Everyone here knew exactly what high-grade meant. Those were the rarest and most valuable herbs that could only appear in the apocalypse, where quality resources were as precious as life itself. Some regions might be blessed with unique growing conditions that occasionally produced top-notch herbs, but the count was always painfully small. The high-grade herbs' value depended not just on scarcity but also on their potency and how they fared under the brutal apocalyptic conditions.
In this era, such specimens were like national treasures. They were the pandas of the botanical world: rare, precious, and fragile.
So now, when this judge suddenly declared all the herbs in the Wu City booth to be high-grade, the room fell into a stunned silence. What did that even mean? Was he trying to play favorites so blatantly? Even bias had its limits.
"What kind of herbs are we talking about?" someone whispered.
"Bodhi," another replied, their voice tight. "You know how rare Bodhi has become these days."
"Even if it's Bodhi, how can every single one of them be high-grade?"
A crowd of pharmacists from other associations gathered around the perimeter of the Wu City booth, their faces full of suspicion and disbelief. Some clearly came just to see what kind of so-called high-grade herbs could make the judges so generous with their scores.
Minister Zhao didn't stop them. He even let out a long sigh and brought out the Bodhi samples for them to see. "Take a look for yourselves. Even before the apocalypse, this would have counted as high-grade material. Smell it. Look at the color. You all know herbs; you can tell the difference."
The herbs were passed around carefully. Gasps rippled through the crowd as the pharmacists touched the leaves. Growing food in the apocalypse was already a struggle, let alone cultivating herbs that demanded even harsher conditions and longer growth times. Normally, just keeping them alive for a few years was considered a major achievement.
But Bodhi trees weren't really considered medicinal before the world fell apart; they were more like decorative plants. Under normal conditions, it only took four months for them to reach medicinal maturity. Yet the ones grown in these dark days had lost much of their vitality. Their medicinal potency usually dropped sharply, barely scraping the threshold for use.
That was why seeing these vibrant, energy-filled Bodhi specimens left the pharmacists genuinely shocked. They had thought Wu City just had a big batch of Bodhi, nothing special. But these were on another level entirely. The quality was far too good.
The onlookers fell silent as they realized the gap between their own harvests and this display. Minister Zhao only smiled faintly, saying nothing more. There was something even more shocking he hadn't revealed yet. None of them knew that these high-grade Bodhi herbs could perfectly suppress the fifth-generation parasitic infections. That fact alone was enough to completely crush the countless trials and failures the others had gone through this past month while trying to find a cure or a substitute.
Inwardly, Minister Zhao was practically shouting. If it weren't for the rules, he would just announce right now that this batch of Bodhi was the champion. He didn't even want to waste another minute on the formal proceedings. The sooner this wrapped up, the more lives they could save.
Of course, having the raw Bodhi was only the first step. Even if it perfectly suppressed the parasites, the following extraction and refinement processes were long and complicated. With the current post-apocalyptic equipment available to the general public, actual production would be a nightmare.
Jing Shu's method of crushing the Bodhi straight into liquid was simply reckless: a total waste of medicinal potency. Even with a large batch like this, every leaf needed to be refined and extracted multiple times to squeeze out every drop of its essence.
What Jing Shu didn't know was that Minister Zhao wasn't the only one feeling anxious. Chief Judge Zhang, standing nearby, had been dying to speak up several times but held back. He forced a smile as he nodded along with everything Minister Zhao said. Inwardly, though, he was screaming for them to hurry up.
Wu City hadn't just brought Bodhi, of course. Dozens of pharmacists had submitted other herbs for evaluation as well. Minister Zhao rattled off grades quickly for the recorders. "Mid-grade," "Medicinal," "Qualified." He sped through them at a suspicious pace.
Anyone could see he wasn't taking the other herbs seriously. But Jing Shu noticed something else: Minister Zhao was actually bumping up the grades for some of the other Wu City herbs. Was this his way of currying favor with her?
Plenty of others noticed the inflation, but what could they do? It didn't change the final results. The giant screen already showed that Wu City's high-grade herbs filled more than half the list. They didn't even need to check the rest of the crates; Wu City's score was already dozens of times higher than second place.
What was even the point of playing the game anymore?
Usually, the second round was the most exciting and the fiercest part of the competition. Every time the rankings changed on the digital board, the crowd would erupt in cheers. You would see rare herbs like ginseng or Lingzhi pop up, always high-grade and always drawing intense attention.
But this time? No one even bothered reporting each individual find. How could they, when Minister Zhao hadn't just declared an entire batch as high-grade in one go? Wu City had basically locked in first place on the spot.
Everyone else was fuming in silence. "Was our preparation that bad? Did we just bring the wrong herbs for the judges?"
This round felt pointless and suffocatingly slow. That was the general mood among the other provincial associations as they packed their inferior displays.
Seeing that Minister Zhao was nearly done with the Wu City booth, the other judges hurried to finish their own assessments too. They barely glanced at the herbs in the other booths, gave quick verdicts, and wrapped it up. After all, if the winner was already decided, what was the point of wasting time in the cold?
Finally, Chief Judge Zhang stood up. He was trembling slightly but looked full of excitement. "Now, I officially announce the end of the second round! The rankings are displayed on the main screen. We will proceed immediately to the final round!"
He spoke as he walked, waving the others to follow him. The entire judging team left the hall together in a hurried pack.
Everyone stared after them, utterly confused by the sudden exit.
Xiao Ai hurried up to the stage with a nervous smile. "Come on, everyone, follow me! We are starting the third round. Oh, that's right; I forgot to mention that the next part won't be held here in the hall."
"Bring your meal kits and follow us to the transports. Lights and cameras, keep rolling!"
"What is the third round about?"
"Why isn't it held here?"
"Maybe it'll be interesting! Wu City crushed us this round, but if the next one isn't about herb quality, we might still have a shot at a prize."
"Forget first place. We can still fight for second. The reward is decent even if it doesn't include that mysterious crimson energy. What a pity, though."
The group didn't have to walk far. They didn't have to walk far. They loaded their gear onto the waiting transport trucks and moved in a large, shivering crowd toward a site beside the Capital Pharmacist Association. Only then did they realize it was an abandoned stadium.
The air around the concrete structure was thick with a foul stench, sharp enough to make the pharmacists gag. Jing Shu instantly recognized the smell; it was the same sweet, rot-tinged odor she had caught that morning.
"What is this place?" someone asked, covering their nose.
"This is where the Capital keeps patients heavily infected by parasites," another replied grimly. "Until a new medicine is developed, they are all just... waiting here."
Waiting to die.
Those who couldn't hold on any longer would be hauled off to the crematorium. That was the brutal reality of it all.