# 697
Chapter 698: Mysterious Mark
At the same time, Amemiya Haruki and Lin Qiye were walking along the street.
"Why did you tag along?" Amemiya Haruki疑惑的看向Lin Qiye，"I just came out to find a channel to buy diving equipment. It doesn't seem like we need two people, does it?"
Lin Qiye raised an eyebrow. "That house—I can't stay there anymore. 'See no evil, hear no evil.'"
"..."
Amemiya Haruki didn't quite understand what Lin Qiye meant, but he didn't bother asking further. He just nodded and continued walking forward.
"By the way, why can the relationship between 【Lady Wu】 and her blade master be so close?" Lin Qiye asked, puzzled. "What about your 【Rainfall Collapse】 blade spirit? Why doesn't it come out to interact with you often?"
"Interact?"
Amemiya Haruki paused. "Blade spirits have different personalities too. 【Rainfall Collapse】 is rather introverted, and besides, I mentioned before that 【Lady Wu】 is different from other Magatsu Blades..."
"How else is it different?"
"【Lady Wu】 chooses her blade master for life. Once she recognizes someone as her master, she accompanies them until their death, then falls dormant in the world. After ten years pass, she re-emerges to choose a new master..."
"Dormant for ten years? Where does she go during that time?"
"No one knows, but some say she's waiting." Amemiya Haruki said. "Legend has it that before Lady Wu became a blade spirit, she had a husband who died of illness during the chaos of war. After becoming a blade spirit, she gained the ability to glimpse fragments of fate. Every blade master she chooses is actually a reincarnation of her husband.
The reason she stays with her blade master until death is to use the ��Lady Wu】 sheath to contain the master's soul, nurturing it with her own power for a few years before sending it into the cycle of reincarnation. Then she watches over the world for his rebirth and quietly accompanies him, waiting until he comes of age before choosing him as her master."
"That sounds like a touching story."
"I think so too."
As they talked, the two arrived at a secluded alleyway. Amemiya Haruki finally stopped in front of a dilapidated appliance repair shop, above which hung a worn sign reading "Hokkaido Nozaki Appliance Repair."
"This place looks like it's been around for a while," Lin Qiye said.
"It's a century-old family business, of course it's been around." Amemiya Haruki said. "But the main business here isn't appliance repair anymore..."
With that, he stepped inside.
Not just the storefront—the interior was equally cluttered. The moment he walked through the door, a faint musty smell hit Lin Qiye's nose, making him furrow his brow.
At the edge of the shop, an elderly man with silver-white hair barely lifted his head, glanced at Amemiya Haruki, then let his eyelids droop back down, showing no intention of serving customers.
"I'm here to purchase some contraband." Amemiya Haruki walked up to the counter and spoke calmly.
Upon hearing these words, the old man's eyes narrowed. He looked the two young men over again.
"Contraband is a bit tight right now." He spoke slowly.
"Money's not an issue."
The old man's brow rose. After a moment, he slowly stood from his seat, pushed aside the curtain, and walked toward the back courtyard. "Follow me."
Amemiya Haruki nodded to Lin Qiye, and the two followed the old man through the back courtyard, making several turns before arriving at a locked warehouse door.
Unlocking and entering the warehouse, the dusty interior had several diving suits hanging on the walls, with tanks stacked neatly beside them.
"Seven million yen per set, non-negotiable." The old man spoke slowly.
Diving equipment in this country was absolutely prohibited—there was no way any factory would manufacture them. Everything currently on the market had been scavenged from various facilities over the past hundred years. Once a set was sold, it was gone forever, so haggling was simply out of the question.
Fortunately, not many people needed this stuff, so the prices weren't entirely unreasonable.
Amemiya Haruki understood this logic and didn't bother negotiating. He paid and took the goods, stowing both sets into two cases, then headed outside.
Just as they stepped out through the curtain, they saw a man in black wearing a black baseball cap standing in the shop, seemingly browsing the appliances. When he noticed Lin Qiye and the other coming out from the back courtyard, a hint of confusion flickered in his eyes, but he pretended not to notice and continued browsing.
This subtle change in expression was barely visible beneath the baseball cap, but Lin Qiye's spiritual perception clearly caught it.
Lin Qiye merely glanced at him casually and walked right past, as if he hadn't noticed the man at all.
"Let's go." Amemiya Haruki said.
The two carried their cases out of the shop. A long while later, the man slowly walked up to the old man, lowered his voice, and spoke:
"Any more contraband?"
...
"That guy was also there to buy diving equipment."
Outside the shop, Lin Qiye suddenly spoke.
Amemiya Haruki愣了一下，才反应过来Lin Qiye was talking about. "Someone else wants this stuff? Where is he planning to dive?"
"I don't know, but he's not an ordinary person." Lin Qiye said with certainty. "His hands are callused, his footsteps are light—he's definitely trained. And the way he grips things suggests long-term use of firearms. His eyes are sharp, and he seemed to sense something was off about us. He has extremely strong alertness and counter-surveillance skills...
Moreover, there's a spear mark on his palm."
"A spear mark?" Amemiya Haruki thought carefully. "There shouldn't be any large organizations like that in Japan. If it's one of those small民间 organizations, I wouldn't know."
"His skills and alertness aren't something a small organization could train."
"True..."
Lin Qiye沉思片刻，"Could it be that his destination is the same as ours?"
"The ruins?" Amemiya Haruki furrowed his brow. "In Hokkaido, and buying diving equipment—there's that possibility... But very few people know about this place. How did he find out..."
...
Mist.
A ship slowly docked on the shore amidst rolling waves.
Although it was still daytime, everything remained hazy under the shroud of mist, and even the sky had grown dim.
Jialan, Wu Xiangnan, and the three knights stepped off the ship, their feet touching the beach. They looked up at the ruined city before them, wrapped in mist, their eyes slightly narrowing.
Dilapidated buildings, fractured roads, all the surrounding vegetation had withered and died. In the distance, rows of low houses huddled together, exuding a chilling aura within the dim mist. There was not a trace of life in sight.
"So this is Japan?" Jialan carried the black box, scanning her surroundings. "Looks pretty rundown."
"After the Mist descended, this place became a forbidden zone for life. Everything still looks like it did a hundred years ago, of course it's rundown." Wu Xiangnan explained. "And based on the direction we landed, this wasn't originally a central area of Japan—just a large Island on the outskirts."
"Island..."
Jialan walked to the roadside, looked up at the sign of a decrepit little shop, and turned to ask:
"Do you recognize the characters on that? What does it say?"
Wu Xiangnan looked up at the sign and, after a pause, said: "It reads, 'Hokkaido Nozaki Appliance Repair.'"