65: Chapter 65 Yin Yang Tai Chi

At the same time, in the early morning in the Magic City.

As the first rays of sunlight pierced through the thin mist and spilled into Shen Du's high-rise luxury flat, he had just finished washing up.

On the dining table, his assistant had already prepared a sumptuous, steaming hot breakfast.

Shen Du pulled out a chair and sat down.

He casually picked up a crystal-clear soup dumpling, habitually grabbed the remote control, and switched on the giant LCD TV on the wall.

For a trader of his caliber,

browsing current affairs and financial news over breakfast every morning was an unshakeable habit.

In this Shura Field where trillions of capital surged,

even the most inconspicuous sentence in official news could hide a crucial indicator.

However, today, not long after the TV was turned on,

the normal morning news broadcast suddenly cut away, and the anchor, in a serious and emotionless official tone, read a breaking news bulletin:

"According to the latest report from the municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, four vice presidents of several state-owned banks in the city, along with several senior executives of the credit departments, are currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation on suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law, as well as corruption and bribery.

The relevant personnel involved have been subjected to detention measures in accordance with the law..."

This news broadcast was extremely brief, with very few words, but the amount of information it conveyed was of nuclear explosion proportions.

Hearing this, Shen Du's hand, which was about to put half a soup dumpling into his mouth, froze mid-air.

In the spacious flat, only the steady voice of the news anchor echoed.

Shen Du's deep eyes narrowed slightly.

Staring at the official announcement flashing on the screen, a trace of extreme astonishment flickered in his eyes.

It then quickly turned into an unfathomable smile.

Because he knew better than anyone that this was absolutely not a routine anti-corruption campaign!

Four powerful vice presidents, along with multiple credit department executives holding the power of life and death, had been uprooted and cut off in just a single night!

Such terrifying, thunderous, and decisive methods, this table-flipping style that left absolutely no room for negotiation...

"It seems I made the right move."

"Fu Enterprises is indeed the breakthrough point for Kyoto in Shanghai right now."

Shen Du put down the half-eaten dumpling, pulled out a tissue, and elegantly wiped the corner of his mouth.

His casual phone call to Zhou Wennan was originally only intended to save Fu Zhaonan, a crucial pawn.

But he hadn't expected

that his butterfly-effect-like micro-manipulation would directly awaken the giant dragon coiled at the peak of power in the Magic City!

The high-level officials not only used this pretext to launch a counterattack,

but also used this most overbearing and bloody method

to send the harshest deterrent and warning to all forces who dared to stretch their hands into the Magic City's core territory!

Shen Du put down his silver chopsticks, and with a slight stir of his mind,

In an instant, the Shanghai Survey Map, filled with a cyberpunk aesthetic that only he could see, unfolded with a boom in the void.

The originally quiet room seemed instantly enveloped in a layer of flowing starlight.

Shen Du narrowed his eyes, his gaze falling on the map of Shanghai's power distribution, which was as intricate and dense as human blood vessels.

"As expected..." he whispered to himself.

On the map, the "grey spots" representing hostile forces, which had been locked tight and had even begun to spread outward,

were now like snow meeting a raging fire, shrinking and collapsing on a large scale.

Especially those grey halos entrenched in core financial sectors, which had originally attempted to swallow up the white-dot entities through the banks' capital chains,

had dimmed to the extreme after last night's thunderous sweep, looking as if they would extinguish completely at any moment.

Meanwhile, the Shen Family's sphere of influence, which had been on the defensive and slightly dejected, shone even brighter than before.

In the center of that dazzling white halo, a clear golden number was glowing brightly:

"[Current Control Level: 51%]"

Just then, the cold, mechanical prompt of the system,

accompanied by the pleasant sound of shattering crystals, rang out deeply in Shen Du's mind:

""Hidden Quest: 'Devouring Mountains and Seas' progress advancing...""

""Current Progress: 1/10 (1%).""

Looking at that one percent increase, the corners of Shen Du's mouth curled up slightly.

One percent might sound insignificant,

but for this quest aimed at completely reshaping Shanghai's power landscape and even devouring the entire territory,

the weight of this first step was as heavy as a thousand catties.

This meant that his seemingly casual act of killing with a borrowed knife had precisely pierced the opponent's soft underbelly,

causing an unbridgeable crack to appear in Kyoto's previously solid penetration network.

Only at this moment did Shen Du truly appreciate the terrifying power of the Shanghai Survey Map.

