When he learned that he had been in what was practically their backyard for 2 whole years, she was very shocked.

Although, perhaps not as shocked as when she learned that her son who she assumed was 24 years old was actually only 21 years right now.

When Alex told her that he lost 3 years in just 3 days, Helen’s face made a very understandable surprised expression.

It wasn’t every day you heard of someone time traveling.

Alex also showed his mother the little mouse he had, which she wasn’t surprised by very much. After all, with the speaking Pearl in her hand, it was hard to bring any other beast that could surprise her.

Although, when she learned that the little mouse was born not long ago and that he needed a name, she aptly decided to call him Whiskers for his extraordinarily long whiskers. Alex thought of protesting, but he swallowed the thought in the end and let it be.

Its name wasn’t very important to Alex as Pearl, at least not yet.

Alex was telling his mother how pills were made exactly when he heard a knock on the door. He quickly turned off the formation and walked to the door.

When he opened it, he saw the guard that had helped him waiting with a surprised look.

”Greetings, uncle,” Alex said.

The man gave a wry smile. “To think you really were sister Hei’s son. Congrats on meeting your mother finally,” he said.

”Thank you,” Alex replied.

”Are you done with your reunion? The sect master wants me to show you around the sect,” he said.

”Oh, okay. One moment,” Alex said and returned back to the room. “Mother, I’ll be back in a bit. The sect master wants me to see the sect. Pearl should keep you company.”

”I will stay with mother,” Pearl said from the side.

”Yes, you will,” Helen said with a smile as she petted Pearl.

Alex nodded and left. “Let’s go,” he said to the man and walked out.

”What’s your name, uncle?,” Alex asked the man.

”Zhou Ji,” the man said.

Alex gave a surprised look. “From THE Zhou clan?” he asked, remembering the white robes with burnt edges of the young man named Zhou Ren back in the demon realm.

”More of a side branch, but yes,” Zhou Ji said.

”I see,” Alex said. “I didn’t think a big clan like Zhou would let their juniors choose another sect instead of teaching them in the clan.”

”The clan only bothers teaching people who were born with the ability to create White Fire,” Zhou Ji said with a sad smile. “I never was.”

”White Fire?” Alex asked with a curious look.

”Do you not know about the Zhou clan’s White Fire? It’s what made us famous in the first place,” Zhou Ji said.

”I’m afraid I don’t know much about the great clans of the Luminance empire,” Alex said. “I planned on reading about it, but one thing led to another and I keep putting it off.”

Then Alex thought of something and said, “Would you mind telling me what you can about the different families while we take this walk, Uncle Ji?”

”Uh, sure. I don’t mind,” the man said and soon Alex started learning about both the sect and the different families.

While the Flowing Brush sect was primarily a talisman-centric sect, it also had a small group of disciples that joined it simply to learn cultivation as a whole.

So, the sect was divided into two groups, which included both disciples and elders. The only difference this brought was that the small group that wasn’t interested in talisman only got a small section of the sect to work with.

However, there was no difference when it came to how they were treated. According to Zhou Ji, one could only remain a student until 40 years of age. After that, they had either leave or go through a test to become an elder of the sect.

’That’s not very different to how it is back in the Crimson Empire,’ he thought.

The sect itself had multiple mountains, most of which were not even inhabited. It was only the few 10 to 12 mountains that were truly full of people.

The disciples lived in 5 of the 12 mountains, with only 1 belonging to those that weren’t part of the talisman group.

Of the other 6, 3 of them house the Sect master, sect elders, and the guest elders as well as guests of the sect.

Finally, of the remaining 3, 2 were used for practicing talismans and 1 was used for everything else that ranged from disciple hall to Law enforcement hall of the sect.

The rest of the miscellaneous events and lectures took place in the small flat valley that lay between the mountains, directly after entering the sect.

When Alex asked what they did for the talisman ingredients, Zhou Ji told him that they either bought the ingredients or simply sent the students towards the other 16 or so uninhabited mountains to search for it.

If neither way proved successful, they would start a small expedition group to go to the eastern mountains.

Alex nodded to himself when he heard that as that seemed to be the best of ways.

After explaining about the mountain, Zhou Ji took Alex to actually see said mountains. During this time, he decided to explain what little he could about the 7 great families.

Zhou clan got famous after their progenitor developed his White Fire technique to such a level that it was ingrained into his blood essence and thus most of his descendants were born with the White Fire as a bloodline ability.

Because of this, the Zhou clan was represented with the color white.

White Fire could reach temperatures that normal fire struggled to get to with the same amount of Qi. So, the Zhou clan ended up being recognized as one of the better clans.

It was said that the progenitor gained the White Flame from the demon realm, but no one knew if there was any truth in that.

”The Han family,” Zhou Ji spoke while pointing towards the west where the Han ancestral home lay and said, “they are just a bunch of people with an incredible physique.”

”They are body cultivators right?” Alex asked, remembering Han Daiyu’s impressive strength.

”Uh… not exactly?” Zhou Ji said. “I don’t understand the difference myself but I believe theirs is a result of a technique while real body cultivators temper their body through pain and torture.”

”They practiced a technique that gave their body incredible strength. What I know, their body itself isn’t good at defending, just exerting a lot of strength,” Zhou Ji said.

”Oh, so they are half a body cultivator in a sense,” Alex asked.

”Maybe even less,” Zhou Ji said. “From what I hear, their endurance is better than most people but not as good as what a real body cultivator could reach. Their healing capability is normal, and their longevity doesn’t increase either, despite being of a strong body.”

”Oh,” Alex said. ‘So in a sense, Pearl’s body isn’t a result of body cultivation, but is a physique huh? While mine is fully body cultivation.’

’So White Tiger’s Dominating Body is the name of his physique probably,’ Alex thought.

”I saw Han Daiyu using a hammer. Is the Han family’s main weapon of choice that?” Alex asked.

”Uh… not necessarily. They use what they can to exert their strength. Hammer is usually the best weapon for that,” Zhou Ji explained.

The Han Family’s physique technique could only be used by those that had a good Earth spiritual root, so they took the color brown.

He took him to the disciple mountains next and explained about the Jin family.

The Jin Family was a family of swordsmen. They came to power after their progenitor found a sword manual during the meteor shower over a thousand years ago.

He shocked the empire back then with his strength and established the Jin family. It is said that the progenitor still lived, but no one had seen him in centuries to know if that was true or not.

The Jin family used a particularly fierce technique that employed 12 swords at once, and as such with metal being affiliated to their clan, they took the color Gold.

”The Lu family is perhaps the simplest out of everyone in the 7 different clans. Their family is simple in that they are usually born with a better wood spiritual root and as such use the powers of wood and wind,” Zhou Ji said.

”While it is simple, don’t misunderstand that for it being weak. The Lu ancestor is said to be able to create wind so fierce that it will rip the skin off your face before you can beg him to stop,” Zhou Ji said.

”Because of that, they are also affiliated with the color Green,” he said.

Alex nodded as he listened to the information.

White, Brown, Gold, and Green. Alex had initially expected them to be simple clans that were primarily focused on one of the 7 elements.

Such as White being Yang, Brown being Earth, Gold being Metal, and Green being Wood. Now, it turned out that he was only right on one account and wrong on the rest of the 3.

Zhou Ji didn’t notice Alex falling into thought and continued.

”Next up is the Shen family.”