"Don't worry," Team Leader Liu said, his voice muffled by his heavy mask as he tried to reassure the trembling man. "You will only feel bad for a day or two. Just drink plenty of hot water to help flush your system."
Song Bin's face fell instantly, his features contorting with a misery that looked like he was about to burst into tears. "Can't you give me another dose of the medicine instead? I don't care if the side effects are even worse than before. My whole body hurts and itches. It feels like thousands of microscopic bugs are crawling deep inside me, gnawing at my very flesh. It's absolutely unbearable! What if they eat up my internal organs before the water works?"
To him, a sharp burst of pain for a short while was still better than this constant, gnawing dread. Maybe it's just a psychological trick of the mind, but the oozing wound on his leg actually seemed quieter now. It felt as if the bugs in that specific spot weren't wriggling with the same frantic energy.
Minister Zhao hesitated for a long moment, his eyes scanning the data on the monitors. Finally, he gave a slow nod. "Alright, but listen to me carefully. That last dose was localized; it was just for your leg. If we inject the full-body dosage now, the side effects will be ten times stronger. You will have to find the strength to endure it."
Song Bin clenched his jaw until it throbbed and nodded his head. He was just about to speak when Jing Shu came rushing out from the corner of the lab. She waved her hand to stop the medical team, her movements sharp. She pulled a small canister from her gear and sprayed a fine mist directly onto his open wounds. "No, don't use that harsh medicine yet. The side effects are far too strong for his condition. I have a special spray here that works pretty well for these types of larvae."
She hadn't brought the spray out earlier because she had wanted to see exactly how far the Ministry's research had progressed. She needed to get a better grasp of the national situation before the capital competition officially began.
But now, watching poor Song Bin suffer in such agony, she couldn't let him go through that brutal treatment any longer. She couldn't risk leaving any lasting physical damage on him just for the sake of observation. She would have to find a way to make it up to him for the fright later anyway.
She had planned to use the spray after they left the facility, but seeing how desperate the situation in the tin hut had become, she had no choice but to use the Bodhi Essence early.
Even so, her heart thumped with a nervous rhythm in her chest. Minister Zhao had mentioned that their Bodhi samples could only suppress about eighty percent of the parasites. she had no certain idea how effective her own concentrated extraction would be against this specific mutation. But considering how those parasites had exploded in the crematorium earlier and none had dared to even crawl near her, it's seemed to be pretty damn effective.
"Hey, what are you doing, girl? Stop that immediately! It's dangerous!"
"What did you just spray on him? Ordinary insecticides are even worse for the host! If the parasites are provoked by the wrong chemicals, they will go completely berserk. Many of our tests showed that the wrong spray increases the fatality rate by ten times!"
A sudden cold sweat broke out all over Song Bin's body, and his eyes rolled back as if he might faint on the spot.
The entire tin hut exploded into a cacophony of chaos. The researchers were all shouting over each other, their voices bouncing off the metal walls.
Minister Zhao began barking orders to the staff. "Team Leader Liu, move quickly! Bring out a fresh vial of Drug Number 1! Xiao Wang, get the surgical kit ready and stand by for emergency treatment! I will check the parasite activity under the lens first. If the reaction is bad, we go to surgery!"
Everyone jumped into action, their boots clattering on the floor as they moved with frantic speed. Jing Shu tried to explain her actions, raising her voice to be heard over the noise. "Wait, you are all misunderstanding! This is a concentrated Bodhi Essence! It's—"
But no one was listening to her words. Her voice was completely drowned out by the shouting and the rattle of medical equipment. In the confusion, she even got shoved right out the door of the lab by a hurrying assistant.
Jing Shu stood in the cold air outside, momentarily speechless. She looked at the closed door, then at the spray bottle in her hand.
"Fine, whatever," she muttered to herself. "Let's just see how well the Bodhi Essence actually works then."
They were medical professionals, after all. In less than two minutes, the whole emergency setup was ready. Minister Zhao personally took fresh tissue samples from Song Bin's marked zones and started examining them under the high-powered microscope.
Team Leader Liu wiped the sweat from his own forehead, his breath coming in short gasps. "Minister, how bad is the reaction? Which stage of the berserk state are we in? Which emergency contingency plan should we use? The disinfection and the anesthesia are ready. If the drug doesn't work, we will operate on the limbs immediately."
Everyone in the room waited in an anxious, heavy silence.
Song Bin wiped the cold sweat off his own face with a trembling hand. His heart was still pounding like crazy against his ribs, but as he sat there, he realized something strange. He actually felt fine. He felt even better than fine; a cool, soothing sensation was spreading through his limbs, replacing the fire of the larvae.