For ordinary people, this might just be a roadmap to seek benefits and avoid harm;

but in Shen Du's eyes, it was practically a "God Console" that ruled the destiny of the entire city.

It could bypass all tedious business analysis and intelligence reconnaissance,

directly transforming the most fundamental power dynamics and public sentiment into concrete, flowing light.

"On the surface, there is the Geomantic Map illuminating everything; in the shadows, Red Phoenix's underground channels follow like a shadow."

Shen Du picked up his chopsticks again, calmly took a bite of the soup dumpling, and felt the delicious broth burst in his mouth.

In this city,

if he wanted to deal with any force, he only needed to glance at this divine map and move his fingers to pluck a few strings.

Now, in this game of chess in Shanghai, he had become the truly invincible one whose cards no one could read.

On the other side, in Kyoto, thousands of miles away,

Young Master Su Chi sat on his red sandalwood armchair, looking at the top-secret intelligence his subordinate had just handed him.

His entire body seemed frozen in place, his face so dark it looked as if it could drip water.

The sudden thunderous purge in Shanghai was like a heavy blow from a blunt staff, slamming violently onto his skull.

It shook this Kyoto young master, who was always in control, to his core, leaving him unable to calm down for a long time.

A whole year!

He had spent a whole year of effort, mobilized countless resources and connections, and poured tens of millions of hard cash into this.

Only then did he manage to weave this airtight dark web in the Magic City's financial system.

Seeing that the fat meat of Fu Enterprises was already at his lips,

at the most critical moment just as he was about to pull in the net, it was completely wiped out by the officials in one clean sweep!

*Buzz, buzz, buzz—*

The encrypted phone on the desk vibrated abruptly, interrupting Young Master Su Chi's almost murderous thoughts.

He grabbed the phone and answered, his voice hoarse like a broken bellows. "Speak!"

"Young Master Su, we... have the results of our investigation in Shanghai!"

The subordinate's voice on the other end of the line trembled, carrying an unmistakable sense of panic and fatigue.

Young Master Su Chi suddenly sat up straight, his eyes flashing with a terrifying light. "What on earth happened?!"

"Just as you speculated, lending money to the Fu family was absolutely not Zhou Wennan's own idea!"

The subordinate swallowed hard and reported hurriedly, "Someone... someone secretly instructed him to do so!

In this matter, Zhou Wennan was completely just following orders!"

"Do you think I need you to tell me that?

What I want to know is who that person is!"

Young Master Su Chi roared through gritted teeth, "Dig out that bastard who dared to flip my table behind my back!"

The other end of the line fell into a suffocating silence.

Only after a few full seconds did the subordinate report in despair, on the verge of tears, "Young Master Su... we can't find anything!"

"The Magic City officials' move this time was too fast and too ruthless!

In just one night, all the powerful executives on that line who were connected to us were completely uprooted.

They are all drinking tea at the Commission for Discipline Inspection now. Our intelligence network has been completely severed!"

"Even our deepest mole planted inside Fu Enterprises didn't hear any related names leak out.

Fu Zhaonan has kept the information completely locked down!"

The subordinate gasped, making a final, desperate summary:

"The only piece of information we can confirm right now is...

the person who forcefully protected the Fu family behind the scenes is a mysterious figure with a heavenly background, someone whom even the Zhou Family must obey submissively!"

Hanging up the phone, Young Master Su Chi slumped back into his red sandalwood armchair, his chest heaving violently.

All clues were completely cut off.

The Magic City officials' thunderous strike had cut so cleanly and thoroughly that it didn't leave him any thread to follow.

But after his rage subsided, the instinct in the bones of this top-tier Kyoto young master

forced his brain to cool down rapidly and enter a terrifying state of logical deduction.

"Since the moles can't find anything, I'll use the process of elimination!"

Young Master Su Chi's bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the ceiling, his brain working frantically like a supercomputer.

At this critical juncture,

who else in the Magic City would take the huge risk of completely offending the Kyoto forces to stand up for Fu Zhaonan, who is in the conservative camp of the Shen Family?

The local families of the Magic City?

Impossible. They didn't have the guts, nor did they have the heavenly means to mobilize Zhou Wennan within a few hours.

The officials directly intervening?

Even more impossible.

Secretary Shen Hai and his group occupied high positions and had to act with proper justification. They could carry out a thunderous sweep against crime,

but making the Zhou Family send 500 million in cash to save a private enterprise absolutely went against the official logic of action.

"Not a local family, not high-level officials,

and holding a terrifying cash flow, even able to make 'The Three Young Masters of Shanghai' willingly act as a white glove..."

