Awaken

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Liu Liangzhe, born Liu Tuzhe, opened his eyes. He was met with darkness, and as he opened his mouth to speak, water flooded down his throat. With a harsh shout, bubbles bursting from between his lips, he pushed forwards, and the coffin around him shattered into pieces of rotted wood. Liu Liangzhe had wood, dirt, and fish bones beside him, and long-since rusted chains rested around him, worn to disrepair from neglect and the natural destructive abilities of water.

Liu Liangzhe pushed himself to the surface and gasped as he took in air for the first time in centuries. It was day, and the sunlight burned his sensitive eyes, and his deathly pale skin. He swam to the sandy beach, which last for about an inch before it was overtaken with jagged rocks filled with winding snakes, and saw that the lake, once a natural watering hole for the abundant wildlife of the grasslands past and the forest at his back, was now soiled black with the refuse of humanity and the pollution the creatures left in their wake.

A shoddy wooden town had been created, and it smelled like smoke, overwhelming perfumes, and filth. What has become of this place? How long had Liu Liangzhe been trapped in that coffin? Said man couldn't let this new world come to waste, so he picked up his long black robes and twisted the water out of them before he pushed the stray hair, long, black, and falling past his buttocks, behind his ears and out of his face.

"Shushu?" he asked, calling towards a man near the ramp into the village. The man stopped and turned to him, a piece of straw dangling from his lips.

"Haven't been called a mister-proper like that for years," the man said with a grin. "What can I do ya for, uh--" the man looked at Liu Liangzhe with a curious eye-- "Gongzi?"

"What year is it?" he asked.

"Why, it's the year of the fire horse," the man said. Liu Liangzhe had been entombed in the year of the earth rooster, so it had been about sixty years at least. That still meant… sixty years was a long time, and he was… he wasn't dead. He looked at his hands, supple from youth that he did not understand, and he quickly turned to smile at the man. He bowed to him.

"Thank you, sir!" he said. "You've been very helpful for this traveller."

The man waved him away with a laugh about politeness only coming from the wandering folk. As Liu Liangzhe entered the town of Wufatian, a feeling of dread spread from within him. There was a major, depressive yin energy that lingered over this place, energy that he knew coalesced inside him -- it had changed him fundamentally, and now it touched his fingers teasingly as if it had a mind of its own.

This town, Liu Liangzhe thought as he peered at the people on the streets, some dead, some alive, others were in a state in between, is disgraceful. Liu Liangzhe revolted judgement, the thing that ruined his life, but he appreciated righteousness, he tried to have honour, once upon a time. This place, however, had none of that, it was a cruel and terrible place. He followed the alluring tendrils of energy that pulled him to the center of the town. Above the door of the ornate pagoda was 'DIYU LORD.' What a curious epitaph… the Diyu Lord certainly had no hand in creating such a place, after all.

Liu Liangzhe knew the Diyu Lord intimately, and he would never have wanted such a horrendous tower to stand in such a nasty town as Wufatian. He pushed the odd doors open to the temple and walked in with the confidence of someone who owned the place.

Liu Liangzhe entered the temple as the sun was finally setting, and he arrived to see it full of people. The doors shut loudly with a thunk behind him, and he saw dozens of ruddy faces turn to look at him, some smeared with mud, and others covered in bruises. In the arms of a relatively clean man was a little boy who was wrapped in rope with heavy metal pieces and most importantly, bound rocks and stone.

"What's going on here?" he asked, withholding his judgement entirely.

"None of your business, pal," the man said, "Now get lost!"

"This is a temple, is it not?" Liu Liangzhe continued. He dragged his fingers across the dilapidated tables on the ground. This place had not been cleaned in quite some time. It was not a proper temple in such a shape. It was disrespectful. The Diyu Lord should surely punish these men and everyone who dared pray to him in such a pigsty for that alone. Lia Liangzhe saw the boy struggle, and he started to approach, but the bandits that surrounded the man gripping the boy's arm swarmed in, blocking them from his sight.

The boy was too close to the pit, if he fell into the water with so many weights on him, he would undoubtedly die. Lia Liangzhe refused to believe that the Diyu Lord wanted sacrifices of children to appease him, in fact, he knew that the Diyu Lord would be disgusted by such foul behaviour. To use a child? Disgraceful.

"I believe I have every right to be here," Lia Liangzhe continued. "In fact, I may have even more right to be here, than you do." The man scoffed, but said nothing.

Liu Liangzhe took a deep breath before he said, "Please give me the child, sir."

"And what do you think you're gonna do to me if I don't?" the man asked, pushing his way through the men that gathered around him -- his thugs and muscle. This must be a gang organization, and the neater man was the one in charge.

"I will take him from you," Lia Liangzhe said, his voice calm and even as it had remained and would continue to remain. The man scoffed, and pushed on the boy's shoulder. The boy stumbled, forcing himself upright and away from the pit in the center of the temple that led into the inky depths of the water they live above.

"Uh-oh, better be careful, I might just really push him in. Then only the Diyu Lord will have him," the man said. Liu Liangzhe smiled and nodded.

"So be it, I suppose," he said. And the man went to push the boy, but as his hand came into contact with the boy's shoulder, Liu Liangzhe continued, "But the Diyu Lord will be unhappy. And he will burn your town to the ground if you do."

"Hah! What do you know? You're not even from here," the man said before he boasted, "I've worshipped the Diyu Lord for all my life. He's protected Wufatian for a thousand years, and he'll do it for a thousand more. All he needs is a sacrifice."

A thousand years? It had been a thousand years since the Diyu Lord was buried alive in his coffin? When he was chained up by the six founders of the most prominent cultivation sects this side of the world knew?

With a plop, the boy was pushed into the water, and the culprit for the boy's fall was standing with his arm still held out, and a smug expression on his face. A 'what are you going to do about it?' smirk just waiting to be wiped off. Liu Liangzhe would have no problem burning it off, instead.