Knight-Errantry Endures Forever

"Mozi was a person." Xiang Shan nodded. "You need to understand that Mozi was a very intelligent, very formidable person, but he was still only one person. In that dark age, for him to say that the world was 'wrong,' to speak of 'Universal Love,' was an extraordinary thing. But after him, many people appeared who were just as intelligent as he was, or even more so. He was born too early. There were many truths discovered by later intelligent people that he never knew."

"In fact, the philosophy of the knights-errant emerged much later. By then, it had already absorbed many things said by those later intelligent people. But for knights-errant, the words 'Universal Love' must be remembered."

Youji frowned. "That sounds so hard. That bastard Navi is always laughing at me, telling me to love him like I love my mom..."

"No, you don't have to go that far." Xiang Shan shook his head. "Of course, you can love a particular person more, or dislike a particular person. The knights-errant's 'Universal Love' simply hopes that you can strive for everyone to live a little better."

—For the freedom of all humanity, I shall faithfully stand guard...

Tsk... where did that memory come from? Who said that...? Don't tell me it was me? Was I really that cringe back then?

Xiang Shan silently set a reminder in his notebook. When 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?"

"Yes, it would be. But... tsk, on the practical level, there are actually certain 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 best to stop wars, they could only patch leaks. They could not resolve the problem of warfare at its root.

And the force that ended that chaotic age was the power of the Legalist School, which rose in the western part of that land.

"Order and law are good things. To put it in terms you can understand, because the Dyson Principles exist, everyone knows that damaging a person's biological brain comes at a cost, so people avoid doing such things. And that deters those who wish to do evil and protects good people. In many cases, law plays precisely this role. You could say that, most of the time, law is a force that protects people. If possible, I would not want to violate the law or abandon the sanctuary it protects."

"If possible..." Youji looked confused again. What Xiang Shan was saying today was especially profound.

"Perhaps some people really did become knights-errant because they yearned for violence and wanted to vent the brutality they were born with. But not everyone is like that. At the very least, I do not want to actively destroy a force that protects people. But regrettably, law is not merely a force that protects the people."

"The essence of law is the manifestation of the ruling class's will."

"Class..." Youji felt a little dizzy. This was another difficult term.

"Do you know stairs? Stairs go up step by step. Normally, no two steps on a staircase 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 is the manifestation of the will of this '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. "Doesn't that mean this highest-ranking group is the 'strong' one?"

"The highest-ranking group, the ruling class, is the 'strong' one. And among humans, it is very easy for the strong to bully the weak."

—Humanity's 'factory settings' will hinder the progress of human civilization...

—Damn it... who said that again?

Xiang Shan felt a splitting pain in his head.

But his tone remained steady. "There will always be strong people who want to trample the weak, who want to humiliate them—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 snuffed out by the strong before it can grow."

"And at such times, another force is needed. 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 hands of the weak—the most helpless kind of resistance."

Youji was somewhat surprised, but the disappointment in his expression was hard to hide. "I thought knights-errant were all really powerful! The way you put it makes them sound so pitiful..."

"Knights-errant are undoubtedly powerful as individuals, but what they fight is the collective of the strong. At that level, an individual's strength is negligible—martial arts exist to become the sword in the weak's hand, to deter the strong."

When a common man is driven to rage, two corpses fall and blood spills five paces; all under heaven dons white mourning clothes.

Martial arts were precisely such a force. They could not allow someone to overthrow the collective of the strong, but they could give the weak a chance to deter that collective.

At arm's length, one man could stand against a nation.

Even possessing an entire country could not enable a tyrant to defeat a knight-errant standing within arm's reach.

Under limited conditions, strength and weakness were thus reversed.

Cao Mo formed an alliance with Ke and reclaimed Lu's occupied lands. Zhuan Zhu served roasted meat and secured Wu's usurped throne. Zhang Di wept in the marketplace and avenged his lord in the latrine. One slit his own throat to plead injustice; another acted with a dagger hidden in his sleeve. Violent Qin lost its spirit, and cowards found courage.