Young Master Su Chi muttered to himself.

Suddenly, a series of bizarre events that had recently caused huge waves in the Magic City's business world flashed through his mind.

Dropping in and smashing a massive amount of capital to forcibly acquire thirty percent of Meituan's core shares!

Out of nowhere, establishing Jiyuan Technology.

Creating Xinghuo Software, which swept the nation like a virus and even proved troublesome for the Penguin Empire!

When these seemingly unrelated clues were instantly connected in his mind,

a name, like a blinding bolt of lightning, suddenly tore through all the fog in Young Master Su Chi's mind:

Shen Du!

"It must be him! It can only be him!" Young Master Su Chi sat up straight abruptly, gasping.

Why was he so certain?

Because as long as one dug deep into the family background of the Magic City's Shen Family, they would discover a terrifying fact.

The Shen Family, this behemoth entrenched in the Magic City, had a family attribute that was practically "wickedly righteous"!

Throughout the entire family, everyone was a political elite cast from the same mold.

They cherished their reputation to the absolute extreme.

They strictly forbade any family member from participating in corporate shares, let alone developing any overt family business industries.

This almost harsh political purity was like a seamless steel fortress, firmly blocking the path of countless political enemies.

The Su Family, acting as the "black glove" of the new faction in Kyoto,

was unable to completely defeat the Shen Family from an economic level for so long precisely because the opponent had absolutely no commercial soft underbelly to grasp!

Yet among such a group of rigid and rigorous old fogeys, a fatal variable had emerged!

That was Shen Du!

This "unofficial young master" who had been stranded outside for many years and was not even on the Shen Family's genealogy tree yet.

He was the only one in the entire Shen Family who did not enter politics, but instead called the shots in the capital market—an absolute outlier!

He was a powerful capital heavy artillery suddenly extending out of the Shen Family's steel fortress, which previously could only defend passively!

An unsolvable bug that completely drifted outside the rules and shattered the balance of all forces!

This was an almost unsolvable dead end!

Young Master Su Chi pinched the space between his eyebrows hard, feeling waves of tearing pain in his brain.

He had finally seen clearly the terrifying role Shen Du played on this chessboard.

He also understood the "Yin-Yang Tai Chi Map" that the Shen Family, or rather Shen Du himself, was laying out!

If he, Young Master Su Chi, chose to tear off all pretenses now,

openly mobilizing Kyoto's capital and grey industry forces to strangle Shen Du, what would happen?

Although Shen Du and the Shen Family had no economic connection on the surface, and Shen Du was not even on the family tree,

Shen Du was carrying the title of "Young Master Shen" in a very real sense!

Once Young Master Su Chi made a move, not only would it completely expose the hidden cards of his Kyoto faction lurking in the dark,

but even if the Shen Family, that behemoth normally as unshakable as a mountain, did not protect Shen Du,

what would await Young Master Su Chi at that time would be a devastating blow from the official level.

But what if he chose to stand down and not provoke Shen Du?

That would be even more fatal!

The Shen Family was in the light, like a bright, righteous sun that people could not look at directly, defending flawlessly.

Meanwhile, Shen Du lurked in the dark, holding unfathomable capital and vicious methods in his hands, ready to smash the table at any moment.

One in the light, one in the dark; one yin, one yang.

The Shen Family was responsible for using official power to draw circles and set rules,

while Shen Du was responsible for using the heavy hammer of capital to smash all hidden deals within this circle piece by piece!

Upwards, he could not match the Shen Family's terrifying official background.

Downwards, he could neither touch nor defend against Shen Du, this man-eating beast that drifted outside the rules.

"What a perfect dual-sword Tai Chi push... The Shen Family has truly produced an extraordinary monster!"

Young Master Su Chi leaned back weakly against the chair, a rare trace of fatigue and wariness flashing in his eyes for the first time.

His smooth layouts over the past few months were instantly shattered with the arrival of Shen Du as a variable.

He had to come up with a way to break the deadlock immediately.

Otherwise, all the efforts of the entire Kyoto faction in the Magic City would be drained dry by these two.

*Knock, knock, knock—*

Just as Young Master Su Chi's temples throbbed and his head felt like it was splitting open, the heavy wooden door of the study was suddenly knocked on urgently.

This irregular knocking sounded exceptionally harsh in the dead silent room.

Immediately after, the slightly panicked voice of his subordinate came through the heavy wooden door, instantly breaking the oppression in the study:

"Young Master... urgent news!"