SWNOVELXO Chapter 6602 The Theory of Reformed Swordsmanship
Chapter 6602 The Theory of Reformed Swordsmanship
Time seemed to blur as Ketis continued to invest in her effort to reshape her entire cognition and interpretation of swordsmanship.
Her latest project had become an obsession to the ambitious swordmaster.
Ketis could no longer extricate herself from her current purpose.
She still made sure to reserve parts of her weekly schedule on completing Missions, but they became less important to her. She would rather invest entire days pondering over the truth of gaining power through wielding swords.
To Ketis, the sword had become more than just a weapon. Trying to find answers to the question of what a sword actually meant to a practitioner caused her to develop a lot of wild tangents on the possible answers.
She needed time to explore their viability and test her possible theories by performing empirical tests whenever possible.
Though Ves noticed that his former student was spending an increasing amount of time on activities that weren't directly related to earning more AP, he merely shook his head and let her do as she wished.
Ketis was an adult who could make her own decisions. Even if her latest pet project. adversely impacted his own plans, Ves was not selfish enough to stand in the way of a creator who was earnestly pursuing her passion.
Besides, he trusted her to spend her time wisely and provide a great yield at the end.
Ascension Points were not the only form of profit that they could earn during this marathon.
Slowly but surely, Ketis felt she was making real progress towards developing a new paradigm, one that made sense in the current day and age.
She occasionally debated with Ves about his own perspectives on living mechs and cultivation science, and occasionally incorporated that information in her increasingly more refined virtual document.
The text had become more than just a set of organized notes. She consciously changed its phrasing, structure and formatting so that it offered better instructions to other readers.
She even began to give it a new name to reflect its great purpose.
After Ketis puzzled out her theories, she eventually sat back and let out a deep breath. The swordmaster looked tired, but also satisfied in a way that she hadn't felt in a long time.
This was because she did it! She not only completed the first draft of her text, but also completed the foundation of her new approach towards swordsmanship!
Although she had yet to test all of her hypotheses, she felt that its pieces fit together so well that there was no way her work was off the mark!
At most, she needed to fill up more gaps and make a few adjustments to her initial draft. As far as the core theories were concerned, Ketis had gathered too many clues to believe she had gone astray.
She immediately felt the urge to share her new gains, so she automatically turned towards the man she trusted the most in these kinds of matters.
"Ves!"
"Ketis? You look... as if you have just lifted a huge burden off your shoulder. Are you finally done with your latest endeavor?"
The woman eagerly nodded as if she was ten years younger. "I did it. Everything is clear to me now. By taking the time to start over from scratch and create my own theoretical framework, I have devised a new paradigm that has given me far greater clarity than anything else I have read or heard. I don't deserve all of the credit as the Heavensword has given me a few hints here and there, but I tried my best to base my theoretical underpinnings on proven phenomena. That is why I am confident that my new text can serve as a new instruction manual for all of the sword practitioners in the Red Ocean. This not only includes swordmasters, but also mech pilots who specialize in swordsmanship!"
Ves could sense that Ketis deliberately emphasized that last remark.
"Have you found a commonality between traditional swordsmanship and mech piloting?" "I did, Ves. I don't want to use the term 'traditional swordsmanship' to describe my new vision. It sounds old-fashioned and creates the impression that all sword practitioners must value tradition over innovation. That is completely wrong in my opinion. I prefer to use the term 'reformed swordsmanship'. This shows that while I have learned from some of the gains of the past, I have consciously repurposed it to fit our changing circumstances. I like to think of it as an evolution of the swordsmanship tradition of the Heavensword Association."
Ves grew more intrigued about her theories. Even if he was not a sword practitioner himself, there were many parallels between swordmasters and mech pilots. Understanding one profession could advance his understanding of the other profession. The two mech designers began to sit down.
Ketis proceeded to transfer a virtual document to Ves.
"This is my first draft. It is rather thick and lengthy, but many sections describe specific sword practice instructions that you can skip. You should pay attention to the purely theoretical chapters instead. I will summarize my findings and hypotheses while you read."
Ves glanced at the title of the large document.
"The Manual of Reformed Swordsmanship, by Ketis Larkinson. That sounds remarkably... plain and boring"
"There is no need for me to sensationalize the title." The swordmaster shrugged. "The title reflects the contents. It is meant to be the definitive text on the new model of swordsmanship that I wish to spread across the Red Ocean. Everyone else has been practicing their swordsmanship blindly all of this time. I don't blame them, as they never received proper instruction from sword practitioner who actually knows what he or she is doing. Now that I have come and solved this long-standing problem, they have no excuse to remain ignorant anymore."
"Do you realize how much arrogance you exude when you say that? You sound as if you think that every sword practitioner aside from you is wrong and needs to go back to your school in order to take remedial lessons."