Youji nodded as if he understood, but then another question arose. "Then bad people can learn martial arts too, right?"

The ability to raise doubts was a very good sign. Xiang Shan truly felt that this child had excellent qualities.

"That is the core design philosophy of martial arts—martial arts are a form of assassination technique. They allow the weak, at the smallest cost, to gain the chance to raise a sword against the strong. And for those who impose tyranny upon the people, such techniques are exactly what they fear most."

"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 only a 'technology.' Technology has no will of its own. Anyone can use it. But the design logic of 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 possess them. And what tyranny fears most is assassination aimed at its leaders—because it is indeed built upon a 'legitimacy' stolen by a small number of people. There also will not be many who offer them wholehearted loyalty. So long as those 'few people' are killed, tyranny will naturally perish."

"Under a modern management system, however, people who gather together bearing great ideals do not fear such assassination. In that kind of society, no matter which individual is assassinated, another person will stand up and fill the vacancy. The legitimacy of their authority and power does not rely on gifts from heaven or the glory of ancient bloodlines, but on the people—the people vouch for their legitimacy."

"Or rather, if they did not truly feel injustice, why would the weak bother raising swords against the strong? If there were no more lonely and destitute people or injustices anywhere under heaven, why would any knights-errant choose to draw their swords? At that time, knight-errantry would naturally wither away. Even if a few madmen remained, they would surely fall amid the vast sea of the people—the weak would instinctively become their enemies."

"You already know about the Turing Machine, and you know about 'internal cultivation.' This is the second fact one needs to know to become a knight-errant—Outer School Techniques are, in essence, 'assassination fist arts.'"

Cyber martial arts compatible with cybernetic prosthetics did not come from ancient martial arts passed down since time immemorial. If one traced their roots, they had actually evolved from the Chasseur Tactics born in France after rifled flintlock guns entered the battlefield, then took shape by absorbing modern fighting theory.

Because rifled flintlock guns had rifling, their range and penetration far surpassed the firearms of the previous generation. 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 warfare and sniping. Thus, the French term Chasseurs was born, and even into the twenty-first century, Chasseurs remained the name for elite French troops.

This was a form of tactics made possible by technology, allowing individual strength to have the greatest possible impact on war.

Tactics and technology influenced each other. Perhaps because technology became increasingly complex, or perhaps because certain weapons were designed to be possessed only by the strong—making the strong stronger and the weak weaker. For a long time, the influence of individuals on the course of war had actually been steadily shrinking.

Until... several young people created Cyber Martial Arts.

This assassination art was the culmination of every theory of special operations throughout history—guerrilla warfare, sniping, assassination, and more. Thanks to the limitless possibilities of cybernetic prosthetics, knights-errant could always enter within five paces, within arm's reach, of tyrants by 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.

Countless bodily movements and combat strategies were all converted into game-theory models, written in the language of programs, and packaged using secret methods, turning them into files artificial intelligence searches could not recognize.

Then they were stored on the network in the form of a blockchain.

So long as information technology remained, the intelligence of "martial arts" could not be erased.

So long as information technology remained... so long as the "network" remained, tyranny could never eradicate knights-errant.

—Yes, I remember now...

Xiang Shan stood up and took the scrap parts Youji had brought. "Do you understand now, Youji? This is a blade designed against tyranny. It can indeed be turned around and used against the weak, but the harm it inflicts upon tyrants is destined to be greater than the harm it inflicts upon the people—it has a damage bonus against oppressors."

"But that 'damage bonus' depends on 'internal cultivation,' on information technology. If one does not understand blockchain's decentralized storage, then 'martial arts' will only be monopolized and erased by the strong. The weak will never have the chance to come into contact with it. So long as internal martial arts endure, knight-errantry will endure."

"So next, you'll begin learning internal cultivation!"