A moonless night, beneath the cliff.
Jiang Zhizhou landed on a jutting rock.
Fortunately, he had already gathered most of his strength in midair to slow his fall, so he felt little pain when he landed.
Even so, the impact left stars dancing before his eyes, and it took him a long while to recover his senses.
He moved his body, testing his limbs. They were still nimble, which eased much of his worry.
He slowly turned over, then tried to rise to his feet.
But he had barely moved when his entire body began sliding downward uncontrollably.
In his scramble, his foot braced against something hard, slowing his slide.
He quietly circulated a breath of inner energy, then sat up.
Only then did he realize that he must have fallen beside a pool. A little farther, and he would have plunged into the water.
Looking at the pitch-black surface, Jiang Zhizhou could not tell how deep the water before him was.
The rock beneath him sloped slightly, which was why his whole body had slipped downward when he let his guard down.
He peered carefully for a while before making out what had stopped his slide: the Small Stone Buddha he had inadvertently pulled from the rocky hollow in the cliff.
The Stone Buddha had become wedged in a crack in the rock and had not yet fallen into the water.
Jiang Zhizhou hooked his foot over the top of the rock beneath him, hung upside down like a suspended bell, and reached out to scoop the Small Stone Buddha into his hand.
Then he struck the rock hard with his other palm and lunged forward, landing on another rock.
After two or three leaps, he reached the shore safely.
Everything around him remained pitch-black, impossible to make out