Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 196: Don’t...

Chapter 196: Don’t...

"Don’t be so dramatic!"

My body slipping past her guard as I slammed my fist into her abdomen.

Mu Qinglan gasped sharply, doubling forward, eyes widening as my Qi surged into her core. It was a harsh and decisive blow. The force broke through her rampaging flow and injected my earth Qi directly inside her body. I caught her before she could hit the ground, feeling ice-cold energy crackle violently along my skin.

She struggled briefly, eyes flickering between black and her familiar electric blue.

"John—" Her voice was soft and pleasing to the ears.

"Shut up," I snapped gently, pressing my forehead against hers.

I forced more Qi inside her. To overwhelm and suppress the berserk storm in her veins.

"I know you can endure!"

I kissed her to increase the flow sucking the Ice Qi from her body. An icy chill immediately reached my lips and throat.

I closed her lips and kissed her, sucking the icy energy from her body, allowing it to chill and freeze my lips, and throat.

It tasted like her.

Her body trembled, the chaotic Qi gradually subsiding beneath mine.

The blue veins faded, her breathing finally easing into steady, shaking gasps.

Her tongue pushed into my mouth, it felt wet... and slimy as she wrapped around me sucking on the tip. I grabbed her buttocks and lifted her; standing on her tiptoes, she snorted and hummed into my mouth.

I let my guard down, and she wrapped her arms around my back, digging her nails into me. It burned for a moment, but I forgot because she started kissing me aggressively.

"Mmmph... John... this is good, your lips are sweet, and hot..."

My body a furnace for all four elements, soothed Mu Qinglan’s body, with everything she needed, bringing pleasure as her swollen dantian returned to a normal state.

[Wow...]

[Mu Qinglan’s Qi signature stabilising.]

[Berserk state subsiding.]

"Idiot." I brushed the stray hairs from her face. "You trying to scare me to death?"

Mu Qinglan gave a shaky, broken laugh. "You’d miss me."

I managed a grin, despite the blood running down my jaw. "Yeah. So don’t make me go through that again."

Around us, the tunnel settled into silence. Only our ragged breathing remained. But the next threat waited deep in the dark, patient and hungry.

***

After Qinglan’s rampage, the silence felt hollow, broken only by the distant trickle of water through cracked pipes and the echo of our breath. Her head rested on my shoulder, breath cooling against my neck as I eased her to her feet.

"You good to walk?" I kept my voice low, more gentle than I meant.

She nodded, wiping tears from her eyes with her wrist. The red haze was gone, her gaze sharp again, but she clung to my arm with a grip that trembled.

"Let’s move," I said, pushing the pain aside. The faint pressure of that strange Qi pulsed deeper in the tunnels, a cold current tugging at my nerves.

The boss mutant’s corpse steamed on the stone behind us, scales crusted with frost and blood. I pulled a core from its chest—massive, dark red, hot enough to sting my palm. I tossed it into my inventory and kept moving, guiding Qinglan past broken bones and shattered weapons.

We advanced deeper, each step taking us further from the carnage and into a chill that had nothing to do with Qinglan’s ice. The Qi pressed harder, slow and steady, pulsing with every heartbeat. It wasn’t like anything I’d felt from zombies or mutants—this was older, heavier, and far less welcoming.

After a hundred meters, the tunnel widened into an old maintenance vault, ceiling sagging and walls patched with calcified moss. Water dripped from rusted beams. The ground sloped toward a pit where all the sewer filth seemed to collect. That was where the Qi was thickest.

I motioned for Qinglan to stay back, then stepped to the edge. Something glimmered at the bottom, a faint, unnatural light.

[System: Warning—Unknown Qi Source Detected.][Analysis Failed.][Potential Threat: Unclassifiable.]

For the first time since this started, the System sounded unsure.

I lowered myself carefully, boots squelching in the muck. The closer I got, the more the Qi pressed against my bones. It felt... cold and hot at the same time. My vision swam.

