(POV Luo Ning)
After Lee Shun passed out, Luo Ning looked at Long Aotian.
Seeing a fellow inner disciple with no shame pissed off Luo Ning. After he tried to attack the garden, she couldn't sit back and let two outer disciple fight for her.
"Mr. Gunn, it is my duty to protect this place too. Please let me face him."
She looked at the Gardener, pleading with him to let her fight. He nodded and executed the sixth strike toward Long Aotian.
When their two swords met, sparks flew.
"Luo Ning, I don't want to fight you. I'm here to show these outer sect disciples that there is an order to things."
She could tell he held back for her from the power of when their two swords clashed.
"The garden is my duty, and so are those two."
"Well, they shamed my family and now harmed my brother. I can't just let them off," Long Chen retorted. He was visibly angry.
The two began to fight for real, using the same strikes to parry each other. Both were proficient in the Eight strikes of the Hua Sect.
(POV Long Aotian)
He was livid at the audacity of this female. First, his brother gets beaten by a low-level nobody. Then some Qi Condensation Oldman makes a mockery of him. Now the sect's princess was embarrassing him.
After using all eight strikes, his adversary Luo Ning blocked each one with the same attack. Did this mean she was more skillful than him?
"Stop fighting this once!"
A frightening loud voice boomed on the mountain top. Long Aotian looked up and saw a golden-robed man floating in the air.
Long Aotian almost crapped himself seeing the man. This man was Luo Ning's master. His beard and hair flowed in the wind, but the stare he gave Long Aotian told him he was in trouble.
"Luo Ning, are you hurt?" the elder in the air asked.
"No, master." She responded.
He then turned to Long Aotian. "For attacking a fellow inner disciple, wounding outer disciples, and trying to damage sect property, I invoke the authority given to me by the sect. You are banished."
Each word beat down on his soul. Over a dispute caused by his little brother, he was now banished. He looked at Long Chen and thought, what a worthless worm. Long Chen looked back through the pain with regret and sorrow.
The more he thought about it, the more it pissed him off. He gave everything for this sect. Now it has abandoned him.
He looked at Luo Ning, who was a few feet away, and came up with the perfect idea.
Walking over to Luo Ning, Long Aotian bowed and said," Luo Ning, I'm here to apologize before I leave."
She didn't understand but accepted his apology. "Thank you, Long Aotian."
Seeing him apologize, the elder lowered his guard and floated to the ground.
An 8th strike so fast pierced Luo Ning's heart. Fresh blood splashed the ground.
"Hah hah ha ha..." Laughed Long Aotian. Seeing his plan a success. "You thought you could banish me, Long Aotian. Now you lost your precious disciple, dear elder."
Long Aotian beamed with accomplishment. He knew the elder wouldn't kill him as his family would go to war with the academy over his death. He gets the final laugh.
"As a plant's roots dig through the ground, so does the dragon soar. Final Strike."
Hearing the nonsense behind him, the smug Long Aotian turned and saw his executioner. The Gardener released his 5th and final strike—a down vertical strike.
A strike very similar to one in Lee Shun's Dragon Weed book if he were awake to see it.
The elder watched as Gunn's sword strike cut Long Aotian in half, killing the poor boy before anything could be done.
Long Aotian begged for his family to save him, but death was the only thing that embraced him.