Jin lay flat on his back. The thick moss on the giant branch felt like a rough carpet. He stared up at the dark canopy.
The blood slowly drained out of his skull. The terrible pressure behind his eyes finally faded. His breathing returned to normal. He did not feel like he was drowning in his own bodily fluids anymore.
He was alive. He was no longer hanging upside down. But the relief was very short.
As the blood pressure in his head went down, his nervous system reset. It stopped focusing on his compressed lungs and his throbbing skull. It redirected all of its attention to the center of his lower back.
The pain was waiting for him.
It did not throb anymore. It burned. It felt like a hot piece of coal was buried deep under his skin, resting directly against his spine. The heat radiated outward down his legs and up into his shoulder blades.
He needed to know how bad it was. On Earth, if a forklift hit a warehouse worker, Arthur demanded a full medical report before making any logistical decisions. He could not plan his next move if he did not know the status of his own hardware. Right now, his body was failing hardware.
He tried to sit up.
He planted his hands flat on the mossy bark. He pushed down. He tried to lift his chest off the wood.
His muscles engaged. Then, a sharp, electric shock ripped through his lower back. It was blinding. It stole the breath right out of his lungs. His arms gave out instantly. He collapsed back onto the wood with a heavy thud.
He groaned. He squeezed his eyes shut. A cold sweat broke out across his forehead.
Nyx knelt beside him. She did not try to help him sit up. She just watched him fail. She knew exactly what a spinal injury looked like.
"Do not move, My Prince," her telepathic voice echoed in his mind. It was flat and clinical. "Your structural integrity is compromised."
Jin opened his eyes. He let out a ragged breath.
"I know," Jin whispered. His physical voice was still weak and hoarse. "It burns. Right above the tailbone. I hit something when the ship broke apart. Or something hit me."
Nyx nodded slowly. Her cracked obsidian visor caught the dim moonlight filtering through the leaves.
"I need to see it," Jin said. "I need a damage report. Check my back."
Nyx did not hesitate. She moved closer to him. She did not treat him like royalty. She treated him like a broken machine that needed maintenance.
"I must roll you onto your side," Nyx stated. "It will cause severe physical distress. You must not scream. The jungle canopy is full of nocturnal predators. Noise is a liability."
"Do it," Jin said. He gritted his teeth. He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. He tasted warm copper blood.
Nyx placed one hand flat against his right shoulder. She placed her other hand firmly against his right hip. She did not pull him. She pushed him smoothly and evenly. She rolled his body as a single, solid unit to prevent his spine from twisting.
The movement was slow, but the pain was absolute.
Jin's vision flashed bright white. The hot coal in his back flared into a raging fire. It felt like glass shards were grinding between his vertebrae. He bit down harder on his cheek. He forced the scream to stay in his throat. It came out of his nose as a sharp, wet hiss.
He ended up on his left side. He curled his knees up slightly toward his chest. He was trembling violently. The pain shock made his Foundation Level 3 body shake.
Nyx held him steady with one hand. She reached down to her black utility belt with her free hand.
She pulled out a small cylinder. It was a tactical field torch. It was made of dull grey metal. She pressed a button on the base. A tight, focused beam of pure white light shot out of the lens. It cut through the heavy darkness of the giant tree branch.
Nyx aimed the light at Jin's lower back.
His clothes were ruined. The expensive silk shirt he wore in the palace was shredded from the crash and the thick vines. It was soaked in sweat, dirty water, and amniotic gel from the bio-pod.
Nyx pinched the torn fabric of his shirt. She pulled it up, exposing his lower back to the cold night air.
Jin shivered. The night wind hitting the injured skin felt like ice.
Nyx leaned in close. She held the white light steady. She inspected the damage.
She did not say anything for a long minute. She just observed.
"Tell me," Jin gasped. He kept his eyes squeezed shut. "What does it look like?"
"There is no external bleeding," Nyx reported in his mind. "The skin is not broken. However, there is massive internal trauma."
Nyx moved the light slightly to get a better angle.
"There is a contusion," she continued. "It is perfectly circular. It is roughly the size of a large heavy-cannon shell. The impact zone is located directly over your lower lumbar vertebrae."