Minister Zhao frowned in deep confusion, his eyes pressed hard against the eyepieces. He took a few more samples from different parts of Song Bin's body and began the testing process again, his hands moving with frantic speed.
"Minister? What is going on in there?"
"Say something to us!"
The old man rubbed his eyes, waved a shaking hand toward his colleagues, and spoke in a daze. "Team Leader Liu, come take a look at this. My eyes must be playing tricks on me."
What the hell? Under the microscope's lens, there were only a few sluggish, dying parasites visible. The rest of the larvae were dead. They were completely and utterly dead.
The eradication rate was a staggering 99.9%!"
Team Leader Liu took over the seat and checked the slide again, his voice a low mutter. "Forget the berserk state; there's not even a single active parasite left in this tissue. That's impossible. Our best experimental medicine so far only suppresses about eighty-five percent of the activity."
He took more samples from different spots on Song Bin's torso and legs, ran the tests again, and got the exact same results every time. After a long, stunned moment, his eyes lit up with a brilliant light. "Minister, this is a breakthrough! That girl's spray—it's a miracle drug!"
"Where is the girl?"
"Are you serious? Is it really that effective?"
"The results are right there on the screen!"
The tin hut erupted into cheers, the sound of people clapping and shouting echoing through the industrial space.
"She is over here!" someone shouted, spotting her outside. They reached out and dragged Jing Shu back inside the lab.
Minister Zhao looked ecstatic, his face flushed with a new energy. "Why were you hiding so far away? Tell us about your spray, girl! You have made a huge contribution to the national effort today!"
Jing Shu looked helpless as they crowded around her. "I wasn't hiding; I was pushed out! I yelled several times that it's Bodhi Essence, but no one listened to me. Song Bin, how do you feel now?"
Song Bin scratched his head, a wide, relieved grin spreading across his face. "It feels like I'm completely fine now. The itching is totally gone."
Minister Zhao rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Can we study your spray? How did you make the concentration? Did you add any special chemicals to the mix? Tell us everything!"
Jing Shu casually tossed him the small spray bottle. Team Leader Liu caught it as if it were a priceless treasure and immediately ran off to the testing station to break down the components.
She shrugged, her tone light. "Go ahead. It's easy to make. You just crush a pile of fresh Bodhi leaves, squeeze out the juice, strain it through a fine cloth, and bottle it up. Oh, that's right; I added a little bit of lavender oil to the mix. It smells nice, doesn't it?"
Everyone in the room shouted at once, their voices a mix of horror and shock. "You prodigal girl!"
Minister Zhao's heart practically broke at the thought of the wastage. "You are killing me! Do you know how much raw Bodhi that must have wasted just for a scent?!"
A few minutes later, Team Leader Liu came running back from the analysis station, his eyes shining with tears. "Minister! The results are in! It's pure Bodhi extract. There are no additives except for a bit of fragrance. We tested it on the latest fifth-generation parasite samples we have in storage. The suppression rate is a perfect 99.9%!"
Stunned gasps and more cheers filled the hut.
Even Jing Shu raised an eyebrow in a flicker of surprise. She hadn't added anything else to this specific batch. She had deliberately skipped adding any of the Spirit Spring since she knew this spray would be tested publicly during the upcoming competition. There was no way she couldn't realistically supply enough Spirit Spring for mass production anyway; it was far too precious for that.
Minister Zhao frowned as he looked at the data. "But ordinary Bodhi shouldn't have such a high suppression rate. Our best wild samples are far weaker."
Team Leader Liu's voice trembled with excitement as he pointed to the molecules on the screen. "The active molecules in this specific Bodhi extract are ten times stronger than anything in our records! That means the Bodhi itself must be incredibly vital. Maybe it's because of the specific environment it grew in or something else entirely!"
Jing Shu suddenly realized what had happened. Back when she had grown the Bodhi and the other herbs for the Wu City Medicinal Herb Association, she had secretly watered them with a touch of the Spirit Spring to ensure their health. The ones inside her own space had been fully nurtured by it all along.
As soon as Team Leader Liu finished speaking, everyone in the room turned to stare at her with hopeful, desperate eyes.
Minister Zhao smiled warmly at her, his tone respectful. "So, girl, how much of this specific Bodhi do you have access to? Where did you get it?"
Jing Shu smiled back and reached out a hand politely toward him. "Let's introduce myself properly first. I'm Jing Shu, the Vice President of the Wu City Medicinal Herb Association, and I'm the lead representative for our team in the capital competition. The batch of Bodhi I mentioned earlier? I grew it myself and brought it all here with me. You can judge for yourselves how good the quality is."
"This Bodhi is incredible. We need it desperately for the hospitals!"
"My god, this is amazing! What great news for the city!"
"She is from the association? That makes her one of us!"
"A whole batch of Bodhi like that? We are saved!"