Task Board!

Once the task board opened, the elder elders and core disciples who had coveted it for so long sprang into action.

In barely a moment, more than half the disciples on the island had come to register for tasks.

Though the rest had yet to arrive, they were already hurrying over, afraid of missing this opportunity.

The fervor of the scene left high-ranking figures like Nuwa and Fuxi dumbfounded.

"Hmm?"

Tongtian gave a soft snort, his gaze suddenly drawn toward a group of figures.

No, more precisely, three women.

They were the San Xiao sisters whom he had taken in outside the island years ago.

While the other disciples were still hesitating over whether to exchange for those mysterious opportunity tasks, torn between temptation and the pain of spending contribution points,

the three of them acted decisively, without the slightest hesitation, investing every bit of contribution they had accumulated over the years.

In an instant, three golden rays flew from the task board and descended upon them.

The three sisters immediately beamed with joy.

Without even exchanging greetings, they turned and hurriedly left Three Immortal Islands.

The other disciples looked at one another, uncertain and hesitant. In the end, they could only grit their teeth and hold back for the time being.

Clearly, they intended to wait and see.

If San Xiao gained something, they would follow immediately. If the sisters suffered losses, they would save themselves the expense.

Tongtian saw through their petty thoughts and merely shook his head inwardly.

His attention was entirely fixed on the three sisters.

Before long, following the guidance that surfaced in their minds, the three arrived at the edge of the East Sea.

As they looked at the frail, powerless humans before them, who seemed as though a gust of wind could knock them over, surprise flashed in the three women's eyes.

They exchanged glances, then each chose one person.

Their delicate hands rose, jade-like fingertips pointing at the foreheads of the three humans as their clear voices rang out:

"From this day onward, you shall be the Youchao clan, overseeing the construction of homes and nests to shield people from wind, rain, insects, and snakes."

"You shall be the Suiren clan, governing the fire of the mortal world. Drill wood to make fire and drive away raw food and stench."

"You shall be the Ziyi clan, responsible for making clothes and weaving cloth, so that the Human Race need no longer suffer naked in the cold."

Hearing this, the three hurriedly knelt and kowtowed, overwhelmed with gratitude.

"Many thanks to the three immortal elders for your gift!"

After the rites, the Youchao clan immediately led a group of tribespeople to fell trees and gather materials.

Ancient towering trees crashed to the ground one after another, then were carved into timber and planks.

In no time, with everyone working together, a simple wooden house rose from the ground.

Golden light suddenly appeared in the sky as the power of merit poured down and entered the Youchao clan's body.

In the blink of an eye,

the mortal, who had possessed no cultivation at all, saw his aura rise steadily. It was as though he had ascended upon clouds, reaching the realm of Grand Unity Golden Immortal in an instant.

Yunxiao, watching quietly from afar, also received a thread of merit.

With a light flick of her hand, she gathered the golden light into her sleeve.

On Suiren's side, he too led his tribespeople in attempting to make fire.

Not long afterward, the same golden light descended, helping him break through to Grand Unity Golden Immortal in one stroke.

As for Ziyi, she gathered several women and used grass stalks and hemp thread to weave coarse cloth and sew garments.

Before long, she too rose to the same realm under the empowerment of merit.

Following their elder sister's example, Bixiao and Qiongxiao did not immediately refine their merit. Instead, they waved their hands and sealed it away.

Just then,

the successive heavenly phenomena drew the Divine Sense of countless powerful beings.

When they saw that the cause was these few humans, the great powers of every faction wore varied and inscrutable expressions.

Nearly the same thought arose in all their hearts:

Nuwa had attained the Dao through creating humans and gained immeasurable merit. That was understandable.

But now, San Xiao had merely taught them to build houses, make fires, and wear clothes, yet they too had drawn the reward of heaven and earth?

Could it be... that the Human Race truly was a bloodline especially favored by the Heavenly Dao?

The moment that thought surfaced, everyone's hearts trembled. They hurriedly restrained their minds, not daring to think further.

