Colorful flags fluttered across the courtyard of Qingniu Medical Hall. Huwa stood atop a makeshift high platform, wearing a "suit of armor" woven from garlic skins and coptis leaves, waving a glowing "anti-epidemic command banner," and shouting at the top of his lungs, "Attention, city! Today we're having a cross-industry showdown to beat those dysentery bacteria black and blue with pure creativity! The winning team gets a garlic-scented whole lamb feast at Xiaotao Eatery!"
The crowd below instantly erupted. Dawa, an apprentice from Tibet, led the charge with a team of yaks. The yaks were draped with prayer-wheel-shaped sterilizers that scattered Tibetan herbal incense powder with every spin. Master Kim, the apprentice from Silla, brought his "arithmetic combat squad," whose members marched proudly behind shields engraved with epidemic prevention formulas from *The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art*. The most eye-catching of all, however, was the "Garlic Mantou Legion" from Xiaotao Eatery. Dozens of workers pushed giant mantou battle wagons equipped with loudspeakers that blasted a slogan recorded by Huwa on an endless loop: "Eat my mantou, and all diseases will vanish from you!"
The cross-industry duel events were delightfully bizarre. In the "spit-into-the-spittoon soccer match," players had to kick a small ball into a moving spittoon goal. One burly man got so overexcited that he booted the ball straight into the Protagonist's medicine chest, making the Protagonist b…
Chapter 530