Jacob was looking at a run-down town. There was dirt and trash everywhere in sight. He had expected Blacksoil to be messier compared to the well-run St. Peter, but he had assumed the teams he had sent here would have helped with more than simply giving out Cultivation Techniques.

“This place is worse than a week ago,” Juliet said with a frown. “I’ve been here after the reported murders, but it wasn’t this bad.”

“Well, a lot must have happened in a week,” Jacob looked at a near pile of trash. He wasn’t as surprised as Juliet; scenes like this one had been commonplace at the beginning of the apocalypse in his past life. “Who’s in charge here?”

“The vice-mayor,” Juliet said, “but the guy had a bit of problem to rein everyone in. There was some looting on top of last week’s murders.”

“Your ordinary post-apocalyptic checklist,” Jacob sighed.

“Well, that’s what happens when you don’t have absolute power over the rest of the people,” a beautiful woman, human on the outside, spoke.

Jacob and Juliet both ignored her.

Our protagonist gestured to Epagogia to follow him.

He had explained a very simple plan. Frank, his family, and the rest would stay with Juliet while she conducted an official inspection of the place. In the meantime, Jacob would take a stroll and look for criminals with the Queen of Devils.

“You know, Jacob,” he heard Epagogia’s serious tone, “I think it’s going to be hard to take in sheep without compromising your whole city.”

Jacob had told her that he wanted to bring everyone inside St. Peter, and only after re-organizing things for the best would they build outposts.

Epagogia had argued that if the humans in other cities couldn’t solve their own problems, they would only create new ones in St. Peter.

It was a good argument, honestly. And even Jacob knew it.

But he wouldn’t abandon humanity just because some of them were petty. On the contrary, he would elevate them, turn them into the proud people they should be.

Jacob saw a woman on the street with well-hidden bruises on her arms and collarbone.

Well, let’s make it ugly, he thought.

His anger wasn’t as high at the Heavens as it should be. No, he had seen the same things for so long that his anger had been exhausted for these things.

Epagogia went in front of him, much calmer than he was, and started talking.

“Excuse me, Miss! May I have a word?” the Devil asked with the warmest smile.

“Uh? Who are you? I’m not talking to anyone!” the woman started rapidly looking left and right, fearing that someone would see her talking to the astonishingly beautiful person in front of her.

“Oh my,” Epagogia didn’t say another word. Instead, she simply closed in on the woman at breakneck speed and pressed on different acupuncture points with her claws, careful not to puncture the skin. Even though she was in human form, her camouflage was more illusionary than anything. Her claws were still there.

The woman from Blacksoil suddenly dropped the laundry basket and stiffened. Then, after a second, she started coughing and got a series of violent shivers.

The bruises on her arms started fading, and her cheeks got more color. Also, the skittish eyes became much calmer.

“Well, that should be better. I unlocked some of her Meridians, inhibited her fears and worries,” Epagogia stepped back. “Miss, care to tell me your name?”

Epagogia wasn’t a very empathetic person with strangers. She didn’t care as much as Jacob, but she knew the difference between right and wrong, even if she didn’t get hung up about it.

The woman looked at her own arms in amazement and felt her face, now warmer than before. She felt so strange that she was momentarily speechless.

“What’s happened, how did you—”

“Miss, please. We are here to kill some criminals,” Epagogia said with a plain tone, “we are going to bring some order to your little village, but we can’t be wasting time like this.”

Jacob caught a kid running toward them with the corner of his eye with a huge stick in his hands.

Before Epagogia could whip the poor boy, Jacob jumped in front of him and disarmed the kid. He tossed the stick to the side and took a better look at the new arrival.

The kid had clean-ish clothes, but his arms and face were bruised. His Qi was extremely weak, probably around the 2nd stage of the Cockroach realm. However, his talent felt much stronger at first sight than that, probably around the 7th level.

“Mom!” the kid screamed while Jacob was restraining it for his own good.

“Martin! Please, let him go. He’s just a kid!” the woman suddenly tried to get past Epagogia. “He’s barely ten!”

Jacob sighed.

“Miss, we are not here to harm any good citizen. I just wanted to avoid your kid getting hurt. If he stops flailing his arms around, I’ll let him go,” holding down the kid without harming him wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

“My name is Rose, but please let my son go!” she begged.

Jacob let go of the little kid, who immediately ran toward his mother. She hugged him tightly and mouthed a thank you toward our protagonist.

“So, can we go somewhere calmer to talk?” Jacob asked. “And please, Epagogia, don’t do what you are going to do.”

Juliet and the others had gone to the vice mayor’s house to gather more information and show their faces around; they would try to avoid using violence at any cost for the moment.

But that wasn’t Epagogia’s plan.

The woman, in fact, said exactly what Epagogia was waiting for.

“We can’t go home because my… boyfriend is there. He’s probably resting, and I don’t want to disturb him,” the woman looked toward a house in the distance and then toward the ground.

“Thank you, miss, that’s all,” Epagogia said while taking large strides toward the house the woman had barely glanced at.

F*ck, Jacob mentally swore.

“Miss, don’t interfere but follow us. You’ll be safer that way,” Jacob said right before running toward Epagogia. “Wait! Let’s make sure about it before we do things we could regret!”

The Devil Woman gave him the coldest smile she was capable of.

“Oh, Jaji-boy, I never regret violence, never,” she smashed the front door of the house with her fist.