59: Chapter 59 Shanghai Feng Shui Map

He closed the heavy, soundproof door.

The internet mogul seemed to have his strength drained away all at once, collapsing into his executive chair.

He pulled out a few tissues and forcefully wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

As the adrenaline faded, a wave of intense lingering fear engulfed him.

Wang Xing gasped for air, his heart pounding like a drum.

Only he knew deep down just how close Meituan had skirted the edge of the abyss over these past few hours tonight.

"It's fortunate that Chairman Shen was there..."

Wang Xing leaned back against the chair, muttering to himself, a trace of awe in his eyes.

If Shen Du hadn't given an early warning, just two or three days later, once the Beijing Circle dropped this nuclear bomb onto the public opinion sphere and the tax bureau...

He, Wang Xing, along with Meituan, would absolutely have been buried alive.

And he himself would have had to bear legal responsibility.

After this battle, Wang Xing's feelings toward Shen Du surpassed the respect an ordinary entrepreneur has for an investor.

It was a complete submission after witnessing his thunderous methods.

He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch.

It was already three-thirty in the morning.

Wang Xing did not call to disturb Shen Du's rest.

He picked up his phone and typed a line of text on the screen.

He pressed the send button.

A text message crossed the night and was sent to Shen Du's phone:

"The matter has been investigated and properly handled. There are no more hidden risks in the finances."

After sending the text, Wang Xing let out a long breath of stale air from his chest.

The next morning.

Sunlight pierced through the explosion-proof glass of the top-floor apartment in Lujiazui.

Shen Du finished washing up, held a cup of black coffee, and stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at this concrete jungle.

Having gone through yesterday's mine-clearing game.

With the text message Wang Xing had sent, the hidden danger hanging over Spark and Meituan was shattered.

The crisis had come to an end, and the rare moment of leisure allowed Shen Du's tense nerves to relax slightly.

He took a sip of coffee, and only then did he remember.

With Jiyuan Technology's expansion during this period, and Red Phoenix leading the streamers to gain a firm foothold on the platform.

A chain task that the system had once issued had already met the conditions for settlement.

It was just that he had been busy building a moat during this time and hadn't gotten around to checking it.

Shen Du's mind stirred, and he summoned the system panel.

A layer of holographic light screen unfolded on his retina.

In the most prominent position on the task bar, the entry named [Side Quest: Phoenix Returning to the Nest].

Was already surrounded by golden light and in a pending settlement state.

Shen Du clicked the button directly with his consciousness.

"Confirm completion."

[Ding! Detected that the host has perfectly completed the side quest "Phoenix Returning to the Nest".]

[Task settlement in progress...]

As the notification sound faded, an ancient scroll appeared on the light screen and transformed into a line of text:

[Shanghai Dark Web and Gray Market Node Geomantic Map]!

Looking at these words, the hand Shen Du held his coffee cup with paused slightly.

A sharp glint shone in his deep eyes.

The two characters for "Geomantic" originally meant observing mountains and ley lines.

But in the system's reward, the scope had been elevated.

It referred to surveying the overall trend of the Magic City.

Which was the intricate, intertwined network of power hidden beneath the surface of this super metropolis!

Shen Du did not hesitate and waved his hand in the void.

The scroll shattered and turned into code.

The code projected outward along his retina.

In less than three seconds.

A massive, dynamic holographic sandbox map formed in his vision, replacing the real city scenery outside the window.

This Geomantic Map took the Lujiazui Financial Center as its origin and radiated outward in all directions of the Magic City.

Skyscrapers, cross-sea bridges, deep-water ports... the terrain and landscape were lifelike in the holographic image.

But this was merely the surface appearance.

As Shen Du's mind dove deeper.

The layers of the Geomantic Map seemed to be peeled away, suddenly revealing an "Inner World"!

In that scene, the Magic City was stripped of its glamorous veneer.

Beneath those seemingly legitimate CBDs, villa areas, and high-end clubs, dense hidden light points flickered.

The legend clearly marked them: money laundering hubs, black PR intelligence networks.

As well as smuggling nodes and secret strongholds.

On the surface, legitimate business cooperation, but in the dark, they were transporting dirty money.

A scroll revealing the true colors of the noble families was displayed without reservation before his eyes.

Shen Du's gaze swept across the sandbox.

Having moved through top-tier circles before, he had heard the name of the "Shen Family" more than once.

But as an "outsider," his understanding of the Shen Family was limited to vague concepts like "old-money tycoon" and "following the rules."

He had never quantified just how vast this family really was.

Until this moment.

Following the guidance, he locked his consciousness onto the "Shen" tag that represented the core of the "Conservative Traditionalist Faction."

"Hum—"

The holographic sandbox underwent a strange change!

Shen Du's pupils contracted sharply.

He saw that on the deep blue map.

The pure white light points representing the "Shen Family" and its associated industries, like a galaxy poured onto the earth, lit up wildly!

