Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 150: Steel Steps in the Silence

Chapter 150: Steel Steps in the Silence

March 20th, 1:15 PM — Longwan Mall, Lower Atrium Level

John Wang POV

—

Jiang Roulan was already on her feet when I finished strapping my gauntlets.

She moved slowly, still favouring her side, but her eyes were sharp again. Whatever strength she’d lost, she’d found enough to walk. Fight, if needed.

After taking the potions, the girls seemed to suffer for a moment, but now they look much better; the cuts and bruises from fighting vanished.

However, they probably had many questions for me.

"You good?" I asked without turning.

"Better than you looked an hour ago," she muttered. "Let’s go."

Tang Wei slammed the breach of her shotgun shut with a clack and nodded once. She looked ready, her coat a little dirty with blood, but everything else was good to go.

Shen Yifei gave a small stretch, testing her shoulder, then clicked her spear into its holster across her back.

"I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’ll follow you..." Yifei’s quiet voice echoed as she flicked her face away from me and stepped over the boxes, sealing the entrance.

Thanks to their quick movements, we pushed out into the corridor with no more hesitation.

No chatter.

No wasted breath.

Mu Qinglan was in danger.

I could feel it.

The moment we re-entered the western overlook, the scent of blood and scorched tile hit my nose again. It hadn’t faded. It had just dried into the concrete.

That’s when I noticed someone standing ahead.

"Hey!"

Liang Mei’s head turned at the sound of our boots. She stumbled back from where she’d been peering over the railing. Zhou Xue stood beside her, bow drawn, jaw tight.

The moment she saw me, she lowered it.

I couldn’t believe that we found them so easily, but as I checked over them, I noticed that everyone but Qinglan was with them.

"Where’s Lan’er?"

Liang Mei’s body trembled from my question. She looked away, but I couldn’t get angry at her, thankfully, Zhou Xue stepped forward and spoke to me.

"She’s still fighting," Zhou Xue said. "She stayed behind. She told us to run."

"Is she—" Yifei began.

"She was alive," Liang Mei said softly, "when we left."

I stepped forward, past them.

That was all I needed.

"She’s still alive."

The others moved around me. I caught Zhou Xue’s eyes briefly — sharp, focused. She’d seen something down there. The frost on her cheeks told me it wasn’t just a guess.

"We go now," I said.

Roulan snorted behind me. "What took us so long?"

I didn’t answer.

We moved toward the side hall — weapons raised, eyes scanning every corner.

Mu Qinglan was close.

And whatever was down here wasn’t finished.

Not yet.

The deeper we moved, the colder it got.

Not just in temperature, but in the atmosphere. The kind of cold that soaked through boot soles and set itself into your joints. Tang Wei slowed near a broken display stand and crouched without needing instruction.

There were footprints. Qinglan’s size.

Beside them, frost trailed along the tile in uneven patterns. Some looked like boot scrapes, others... claw drags. Deep. Clean.

"She passed through here," Tang Wei muttered. "But she wasn’t running."

"She couldn’t," I said. "Not from that thing."

Yifei brushed her fingers over a scorched metal shelf where something had torn through. "It followed her."

Jiang Roulan leaned on a crate and scanned the roof. "No drag marks. She was still standing when it ended."

I didn’t comment — just kept walking.

Every corner we turned showed more of the battle’s aftermath. A shelf split down the middle. A dent in the steel doorframe. Stray shards of ice cling to the wall. Steam still hissed from a melted container near the end of the hall.

"She really fought it here?" Yifei asked quietly.

No one answered.

We reached a point where the air stopped moving entirely.

The kind of silence that came after something enormous had passed.

"Look," Tang Wei whispered.

A long smear of white ran along the wall. Ghoul ichor. Viscous, shimmering faintly. Like mucus made of wax. It trailed off into the next corridor.

"She wounded it," I said, stepping past.

"Then she’s not dead," Yifei said.

"She’s not."

A faint hiss of static crackled in my earpiece.

I paused.

"Qinglan...?"

Nothing. Just low background buzz — like interference from a distant storm.

The hallway narrowed again. The frost thickened near the far wall — the edges of crates iced over in a thin crust. A broken crate lay open, its wooden edge splintered in a perfect crescent, like something had been thrown through it.

In reality, I could see the direction to where she was thanks to the system’s GPS, but there were several large red dots that we couldn’t afford to fight...

So I took a longer route.

I crouched and pressed two fingers to the floor.

Still cold.

Not long ago.

"She’s close," I said. "We’re nearly there."

Roulan didn’t speak, but she kept her weapon up now.

Every single one of us moved faster. Quieter.

And not a single crawler came to greet us.

That silence wasn’t safety.

It was a warning.

——

It didn’t take long to wrap around the ghouls watching from above, but now that I fought one, the system could identify them on the map along with the tiny dots for crawlers.

I smelled her before I saw her.

The thick scent of Mu Qinglan’s sweat and qi mixed, forming a sweet aroma.

And then the white stench.

Like scorched plastic mixed with spoiled milk.

We turned the final corner together.

The corridor looked like a tragic accident site, with a room that seemed to have been bombed, ice and white goo spread across the entire floor and walls.

One side had collapsed inward — crates splintered, racks overturned. The ground was slick with water and frost. A long crack ran through the tiles from end to end, and the far wall bore a thick smear of pale slime — Ghoul fluid, hissing as it evaporated.

A smear of white trailed along the far wall — thick, semi-translucent, bubbling faintly.

But there was no body.

No Ghoul.

Only a few lingering signs of its retreat.

Deep scratches. Fluid trails. And a strange ripple in the air, as if the battle had left behind a pressure that hadn’t yet lifted.

And in front of it all—

Qinglan... she was sitting holding her sword, eyes closed, while bathing in the ceiling’s broken light. It almost made her look divine, like a fallen angel with crimson blood painting her lips and dripping down her chin.

Mu Qinglan leaned against the wall, Endless Night resting tip-first against the tile. Her other hand was braced against her thigh, knuckles pale.

Her eyes found mine first.

"...Took you long enough, John."

Her voice sounded rough; each time she spoke, her eyes close, and she winced in pain. I rushed to her side and grabbed her shoulders, unable to control my worry.

She didn’t resist when I pulled her into my arms.

"You’re freezing."

"It ran."

"Are you hurt?"

"Not enough."

Her head rested against my chest, hair damp, breath light. I held her close.

"It fled before I could finish it," she murmured. "It was healing... too fast."

"You scared it off. That’s enough."

"No," she whispered, almost to herself. "It’s still watching. I am sure... of it."

My eyes flicked to the GPS and noticed that two red dots were flashing close to me and Qinglan. It seems they might have been waiting for this moment, but I remained calm, looking back at Liang Mei. "Can you help her?"

"O-Of course!"

Thanks to her combat medic class, her first aid skills were extremely useful, and I didn’t think someone who knew how it felt to be sick would treat Qinglan roughly.

"Good... come and help treat her wounds, Mei."

Qinglan’s fingers curled against my back.

And then she exhaled — the kind of breath that only comes after surviving something that should’ve ended you.

"I’m glad you came."

I brushed her hair back from her cheek and pressed my forehead to hers.

"I always will."

Though I couldn’t fully relax because those large red dots were gathering around us, a total of five, each corner of the building covered... but where would they come from? I couldn’t tell, but I somehow needed to tell the others.

Mu Qinglan leaned against my chest, while Liang Mei approached...

At the same time, the Ghouls stirred.

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