaustion in her posture faded slightly. Her shoulders looked less heavy.
She stopped pulling in the ambient energy. She opened her eyes.
"I have recovered one quarter of my total capacity," her telepathic voice echoed in his mind. It sounded much clearer now. The static was gone.
Jin let out a slow breath. A quarter of a Level 4 Divinity Realm expert was still stronger than an entire squad of imperial assassins. They were no longer completely defenseless.
"Good," Jin whispered out loud. His throat was still dry.
"Come closer, My Prince," Nyx commanded. She did not move from her lotus position. She kept her hands on her knees. "I have enough Aether to perform a deep tissue scan. I will inspect the structural integrity of your spine now."
Jin swallowed hard. This was the moment. The corporate audit of his own body. The results would determine if he lived as an Emperor or died as a crippled exile in the mud.
He had to move.
He placed his hands flat on the rough moss. He dug his fingers into the bark. He pulled himself forward.
It was absolute agony. He did not use his back or his legs. He dragged his entire body weight using only his arms. His chest scraped against the wood. The hot coal in his lower back flared into a raging fire. Sweat poured down his face and stung his eyes.
He dragged himself three feet. It took him two full minutes. He stopped right in front of Nyx's crossed legs. He collapsed flat on his stomach. He gasped for air, his teeth gritted tightly together.
Nyx did not offer pity. She simply reached out.
She placed her right hand flat against his lower back. She positioned her palm directly over the swollen, black circle of bruised flesh.
"Hold still," she said in his mind. "The Aether will feel cold. It will penetrate your nervous system. Do not fight it. Let it flow."
Jin nodded against the moss. He braced himself.
Nyx pushed a thin thread of her black Aether into his skin.
Jin gasped loudly. It felt like she injected a syringe of ice water directly into his spinal column. The cold energy bypassed his skin and muscle completely. It sank deep into his bones.
He felt the Aether travel down his spine. It wrapped around his vertebrae. It mapped the complex network of nerves, tendons, and marrow. It was an incredibly strange sensation. He could feel her power moving inside him, inspecting the damage like a mechanic running a diagnostic check on an engine.
Nyx stayed perfectly still. She closed her eyes again to focus entirely on the internal feedback.
Jin waited. The seconds dragged on. He stared at a glowing green beetle crawling across the bark near his nose. He focused all his attention on the bug. He refused to think about wheelchairs or paralysis. He refused to think about his siblings laughing at his broken body.
A full minute passed. The cold feeling in his back intensified, then slowly started to recede.
Nyx pulled her Aether back into her own body. She lifted her hand off his bruised skin.
She sat back. She was silent for a moment.
Then, she let out a long, slow breath.
It was not a telepathic message. It was a physical sigh. It was a sound of profound, undeniable relief. The tension drained out of her neck and shoulders.
"The structural column is secure," Nyx said out loud. She used her real voice. It was smooth, but raspy from disuse. "The bone is completely intact. There is no micro-crack."
Jin closed his eyes.
The heavy, crushing weight on his chest vanished. He let out a shaky breath that sounded like a half-laugh. He was not broken. He was not paralyzed.
"It is a severe deep tissue injury," Nyx continued, reverting back to her clinical telepathy. "The muscle fibers are heavily crushed. Blood is pooling against the tendon. It will cause you immense pain for several days. But your central nervous system is uncompromised. You will retain full motor function once the swelling subsides. More importantly, your Aether pathways are clear."
Jin pressed his forehead against the cool bark.
He could still cultivate. His Level 10 genetic cheat was still viable. The board was not wiped clean. He just had to wait out the healing process. In the grand scheme of his survival plan, a torn muscle was nothing. It was just a temporary delay in shipping.
"Thank you, Nyx," Jin whispered. He meant it.
"Do not thank me for gravity failing to kill you," Nyx replied flatly. Her moment of human relief was already gone. She was a machine again. "You are safe from paralysis, but you are still a fragile mortal in a hostile environment. Rest now. Do not move your back."
She returned to her perfect lotus position. She placed her hands back on her knees.
"I will continue to recover my Aether," she stated. "Sleep. The body repairs tissue faster when the conscious mind is inactive."
Jin did not argue. The massive adrenaline crash finally hit him. The relief of the good diagnosis sapped the last remaining energy from his limbs. He closed his eyes. The pain in his back was still a hot fire, but it was a manageable fire now. It was the pain of healing, not the pain of destruction. He let the steady, rhythmic sounds of the Zenith jungle pull him under. He fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.
He did not know how long he slept.
When he finally stirred, the sky above the canopy was still dark, but the air felt different. It was colder. The heavy humidity had settled into a thick mist.
Jin opened his eyes without moving his head.
Nyx was no longer sitting in the lotus position. She was standing at the very edge of the massive branch.
Her black aura was much stronger now. It was a thick, dark mist that clung to her suit. She had recovered half of her total capacity. She looked dangerous again. The cracks in her obsidian visor were still there, but her posture was lethal and ready.
She looked down at Jin. She knew he was awake.
"My core is at fifty percent," Nyx reported in his mind. "It is sufficient to defend this perimeter. But we cannot stay in this tree forever. We need supplies."
Jin grunted in agreement. His stomach rumbled loudly. He had not eaten anything since the grey nutrient paste Varus brought him back in the palace. He was starving. A healing body burned calories rapidly.
"I am going to scout the immediate area," Nyx told him. "I need to map the local terrain. I also need to find a clean water source and high-density protein. Your body requires fuel to repair the crushed muscle tissue."
"Will you be gone long?" Jin asked. He did not like the idea of being left alone on a branch while he could not walk.
"No," Nyx said. "I will stay within a two-mile radius. I will mask your scent with a localized Aether-seal before I leave. Do not make any noise. If a predator climbs this tree, do not try to fight. Stay perfectly still."
Jin nodded once. It was a simple, logical plan.
Nyx raised her hand. She traced a quick symbol in the air. A thin layer of dark energy drifted down and settled over Jin's body. It felt like a cool breeze. It completely erased his physical scent from the air.
She turned around. She faced the dark expanse of the jungle canopy.
She did not jump. She simply stepped off the edge of the thick branch. She dropped silently into the heavy mist and disappeared into the shadows below.
Jin was alone in the dark. He listened to the giant insects clicking in the leaves. He closed his eyes and waited.