Nestled in the slime at the pit’s centre were two perfectly round cores, side by side. One black, like ink trapped in glass, radiating a chilling void. The other white, glowing faintly, warmth flickering at its heart.

[System: Analysis Failed. Data Unknown.][Warning: Unknown effect. Handle with caution.]

"John?" Qinglan’s voice echoed down. "What is it?"

I crouched, studying the cores without touching them. The black one seemed to pull all the light around it into nothing, the white one pulsing gently, illuminating the filth with a ghostly radiance. Together, they felt... wrong like a riddle or a trap.

"I don’t know," I admitted, and the words tasted bitter. "The system’s never seen anything like these."

Qinglan slid down beside me, her hand instinctively reaching for mine. Her eyes narrowed, studying the strange pair. "Do we take them?"

"Eventually," I muttered, unable to look away. "But not until we figure out what they’ll do."

The Qi in the air vibrated, both inviting and threatening. I’d faced monsters and mutants and the worst of this apocalypse. But this... this felt like the start of something entirely different.

We stared at the black and white cores, and somehow our hands reached out...

Qinglan grabbed the white core, and I chose the black one.

[Wait...!]

[System Warning!]

"Are you thinking what I am?"

"John... you look so evil right now!"

Ignoring the fact that we both almost died... and that she only just calmed down, something about this core called out to me. I don’t know what it does or if it will help me.

Mu Qinglan looked the same and looked at the white core with enchanted eyes.

***

The core pulsed in my palm.

It was cold, heavy, inviting, and threatening. Qinglan’s eyes met mine, wild with anticipation and a little fear. A voice in my head screamed Don’t for a moment, but the urge to swallow it was too strong.

A question with no answer, a promise never fulfilled.

I raised the black core to my lips and swallowed it whole.

The sphere slipped down my throat like ice. My chest seized up. I heard Qinglan gasp, then watched her tip the white core between her lips, swallowing with a shudder.

It was nothing like taking monster cores before.

For a split second, the world stopped. The tunnel faded. My body went numb, my vision tunnelling in on the afterimage of the core sliding down my throat.

Then the reaction hit.

Cold exploded through my veins, radiating from my stomach, racing to my heart and brain.

The sensation wasn’t just pain—it was as if something old and vast pressed itself into the core of my being, rewriting me from the inside out.

My Qi shrieked in protest, lashing against the invader, but the black core devoured it all, crushing my will with a pressure so deep it almost became silence.

Next to me, Qinglan dropped to one knee, hugging her stomach as white qi flowed from her pores. The air around her vibrated, creating a sharp pressure. I saw frost shimmer in the air, ice climbing the walls and pooling beneath her feet. Her scream echoed through the darkness.

My mouth opened, but no sound escaped.

Memories flashed through my sight, burned away, tearing open old wounds and thoughts I wanted to hide... Mother, Father... and for a moment, I hovered on the edge of remaining trapped in them forever.

The black core shattered in my gut, its shards digging deeper, rearranging something essential inside me.

[System Error: Unidentifiable Core Consumed.]

[Warning: Host Physiology Adapting—Mutation Level Unknown.]

[Analysis: Failed.]

The pressure rapidly faded.

I collapsed, chest heaving, sweat streaming down my skin. The world snapped back. My senses were too sharp, every shadow flickering with hidden meaning.

The Qi inside me wasn’t just different.

It almost doubled in amount...

[Elemental Body Refinement – Phase 2 --> Phase 4]

However, the most significant change must have been in Qinglan.

"What?" She snorted, looking at me with her vivid eyes.

"Nothing, you just look stunning."

Her face was pristine with creamy skin. All minor blemishes had vanished, and it looked like small ice crystals floated inside her pupils. Each of her breaths created a cooling mist or fog, but her Ice Qi was stronger and stable.

"Haha~ I know."

Qinglan smiled back at me before snapping her fingertips as the blood, gore, and slime froze instantly. She then flicked her hand, creating a gust of wind that shattered them into shards that flowed into the tunnel.

’How the hell did she...’

"Hey, John!"

She called out to me, and my jaw dropped when I looked at her.

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