These white lights sprinkled every corner of Shanghai without leaving any blind spots.

From the landmark buildings above the clouds in Lujiazui to the bustling wharves of Yangshan Port.

From heavy industry manufacturing bases to top-tier private hospitals and research centers...

Large and small, spanning countless real-economy and financial industries.

Thousands of light points representing the Shen Family's absolute control or deep equity participation shone brilliantly on the sandbox.

They were tightly connected by light pulses.

Like a beating giant heart, silently pumping blood for the operation of the entire city.

Looking at this scene before him, Shen Du took a breath of cool air.

Only when these eyes were fully opened.

Did Shen Du understand what the "Shen Family," spoken of by that group of second-generation elites, really meant in Shanghai.

This was by no means an ordinary plutocracy.

This was a hegemon that, within the rules, controlled absolute discourse power and possessed unfathomable foundations!

However.

The shock in Shen Du's eyes did not last long.

As a market operator, he possessed a keen sense of smell.

His gaze crossed the light and locked onto the shadows behind it.

On the deep blue background, Shen Du discovered that this "white star map" was already riddled with holes.

On the edges of those white lights, dense gray-black spots were clinging.

These spots, through underlying dark web connections, were biting tightly onto the white light symbolizing the Shen Family's core industries.

Shen Du's gaze narrowed slightly as he scanned the popped-up legend analysis.

On this sandbox, the confrontation between the factions was depicted vividly:

White light represented the "Conservative Traditionalist Faction" led by the Shen Family, which held fast to its bottom line.

Gray-black spots represented the "New Shanghai Forces" that attempted to subvert order using gray/black industries (money laundering, smuggling, black PR, malicious short-selling).

With the dynamic simulation, Shen Du intuitively saw a strangulation.

Those gray-black spots were constantly wriggling.

They used underground banks to cut off the white light's capital chains.

They used forces in the shadows to erode the white light's volume.

From this perspective.

The giant elephant that was the Shen Family was falling into a crisis of being besieged by the shadows simply because it was "too rule-abiding."

What concerned Shen Du even more was the powerful tracing function.

He followed the source of several dense black light spots.

Several thick black veins pierced directly through the borders of the Magic City.

They drew long lines on the sandbox, pointing straight to the north: Beijing!

Shen Du's eyes narrowed slightly.

He understood.

This was by no means a simple struggle between the new and old factions in the Magic City.

It was the powerful second-generation elites of Beijing joining hands with the radical opportunists within the Magic City to form a "Strangulation Alliance."

Under the cover of gray industries, they wanted to crush the Shen Family, the stabilizer of the city, and then carve up their wealth.

After a rational analysis.

Shen Du pulled his perspective back to Lujiazui and clicked on the independent light point representing "Jiyuan Technology."

As expected.

Under perspective view, on the periphery of Jiyuan Technology's bright halo.

A circle of faint gray spots had quietly emerged without him knowing when.

This meant that "Spark" in his hands had also fallen into the sights of the new forces.

However, compared to the extent to which the Shen Family's industries were being eroded.

The gray spots on the periphery of Jiyuan Technology were only at the surface level.

This showed that those people were currently still in the stage of "plotting."

Facing the ecological moat Shen Du had built during this time, they hadn't yet found a fatal flaw.

But this was enough to make alarm bells ring for Shen Du.

Because if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold!

He once again cast his gaze toward the white light points representing the Shen Family faction.

If he hadn't looked at this Geomantic Map.

The outside world would never know that those large enterprises, which appeared glorious on the surface, were actually on the verge of collapse!

Several white spots had already been eroded by more than two-thirds at this moment.

The white light, wrapped in black mist, was teetering and could collapse at any time.

"What a bunch of mad dogs." Shen Du sneered, a cold look flashing in his eyes.

But as a market operator who never followed blindly.

Shen Du knew that even if the reward given by the system was heaven-defying.

He still had to verify the accuracy of this intelligence in reality.

His gaze locked onto one of the most severely eroded light points on the Geomantic Map.

That was an old-established real estate company in the Magic City that was ostensibly deeply bound to the Shen Family:

Fu Family Industries.

Shen Du waved his hand, dispersing the projection on his retina.

He took out his phone and sent an instruction to Red Phoenix:

"Immediately use all the secret lines in your hands to help me conduct a comprehensive investigation into Fu Zhaonan's 'Fu Family Industries'!"

To verify what kind of real-world dead end the fatal erosion on the Geomantic Map corresponded to.

Shen Du immediately followed up with another order:

"I want to find out the true, bottom-level situation of Fu Family Industries right now!"

"Including hidden capital chain gaps, the movements of partners, recent equity changes, and any abnormal events that have occurred recently... dig three feet deep for me!"

After sending it, Shen Du threw his phone onto the office desk.

He picked up the black coffee and drank it in one gulp.

Whether this activated "Eye of God" truly had the divine power to see through everything.

Would depend on this first practical verification that Red Phoenix would send back.