Chapter Twenty-Six: The Great Upheaval in Skywell City

At this moment, the city of Tianjing had descended into utter chaos. With the Suppression Bureau of Strange Entities gone, countless bizarre creatures seemed to sense an opportunity and poured into the streets. The remaining spirit tamers in Tianjing, all well-versed in the unspoken rules, chose to hide. There was no other reason—just the fear that had been spread about the doll by the Bureau's agents. The rumors made the doll sound more terrifying than the legendary S-ranked monsters; how could anyone hope to deal with that? The usually arrogant spirit tamers, who styled themselves as humanity's guardians, were now meek as lambs, cowering in the City Lord's mansion and not daring to make a move.

The City Lord of Tianjing, Ye Xiangyang, was at his wits' end. Suddenly saddled with so many freeloaders, how could he bear it? On top of that, he faced the public's curses and the pleading of the Chief of the Public Security Bureau. As expected, another call from the Chief came through.

Ye Xiangyang sat at his desk. His beautiful secretary held the phone, “City Lord Ye, it's Chief Zhang calling.” Ye Xiangyang pressed his hand to his forehead and sighed, “Ah... hand it over.” He took the phone from his secretary and put on a cheerful expression, “Hello, Chief Zhang? What's the matter?”

Chief Zhang was nearly in tears. How could the City Lord not know what was happening? Why pretend? But he dared not voice these thoughts, and could only play along. “Ah, City Lord, things are out of control. On Tianhua Street, Pedestrian Alley, Farm Machinery Road... there have been vicious murders. We really... we really can't hold out much longer!”

By ‘vicious murders,’ he meant incidents caused by the strange entities rampaging through the city, though he could not say so directly. But those who understood, understood.

Ye Xiangyang swallowed nervously, then forced a smile, “Ahahaha, is that so? Well, thank you for your hard work—keep it up!” He hurriedly hung up, fearing the Chief would continue to beg him.

“Quick! Pull out the phone line, so he can't call again!”

The secretary paused, then swiftly obeyed.

With the line unplugged, Ye Xiangyang finally slumped back in his chair, exhaling deeply, “What can I do? I’m desperate too!”

Now, those spirit tamers were more timid than mice. Forget confronting strange entities—even buying a doll from a toy shop would scare them half to death.

A few hours passed. The door was knocked upon.

“Who is it?” the secretary asked cautiously.

“Suchen,” came a calm voice from outside.

The secretary was about to refuse, “No appointment, no entry...” but Ye Xiangyang cut her off instantly.

“Master Su, Master Su is here? Please, invite him in!” At the sound of Suchen's name, Ye Xiangyang leapt from his seat, rushing to the door, terrified of offending his guest.

He had no choice. As the support sent from Spirit City, Suchen was Tianjing’s sole hope.

Opening the door, Suchen looked haggard, his eyes bloodshot, his face grim.

“Master Su, when did you arrive in Tianjing? Why didn’t you call? And what happened to you?” Seeing Suchen like this, Ye Xiangyang grew worried, thinking he must have already faced the nightmare doll.

Suchen glared at him, furious, “Call? Your City Lord’s mansion’s phone doesn’t work, no one at the Bureau answers, who am I supposed to call?”

Ye Xiangyang suddenly remembered he’d had the phone line pulled. A flash of embarrassment crossed his eyes, quickly masked, “Ah, haha, Master, sorry—the phone line must have come loose.” He glanced at his secretary, “Go plug it back in!”

The secretary complied at once.

Suchen ignored the fuss, sat on the office sofa, crossed his legs, “Don’t call me ‘Master.’ I’m not even B-ranked yet.”

Ye Xiangyang smiled obsequiously, “Isn’t that only a matter of time?”

Suchen snorted, disdain clear, “Is this how you rose to your position?”

He meant flattery, and dared to say it outright, showing no respect for the City Lord. But Ye Xiangyang, skilled in endurance, kept smiling despite his simmering anger, “Not at all, hahaha.”

Suchen wasted no more words, squinting through the window at the city, “What’s going on here? Why are strange entities everywhere? I just arrived and was forced to battle a horde of them—nearly lost.”

Ye Xiangyang sighed, helplessness in his eyes, “Strange entities grow stronger by feeding on people’s fear. The citizens are terrified, and more entities are born every day. We have no way to control it... Before, E-ranked entities were rare; now they’re everywhere, D-ranked are as common as stray dogs.”

His words were exaggerated, but the collective strengthening of the entities was real.

“What about the useless investigators from the Bureau? Didn’t some survive?”

Ye Xiangyang shook his head, “Don’t ask. They’ve all been scared witless by that doll—none dare go out and fight.”

Suchen was dumbfounded. The situation in Tianjing was even worse than he’d imagined, but the more dire it was, the fiercer he became.

“I’ll report this to the higher-ups! For now, gather all the remaining spirit tamers for me!”

...

Meanwhile, Feng Tianlin knew nothing of Tianjing’s current plight. If he did, he’d have returned long ago. At this moment, he was busy spreading his urban legends in Spirit City.

A woman was in the restroom when she heard strange noises coming from the next stall. Unable to resist her curiosity, she glanced down—nothing there. She shook her head and continued, but the odd sound came again. This time she heard it clearly: a tapping on the floor. She quickly looked again, and the sound vanished.

“Am I hearing things?”

As she pondered, the sound returned. She was certain now it wasn’t her imagination, and guessed someone was playing a prank. Quietly, she opened the door, determined to investigate the next stall.

But when she crept to the door, the stall was empty. As she stepped in to look, suddenly—

Bang!

The door slammed shut behind her. She began to panic, pounding on it frantically, but it was useless.

In despair, she stepped back, only to feel something underfoot. Instinctively, she looked down—it was a terrifying teddy bear.

“Ah!!” She couldn’t hold back, screaming and scrambling backward.

But soon she ran out of space. Turning to check if it was just a regular teddy bear, she saw that a more horrifying, bizarre doll had appeared on the floor, as if out of nowhere.

Her breath came fast, her eyes trembled, and she forced herself to pick up the two “toys.” But just as she did, the doll suddenly spoke.