Pinocchio crunched noisily on his dried fruit, his voice full of a tangled emotion somewhere between complaint and reflection.
"Who knew she really had both resources and talent maxed out? Tell me, where's the justice in that?"
He leaned back on the sofa, head tilted upward, his brown eyes fixed on the ceiling. His voice suddenly dropped, carrying an envy even he had not noticed.
"I wish I had a background that good... If I'd been placed in some great nation's imperial family back then, would I be level sixty-four now, too? Could I crush seven opponents all by myself in the arena?"
Levin looked at him, a helpless smile curling his lips.
"In your dreams."
Pinocchio rolled his eyes, sat up on the sofa, and stuffed the half-eaten strip of dried fruit into his mouth. "Can't a guy dream...?" he mumbled.
Jokes aside, Pinocchio understood perfectly well.
All the fairy-tale characters Lin Wan had summoned had started with the same talent.
Whether it was him, Levin, Cinderella, Lia, Ailuo, or Snow White, who had stood in the arena fighting seven opponents alone—
Their starting point had actually been the same.
The seemingly enormous gap in their soul power levels now was merely the accumulated result of differences in resources, training environments, and guidance throughout their cultivation.
Snow White had the level-twenty innate soul power Eva had designed for her, Qian Daoliu's personal instruction, the Heaven Dou Imperial Family pouring resources into her development, the finest cultivation environment, and the very best soul ring configuration.
And what about them?
He, Pinocchio, had been placed in an ordinary family in the Star Luo Empire. Levin had started from nothing, Cinderella had grown up in Holy Soul Village, and Lia had fought her way forward on her own at a place like