The grey areas near the Blood throne sect's territory had been holding strong due to their massive size and the fact that the 'righteous' factions needed a place where they could dump their ill-gotten gains or else the Bazar they created wouldn't have lasted up till now.
Yun Jhin appeared at the corner of a gigantic market where various races were trading or bartering the prices down to what they found to be acceptable to their pockets.
This was one of the many markets planted around the blood throne sect, even though the sect wasn't there anymore which was the biggest profit channel they had... they still made quite a lot of money considering they were a pure 'grey' area.
In this location, you couldn't do actually what you wanted unless you were obviously way stronger compared to the people who protected the establishments as well as their backers from various universal organizations.
Yun Jhin didn't target any of the big businesses that had obviously strong backings that he couldn't offend yet.
"Let's see the smaller businesses first."
Even though the smaller businesses were generally backed by the bigger ones this wasn't a universal rule... sometimes their profits wouldn't be good enough for them to be 'taken in' by the bigger businesses so they were left alone as they were too unprofitable for them to give them 'protection'.
He would first take over the smaller businesses and make his way up from there.
Yun Jhin looked around and identified a good target where he could start.
It was a small shop that specialized in herbs and miscellaneous items, it was akin to a pawn shop where you could buy whatever you needed and sell items as well but its size was rather small and it was obvious from the state of the building that it didn't have any backer.
The building size was quite small and it was pretty run-down as cracks were around the foundation and the paint on it was quite old and worn down.
Yun Jhin wanted to enter it when suddenly an old man threw out a tattooed muscled middle-aged man who wore gangster clothes, the old man clapped his hands to get rid of the inexistent dust on them before snorting and returning to his shop.
Yun Jhin looked on and entered the shop after the gangster muttered something under his breath and left with a limp in his right leg.
The inside of the shop was as good-looking as the outside, it wasn't anything special, the herbs were displayed in square-shaped glass pieces that were inscribed with rudimentary formations that were meant to keep them well preserved. The old man just got back to the counter when he saw Yun Jhin entering and smiled as he thought he was a customer.
The old man got up from the counter and gave out a 'merchant smile' to Yun Jhin as he asked him:
"What is this young master interested in? Could it be our miscellaneous items or would you want some herbs to concoct a pill?"
Yun Jhin took a look around the shop before saying something that made the old man quite angry:
"Actually I'm here for your shop... and you!"
"So you are in cahoots with those gangsters from before aren't you youngster? Let me show you that this old man isn't a piece of easy prey!"
He directly attacked Yun Jhin's chest with a punch that rippled with shockwaves of ki but Yun Jhin casually put his hand forward and grabbed it while dispelling all of the energy in it.
Yun Jhin shook his hand as he let the man go free and chuckled as he said:
"Aren't you quite strong for an old man at the death bed?"
"What are you insinuating?"
Yun Jhin suddenly appeared behind him as he ripped off his face revealing a charming young woman underneath the face of the old man.
The woman clutched her face as she bled from it for some time before she angrily looked into Yun Jhin's eyes and cursed him.
Yun Jhin laughed as he got a better look at her, her face was round and pudgy with freckles but this added a certain charm to her that made you want to tease her, her long blonde hair was revealed after the face-mask was ripped from her face and her figure also changed... her biggest assets could only be described as humongous and her behind wasn't bad either.
As Yun Jhin appreciated her body it made her feel like she was a monkey at the zoo and this angered her quite a bit... she unleashed her aura trying to cut Yun Jhin into pieces with it but Yun Jhin only easily dodged all of the attacks before hitting the pressure point in her neck and knocking her out cold.
Yun Jhin looked around for a short time before he found the body of the true owner... he was faceless and skinless as those were the ingredients needed to create the face mask, this was actually Yun Jhin's techniques, some of his blood throne sect higher disciples used to practice it for recon purposes.
Yun Jhin looked at the downed woman at his feet and wondered where could she have gotten the technique from?
He became a little interested in her, she was rather cruel as she had the same purpose as him, taking over the small businesses in the area and becoming their backer, her cultivation base wasn't bad, it was actually higher than his as she was as strong as Yuan Fang cultivation wise, the thing was that her battle power was lacking due to her constitution being quite weak. She didn't do an ounce of body refinement! Nor was her experience good enough she easily got manhandled by Yun Jhin.
It seemed she was one of those greenhouse flowers who didn't go through life and death battles.
However she was quite insidious, Yun Jhin tutted as he burned the corpse of the old man into cinders, it seemed she didn't have time to do this herself as she must have been solicited by that gangster from before.
Yun Jhin was now the owner of the place as he woke up the woman with two slaps to the face in certain nodes so the paralysis from having her neck would be undone.
She shrieked as she tried to run away from Yun Jhin but her face was smacked by Yun Jhin's forcefield ability making her gasp for air as she was almost turned into a meat pancake on the dirty floor of the building.
"Missy I have a few questions for you, why don't you sit down and answer them for me?"
"Like hell, I will you freak... how are you so strong while you are only at the 3rd stage of the Sage Realm?"
"Hmm, you said something?"
"DAMN YOU!"
She tried to get up only for her bones to start cracking as she went against the force of the gravity and her mouth started frothing due to the immense pressure put on her body:
"I wouldn't recommend that dear, you know your body is quite fragile for your cultivation base."
"Anyways you better talk fast as I'm a man that's rather impatient."
"Make me!"
While the woman wasn't strong her pain endurance threshold was extremely high for some reason, most of the time women would relent faster than men in these situations but this depended from person to person and it wasn't surprising for some men to relent faster too.
"Well since you insist..."
After a few minutes, she opened her mouth and started spouting everything she knew... Yun Jhin learned that the technique was scavenged from the dumpster of an auction house that couldn't seal the technique due to it's 'evil properties' and the fact that it was once the staple technique of the blood throne sect' scouts.
This woman lived all her life in the grey areas so she used her charms to fool men and women alike to gain her current strength, unfortunately, she didn't go through deadly situations as she used her innate charm to get where she was so she wasn't that strong. Most people were slaves to beauty and Yun Jhin had abused this fact in his previous lives as well. However, at a certain cultivation base, people will not care about earthly beauty anymore.
Yun Jhin transcended all physical attractions so he didn't care about her beauty that much, but what he liked about her were her ruthlessness and resourcefulness, she could be one of those talents that he needed so badly.
"I have a proposition for you, you will keep your life as well as the job you currently got."
"All you have to do is give me 90% of the profits and I will also be good for you giving you 'protection'"
The woman's eyes bulged out as he looked at him, but what else could she say besides yes in this situation?