Li Ke's Self-Doubt

"Just as I expected."

Li Ke shook his head slightly.

That was just how the Kinkou Order was. No matter what happened in the mortal world, no matter how horrifying the events or how many people a monster had slaughtered, the Kinkou Order wouldn't kill.

The infamous Golden Demon treated murder as art. He made a craft of tormenting and abusing others, stripping off their skin and tearing their flesh and bones from their bodies, piece by piece, while they were still alive.

He was so cruel that everyone who saw one of his murder scenes thought he was a demon that had appeared in Ionia. Only a demon could do something like that.

But...

He was human.

Kusho had hunted him at first, but after catching him, he discovered that the Golden Demon was human.

And so...

He didn't kill him, despite the fact that the Golden Demon had murdered countless people in all sorts of ways, leaving many more crippled for life.

Even Shen and Zed had seen the scenes he left behind, and they couldn't keep their composure. They had broken down completely.

And when he was caught, the Golden Demon had even threatened Shen and Zed, saying he would kill Shen's fiancée.

But even then, even with the Golden Demon saying all this right to his face...

Kusho...

Still stopped Zed from killing the Golden Demon, from killing...

Jhin.

Afterward, countless Ionian nobles and commoners praised Kusho for upholding his code and not interfering in mortal affairs.

Jhin was human, so Kusho, as a member of the Kinkou Order, couldn't kill him. That was the code members of the Kinkou Order were supposed to follow.

Even if Jhin was so wicked that he had no right to exist in this world.

Li Ke had seen one of Jhin's murder scenes with his own eyes. How to put it...

It left a lasting impression.

The human body bloomed like a flower. Organs and bones became branches and leaves, skin and sinew became petals, and the victim's look of terror sat at the very center of the blossom.

Of course, terror wasn't the only expression. There was also bewilderment, delight, hatred...

Flowers clustered together, and Jhin had named the arrangement "Life."

Li Ke had seen it only once. Just that once.

But Kusho, Zed, and Shen had seen it countless times...

It was hard to imagine people like them breaking the codes they held in their hearts just for the sake of a war.

"What about passing along a message for me?"

Shen looked even more helpless.

"That won't work either. What's the difference between passing along a message and interfering directly? You know how powerful the Kinkou Order is, far above everyone else in this land. If we can't follow our code, the consequences could be terrible."

How terrible?

Li Ke let out a contemptuous chuckle. At worst, society would progress from a patchwork of tribes to a unified state.

Did this Ionia, a jumble of villages, tribes, city-states, and warlords, really deserve to call itself balanced?

The Kinkou Order's direct intervention in mortal affairs might seem likely to bring countless disasters, but Ionia's continued stagnation was the greatest disaster of all.

The most powerful force in the land was supposed to protect the peace, yet it had been shackled, unable to do more for Ionia.

And it had become a chain holding back Ionia's progress...

At first, Li Ke hadn't thought this deeply about it. He'd never planned to stay in Ionia. The place didn't remind him of home at all. It felt more like a blend of Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and India.

Everywhere, it had the air of an imitation that had missed the mark. Its half-familiar rules and ideas made him feel like throwing up.

The typical bandit mentality he found elsewhere actually made him feel less out of place.

After all, it was just survival of the fittest.

It was only recently, when his abilities made him realize he couldn't avoid this war, that he started thinking about it.

And that was the conclusion he'd reached.

The Kinkou Order hadn't shouldered its historical responsibility. It was true that its original mission had only been to balance humanity and the Spirit Realm, but once an organization reached this point, it naturally took on greater responsibilities.

But the Kinkou Order hadn't.

"Fine, then let's drop the politics and talk about something else."

Li Ke waved a hand and gave up on the idea of asking Shen for help. No matter what, Shen couldn't openly help him. And even if Shen fought alone, he might be powerful, but he couldn't change the overall situation.

Actually, Li Ke had analyzed why he'd been able to end Ionia's war a full year ahead of schedule. In the end, he'd come to one conclusion.

He must have united Ionia's forces.

Most likely, he'd had the farmers work together to produce supplies, trained the militia in magic and other spells, and formed an Ionian special forces unit to launch raids and decapitation strikes using Ionia's terrain to its advantage.

Targeting commanders and supply depots, killing messengers, deliberately creating wounded soldiers... He must have used magic to make the Noxians fight a modern war, then used the victories from those raids to force Ionia to unite. Otherwise, there was no way he could have ended the war a year early!

Because Ionia was actually a giant. Noxus had bullied it because it hadn't gathered its strength into a fist, and so it had been beaten.

But if that giant rose to its feet and raised its fist—the fist of magic and organization—then Noxus's defeat was inevitable.

Under those circumstances, one or two powerful fighters meant nothing. Once Li Ke set his strategy in motion, it wouldn't even matter whether he lived or died. As long as Ionia could unite its strength, the skill of its commanders and the outcome of any single battle would be utterly insignificant.

A militaristic state built on plunder like Noxus had no chance if it failed to knock Ionia down in one blow and instead gave the Ionians time to get organized.

As long as those who came after him didn't mess things up and learned how to organize, all that remained would be a steady march to victory.

Li Ke even ran through a scenario in his mind. If he'd actually had the ability to control the whole situation, he definitely wouldn't have rushed to drive Noxus out completely. He would've left a few stragglers to train the troops, drawn out the rotten apples among the group, and exposed the flaws and mistakes of the hastily assembled coalition.

Wait...

"Could it be that I'd thought this way in my simulation, and that was why I took Irelia into hiding? After all, I left with my own troops. With my personality, there's no way I wouldn't have had them help the farmers grow crops and become self-reliant, then further purged the ranks..."

Li Ke rubbed his chin, thinking it was quite possible. Given his personality, he'd probably have quietly focused on farming, then crushed those grasping for power beneath the unstoppable force of his movement once they started thinking they had it made.

He'd just failed to play his cards right and gotten cut down halfway there.

But as he thought about it further, Li Ke noticed something else.

"But if that's the case, then when I went to find Xayah, my motives might not have been entirely innocent either..."

Could I really be that devious?