"Mozi was a person." Xiang Shan nodded. "You need to understand that Mozi was an exceptionally intelligent, exceptionally formidable person, but he was still only one person. In that dark age, being able to say that the world was 'wrong,' to speak of 'Universal Love,' was truly remarkable. But after him, many people appeared in the world who were as intelligent as he was, or even more so. He was born too early. There were many truths discovered by later brilliant minds that he never knew."
"In fact, the Vagrants' philosophy emerged much later. In the course of its development, it absorbed many things said by those later brilliant minds. But for Vagrants, the words 'Universal Love' must always be remembered."
Youji frowned. "That's so hard. That bastard Navi always mocks me, telling me to love him the way I love my mom..."
"No, you don't need to go that far." Xiang Shan shook his head. "Of course, you can love a particular person more, or dislike a particular person. A Vagrant's 'Universal Love' merely asks that you strive for the sake of 'letting everyone live a little better.'"
—For the freedom of all humanity, I shall guard it with utmost sincerity...
—Tch... Where did that memory come from...? Who said that...? It couldn't have been me, could it? Was I really that cringeworthy back then?
Xiang Shan quietly set a reminder in his notebook. Once he had the means, he absolutely had to get himself an artificial tear gland with tactile feedback.
Youji nodded vaguely. "Wouldn't that... be a good thing?"
"It is, indeed, a good thing. But... tch, on the practical level, there are some problems. Old Master Mozi's teachings did not end the chaos of that era. What ended that dark and chaotic age on that land was another force—the power of order and law."
Historically, although the Mohists did their utmost to prevent war, they could only patch leaks in the end. They could not solve the problem of warfare at its root.
And the force that ended that age of chaos was the power of the Legalist School, which rose in the western part of the land.
"Order and law are good things. To put it in terms you can understand: because the Dyson Principles exist, everyone knows that damaging someone's Biological Brain comes at a cost, so people avoid doing it. And that deters those who wish to do evil and protects those who are kind. In many cases, laws play precisely this role. You could say that most of the time, laws are a force that protects people. If I had a choice, I would not want to break the law or abandon the sanctuary protected by law."
"If I had a choice..." Youji looked puzzled again. What Xiang Shan was saying today was especially profound.
"Perhaps some people really do become Vagrants because they yearn for violence and want to vent the viciousness they were born with. But not everyone is like that. At the very least, I do not want to take the initiative to destroy a force that protects people. But regrettably, law is not merely a force that protects the public."
"The essence of law is the embodiment of the ruling class's will."
"Class..." Youji felt a little dizzy. This was another difficult term.
"Do you know stairs? Stairs rise one step at a time. Normally, no two steps in a flight of stairs are at the same height. So a 'class' is a group of people occupying different positions in social relations, where one group stands above the others because of its social position. Law embodies the will of that 'highest-ranking group,' and it prioritizes protecting that group's interests."
Youji held his head and thought for a moment, then grew a little angry. "So you mean that this highest-ranking group is the 'stronger ones'?"
"The highest-ranking group, the ruling class, is the 'stronger ones.' And among humans, it is very easy for the strong to bully the weak."
—Humanity's 'factory settings' hinder the progress of human civilization...
—Damn it... Who said that one?
Xiang Shan felt as though his head were about to explode.
Yet his tone remained steady. "There will always be strong people who want to trample the weak, humiliate the weak—they will find ways to tear flesh from the weak... Ah, sorry. For you, perhaps 'removing parts' is easier to understand? They will always want to exploit the weak. Perhaps at such a time, a more progressive force will grow from weakness into strength, replace the former strong, and create a fairer world. But such growth is both historically inevitable and contingent—it may be strangled by the strong before it can grow."
"And at such times, another force must exist. That is 'the resistance of the weak.' The power of 'Universal Love' cannot change the world or sweep away the old darkness. It can only become the sword in the weak's hands, their most helpless form of resistance."
Youji was somewhat surprised, but disappointment was hard to conceal in his expression. "I thought Vagrants were all really powerful! The way you put it, they sound so pitiful..."
"Vagrants are undoubtedly powerful as individuals, but what they fight is the collective of the strong. At that level, individual strength is insignificant—the purpose of martial arts is to become the sword in the weak's hands, to deter the strong."
When a common man is driven to rage, two corpses fall, blood flows five paces, and the whole world wears white mourning clothes.
Martial arts were precisely such a force. They could not let a person overthrow the collective of the strong, but they could give the weak a chance to deter that collective.
At close range, one man was the equal of an entire state.
Even possessing a whole country could not allow a tyrant to defeat a Vagrant standing within arm's reach.
Under limited conditions, strength and weakness were thus reversed.
