After defeating Long Xuefeng, Mei did not have to fight anyone else. Not a single person dared to go up on stage and lose face as Long Xuefeng did. Being a stage one qi gathering cultivator and losing so badly to a stage four body refinement cultivator was humiliating, to say the least. Long Xuefeng was not seriously hurt so once he recovered enough, he hurriedly ran away not wanting to face the other disciples.
Sect Master Li jumped up onto the battle stage calming the crowd down. "Since no one else is willing to fight Little Mei here then Mei wins! As of now, she will be accepted into the sect as Elder Bai's direct disciple! She will also have the status of Cloud Soarings Sect's Divine Phoenix."
These words made everyone go quiet. The title Divine Phoenix was no joke in the Cloud Soaring Sect. It was a position that only one female was able to hold until the day she left the sect or died. This title was even higher ranked above the elders and was only inferior to the Sect Masters title. No one would have thought that a stage four body refinement cultivator would have such a title. This caused a lot of the girls in the sect to look hatefully at Mei!
Both Bai Hong and Sect Master Li had decided on this. Because even though she had the title it did not mean someone else could not take it away from her. But there were strict rules to these guidelines. In order to challenge Mei for the title of Divine Phoenix, they have to be within ten stages of her cultivation. In other words, if a stage four qi gathering disciple wanted to challenge her they could but a fifth stage qi gathering disciple could not unless she was fifth stage body refinement.
The catch was she could only be challenged once a month and Mei could not refuse the challenge. All challenges must be made in the month. So no one could challenge ahead of time. No special artifacts were allowed in the fight as well. This was to make it fair for the one who held the title. It was tough enough jumping ten stages into the next realm as it is. But one thing was that Mei could schedule the fight at any time during the month. So she could at least try to increase her cultivation within that time. If Mei was injured then all challenges would be postponed.
Now, this sounded easy but there was one catch. If you challenged and won, you would become the next Divine Phoenix, but this also meant you would now need to defend your title. This was why normally the one carrying this title was never at such a low realm and was normally chosen out of the core disciples. But Sect Master Li never gave this title to any of the female disciples. And it had been almost three hundred years since the last Divine Phoenix, making this a very big deal.
A voice suddenly broke the silence from the crowd of disciples: "I wish to challenge her!" A female disciple with long black hair and thick eyebrows shouted out. This girl was named Han Xiulan and was a fourth stage qi gathering realmed cultivator, known to be a battle freak. Which was somewhat uncommon for most girls in the sect who normally only cultivated to gain longevity and eternal beauty. This was to say she was not the only female like this but a rarity to say the least.
"Oh? You wish to challenge her? " Sect Master Li's eyes lit up. He had seen this disciple fight before and knew she was good at battle. But this was the main reason why he was giving Mei this title as well. To force Mei to fight against strong opponents. It would help her with her cultivation in a huge way. This was also why Bai Hong was allowing it. He was hoping it would help her perfect her technique and allow her to break through to the next layer.
Sect master Li turned and Looked at Mei and asked: "When do you want to hold the match?"
Mei who was oblivious to what was going on, not knowing what this whole Divine Phoenix thing was about and was lost in thought thinking about it replied: "Huh? Now is good..." Without thinking much about it.
"Good! Good! So we will not hold the first Divine Phoenix battle! Mei against Han Xiulan!" Sect Master Li shouted.
Mei was still confused as to what was going on and only knew she had to fight someone a lot stronger now. Mei looked at the girl in front of her who showed no signs of arrogance instead what she showed was a strong will to battle. "Mei was it? My name is Han Xiulan, I don't care at all for some title, all I care about is fighting strong people. Although your cultivation is low, you are by no means weak and I respect you for that. I hope we can have a good battle."
Mei tilted her head to the side and asked: " Is there something special about this title thing?"
Han Xiulan let out a laugh and answered: "No matter win or lose I will explain it after our fight."
Hearing this Mei smiled, cupped her hands, and gave a slight bow. " Then I hope to have a good fight."
Han Xiulan did the same thing before saying excitedly: "Same!"
"Since everyone is ready, let the battle start!" Sect Master Li had to personally preside over this fight. For any Divine Phoenix fight, the sect master was the one who had to be in charge of it. This was to make sure no foul play happened during the fight. Like an elder siding with the higher realmed cultivator to take the title from a lower realm cultivator. These battles must be one hundred percent fair in all aspects except cultivation.
***
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