Hearing Su Tao’s words that came from the bottom of his heart, Yue Zun remained silent for a long time before he sighed and smiled. “I’m getting old. When I was young, I also had the same thoughts as you. Why do doctors from China have to be ranked lower than others on the international platform? It was also because of that, I’ve kept forcing myself to keep learning. Now that I think about it, my previous choice might be wrong. I actually doubted TCM, the treasure that was left to us by our forefathers.”

Su Tao was briefly stunned since he never expected that Yue Zun would tell him about this story through the phone.

“Every medical study has its own advantage. There are many things that TCM can learn from western medicine. Now that western medicine has reigned supremacy throughout the globe, this is the best testimonial.” Su Tao briefly paused before he continued, “I want TCM to gain a position in the international medical study field, and not allow TCM to decline because of the thriving western medicine. Especially for Chinese, we should imprint the study of TCM into their bones.”

“Although western medicine doctors like us have made achievements and written many theories, we still ultimately failed to grab a hold of the spirit of China’s medical study.” Yue Zun said with complicated feelings. When he was talking with Su Tao, he even felt ashamed.

This had nothing to do with one’s age or experience. It was because Su Tao had said the thoughts of many people. Most people would choose to learn western medicine as their first choice since it’s easier for them to get a job with western medicine. Furthermore, it’s also easier to learn compared to TCM.

“Martial Uncle, I will apologise to everyone when I return, but I must cause havoc in this Chinese Medicine Discussion. I’m not only doing this for myself but for the future of Chinese medicine as well.” Su Tao smiled.

He had thought it through. If he could prove the legitimacy of TCM through this Chinese Medicine Discussion, it could be used as a foundation for him to establish his own Chinese medicine factory.

“Go ahead and cause havoc. Not only must you cause havoc, but you also must be the focus of attention!” Yue Zun made up his mind and decided to bear the pressure for Su Tao in the Central Healthcare Committee.

Although many people were criticising Su Tao in the organisation, Yue Zun understood his character and personality through their interactions. Su Tao definitely wasn’t like the rumours said, someone who would flatter Japan’s royal clan and be bribed.

The call from Yue Zun came at the right timing. Su Tao quickly looked around before he inwardly sighed. It seemed like he had underestimated this Chinese Medicine Discussion. There were many snitches from China.

Kim Jung-ho bumped Su Tao with his elbow and reminded, “The host is announcing now. The competition will start soon.”

Su Tao was briefly stunned. When he saw Amaki Hamasaki walking to the stage, he sighed and smiled. “I’ll get going as well.”

Amaki Hamasaki stood alongside Su Tao and the host passed the mic to Amaki Hamasaki, signaling for him to say something.

Amaki Hamasaki smiled and said, “I have to thank my competitor. He gave me an opportunity to prove the worth of TCM. My master, Mamoru Onizuka, had once lamented for TCM. TCM originated from China, but it was brought to a great height in other countries instead. His greatest wish was to meet famous physicians from China like Hua Tuo, Bian Que, and Zhang Zhongjing. But truth be told, I wanted to tell my master that China can no longer develop such talents. In our hands, TCM can achieve more development and benefit humanity.”

There’s a translator following behind Su Tao. Although Amaki Hamasaki’s words were translated to him, he wasn’t angry. After all, he had already known the arrogance of this fellow, so he couldn’t be bothered.

Facing such an arrogant person, the best method was to slap his face using actions to let him have a taste of courting humiliation.

There were five to six hundred people present, and most of them were Japanese. Su Tao’s mood was calm. He knew that he could only win their respect with his actions.

After handing the mic to Su Tao, the host asked, “Mr. Su, do you have something to say?”

In the host’s view, Su Tao was only here as a supporting character.

“There’s nothing for me to say. I will prove with my ability that what Amaki Hamasaki said was nothing but a load of crap.” Su Tao calmly said.

Instantly, the atmosphere beneath the stage was sparked and a commotion broke out in the surroundings.

“Why is this Chinese physician so arrogant at such a young age?”

“Amaki Hamasaki is a talent in the Chinese medicine industry, so why did he pick someone so rude as his opponent?”

“This is only a performance, so there’s no need to treat it seriously. The other party is only acting as Amaki Hamasaki’s supporting character. We’ll just have to watch how Amaki Hamasaki teaches him a lesson!”