Jin tried to picture it. He imagined a massive, ugly black circle stamped onto his pale skin.
"The blood is pooling heavily beneath the dermis," Nyx said. Her voice remained completely devoid of emotion. "The tissue is swollen. The skin is dark purple, turning black at the epicenter. It radiates a significant amount of thermal heat. Your body is attempting to flood the area with white blood cells to repair the damage."
Jin swallowed hard. A bruise. A massive, circular bruise.
"What hit me?" he asked.
"Likely a piece of the ship's internal support framing," Nyx analyzed. "When the hull sheared apart, a blunt metal strut struck you in the back before you were ejected from the wreckage. The blunt force trauma was severe."
Jin ran the logic in his head. A blunt metal strut hit him at terminal velocity. He was a Foundation Level 3 cultivator. His bones were slightly denser than a normal human's, but they were not steel. They were not Core Formation armor.
"Is it just a bruise?" Jin asked. He needed the worst-case scenario. He could not plan without all the variables.
Nyx reached out. She did not ask for permission. She pressed her index and middle fingers directly against the black, swollen center of the bruise.
Jin jerked violently. He let out a muffled gasp. The pain spiked so hard his vision went dark for a second.
"Do not do that," Jin hissed.
"I had to test the structural resistance of the bone beneath the swelling," Nyx explained calmly. She pulled her fingers away. She wiped a small amount of sweat off her black glove.
"And?" Jin demanded.
"The results are inconclusive without an Aether-scan," Nyx stated. "My core is currently empty. I cannot project medical Aether into your body to view the bone structure. Based on tactile feedback, you have two possibilities."
Nyx held up one finger in the white light of the torch.
"Possibility one," she said. "It is a severe deep tissue contusion. The muscle fibers are crushed and bleeding internally. The tendons connecting your spine to your pelvis are severely strained. If this is true, the pain will be blinding, but you will retain full motor function in a few days. You are temporarily crippled by muscle trauma."
She held up a second finger.
"Possibility two," she continued. Her mental tone dropped slightly in pitch. "The blunt force cracked the bone. You have a micro-fracture in your lumbar vertebra. The bone did not shatter, but a hairline crack runs through the structural column."
Jin stared at the dark bark inches from his face. A cracked spine.
"If it is a micro-crack," Jin said slowly. "What does that mean for me?"
"It means you are grounded," Nyx replied. "If you put any heavy physical stress on your body, the micro-crack will spread. The bone will snap completely. Your spinal cord will sever. You will be permanently paralyzed from the waist down. No amount of normal healing will fix a severed cord."
Jin closed his eyes.
This was the absolute worst news. It was worse than Kaelen's assassins. It was worse than the exploding spaceship.
In the Apex Empire, power was everything. Power came from the Gene-Dao. Cultivation required a perfect physical vessel.
"Can I still cultivate?" Jin asked. He already knew the answer. He just needed to hear it.
"No," Nyx said instantly. "Aether flows through the nervous system. Your spine is the central highway for all biological energy. If you try to absorb Aether with a cracked vertebra, the raw energy will leak out of the fracture. It will act like a bomb inside your spinal column. You will blow your own nervous system to pieces."
His Level 10 genetic cheat. His perfect, unblemished genome. The one advantage he had in this brutal universe.
It was entirely useless right now. He could not absorb Aether. He could not fight. He could not even walk without risking permanent paralysis. He was a sitting duck in a jungle full of monsters.
Nyx turned off the small field torch. The beam of white light vanished. The heavy darkness of the tree canopy rushed back in.
She let Jin's torn shirt fall back down over the black, swollen bruise. The cold night air stopped biting his skin.
"We cannot stay in this tree forever," Jin said quietly into the dark.
"We cannot move until daylight," Nyx replied. She sat back on her heels. She crossed her arms over her chest. She faded perfectly into the shadows of the branch. She became invisible again. "My Aether is depleted. Your spine is unstable. We will wait here. I will stand guard. You will rest."
Jin did not argue. There was no point. The logic was sound. He lay on his side on the rough moss. He listened to the giant insects clicking in the dark. He listened to the deep roars echoing from the jungle floor.
He was broken. But he was still breathing. He would figure out the rest tomorrow.