"That is a deliberate choice on my part." Ketis viciously grinned. "I do not think that there are swordmasters who have figured out the nature of swordsmanship better than I. If they think they know better, they are welcome to challenge me. If they can defeat me with their swordsmanship or their argumentation, then I will readily admit my inferiority. My goal is to create a new future for swordsmen and swordswomen. I don't care whether I will earn the greatest credit in the end. I just want people to engage in critical thinking and stop following old traditions solely because their parents and teachers have done the same."
The more she spoke about her purpose, the more driven she appeared. Ves' appreciation for Ketis grew as she truly sounded as if she had made a groundbreaking invention. "If that is the case, then explain your new theoretical framework to me. How do you think that people should approach extraordinary swordsmanship?" Ketis raised her hand and projected a model that resembled a triangle. "Reformed swordsmanship is centered around three variables. These are the central pillars that grant swordmasters the ability to wield an artifact to defeat enemies far beyond the means of ordinary humans with blades in their hands. These variables are Heaven, Earth and Man. They are intrinsically related to qi cultivation, artifact cultivation and willpower cultivation respectively according to your terminology. Regardless of what you call them, they form the trifecta that every reformed sword practitioner must master in order to become stronger, develop their own domains and ultimately attain their godhood."
Ves straightened his back as he heard this familiar terminology. "I have heard references of this trifecta in other ancient cultivation texts."
Ketis jerked her head towards the grand work that was peacefully sticking onto her back. "The Heavensword taught me that. I have no reason to reject its suggestion. I do not inherently object to old theory. It just has to make sense in order to earn a place in
my new paradigm."
"That is a rational approach to take. I approve. Can you elaborate on this trifecta?"
"Why certainly. I believe that you already possess a good impression on what they stand for, but I can assure you that the meaning that I have ascribed to them does not entirely match your interpretation. Let me start with the origin, which is Heaven."
"Not Man?" Ves questioned.
"No. The reason why I want to start with Heaven is because it is the reason why
everything else is possible. Without the matter and energy spawned from the universe, the galaxies and the stars around us, none of us would exist and be able to do all of the stuff we have done in our lifetimes. I can talk all day about this, but in the most immediate context of reformed swordsmanship, Heaven specifically stands for the E energy that is the most easily accessible source of extraordinary power for all cultivators, not just sword practitioners. There is no reason for any human swordmaster to reject its usage. Relying on Earth and Man alone has never allowed us to produce our own sword saint. Only by adding in this new variable can we complete the circle."
"I see." Ves looked mildly impressed. "That makes sense. That is one of the reasons why Dise was able to advance to the rank of ace pilot."
Ketis continued her explanation. "Earth is next. As I have mentioned earlier, everything
related to Earth is spawned from Heaven. Earth can have different meanings to people. To some, it refers to the literal planet that they are standing on. To others, it represents the raw matter that can be mined and harvested from planets and asteroids. To me, it represents all of the raw materials as well as the products that can be manufactured from it. A reformed sword practitioner cannot fight like one if he does not use the bounty of Earth to use as a focus of his power and to use its inherent material properties
to defeat his foes."
"So Earth in this case is the philosophical representation of the sword in your hand?"
"Yes, but that is not a complete answer, Earth stands for so much more. It can signify the personal shield generators that we are both wearing to protect us from attacks. It can represent the suits of combat armor that we use to protect ourselves from damage and environmental hazards. In a more extreme case, it can even represent a Carmine mech and the mech sword in its loadout!"
That sounded like an ambitious definition!
"Does that mean that Carmine mechs have a place in your new model of
swordsmanship?"
The swordmaster's confidence sapped a little. "To be honest, I am not sure. This is one of
the unproven assumptions I devised. Let us leave this aside for the time being and move to the third variable, which is Man. This variable represents the self, the human who is shaped by both Heaven and Earth. A reformed sword practitioner may lose access to both of these variables for whatever reason, but they can never let go of Man because that represents the foundation of their existence. If Heaven is the rim of a
wheel while Earth stands for its spokes, then Man serves as the axle in the center."
A wheel.
Ves loved the visualization, even though he did not fully understand what he was
supposed to read from this analogy.
"So reformed swordsmanship is a wheel that consists of three essential components. How does that benefit your sword practice?"
"Only a complete wheel can move forward." Ketis succinctly replied. "The wheels of all of the swordmasters that I have met in the past are incomplete. In the better situations, they can still roll forward, but the ride is so bumpy and takes so much energy to advance
that their progress has slowed to the point they can never make a breakthrough in their lifetimes. This aptly describes the situation of most swordmasters, both the majority who reside in the old galaxy and the minority who reside in the Red Ocean"
"What about the less optimistic cases?"
Ketis grimaced. "Their wheels are so flawed that they either collapse or are unable to
make progress no matter how long they can live. I count the Heavensword Saints of the past and present among them. Due to inheriting the grand work, their Heaven score has improved while their Earth score has skyrocketed. However, the reason why they have doomed their futures is because their Man score has plunged to the bottom. When the axle of a wheel has broken, the entire foundation has turned hollow, I always understood this on an instinctual level, but now that I have formed a proper theory, I can finally present a logical argument."