Because of Su Tao’s young age and the fact that the majority of the people here were merchants, they had no idea about Su Tao’s identity. Truthfully speaking, it was Amaki Hamasaki who challenged Su Tao. Su Tao was a National Healer from China, while Amaki Hamasaki’s identity as the Seto Clan’s Imperial Physician wasn’t confirmed. So in terms of status, Amaki Hamasaki was slightly inferior to Su Tao.

The host announced that the competition would be separated into three rounds, and whoever obtained two out of three would emerge victorious.

“Before the competition starts, do you guys have anything else to add?” The host smiled as she looked at Amaki Hamasaki.

“The loser will retire from the TCM industry. I wonder if he has the guts to take the bet?” Amaki Hamasaki continued to apply pressure.

After listening to the translation, Su Tao laughed, “I will retire from the TCM industry if I lose. But if he loses, he just has to retire from the Chinese medicine industry.”

Su Tao’s request might seem more generous, but if Amaki Hamasaki was to retire from the Chinese medicine industry, it would be the same as giving up his profession. In Japan, purely being a physician had no prospects.

“Good, I accept the bet!” Amaki Hamasaki replied with a cold gaze.

“The first round will be the recognition of herbs. We will provide medicines that are awaiting approval for the two participants to differentiate. They’re required to differentiate the ingredients and the medical books they were taken from. Not only do they have to differentiate the composition of the ingredients, but they also have to provide the amount used. Naturally, to increase the difficulty, there will be ten Chinese medicines provided, and our two participants must provide the answers in ten minutes. The one with the highest accuracy will be the victor of this round.”

Listening to the explanation, Su Tao sighed. This competition being held during the Chinese Medicine Discussion was genuinely related to Chinese medicine, just as he had guessed.

For Amaki Hamasaki, he had the advantage of this round.

There was a difference between Chinese medicine produced in modern days compared to the traditional used Chinese medicine since they had been processed into different forms such as medicinal pellet, powdered medicine, medicine to be taken after mixing in water, wine, tincture, and ointment.

And for medicinal pellets, there were also many varieties, such as honeyed, water-honeyed, water, paste, concentrated, and fine pellets.

If one was to differentiate them, they would have to rely on their experience. This was of no difficulty for Amaki Hamasaki. After all, he had been working in the Chinese medicine research facility for years, and he had an understanding of most of the Chinese medicine out there in the market. Although the host announced that the medicines were yet to be released in the market, it’s not difficult for Amaki Hamasaki to guess their composition with his experience.

On the other hand, Su Tao was definitely familiar with herbs since he owned TCM pharmacies, but it’d challenging for him to analyse the medications which were already made into forms.

Under the arrangement of the staff, there were two tables placed on the stage with small dishes on them. When Su Tao swept a glance at them, there were all sorts of medicine.

“The first round will now begin!” The host announced. Amaki Hamasaki stepped forth and picked up some powder to twirl it in his fingers before tasting it. Thereafter, he swiftly wrote down on the paper at a tremendous speed. He wrote it down in Japanese, but there would also be Chinese characters. It was due to the great influence that Japan received from Chinese characters that they even adopted it.

Roughly ten-odd seconds later, Amaki Hamasaki had already finished writing the recipe and composition of the first medicine to save time for him to differentiate the other medicines.

According to the planner of this segment, it’s impossible for anyone to provide all the answers to the Chinese medicine in ten minutes. If anyone could write down five of them, it could already be considered a decent achievement.

The reason Amaki Hamasaki wrote it down so hastily was because he already knew about the competition format beforehand. Although he did not know which medicines would be used, he had a rough scope of them after sorting them through the list of Chinese medicines that were waiting to be approved in recent years.

After he wrote down the first answer, he turned to look at Su Tao. He subconsciously locked his brows together and sneered since Su Tao did not write down the first answer, but he had already started examining the third one.

Is he going to try all the medicine before writing the answer?

Doesn't he know that it will waste more time to mix the medicine together?

Then again, there’s another possibility that Su Tao wasn’t confident with the first two medicines, so he skipped them. There’s a total of ten questions, so dealing with those he knew about first was also a competitive strategy.

This attitude was the same as school examinations, like how the teachers would often advise students to skip through the questions they couldn’t do first to ensure that the rest were correct. This was a strategy to obtain higher marks.

After composing himself, Amaki Hamasaki went on to try the second medicine. With his brows briefly locked together, he swiftly wrote down his answer for the second one.

However, Su Tao had yet to touch the pen and was already standing before the fifth medicine, tasting it with his tongue before going to the next medicine!