# 701
Chapter 702: A Chaotic and Disorderly Place
In the deep sea.
Lin Qiye and Amemiya Haruki descended slowly, their flashlight beams cutting through the pitch-black water and landing on the reef at the bottom.
They pressed close to the seafloor, searching the surroundings. Lin Qiye extended his spiritual power to the maximum, monitoring the environment like a radar. Finally, he seemed to sense something and gestured to Amemiya Haruki.
Amemiya Haruki nodded and followed behind Lin Qiye, swimming toward a certain direction.
After drifting along the seabed for a long while, the flashlight beams suddenly grew dim. The seabed reefs beneath them had vanished, replaced by a massive underwater crater with a radius of several hundred meters.
The pit had a circular outline, extending downward into the depths. Standing at the edge of the pit and looking down, the flashlight beams simply couldn't penetrate the pitch-black water to see the bottom.
The two exchanged a glance, nodded simultaneously, then leapt toward the bottom of the crater.
In the endless darkness and seawater, the two fell for who knows how long. After entering this crater, the laws of physics seemed to have mysteriously changed—the seawater's buoyancy didn't slow their descent; instead, it accelerated them.
By the end, neither Lin Qiye nor Amemiya Haruki could control their diving speed, nor could they judge how deep they had sunk.
Time ticked by, second by second. Suddenly, the two felt the world spin around them, and they were catapulted out of the seawater. They arced through the air and crashed heavily onto the ground.
Amemiya Haruki frowned. Wearing the clumsy diving gear, he slowly rose from the ground. Behind his diving goggles, his eyes swept the surroundings in confusion.
The surroundings were pitch-black, but with the flashlight beams, he could basically make out that they were now in what appeared to be a low-ceilinged cave. The place they had just been ejected from the water was a vast deep pool, about thirty meters away.
"Hoo..."
Lin Qiye removed his mask, took a light breath, confirmed there was sufficient air here, and began to remove his diving gear.
A moment later, the two walked to the edge of the deep pool. Flashlights in hand, they carefully swept across the dark water surface.
"This deep pool... is connected to the sea area we came from?" Amemiya Haruki said with some confusion.
"Should be." Lin Qiye gave a slight nod. "After passing through that strange underwater crater, we were directly thrown here... but I always feel that we sank very deep in the crater. This place might not simply be the seabed anymore—it's more like another independent space."
"My master said the same thing." Amemiya Haruki sighed. "However, even he didn't figure out what this ruins actually is."
"That's our mission then." Lin Qiye looked up at the road on the other side of the cave and said, "Regardless, let's move forward first."
The two walked slowly along the narrow cave passage. Amemiya Haruki hung Rainfall Collapse at his waist, resting his hand on the hilt, constantly alert to his surroundings.
Although the Magatsu Blade couldn't be used here, if he merely drew the blade to use swordsmanship without invoking the Magatsu Blade's abilities, the sword wouldn't be sucked away by the mysterious force. Although this was just a rumor Amemiya Haruki had heard from his master, he had no intention of testing it.
After all, Rainfall Collapse was the only one of its kind. Once this blade was sucked into the depths of the ruins, getting it back would not be easy.
Fortunately, no enemies were encountered along the way.
"We're approaching the end up ahead."
After walking along the cave for a long while, Lin Qiye sensed changes ahead and warned.
Amemiya Haruki nodded, about to say something, when Lin Qiye's expression suddenly changed. He thrust out his hand to stop the advancing Amemiya Haruki!
"Wait! Don't go any further."
Amemiya Haruki's foot, which had been raised mid-air, slowly set back down. He asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
Lin Qiye didn't answer. Instead, he walked to one side of the cave passage and slowly squatted down, shining the flashlight on the corner of the wall. There, hidden in a groove, was a thumb-sized micro laser transmitting device. On the opposite wall was another identical device.
These two transmitters were small and black, practically invisible in the pitch-black cave. Had it not been for Lin Qiye's spiritual perception, they would have been overlooked entirely.
Amemiya Haruki squatted down and asked curiously, "What is this?"
"Infrared alarm." Lin Qiye recognized this type of equipment and explained with a frown. "Once someone passes through here, it will send out an alarm signal, transmitting to whoever set it up."
"This was placed by someone?"
"Of course, and not long ago." Lin Qiye said with certainty.
He looked up at the cave passage's end not far ahead, paused, and slowly spoke, "It seems someone arrived at the ruins before us... and possesses professional counter-tracking knowledge and abilities..."
"That mysterious person who bought the diving equipment?"
"Ninety percent sure it's him, and he's extremely cautious. While we noticed his unusual behavior, he probably also started suspecting us. This alarm was probably prepared to guard against us."
Amemiya Haruki's brow furrowed slightly. Things were becoming unfavorable.
In a treasure-land (ruins) bristling with dangers, there was an extra mysterious person who was neither friend nor foe, and that person possessed extremely strong combat abilities... For someone who couldn't use the Magatsu Blade, this was absolutely bad news.
If he hadn't brought Lin Qiye this time, he would likely have been completely exposed by now.
"So what do we do now?"
"Dismantle it. We can't tip him off." Lin Qiye said calmly. "I learned about this in training camp. Give me two minutes."
Next, Amemiya Haruki watched Lin Qiye use a skillful method to remove the infrared alarm device. The latter slowly stood up, gazing at the cave passage's end ahead, and said thoughtfully:
"We didn't trigger the alarm, so he shouldn't be too on guard. Now we're both in the dark... Let's see who exposes themselves first."
After disabling the alarm, the two continued forward, directly passing through the narrow passage. Their feet stepped onto land covered with scorch marks and scorched earth. The surrounding environment had completely changed.
In the perpetually overcast sky, dim bluish-white light twisted like an aurora, pouring down from the cloud tops. Ruined skyscrapers after ruined skyscraper were buried among the scorched earth. Some were submerged halfway, while others were completely inverted, piercing into the ground like reverse spikes.
Asphalt road rubble, scattered glass shards, broken and dilapidated furniture, withered deep-sea coral... Dense fragments of miscellaneous items had broken free from gravity, impossibly suspended in mid-air.
Here, it was like a chaotic, disordered trash bin. Fragments of a city and corpses from the deep sea were everywhere, yet they were eerily fused together.
Like the remains of human society that should have sunk to the bottom of the deep sea, swept here by some mysterious force.