Ideas

"Bored?" Lin Wan lifted his teacup, took a sip, and asked casually.

Snow White came back to her senses, turned to look at him, and gently shook her head. "No. It's just... it feels a little different from what I imagined." She paused, then added, "Compared to my usual training, their pace feels much slower, and their coordination also..."

She did not continue, but her meaning was obvious.

Lin Wan tugged at the corner of his mouth in what barely counted as a smile. "That's how the preliminaries are. All sorts of people are mixed in. Truly strong teams won't reveal too much of their strength here."

As they spoke, the match in the arena reached its conclusion. A team with a level thirty-eight assault-type Battle Soul Elder had narrowly defeated its opponents through superior individual strength. The winning team's members embraced and cheered excitedly onstage, while the defeated side hung their heads in dejection, many of them bearing injuries on their faces.

The stands erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers.

Lin Wan watched the victorious team. The level thirty-eight Soul Elder was surrounded by his teammates, his face brimming with a proud smile. Suddenly, Lin Wan found it all rather dull.

These people were giving their all for a qualification slot, while people like him, Snow White, and Yu Tianqing had long since stood at a higher starting point, looking down on all of it.

The disparity of the world had never seemed so stark.

Match after match continued. Some were one-sided stomps with no suspense at all, while others were hard-fought battles between evenly matched sides. Every now and then, there was even an upset.

Lin Wan gradually lost interest. Most of the matches looked crude and inefficient in his eyes.

He spent more time observing the Martial