Cao Mo made an alliance at Ke and recovered Lu's lost lands. Zhuan Zhu presented roasted meat and secured Wu's usurped throne. Zhang Di wept in the marketplace and avenged his lord in a latrine. Throats were cut to plead injustice, sleeves were worked to carry out deeds. Violent Qin lost its spirit, and cowards found courage.
Youji nodded as though he understood, but another question arose. "Then bad people can learn martial arts too, right?"
Being able to raise doubts was a very good sign. Xiang Shan truly felt that this child had excellent aptitude.
"This is martial arts' most fundamental design principle—martial arts are a kind of assassination technique. They allow the weak to gain the opportunity to draw a sword against the strong at the lowest possible cost. And for those who impose tyranny upon the people, such a technique is precisely the most terrifying thing."
"Hm?" Youji did not quite understand. "Wouldn't it hurt good people too?"
Xiang Shan wanted to laugh. "That cannot be denied, because martial arts are merely a 'technology.' Technology has no will of its own; anyone can use it. But the design philosophy behind this technology is based precisely on game theory applied to society."
"What we call 'tyranny' is the oppression of the many weak who lack resources by the few strong who control them. And what tyranny fears most is the assassination of its leaders—because it is indeed built upon 'legitimacy' stolen by a minority. There will not be many who offer them true loyalty from the heart, either. As long as those 'few people' are killed, tyranny will naturally perish."
"Under a modern system of governance, however, people gathered together by lofty ideals would not fear such assassinations. In that kind of society, no matter which individual was assassinated, another would rise to fill the vacancy. The legitimacy of their authority and power would not rest on heaven's gift or the glory of ancient bloodlines, but on the people—the people would vouch for their legitimacy."
"Or rather, if they did not truly feel injustice, why would the weak go to the trouble of drawing swords against the strong? If there were no more destitute or wronged people under heaven, why would any Vagrant choose to draw a sword? At that time, knight-errantry would naturally wither away. Even if there were a few madmen, they would surely fall amid the vast ocean of the people—the weak would spontaneously become their enemies."
"You already know about the Turing Machine and Inner Power. And this is the second fact one must understand to become a Vagrant—an Outer School Technique is, in essence, an 'assassination martial art.'"
Cyber martial arts compatible with cybernetic prosthetics did not originate from ancient martial arts passed down since time immemorial. If one traced their roots, they evolved from Chasseur Tactics, born in France after rifled flintlock muskets entered the battlefield, and then took shape by absorbing modern combat theory.
Because rifled flintlock muskets possessed rifling, their range and penetration far exceeded those of the previous generation of firearms. Hunters were the earliest beneficiaries of such weapons. During the Anglo-French wars, France recruited hunters to penetrate behind enemy lines and carry out guerrilla and sniper operations. Thus, the French term "Chasseurs" was born, and even into the twenty-first century, "Chasseurs" remained the designation for elite French troops.
This was a "tactic" made possible by technology, one that used individual power to exert the greatest possible impact on war.
"Tactics" and "technology" influenced one another. Perhaps because technology became increasingly complex, perhaps because certain weapons were designed to be wielded only by the "strong"—to make the strong stronger and the weak weaker. For a very long time, the influence an individual could exert on the course of war had been steadily diminishing.
Until... several young people created Cyber Martial Arts.
This assassination art was the culmination of every theory of "guerrilla warfare," "sniping," "assassination," and other forms of "special operations" throughout the ages. With the limitless possibilities of cybernetic prosthetics, Vagrants could always enter within five paces, within arm's reach, of tyrants through routes beyond ordinary imagination.
Most importantly, the essence of martial arts was indeed the hardest thing to erase.
The "essence of martial arts" was algorithms.
They transformed countless bodily movements and countless strategies of confrontation into game-theory models, wrote them in programming languages, and packaged them through secret methods, turning them into files that artificial intelligence searches could not identify.
Then they stored them online in the form of blockchain.
As long as information technology endured, the intelligence of "martial arts" could not be erased.
As long as information technology endured... as long as the "network" endured, tyranny could never eradicate Vagrants.
—Yes, I remember now...
Xiang Shan stood, taking the scrap parts Youji had brought. "Do you understand now, Youji? This is a blade designed to target tyranny. It can indeed be turned around and used against the weak, but the harm it does to tyrants is destined to exceed the harm it does to ordinary people—it has bonus damage against oppressors."
"But this 'bonus damage' depends on Inner Power, on information technology. If one does not understand blockchain's decentralized storage, then 'martial arts' will only be monopolized and destroyed by the strong. The weak will never have a chance to touch it. As long as Inner Power remains, knight-errantry will endure."
"So next, you'll begin learning Inner Power!"