The noisy competition hall, a sprawling space filled with the low hum of heavy-duty ventilation and the rhythmic clatter of medical carts, suddenly fell into a heavy, expectant silence. Then, as one powerful figure after another entered the spotlight, the place exploded into a frantic buzz of conversation once again. People who recognized the newcomers quickly whispered to their neighbors, naming which Capital big shot had arrived and pointing out the high-ranking officials now in charge of the entire event.
Some of the more observant pharmacists started guessing that the unfamiliar young woman walking directly beside the chief judge must be the legendary president of Wu City's Medicinal Herb Association. Her calm demeanor stood in sharp contrast to the chaotic energy of the room.
As the big shots took their reserved seats on the raised platform, the Wu City team was guided to the very front row. Ironically, these were the prime seats that had once belonged to the now-disqualified Fuhai Association.
Feeling the burning stares of envy and resentment prickling at their backs from both sides of the aisle, the pharmacists from Wu City felt completely dazed. Everything that had happened today felt too surreal to be real, shifting from the mud of the airport to the center of the national stage in just a few hours.
The competition setup itself was deceptively simple. It was the old Capital Association's venue, reinforced with a few high-tech upgrades and modern monitoring equipment. The key difference was the display lineup; rare and precious herbs from every corner of the country were stacked in glass displays behind each association's booth.
From a single glance, it was obvious these were all near-extinct species in this apocalypse era. The more herbs a team had brought, the more confidence they seemed to project to the cameras.
The overhead spotlights flared to life, and the heavy recording machines hummed to a start.
"Quiet! Ahem, testing, testing—" The microphone crackled with static as a bespectacled man stepped into the light. He wore a professional, practiced smile, acting as if nothing unusual or controversial had happened earlier that morning. "Is everyone ready? Then, I officially announce: the national competition begins!"
It was as if the hours-long delay and the logistical chaos had never existed. There were no public explanations offered and no apologies made for the sudden pause.
Of course, no one in the hall dared to complain or voice their frustration. After witnessing what had happened to the prestigious Fuhai team, nobody wanted to be the next one to follow in their footsteps.
"First of all," the man continued cheerfully, his voice echoing through the hall, "I'm your host for today. You can call me Xiao Ai. I will be sharing live reactions from our nationwide digital audience, explaining the nuances of the rules, and helping everyone understand the science of what is happening on the floor.
Audience members can vote for your favorite association through the app, but please note that popular votes don't count for the actual results! The final winner will be decided by our chief judge and five specifically appointed expert judges."
He clapped his hands together briskly. "Alright, everyone knows the rules by heart, right? Good. Bring in the props!"
The Wu City pharmacists, who had just managed to take their official positions, blinked in total confusion. "Uh... what rules exactly?" one of them whispered, looking around nervously.
Jing Shu raised an eyebrow. Great. She had spent the last few days preparing the medicine and investigating the crematorium, but she hadn't bothered to look up the actual competition handbook. Still, she vaguely remembered hearing from Zhou Bapi that the format was simple: just do it.
Then the "props" arrived, and the atmosphere in the room turned cold.
A row of heavy metal stretchers was carried in by workers in protective gear. Each one held a moaning, struggling patient. There were thirty in total, a grim row of human misery that perfectly matched the number of competing regional associations.
The one placed directly before Jing Shu held an old man who was clutching his belly, groaning in a low, agonizing tone. His body was full of drainage tubes, and each tube led to a thick, sealed plastic bag. Inside those bags, Jing Shu could see the dark, writhing shapes of parasites that had been pulled from his flesh, their needle-like bodies twisting in the fluid.
Every patient looked the same: tormented, pale, and incredibly weak. They were all victims of advanced parasitic infections that were slowly eating away their internal organs.
During the simulations and rehearsals, there hadn't been anything this extreme. Now, the organizers were using actual infected patients in a live broadcast watched by high-level officials across the country.
If any of the experimental medicines provoked the parasites into a berserk state, things could get very ugly very fast. Some of the pharmacists were already turning pale behind their masks. This wasn't what they had been told during the initial briefings; they thought they would only be testing their liquid samples in controlled labs, not on living, breathing people.
