Someone kicked Shu Xiaolin, a small eight year old boy wrapped in a straw mat to try and keep the elements from taking him. After the dirty foot left his shoulder, a dusty broom was next.
"Hey you! Yeah, you. Get out of here. You're driving away good, paying folks," a man with a towel tucked into the front of his belt said. Shu Xiaolin gathered himself and his mat up, but apparently it wasn't fast enough. As he stood up, the man struck him with his broom. "I said hurry up!" Shu Xiaolin was at a loss, with not even words to defend himself with, he rushed to gather himself quicker this time and moved on.
His life had been adrift since he lost his family, and he had gone from place to place only to be beaten and shooed away for scaring away business. He walked for ages, and when he was nearly seven he stumbled upon Wufatian -- a disgusting town built on stilts over a dark and murky lake filled with sunken corpses. There was no life beneath the still waters, yet the town built above it was very lively, just negatively so.
There were prostitutes, all too young and forced into such an arrangement, that lined the streets, and besides that there were beggars sitting in piles of their own waste, just waiting for one of the wandering crooks to take pity. The criminals in this place never seemed to do that, however. Because it was a lake, there was little water flow into the massive mouth, and it grew stagnant, so with spring there was a rush of mosquitoes. Those disease ridden flies were almost as bad as the living blood suckers that preyed on the poor folk just passing by and needing a place to stay. None however, were as bad as the Boss.
Boss came from the dock that traversed from the land around them to the land they built the city on, and he and his bandits came marching through the wooden docks with their pockets stuffed with stolen treasures. To stay safe, Shu Xiaolin had learned a few skills. One of them was invisible, and the others were taking only a little, because these hotshots were unlikely to miss a paltry bracelet. A skill he learned from outside Wufatian was don't get caught, because in Wufatian, getting caught meant he could join the corpses in the lake. The men had stopped right outside of the crevice of the buildings he had learned to call his secret place, where he most often hid until it was safer in the early dawn light to look for scraps.
"We killed them all, and stole all their shit to boot!" Boss, the man with the thickest clothes, and the most jewelry adorning him, called. A round of cheering met him, all coming free from the mouths of his loyal men.
To Shu Xiaolin, who could barely feed himself, even less clothe himself for the seasons, even a single bracelet was more than enough. This man had bracelets all over his wrists and up his arms, what harm could taking one cause? It wasn't like it would be missed. Except Shu Xiaolin was awkward, and unable to be as stealthy in action as he was in his plans.
"Next time we'll show those damn traitors what it's like to be with me, Boss!" Boss proclaimed. So caught up in their revelry, Shu Xiaolin had the advantage, and he quickly worked the bracelet off the man. He didn't see when the sharp edge of gold got caught in Boss' thick sleeve as he unlatched the tiny mechanism, which was already difficult for Shu Xialoin's child hands. Quickly, to avoid notice and capture, Shu Xiaolin snatched the piece and tried to make haste and run off with it, only for that damn corner to get caught in the fabric. He turned to run, only to snap back against Boss. Shu Xiaolin froze, because there was no way he was leaving undiscovered.
As he turned to look up and judge just how much trouble he had wrought on himself, he found Boss peering down at him with disdain and anger.
"What's this? Were you trying to steal? From me?" the man asked. Shu Xiaolin stared at the man and clasped his hands together, getting on his knees to beg for forgiveness instead. He shook his little head, still at that awkward stage where it was slightly too big for his body. "Well?" the man asked again, but Shu Xiaolin continued to shake his head and shake his clasped hands in front of him. The man's boot-covered foot jammed into Shu Xiaolin's shoulder, sending him on his back. He grunted, but he didn't speak.
"Say something, you little urchin!"
Shu Xiaolin stumbled up to his feet, but before he could escape through the winding alleys and back to his hiding spot, he was surrounded by unfamiliar but strong and sturdy men. The kind that likely had enough food to eat to make them so strong. Shu Xiaolin was woefully under equipped to handle such folk. The man, the leader that had nearly been stolen from, grabbed Shu Xiaolin by the back of his matted hair and yanked him back. His knees bent and then he fell back.
"It looks like we just got our wish, boys. We'll definitely make our next score with the help of the Diyu Lord!" Shu Xiaolin's eyes widened, because it was no secret what happened to people who were taken to the Diyu Lord. They were sacrificed. They were bound up and dropped into the water through the hole in the floor of the temple and then they drowned to appease the Diyu Lord. It apparently helped the criminals and crooks in this town run successful schemes. But Shu Xiaolin was only eight, and he didn't want to die just yet. He had once known a good life, with a mother and father, and he had been convinced that they used to love him, too, but… it clearly didn't last. He couldn't die, he still had to… had to what? He was an eight year old orphan -- he was unwanted and he was unwelcomed.
That didn't stop Shu Xiaolin from fighting against the men that were trying to drag him to the temple. He clawed at their hands, and tried to bite them as much as he could, despite the fact their hands were as grimy as his unwashed body. He kicked and squealed, but they didn't drop him, they didn't give him up in the slightest.
When they entered the temple, the sense of dread intensified. There was a massively dark and compelling force that surrounded the entirety of Wufatian, but its nexus resided in the center of the temple, right in that pit. Nearly-black water lapped around so audibly inside the temple, and there were wooden cages that lined the walls for poor souls just like Shu Xiaolin. They tossed him inside the cage, and the leader returned to him and grabbed him by his bony chin.
"Now, you haven't said a word, so either you want to die, or…" the man started, before he squeezed the sides of Shu Xiaolin's face so hard that his mouth opened. The man laughed heartily when he saw that Shu Xiaolin had no tongue, and the boy in question jerked himself against the back of his cage. He would die, sure, but he wouldn't let this jerk humiliate him, the one with rotten teeth and pockets full of stolen goods.
"We'll see you soon, to give proper thanks to our god. This is probably the only thing someone like you can contribute in your life anyway. You should be honoured," the man said, before he and his cronies left, mocking and laughing at Shu Xiaolin all the way. Once they left, slamming the door behind them so hard that Shu Xiaolin's cage shook, Shu Xiaolin struggled to try and break the wooden bars, but they were reinforced with rope, and then they were soaked in oil. If someone were to set it on fire, he would surely die inside, burned alive. He had no way out that he could see.
From beneath him, from the hole in the floor of the temple, he heard a soft slide, like metal dragged across a different surface, and then there were bubbles that popped at the surface, before the water soothed itself into silent serenity once again. Shu Xiaolin was going to die there, he knew, but he just wished it wouldn't have to be that way. If there really was a Diyu Lord, couldn't he help Shu Xiaolin rather than the horrible men that just wanted the Diyu Lord to hurt others? Then again, the Diyu Lord was an evil and vicious man-turned-monster, so maybe evildoers were the only people he helped.