The forerunners of the Japanese Ninja, the Lin Kuei clan, also known as forest demons, were an ancient secretive cult that operated in northern China about 3,500 years ago. The history of the Lin Kuei is dark and mysterious as the warriors’ very existence. They have historically been considered the most feared assassins, with much of nothing ever written about them, looked at by the martial arts world as the 'holy grail' of the martial arts. Not much is known about their beginnings other than which has been passed down orally one generation to the next. The Lin Kuei were masters of survival and they thrive in the woods and made their living there adapting to the ways of nature. There is contreversy on Lin Kuei because there is no written evidence to show that they ever existed. They were first mentioned in books in the 80s that tried to cash in on the Ninja Boom of the time but it is not historically supported and no Chinese Martial Arts scholar or historian has ever spoken of their existence.