While in Hollywood, I used Taoist magic to quell American terrorism.

Cao Kun: "Judging from your complexion, you haven't been sleeping well lately."

Nolan picked up his teacup but didn't drink it.

He stared at the sloshing water in his glass, his voice heavy: "It's not just that I'm not feeling well, it's that I simply can't fall asleep."

I can hear that sound as long as I close my eyes.

"What kind of sound?" Cao Kun asked.

Nolan paused for a moment, seemingly searching for an adjective.

"It sounds like... a gurgling sound as if there's thick phlegm stuck in the throat and the person is trying to breathe."

Nolan looked up, his eyes filled with obvious fear: "At first it was in the corner, then it was under the bed."

Last night... that voice was right next to my ear.

"A giggling sound?"

Cao Kun was at a loss for words: "Is there anything else unusual?"

"My wife, Emma..."

Nolan's forehead was covered in cold sweat: "The night before last, she was washing her hair in the bathroom when she suddenly screamed and rushed out."

She said that when she was rubbing her hair, she felt that the water contained a lot of long black hair.

The hair climbed up her arm...

But when I rushed in, there was nothing in the drain hole.

There was only a little bit of black slime.

Cao Kun raised an eyebrow: "Long hair, slime."

Nolan leaned closer and lowered his voice: "Last night, my youngest son said he heard a cat meowing in the house."

But I don't keep any cats at home.

At first, I thought it was someone else's cat that had wandered into my house.

But I searched the whole house and couldn't find anything.

"A cat meowing?"

Although what Nolan describes is very fragmented.

But Cao Kun still evokes a sense of familiarity.

However, I can't remember what it was for the moment.

However, what feels familiar is undoubtedly horror movies.

Cao Kun: "Anything else?"

Nolan gave a wry smile: "These things are driving me crazy. I can't concentrate on creating at all."

Cao Kun had a sudden thought and used the Qi Observation Technique.

Instantly, in Cao Kun's eyes, Nolan was enveloped in a dense, eerie aura.

It wasn't just the yin energy he had seen before.

There was also a powerful resentment.

And the power of curses.

Cao Kun was startled.

What has Nolan done to attract so much negative energy?

After thinking for a moment, Cao Kun asked, "You haven't played any spirit communication games lately, have you?"

Nolan said helplessly, "Of course not, I've long since lost that curiosity."

Cao Kun: "Have you ever shown any disrespect to any mysterious entity? Or have you moved to a new location?"

Nolan: "No. As for the new house, I moved more than six months ago."

Cao Kun nodded: "Then, have you ever gone on adventures to those rumored haunted places?"

"A haunted place?"

Nolan paused, then said, "I don't know if that place counts. But I did visit an old house some time ago."

Cao Kun: "What kind of old house?"

Nolan: "It was a very old Victorian house...it had been abandoned for a long time."

I wouldn't have gone in if it weren't for scouting the scenery.

Cao Kun's heart skipped a beat: "What happened after we went inside?"

Nolan: "At first I didn't feel anything. But suddenly, I felt like someone was watching me from behind."

But I looked back several times and found nothing.

Nolan recalled, his voice beginning to tremble slightly: "I thought it was just the draft from the old house, or maybe it was just my imagination."

But after I left that house, that feeling stayed with me all the way home.

Cao Kun: "Are the people traveling with you experiencing the same symptoms as you?"

Nolan's expression was strange: "At the time, I was the only one who went into that house."

They were afraid to go in, saying the house was haunted.

At the time, I didn't think too much about it.

Cao Kun was speechless. Others dared not go in, but you did.

Cao Kun: "After that, those things you mentioned happened?"

Nolan nodded wearily. "Yes."

Cao Kun: "It seems that what you have with you came from that house."

"What's on me?"

Nolan was shocked and jumped up, looking closely behind him.

But I didn't see anything.

Cao Kun: "Don't worry, what I'm talking about isn't on you right now."

Nolan breathed a sigh of relief, but quickly tensed up again: "Will it happen in the future?"

Cao Kun: "Of course, otherwise, why would it go home with you?"

Nolan's face turned deathly pale instantly: "Master Cao, please help me."

Cao Kun: "US$10. A US$2 advance payment is required, which is refundable if the matter is not resolved."

"Okay." Nolan didn't haggle and wrote the check directly.

After putting away the checks, Cao Kun quickly tidied up and followed Nolan out the door.

Throughout the journey, Nolan drove, but his hands remained tightly gripped, and he frequently glanced at the back seat through the rearview mirror, his expression tense.

"Master Cao, I have a feeling it's in the car right now," Nolan said in a low voice.

Cao Kun: "You can understand it this way: once that power attaches itself to you, you'll be targeted by that thing."

Always by your side.

Nolan trembled slightly, not daring to reply, and pressed the accelerator even harder.

The car stopped in front of a villa in West Hollywood.

This house has an excellent location and a very avant-garde design, with large floor-to-ceiling windows that make the whole house look bright and airy.

But in Cao Kun's eyes, the house seemed to be enveloped by a thick layer of yin energy, resentment, and curse.

Even sunlight shining on it will lose some of its heat.

"Master Cao, please come in."

Nolan opened the door, and a cold, damp wind rushed in.

It had a faint, fishy smell, like rotting dead fish.

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Cao Kun stepped into the living room, releasing his spiritual senses.

"Where are your wife and children?" Cao Kun asked.

"I let them stay at my brother's house temporarily."

Nolan looked around, his eyes filled with fear: "But this house... it wasn't this cold just now."

Cao Kun didn't speak; he walked slowly around the living room.

He walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window.

A string of wet handprints suddenly appeared on the once spotless glass.

The handprint was very small, only the size of a five or six-year-old child.

The strangest thing is that the handprint wasn't on the outside of the glass, but inside the room.

Water stains slid slowly down the glass, leaving dark streaks.

"Did your son leave this behind?" Cao Kun asked, pointing to the glass.

Nolan leaned closer to take a look and exclaimed in surprise, "No! When we left... this place definitely wasn't here!"

Cao Kun reached out and wiped the water stain, then held it to his nose and smelled it.

It smelled fishy and was cold, with a decaying quality that didn't belong to the living.

"Go check the restroom." Cao Kun walked expressionlessly to the second floor.

Pushing open the door to the master bathroom, the damp smell became even stronger.

The bathtub was half full of water, which was black in color.

Cao Kun bent down to look at the drain hole. Through the gaps in the metal fence, a few strands of long, jet-black hair were twisting slightly, as if they were alive.

Cao Kun pointed his fingers like knives, a slight surge of magical power, and hooked them into the void.

"come out."

"Sizzle..."

He pulled a long, wet clump of black hair out of the drainpipe.