Chapter 48: The Unyielding Heart of Challenge

“Yes, courage.” Tang Shen looked up at the sky without offering a direct explanation, and instead asked, “Kuina, tell me, how does a swordsman become stronger?”

Kuina answered honestly, “Through training and understanding.”

Tang Shen pressed further, “And what else?”

Kuina repeated, adding a few words, “Constant training, constant understanding.”

“But there is always a limit to training, and a limit to understanding. What then?” Tang Shen continued.

“I...” Kuina was momentarily lost for words, and couldn’t help but ask, “Master, what should one do then?”

“Challenge,” Tang Shen replied calmly. “Whenever you reach your limit, challenge someone stronger. Under the pressure of death from an enemy, sometimes the closer you come to death, the more you improve, the more you comprehend, the more you refine your swordsmanship. Without challenge, how can you become stronger?”

“Challenge?” Kuina was a little dazed.

Tang Shen asked again, “Is it possible to fail a challenge?”

Kuina hesitated, then spoke with resolve, “A swordsman cannot allow failure.”

“Oh?”

Tang Shen questioned once more, “If I brought the world’s greatest swordsman here right now for you to fight, would you not fail?”

Kuina: “I...”

Before she could answer, Tang Shen spoke for her, “You mean you could choose not to challenge him, right? Wait until you’re stronger, then challenge him.”

“Yes.” Kuina nodded. This was indeed the answer in her heart, though she hadn’t voiced it. Somehow, it felt wrong.

“But how strong is strong enough? Your goal is to become the world’s greatest swordsman, but if I brought that person before you now, and you shrank back because you were too weak, where is your courage?” Tang Shen’s words grew sharper, piercing Kuina’s sword-heart like needles.

“Why do I say Zoro has courage? Because his goal right now is to defeat you. No matter how great the gap between you two, his target is you. The gap between you and him is the same as the gap between you and the world’s greatest swordsman. Do you understand?”

Kuina’s heart churned, her grip on the bamboo sword so tight her fingers turned white. With everything laid out so clearly, how could she not understand?

Zoro challenging her was the same as her challenging the world’s greatest swordsman right now.

He was bound to fail, yet Zoro still faced her without hesitation.

And yet, when faced with Tang Shen’s question, she shrank back.

Who truly has courage?

Was she truly inferior to such a weakling?

Did she resent it?

She did. She hadn’t realized she could feel fear, or anxiety. The weight of the world’s greatest swordsman was so great that even hearing the name made her breath catch and fear rise in her chest.

She had longed to become the world’s greatest swordsman—her lifelong dream had always been this. Yet just hearing the name filled her with dread. Was this truly her pursuit?

Was she willing to accept this?

The answer was clear—she was not. She absolutely was not. If she retreated, if she felt fear, her dream would no longer be real, but a mere illusion.

“I... I will not retreat.” Kuina suddenly looked up, her eyes growing brighter, her voice resolute. “Master, even if the world’s greatest swordsman stood before me right now, I would not shrink back.”

Tang Shen did not look at her, but said quietly, “A swordsman can fail, can be covered in wounds, but your sword-heart must never be defeated.”

“Kuina, you have great talent for the sword, but throughout history, countless swordsmen more talented than you have been lost to time, their names forgotten. It’s because many of those chosen by fate, when defeated, never rise again. Their spirits are broken by failure.”

“Pride is innate, but true backbone is forged. Yet pride and backbone do not mean you will never fail. If you refuse to acknowledge failure, how can you understand your own heart? How can you temper your swordsmanship? If you’ve never tasted defeat, how can you know its bitterness, and then rise again?”

“In the month I’ve observed, Zoro’s talent for the sword is not as great as yours—he’s not a genius. But he has something those chosen by fate lack: he can face his failures calmly, continue training, and keep challenging. That is his indomitable sword-heart. That is why I say he has courage. Do you agree?”

Kuina gave a bitter smile, then a relieved one. “I agree.”

She turned to look at Zoro, sweat streaming down his face as he gripped his bamboo sword and tirelessly struck at the target. At that moment, there was no disdain or scorn in her heart—only a trace of admiration.

Her sword-heart was being reshaped and honed by Tang Shen’s words. An indomitable spirit that was not originally hers had been forcefully instilled in her, like an infusion breaching a gap and pouring in.

Though she was still weak now, as she grew, that indomitable spirit would only become stronger, growing with each encounter and challenge.

An unyielding will does not strengthen the sword-heart directly, but acts as an invisible filter, purifying and preserving it.

By instilling unyielding spirit into Kuina, Tang Shen was also instilling it into himself.

He too was growing, was changing, becoming ever stronger.

“Come, let’s go have breakfast.” Tang Shen’s face, which had just been so stern and serious, suddenly broke into a mischievous grin. “Ah, I’m starving! After all that talking and sweating, my mouth is dry.”

Kuina: “...”

Kuina could not help but laugh and cry at once. Just a moment before, her teacher had seemed so serious, so full of reason, leaving her deeply shaken, embodying the image of a stern master. And in the next instant, that image collapsed.

But perhaps, this was truly her teacher.

The most shaken of all was Koushirou, who had listened to every word.

From a distance, he watched Tang Shen and Kuina laughing as they walked into the dining hall. Yet in his heart, there was a sorrow he could not express.

Tang Shen’s words had left him speechless with shock. Clearly, the boy was just a youngster, yet he spoke profound truths that even the world’s greatest swordsman might not be able to utter.

And every word struck directly at the sword-heart.

Zoro’s unique quality had escaped his notice. All he had felt was that Zoro was a remarkable boy, and his three-sword style had given him the vague sense that this boy was a natural-born swordsman.

But it was only through Tang Shen’s words that he realized Zoro’s greatest trait—despite his weakness, when he first came to challenge the dojo, he did so fearlessly. Such a person is truly terrifying.

And that was precisely who Zoro was.

Though he did not wish to admit it, Tang Shen, as a teacher, was indeed more responsible and professional than he was as a father—far better suited to be Kuina’s mentor.

It seemed to him that his daughter was drifting further from him, and ever closer to someone else...