Return of the King, Dominating the City-Chapter 1512 - 1497: Vanished Without a Trace

Lin Rong’s removal directly led to another significant drop in the stock prices of many enterprises under the Wen Commerce Association. Initially, these stock prices had been forcibly raised to normal levels by the Wen Commerce Association itself. However, this sudden dive resulted in heavy losses for many people. No one noticed that in the two or three days before Lin Rong was taken away, stocks of many companies under his portfolio, as well as those of related companies, were being sold off in batches. At that time, no one paid attention to these transactions because they were small and widely distributed, sold at varying prices, like at 8.20 today, 8.30 the next day, and 8.20 the day after.

Anyway, they did not raise much alarm.

When these stocks were almost entirely sold off, Lin Rong was taken away.

The stock prices of several Wen Commerce Association companies plummeted in response.

A week later, the stock prices of several companies controlled by Lin Rong fell to new historic lows, and many shareholders of Wen Commerce Association finally realized something was wrong.

At this point, the businessmen’s instincts kicked in.

They discovered that the opponents seemed to target only a few major shareholders of Wen Commerce Association, and those shareholders were all supporters of the Zhou Family. Later, people realized that Song Yun of the Song Family had always been at odds with the Zhou Family, so it became clear that this was a war between the Song Family and the Zhou Family.

As a result, many businessmen who had suffered significant losses began withdrawing from the battle. Almost as soon as they withdrew, the stock prices began climbing back up slowly.

Massive funds swept up all of the circulating stocks in the market, and as the buying pressure increased, the stock prices naturally followed suit, returning to near-normal levels within a few days. However, the stocks controlled by the Zhou Family or those favored by certain major shareholders tied to them remained at the bottom. Those people wanted to buy back these stocks, but they were worried about further scandals leading to continued drops, which could mean a daily loss of millions — even the wealthy couldn’t bear such losses.

Therefore, many major shareholders took a wait-and-see approach, hoping that the Zhou Family would intervene.

However, they were disappointed — the Zhou Family did not make any move.

At that time, the Zhou Family was engaged in a life-or-death battle with the Song Family, having no energy to manage this matter.

Thus, many major shareholders aligned with the Zhou Family also began seeking their own escape routes.

At this time, Song Yun sent out his lobbying team.

These teams, led by both Emperor Wang and Wuli, lobbied major shareholders, persuading them to sit on the fence and abandon the Wen Commerce Chairman along with Vice President Liu Tianbao. Professionally speaking, this was psychological warfare. Of course, it could also be called internal division instigated by Song Yun’s people.

Emperor Wang was eloquent, and Wuli was one of them, making their persuasion highly effective.

Of course, these were secondary matters.

On the main battlefield, Song Yun actually suffered significant losses.

The Wen Commerce Chairman, with his immense wealth like no other, and Liu Tianbao, despite being severely hit by Song Yun, still managed to retaliate severely against him. Had Song Yun not sold off a substantial portion of the Wen Commerce Association’s stock, he would hardly have been able to sustain himself. And only later did Song Yun learn that he couldn’t fully utilize the wealth left by Abe Jinming; he could only access part of it. If he used up all of that money, he had to replenish it quickly. Otherwise, he was compelled to work for the War God List’s committee, doing tasks such as assassination. He could only regain his freedom after earning back that money.

In terms of overall financial strength, the Wen Commerce Chairman and Liu Tianbao far surpassed Song Yun. However, Song Yun had the advantage of official support, and even though he didn’t anticipate receiving number one’s backing, once he had it, he knew he had to continue as planned.

Time moved forward slowly, and the commercial war had lasted for half a month.

By this time, the Wen Commerce Association began showing signs of fatigue, and under Zhao Yan’s operation, Song Yun’s funds were rapidly increasing. Initially losing a significant amount of money due to attacks by Liu Tianbao and the Wen Commerce Chairman, Song Yun was quickly recovering.

During this half-month, more and more members of the Wen Commerce Association chose to be bystanders, watching the situation unfold.

Much of this was owed to Wuli and Emperor Wang; they almost completely isolated Liu Tianbao and the Wen Commerce Chairman. Now, only a few hardcore supporters of the Zhou Family followed these two men steadfastly.

Finally, unable to bear it anymore, the Wen Commerce Chairman took action.

He directly sought help from organizations he had connections with.

These organizations varied in size; some major ones controlled almost an entire city’s market, while smaller ones had influence in urban-rural fringe areas. Nonetheless, there were many of them.

The Wen Commerce Chairman, Old Zhou, gave a simple order: whoever could take down Song Yun could become his most solid partner. Meanwhile, leaders from the Shura Alliance were also on a bounty list. Anyone who could eliminate Meng Ku, Zhao Yan, Li Tang, Black Flood Dragon, Hua Manlou, and others would receive huge benefits from the Wen Commerce Association.

Under the allure of these benefits, the organizations started stirring restlessly.

In just a few short days, the influx of outsiders into Sunan increased by one percent.

This one percent amounted to nearly ten thousand people.

Moreover, the number of newcomers kept rising.

At this point, Southwest King Xuanwu issued a statement.

If anyone dared to stir up trouble in Sunan within his sphere of influence — including surrounding areas — he would treat them as enemies and utterly destroy them. The next day, a large number of people from the southwest region left Sunan. Concurrently, the leader of the Green Sect in the East China area, White Tiger, also issued a statement supporting Song Yun.

This instantly reduced pressure from East China and even from the north by a considerable margin.

Although some people continued to enter Sunan to cause trouble for the Shura Alliance, these did not seem to pose a significant threat. Given the Shura Alliance’s strength, stopping them was as easy as child’s play.

Thus, under the alliance of Southwest King, East South King, and East China King, the shadowy territories connected with the Wen Commerce Association, which purportedly could form a ten-thousand-strong army in an instant, vanished without making a significant sound.