After reaching the seventh floor, Henry Clark counted and found there were a total of eighteen cultivation rooms. Henry Clark quickly figured out on his own that as long as the red light at the entrance of a cultivation room was on, it meant someone was cultivating inside. If the light at the door was off, it meant the room was empty. Clearly, very few people cultivated on the seventh floor—only three cultivation rooms had their red lights on, while the rest had none.

Henry Clark tried inserting his wooden token into the slot at the entrance of an empty cultivation room, and the stone door of the room automatically retracted. Immediately, Henry Clark saw the inside of the cultivation room. This room was also quite spacious, and it was divided into two sections.

The outer section was like a small training ground. It was unclear what kind of spells had been practiced here, but the ground was a mess, with some traces of fire. The inner section seemed to be a resting area, with a wooden bed.

Henry Clark exited this cultivation room and went to check the others. These cultivation rooms were more or less the same—either there were puddles of water on the floor, or various burn marks, and some were littered with withered plant vines.

After a general look, Henry Clark already knew what his job was: he was supposed to clean the empty cultivation rooms every day. To put it bluntly, he was now a janitor.

After making a round, Henry Clark found his own living quarters in a corner of the seventh floor—a tiny stone hut just a few square meters in size. Like Old Parker, he lived in a small stone hut, but his was not even a tenth the size of Old Parker's.

Inside the small stone hut, besides a bed, there were a few cleaning tools: a huge broom, an iron shovel, and a dustpan. These three items took up a tenth of the hut's space.

Henry Clark actually felt relieved; at least he had a place to stay. Although this was in the bustling cultivation tower, it was relatively secluded. The only thing he was eager to find out was where he could eat and wash up.

He didn't dare go ask Old Parker, nor did he want to face that gloomy, unpredictable face. Instead, he went to the small stone hut on the sixth floor, which was also for cleaning cultivation rooms. After knocking on the stone door, a tall, skinny man, even thinner than himself, appeared.

Seeing the man's impatient expression, Henry Clark quickly and politely asked, "I'm new here and now cleaning the cultivation rooms on the seventh floor. Could you tell me where to eat?"

"Who told you that those who clean the cultivation rooms get to eat?" the tall, skinny man replied disdainfully, then slammed the stone door shut.

Chapter 0008: Qi Gathering Level Three

Henry Clark hadn't expected such a bad attitude just for asking a question. He could only prepare to go down to the fifth floor to ask. The sixth floor was much larger than the seventh, and occasionally he could see people entering or leaving the cultivation rooms. Unlike the seventh floor, where you could hardly see anyone coming or going.

"Wait a moment." At the stairway, someone called out to Henry Clark.

"Are you talking to me?" Henry Clark turned around and saw a young man a few years older than himself, apparently just coming out of a cultivation room. This young man had much darker skin than Henry Clark, and a smile at the corner of his mouth, clearly meaning no harm.

Henry Clark knew that any of these cultivating students had a much higher status than a handyman like himself. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he had no intention of asking such people anything, nor did he plan to talk much with them. In the Cang Qin Kingdom, students who could enter this academy were mostly from extraordinary backgrounds—no matter who they were, Henry Clark couldn't afford to offend them.

"I just heard what you said. You must be the one cleaning the cultivation rooms, right?" the young man said directly.

Henry Clark quickly replied, "Yes, it's my first day here. I don't know where to eat, so I came to ask."

"Not only do you not know where to eat, it seems you also don't know the rules here. Remember this: handymen are not allowed to use the main staircase. If you're caught by some students or enforcers, you'll be in big trouble—if not dead, you'll at least lose a layer of skin."

Hearing this, Henry Clark was shocked. He had just come down from the seventh floor using the main staircase. And Julia Foster hadn't told him that the main staircase was off-limits! If this really was a rule and the young man hadn't warned him, he might have been in serious danger.

"Thank you for telling me, otherwise I would have been in trouble," Henry Clark said gratefully.

The young man smiled, "It's nothing. I used to clean the cultivation rooms too. After seven years, I finally reached Qi Gathering Level Two, and the academy took notice of me and made me an official disciple. Now I'm at Qi Gathering Level Four. Work hard—maybe one day you'll be like me. Remember, from now on, you can only enter and exit the cultivation tower through the side doors."

With that, the young man pointed to a very hidden small door. "That's the side door. Every floor has one. Once you go in, you can go straight to the back of the cultivation tower. There's a place to eat behind the tower, but you have to pay for your own meals. Whatever you do, don't go to Old Parker—otherwise, you're dead for sure. Good luck."

After saying this, the young man didn't give his name and went down the stairs on his own.

Henry Clark knew the other party had no intention of getting to know him. But just by giving him these pointers, it was as if he had saved his life. Henry Clark felt extremely grateful to this young man.