"Elder Sister, what is so special about these humans? How can we gain such great benefits just by casually doing a few things?"

Bixiao held the power of merit in her hand, unable to hide her delight, yet filled with questions.

She truly could not understand—

These humans were so weak that a breath could blow them over. Why could they stir heavenly secrets and earn the favor of the Heavenly Dao?

What exactly was the reason behind this?

And could the sudden opening of the task board also be inseparable from these humans?

Could it be that we were not simply lucky, but that this had long been arranged by fate?

"I do not understand either." Yunxiao frowned and pondered for a long time, yet could not make sense of it.

In the end, she could only sigh softly. "But since the task board has given us guidance, we should simply follow it.

The Sect Master would not deceive us."

"Thinking about it, we really were fortunate to encounter the Sect Master when we took form."

Qiongxiao spoke softly, her voice carrying a trace of lingering fear.

Who could have imagined—

Had the sisters been born alone in the wilderness back then, without anyone to protect them,

they might still be trapped at the initial Taiyi stage today, unable to advance any further,

or perhaps they would have long since become the slaves and playthings of others, at the mercy of anyone's whims...

Time flowed like water, slipping away in silence.

Deep within the secret chamber,

the qi around Tongtian surged without end, as though some transformation was brewing.

A profound and unfathomable aura quietly coiled around Tongtian, like mist and smoke, both illusory and real.

Had anyone else been present, they would surely have been shocked pale.

That indescribable mystery seemed to conceal his entire figure within the Great Dao.

Spiritual Sense alone could not catch even a trace of him.

Only by seeing him with one's own eyes could one confirm his existence.

Against the backdrop of that mysterious bearing, he seemed like the Great Dao itself given human form.

Every movement of his hands and feet conformed to heavenly principles, as though a single glance at him could bring one enlightenment into the true meaning of the Heavenly Dao.

Suddenly, the endlessly churning qi paused slightly.

Immediately afterward, an even more majestic power surged forth from within him.

In an instant, terrifying pressure swept in every direction, and the surrounding void shattered inch by inch into countless fine cracks.

Fierce astral winds howled through the spatial rifts like ten thousand roaring dragons, tearing apart heaven and earth.

Yet no matter how wildly the storm raged, Tongtian remained immovable.

His robes did not flutter, nor was a single strand of hair disturbed, as though he stood in another world entirely.

Only when heaven and earth returned to silence and space became whole once more did those violent winds dissipate feebly into nothingness like kites with severed strings.

Feeling the explosive growth of power within him, Tongtian slowly opened his eyes.

Though he had only broken through a minor realm, the difference was as vast as heaven and earth.

At this moment, the strength of his physical body was already sufficient to directly contend with a High-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure.

If he cultivated in seclusion for a while longer, he might even be able to confront a top-grade spiritual treasure head-on.

Even more astonishingly, every movement he made seemed natural and flawless, as though in harmony with the rhythm of heaven and earth, concealing endless Dao charm.

"The third level of Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal alone possesses such might."

"If I truly cultivate to the Peak of the Twelfth Level, what kind of realm would that be?"

With a soft sigh, Tongtian restrained his aura and stepped out of his Closed Door Meditation chamber.

With a shift of thought, his Spiritual Sense instantly enveloped all of Three Immortal Islands, bringing every sight into his grasp.

To his slight surprise, the island was now exceedingly bustling.

Within a radius of countless trillions of miles outside Three Immortal Islands, several tens of billions of cultivators had gathered, arriving in an endless stream.

This was because the date of Nuwa Opening the Altar to Preach the Dao was drawing near, and cultivators came flocking from all directions.

More than half of them had set their hearts on the Interception Sect, hoping Tongtian would use this opportunity to recruit disciples on a grand scale once again.

Tongtian merely smiled faintly and did not take it to heart.

He had long since made plans for accepting disciples a second time.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it would take place after the Witch-Demon Calamity came to an end.

By then, the Human Race would truly rise and command the fortune of heaven and earth.

It was not because he had been human in his previous life that he deliberately favored them. Rather, compared to the other races of the Primordial Wilderness, he simply valued the Human Race more highly.

