Mousse frowned and nodded, replying, "It means everyone in the world would only need to practice Hasshoken; there'd be no need to learn any other martial arts. That's actually the proper path, but I understand what you meant before now."
While the Eight Punches School's submission to the foreign invaders was undoubtedly aiding a tyrant in doing evil, the spread of Hasshoken gained the latter's full support as a result, which in turn forced the country's other boxing schools to improve as well and lower the threshold for training.
Li Dayong therefore judged its merits and faults separately, giving the founder of Hasshoken and the Eight Punches School a fair assessment:
"Although the later puppet dynasty issued the so-called 'Demon-Extermination Order,' nearly eliminating the possibility of top-tier experts emerging from the common folk, purely in terms of martial arts, our country's current boxing system is far more conducive to widespread adoption than before. Of course, since most people cannot even eat their fill and simply lack the strength to train, while local magnates have no incentive to promote it, the actual rate of adoption has instead declined. But so long as we can overthrow the puppet dynasty and restore order, our country will certainly produce more and stronger martial arts masters!"
"Furthermore, although the Eight Punches School's long-term defense of Daifang Port was indeed serving the puppet dynasty, the common people of the north were truly spared the longstanding problem of evil spirits constantly coming south to raid and harass them. At last, they could enjoy peaceful years."
"Therefore, although the Eight Punches School's crimes are grave, its contributions are not small either. They cannot simply be condemned outright."
After evaluating the Eight Punches School—or rather, the Happo Navy—Li Dayong continued explaining the Flower Kingdom's later historical changes:
"After the