Chapter 234: Granny Lin.

"War? That's a bit of an understatement. What is happing up there is more of a genocide. The demon clan are sending people to worlds inhabited by weak humans and slaughtering them. The humans on the other hand have been trying to invade the demon lands but they have set up an array to keep intruders out. It is strange. The runes for the array are written in a language that no one has ever seen before.

Not only that but they have gotten some strong fighters that are helping them defend the demon capital. Well, that's for the middle realm. It's been hard to get news from the upper realm for the last thousand years and even harder to get there. The star fields leading to the upper realm have all collapsed and there are only a few transporters to get there." The woman began to explain.

If it was in fact like she had said then that made Haru worry even more. What would have happened to Jasper and Maya? He didn't know what stage they were at with their cultivation but he knew that they were both stronger than him. He just hoped that they hadn't run into any trouble.

"What about the elven clan? What are they doing about this?" Haru asked.

The woman seemed confused when he brought it up. Even in this day and age, not many people spoke about the elven clan. They kept to themselves and hardly associated with anyone from other races.

"The elven clan? They are doing what they do best. Hiding away in their tree houses and watching everyone else fight. They never get involved with anything like this although the oldest son of one of the royal families is apparently with a group of humans right now and is slaughtering demons for his own satisfaction." The old woman said.

"That's good," Haru said to himself quietly. If they weren't involved in the fighting then that meant that both Jasper and Maya would be fine if they were still alive. He felt relieved to hear it.

"That's good? If you ask me then they should be fighting alongside us. They lost people during the initial attacks too but they decided to take the pacifist stance and forget about it and then go back into hiding." The old woman complained. She seemed to hold something against the elven clan.

"It's just that I have a couple of friends from the elven clan. I haven't been able to speak to them since the demons destroyed the soul tempering grounds. I wondered what had happened to them. But I'm glad that they are probably safe." Haru explained himself but the woman quickly changed the subject.

"You have been to the soul tempering grounds!? How? You would need to go to the middle realm to get there and there are only two transporters here on earth. One is here with me and the other is… Don't tell me you are with those old men?" The woman asked.

Haru thought back to when he was at the black star sect and he had seen the transporter on top of the mountain. If there were only two then she knew that he was a member of the black star sect for sure.

"You mean the black star sect?" Haru asked out loud. He forgot about the fact that Teacher Lin would appear every time he mentioned the name of the sect but it was already too late now. He had said it.

He began to look up at the sky and waited for the clouds to turn dark and for Teacher Lin to appear but it never came. Haru stared at the sky with confusion.

"Figures. He's still ignoring me even if someone speaks the name of his precious sect." The old woman said with a hint of sadness to her voice. Haru didn't know what it was about but she seemed to know a little bit about the black star sect. It was then he started to wonder about her identity.

She was the strongest person on the floating island in the clouds and knew the same technique that teacher Lin did and even seemed disappointed when he didn't appear after Haru had mistakenly spoken the name of the sect.

"So you are with those old guys. I'm sorry that I captured you then. I thought you were up to no good but even if they are a bunch of low life scums that only think about their cultivation you can't be a bad kid if they have taught you." The old woman seemed to suspect that Haru was a disciple of the black star sect that she knew. It couldn't be further from the truth but he wouldn't need to explain how he knew so much about the upper realms if she thought that they had taught him.

"You have a relationship with the sect? I thought that no one on earth was even allowed to mention their name let alone make friends with them." Haru asked. He was confused since Teacher Lin would kill anyone that mentioned the sect's name. He didn't even want to think about what he would do to the people who knew about their people.

"Relationship. I guess no one told you, did they? There were originally more people that came down from the upper realms and joined the black star sect to seek refuge from whoever was after us. But a few of us split off and decided to make our own sects for various reasons once we decided on earth as our home. There are currently three sects from the upper realm here and this is one of them.

You probably know the old gatekeeper which the younger generation calls Teacher Lin, don't you? He used to be my husband a long time ago." The old woman had a tinge of sadness in her voice as she recalled the past.

"Teacher Lin was your husband? What happened?" Haru asked. He never thought that the old man who isolated himself in a house that was far away from the rest of the sect like a hermit, would ever have a wife.

"What happened huh? Well, we knew each other since we were young and even both decided to perform dual cultivation together. If it wasn't for that elven slut that followed us down here I would probably still be with him now but she went and seduced him. In order not to hurt any of us he decided that he wouldn't communicate with either of us again.

That stupid old man. What was he thinking huh? Did he think that by not talking to me I would lose the feelings I have towards him for hundreds of years? For someone who claims to be so wise, he is an idiot sometimes. It's been nearly ninety years and he still hasn't come to apologise yet." The old woman said with anger in her voice and then turned back to Haru.

"I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot. But would you like to come in to chat for a bit? I bet I can tell you stories about the sect that you haven't heard yet. Or we can talk more about the situation in the middle realm. One of my students is currently there and gives me information on big events when they happen.

I have to keep up to date with things like that or I never would have known that the demons planned to send down three ships to deal with the person that killed the demon general that they sent here with the cursed beacon." The woman explained.

Haru agreed to go back inside with her and then followed her back inside the building that she had come from. As soon as they entered Haru could see that the inside was heavily inspired by the elder's hall back at the black star sect. It was either that or that was a common style people in the middle realm used to decorate.

As he looked around, Haru was a little bit surprised to see that it was a lot more lively than he was expecting. From the outside, he thought that it would be a building that was used for big events only but it looked like this little sect was a bit more laid back than the black star sect.

All of the people in the sect appeared to be older than he expected and he didn't see anyone his age anywhere. They had probably managed to remain undetected by only taking in a few deciles every century instead of recruiting many at a time as the black star sect did.

The old woman's presence made everyone stop what they were doing and then bow as a sign of respect for her as Haru followed behind before they began to make their way upstairs and entered a room that was similar to the one the old head of the Hong family had taken Haru to the day before.

"Shan, Bring some tea. I have a guest today." The old woman called out to a girl who looked to be around thirteen or fourteen.

"Okay Granny Lin," The young girl said with a bow and then ran off to get some tea for them both.

"Everyone here seems both disciplined and laid back. I don't think there are many sects that act this way are there?" Haru asked. This was the third sect he had seen up to now but everyone here seemed happy it was like a little utopia floating in the clouds.

Granny Lin laughed.

"That's because we don't force our disciples to do anything. We show them the benefits and then leave it up to their own motivation to do it. They end up being more grateful to you if you help them learn by themselves instead of forcing the knowledge into them." She explained before the young girl came back with tea.

Haru and granny Lin sat there for hours and talked about the upper realm and what life was like when the black star sect first came to earth. Until they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Sorry, I'm late Granny Lin. My grandpa wanted help with gardening. I didn't manage to escape him for even a second." Hong Xia said as she entered the room and then stopped suddenly as she saw Haru sitting across from her teacher, drinking tea with her.