The reason was none other than their innate Dao Body.

The Human Race was a race born in accordance with destiny, naturally possessing an innate Dao Body and closeness to the Great Dao Origin.

Their cultivation speed was enough to leave ninety-nine percent of great powers dumbstruck.

Moreover, they did not need to consume vast resources. Their natural talent alone allowed them to advance by leaps and bounds.

Combined with their astonishing reproductive ability and rapid population growth,

it was easy to foresee that, with the system's feedback in the future, his cultivation speed would soar geometrically.

In the later stages, it might even be possible for him to advance one realm per day.

Tongtian lightly pressed his lips together, reined in his wandering thoughts, and turned his attention to the task board.

After San Xiao had set an example and tasted the benefits, the disciples eagerly began accepting special opportunity tasks.

Over nearly three thousand years, the benefits they had reaped from the Human Race were impossible to calculate.

Merit flowed into the Interception Sect in wave after wave like a rising tide.

This nearly heaven-defying cycle made countless Old Ancestors of the Primordial Wilderness green with envy.

Under their support, both the Human Race's living conditions and rate of reproduction became hundreds or thousands of times better than in the original course of events.

In merely three thousand years, their population had exploded from the initial 129,600 to more than a billion.

And that number was still skyrocketing every day.

Naturally, none of this was possible without Tongtian's careful arrangements before entering Closed Door Meditation.

After San Xiao completed their tasks, their brother Zhao Gongming immediately accepted a new mission.

Besides continuing to help the Human Race improve their lives and accumulate merit, Tongtian had also imposed an additional requirement:

A single idea had to be widely spread throughout the Human Race—

Have more children and plant more trees.

This simple yet immensely powerful idea spread through the entirety of Human Race society.

Furthermore, the Human Race of the Primordial Wilderness possessed constitutions far superior to those of later generations, with astonishing fertility.

For a time, a craze for "making babies" swept through the Human Race, and their rate of reproduction was truly terrifying.

Countless beings of the Primordial Wilderness stared in disbelief. In private, they could not help smacking their lips in amazement, even secretly giving the Human Race the title of "masters of the breeding Dao."

That was because the methods for accumulating merit among the Human Race were simply too plentiful.

Nourished by the power of merit, the overall strength of the Interception Sect's disciples forcibly rose by nearly twenty percent.

This increase directly gave everyone in the Interception Sect a subtle misconception regarding cultivation realms below Grand Unity Golden Immortal—as though those barriers were merely thresholds they could cross with a raised hand.

Just as Tongtian was quite satisfied with his disciples' progress, news of Nuwa Opening the Altar to Preach the Dao spread throughout the Primordial Wilderness.

Several tens of billions of cultivators moved at the news, rushing toward Three Immortal Islands in a mad scramble.

But not long after setting foot on the island, they were left stunned by the sight before them.

Taiyi cultivators were as common as ordinary foot soldiers, while Grand Unity Golden Immortals could be seen everywhere.

In an instant, the same sentence involuntarily surfaced in everyone's minds:

Taiyi were worth less than dogs; Grand Unity Golden Immortals walked everywhere.

Silence!

Deathly silence!

The scene that had just been deafeningly noisy and filled with rolling waves of voices fell completely silent in an instant.

Three breaths later, the sounds of sharp inhales rose and fell like a tide, echoing across the land.

Shock!

Utter, unparalleled shock!

How long had it been since the Interception Sect's last disciple recruitment ceremony?

How had these disciples all experienced such explosive growth in cultivation, as though they had swallowed heaven-defying divine medicine?

Countless cultivators were filled with suspicion, their eyes bulging so wide they nearly popped out of their sockets before they fell into fervor.

They looked like a group of lost believers who had finally seen the light after being trapped in darkness for ages, their eyes blazing and their minds aflame.

At this moment, only one thought remained in their minds:

They had to join the Interception Sect!

No matter what methods they had to use!

Even if they had to kneel and beg, weep bitterly, and howl in despair, they had to force their way in!