"As everyone knows," Xiao Ai said, pacing across the stage with his hands behind his back, "this competition aims to find an association capable of producing or substituting Bodhi as a large-scale raw material for the national reserves. The winning association will receive full production rights and massive government backing to manufacture this crucial medicine.
Now, each association will administer their prepared medicine to their assigned patient. Please note that traditional anesthesia doesn't work on these cases anymore. This round focuses strictly on pain relief and parasite suppression rates."
He paused, his smile widening. "Oh, and one more thing. Raw Bodhi is banned for this specific round."
Jing Shu rubbed her chin as realization dawned on her. So the first round was meant to find a synthetic or botanical alternative to Bodhi. In her past life, she remembered that only the real Bodhi plants worked against these parasites. No other anti-parasitic medicine had any lasting effect.
Beside her, Wang Danai was trembling nervously, feeling a bit lightheaded under the pressure. Several judges on the high platform had just glanced over with strangely kindly expressions, and most unbelievably, they had even smiled at her. Were high-level figures nowadays all this approachable? She turned to look at Jing Shu and shook her head. Clearly, Jing Shu was the only real expert here who isn't intimidated.
"What is going on?" a Wu City pharmacist hissed. "If we can't use Bodhi in the first round, then what are we supposed to use? Many in our association who listened to your advice have cultivated nothing but Bodhi and were hoping to shine with it in this competition."
Another pharmacist added, "President, we have tested several botanical alternatives these past few days at the warehouse, but the results weren't promising. Theoretically, none of them work on the fifth-generation mutation. In practice, it's even worse than the lab tests suggest."
"What is the point of that? That's just making the man suffer longer."
Jing Shu merely shook her head, her gaze sweeping over the suffering old man before she calmly raised her hand into the bright spotlight. "Wu City's Association forfeits this round."
The entire hall erupted in a wave of whispers and shocked gasps.
"What? They forfeit?"
"Wu City is giving up? What are they thinking after all that drama to get back in?"
"I heard they have got a whole warehouse stash of Bodhi. I guess they don't care about finding substitutes. Still, they were supposed to be the top contender to watch."
"It doesn't matter. Bodhi isn't a permanent solution anyway. There's not enough of it to go around to the provinces, and it only suppresses the parasites, it doesn't kill them. What we need is a replacement that can be mass-produced."
From the stretcher in front of her, the old man let out a sudden, ragged scream. "What about me? It hurts! It hurts so bad! Someone, please, just make it stop! I would rather die right now!"
Laughter and mocking comments came from the nearby booths. "Poor Lao Zhou, haha! He came here today hoping for a miracle treatment, and his own association gave up on him! Oh man, that is rough—ouch! Easy with that needle! That hurts too, damn it!"
Xiao Ai the host, nodded as if he had expected this specific outcome from a provincial team. The big screen flickered, showing Wu City's score as a flat zero for the first round.
The judges murmured among themselves on the platform, their heads close together, but they were too far away for anyone on the floor to hear their words.
Soon, the commotion settled down. Other associations went back to focusing on their own work, their pharmacists sweating as they mixed liquids and checked vitals. Jing Shu quietly gave a few short, hushed instructions to her team before stepping aside to watch the rest of the floor.
Wang Danai nodded eagerly, her hands no longer shaking. She pulled a small, unassuming black pill from her pocket and leaned over the old man assigned to Wu City.
While the other pharmacists were sweating and panicking over their fluctuating test results, a sudden, booming voice cut through the noise of the hall.
"I'm cured! The pain is gone! I'm completely fine! Who was laughing at me just now?"
The hall went silent again. Every eye turned to the Wu City booth.
"What? Who is cured? Is that Lao Zhou?!"
"Bullshit! Didn't Wu City just forfeit the round? How could he be fine?"
The old man jumped off the metal stretcher with a burst of energy that belied his age. He walked straight over to the guy who had mocked him earlier and gave the man a playful, firm kick in the shin. "Lao Yu, after all these years you are still teasing me? Look at me now! They might have forfeited the points, but they had the real antidote all along! Want me to ask them to help you out too?"
"Wait, you are actually cured?" the other man gasped, his eyes bulging as he watched Lao Zhou stretch his arms. "Then I want those pills too! Screw this experimental treatment; I have had enough of the pain!"
"Me too!" another patient groaned from a few rows back. "I want Wu City's Association to treat me! Please, help us!"