"The Chief Steward, you must be joking. Cultivation costs so much money every day, I'm so poor I can barely scrape by. Who knows how many years it'll be before I can get married. Chief Steward, what tasks are there today?"

Charles Bennett scratched his head with a smile.

Manager Thompson nodded, casually flipping through the register of odd jobs in his hand, and said, "There are quite a few odd jobs in the academy today. You can pick one first! The main kitchen, fetching water, chopping firewood, tending the vegetable garden, guarding the gate, night patrol, sweeping the courtyards, clearing leaves from the rooftops inside and outside the academy, weeding the grounds—each job pays from ten to several dozen copper coins. Which one do you want to do today?"

There were many odd jobs in the Northern Slope Academy, and they would hire poor students to do them, providing support for their cultivation.

Charles Bennett had been at the academy for nearly ten years, collecting these odd jobs every day, and all the money he earned was spent on buying herbs for cultivation to temper his body. But as his cultivation gradually improved, the copper coins earned from ordinary odd jobs became too little.

"Chief Steward, I've reached the fourth level of the Body Refining stage today and have entered the Upper Academy. I need more money to buy herbs for cultivation. Which job pays the most? You know best, Chief Steward, please assign one to me!"

Charles Bennett said expectantly.

"You've reached the fourth level of the Body Refining stage? ... There's a new job at the academy that can earn quite a bit of silver. This job was originally meant for the academy's teachers, not for students. However, now that you're a student of the Upper Academy, your status is close to that of the teachers, so it's fine for you to do it."

Manager Thompson looked surprised, then pondered and spoke.

"Thank you, Chief Steward! Just give the order!"

Charles Bennett was overjoyed.

He had a strong desire to cultivate and become stronger, but this required money to buy herbs for tempering his body.

"The academy recently purchased a batch of old books from all over the Wu Kingdom—several wagonloads, nearly ten thousand volumes, all piled up in the old book storage of the library."

"These old books were bought from small bookstores and declining families across the land. They need to be sorted and categorized. Many of them are damaged, some are even incomplete or useless. The ones that can be sorted should be sorted, the ones that should be discarded should be thrown away."

"This is an extremely tedious task, so the academy has allocated a sum of silver to hire people to organize these books. I'll give you one month to clean up these books, with a daily wage of one tael of silver."

"This is the odd job token. Take it to Steward Walker at the library to get the key to the old book storage."

Manager Thompson handed a token to Charles Bennett.

"Thank you, Chief Steward! I will complete the task within a month as required."

Charles Bennett excitedly took the token, almost cheering with joy.

This was the largest single payment and the longest job he had ever taken.

"No way, one tael of silver a day? Such a good job was snatched up by Senior Brother Charles Bennett! If I'd known, I would've come earlier to get in line!" "Forget it, he's an Upper Academy student, only they are qualified to take on the task of organizing the book storage. We're all Lower Academy students, we don't even qualify!"

The Lower Academy students waiting in line behind to receive odd jobs from Manager Thompson all stared wide-eyed, almost shouting out in jealousy.

Ordinary odd jobs in the academy only paid a few dozen copper coins a day, at most not more than a hundred. A job like organizing the old book storage, earning a tael of silver a day—equivalent to a thousand copper coins—had never happened before.

And it could be done for a whole month, earning a total of thirty taels of silver.

For the poor students in the academy, this was simply a huge gift.

Of course, Charles Bennett had come to the Northern Slope Academy at the age of five, stayed for ten years, and done odd jobs for a full decade, which was how he built such a relationship with Manager Thompson. Otherwise, Manager Thompson would never have entrusted such an important job to Charles Bennett.

……

"Steward Walker, I have been ordered to come and organize the books in the old book storage."

Charles Bennett took the odd job token and went to the academy library to find Steward Walker.

There was only one library in the Northern Slope Academy.

Inside were vast collections of literature, military, geography, and history records from the Wu Kingdom, as well as the most precious martial arts manuals.

Borrowing books from the library required a fee per volume. The basic martial arts on the lower floors were relatively cheap. The advanced martial arts on the upper floors were outrageously expensive. There were quite a few guards inside and outside the library, with late-stage Body Refining experts stationed there to prevent theft.

Charles Bennett rarely borrowed books here, unwilling to spend the copper coins.

Below the library, there was also an old book storage. Inside were many unsorted, tattered books, but ordinary people couldn't enter; the key to the old book storage was kept by Steward Walker, who managed the library.

"Why did Manager Thompson send a student to organize the books? ... Forget it, since Manager Thompson sent you, just get to work."

Steward Walker knew there was probably something fishy going on. Hiring a teacher and hiring a student for the job paid very different rates, sometimes several times apart. Manager Thompson was probably using this as an excuse to pocket some silver for himself, but he couldn't very well block Manager Thompson's source of income.

Chapter 3: The Ancient Painting Scroll

"Here is the key to the old book storage. Be careful when organizing!"

Steward Walker took out a key and handed it to Charles Bennett.

"Yes!"

Charles Bennett took the yellowish key.