An Angry Lito

After saying this, Li Ke drew his sword and looked toward the Noxian formation.

Then he witnessed something that made him envious.

A gorgeous longsword danced through the air. No one held it, yet it whirled wildly among the Noxian ranks, as if an invisible person were controlling it.

"A flying sword..."

A sword technique like this had no weaknesses. Without a swordsman to hold it back, its moves no longer had to account for the wielder's safety.

In other words, the sword could attack nonstop—again and again.

And when a person wielded a sword, the weapon's center of balance and point of force were limited, and its reach was restricted to the length of their arm. But a flying sword had no such limitations.

In Li Ke's eyes, the gorgeous longsword made only a few passes before the formation that would have cost him dearly to break was dismantled.

The Noxians fell almost all at once. Li Ke could barely see the sword's afterimage before the gorgeous blade ended everything and drifted back to the white-haired old man.

"Hmph. You got hurt fighting these little nobodies? Yasuo, where's your Gale Technique? Or did Souma fail to teach you? Was it all just a rumor?"

Lito looked at Li Ke in puzzlement. If his opponent had used the Wind Technique, these soldiers wouldn't have stood a chance. One gust of wind, and they'd all be dead.

"Um, I'm grateful you helped me, but you can't just insult me. I'm not Yasuo. My name is Li Ke, and I'm..."

Li Ke offered a smile. After all, this was his future father-in-law, so he had to be polite.

"I know you're not Yasuo, and I know you can't use the Wind Technique."

Lito nodded, his expression stern. But the moment Li Ke looked puzzled, he broke into a smug grin.

"I was insulting you."

After a pause, Lito's smile grew even smugger.

"And mocking you for being unable to learn the Wind Technique."

You little...

Li Ke wanted to draw his sword and fight the man, but he was his future father-in-law, and Li Ke couldn't beat him anyway. So all he could do was sulk and seethe.

He forced out an awkward but still polite smile.

It looked like Lito had inherited his murderous intent toward Li Ke without a doubt.

Li Ke was sure of it.

"If I didn't know you were a student of the Wind Technique, or if I'd realized you were Yasuo, I'd have beaten you half to death already. With the Wind Technique's abilities, why would you need to abduct my daughter and force me to step in just to deal with these little pests? I'd only be beating you half to death because I'm close friends with Souma, and I'd be disciplining his student for him."

Lito gave a couple of cold laughs. Li Ke had only escaped because he was a student of the Wind Technique and had acted to save people. Otherwise, Lito would have killed him.

Li Ke knew his actions had been underhanded, but he had saved these people, and that made it worthwhile.

"I'm sorry, senior. Back then, I truly didn't know how else to convince you."

Lito understood. If Li Ke had suddenly turned up claiming Noxians were nearby, slaughtering an entire village, Lito would have thought he was out of his mind.

That was also why Lito hadn't attacked him.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he never would have imagined the Noxians could be so depraved.

So he said nothing. He simply walked past Li Ke and helped the mother and child to their feet. They were still shaken.

"That's why I only called you Yasuo... A student of the Balance Order should be helping, too, right? You made Kusho's son break his vows. Aren't you afraid Kusho will kill you?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen emerged from the house with a steel blade in hand. His eyes were bloodshot, and blood still dripped from the weapon.

He had clearly broken his vows.

"He only killed some demons. How does that count as breaking his vows? Besides, if you never break the rules, how can you truly understand why they exist?"

Li Ke didn't mind Kusho having Shen follow him. Kusho might well have had this in mind when he sent Shen out to gain experience. Otherwise, he wouldn't have casually made up an excuse to send his own son away.

"Silver-tongued!"

The more Lito looked at Li Ke, the more he disliked him. Even though they shared the same views, and he admired Li Ke's decisiveness, just thinking about his daughter made him feel deeply annoyed. For some reason, he had an overwhelming urge to pin Li Ke to the ground and beat him, then tear him limb from limb, boil the pieces in a pot, crack his bones, scrape out the marrow, and feed it to the dogs.

Then he'd kill the dogs and grind their bones to dust.

It was as if Li Ke had already made a move on his daughter and gotten her pregnant.

Thinking of that, Lito couldn't help giving a couple of self-mocking laughs.

How could that be possible?

With Lito watching over her, how could someone like Li Ke ever take advantage of his daughter?

Hahahaha!

Dream on!

Absolutely impossible!

But just as he thought that, Irelia came out of the house with several children.

"Li Ke! Those Noxians were so scary! They were so cruel!"

When she saw the corpses covering the ground, she shuddered instinctively. She had never seen anything so horrifying in her life. Faced with so many Noxian soldiers, she had instinctively run over to Li Ke and clung to his arm.

Although she felt a little embarrassed, she felt that as long as she was beside Li Ke, she could stay calm no matter how frightening the corpses were.

Still, the sight of the bodies covering the ground made her shiver. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before.

"It's all right. It's over now."

Li Ke comforted her. Honestly, if he didn't need Lito and Irelia's identities, he wouldn't have needed to bring Irelia along. It would have been perfectly fine to let her live as an ordinary dancer.

At the very least, that was what the girl wanted. Forcing someone like her to follow her original path and become a "hero" would be doing her a disservice.

But just after he finished comforting her, he heard a clear clatter.

He turned to look and saw the sword fall from Lito's hand. He stood there, looking a little dazed.

After feeling the warmth of Li Ke's arm against her chest, Irelia's nerves settled a little. The sound of the sword falling made her look over and notice her father.

"Father?! What are you doing here?"

Irelia blurted the question out. Lito's dazed expression turned completely dark, and for a moment, Li Ke almost wondered if he had some hidden African ancestry.

"Why can't I be here? Didn't I tell you not to make friends with shady people when you left home?"

Lito swept his clothes aside in a show of anger. Irelia hurriedly let go of Li Ke's arm, ran to Lito, picked up his sword, and stood beside him.

But then something happened that darkened Lito's expression even more.

From where she thought Lito couldn't see, Irelia gave Li Ke an apologetic smile.

Lito looked at the axe on the ground, and a devilish whisper rose in his heart.

Just use that...

and chop that brat's head off.