He performed his piece beautifully, and someone in the crowd shouted "Bravo!" which fueled his fighting spirit even more.

Lao Tan had just been ridiculed and needed to make a brilliant comeback to prove himself, so he was the first to go on stage.

Xue Shen looked at him, politely extended his hand, and said, "Please."

Before he could finish speaking, Lao Tan attacked first, grinning at Xue Shen: "On the battlefield, the enemy won't say 'please' to you."

Xue Shen raised his hand to deflect his attack, then switched from defense to offense and kicked at his lower body.

Old Tan let out a shout and suddenly jumped up, attacking his head at the same time.

Xue Shen had anticipated this. He dodged to the side, grabbed the opponent's wrist, and used the momentum to throw him off the stage.

Before Lao Tan could react, he suddenly stood up straight and said to Xue Shen defiantly, "Again!"

Xue Shen stood at the edge of the arena and cupped his hands in a fist salute to him: "On the battlefield, the enemy won't give you a second chance."

When the others saw Xue Shen use the same words Lao Tan had just used to shut him up, they burst into laughter again.

Old Tan realized this and his face turned red. He walked to the weapons rack, cursing, and lay face down, saying, "I'll accept the bet and take the twenty lashes." He then said to the next person to come up, "Don't underestimate him and fall for his trick. This kid has some skills."

Shen Mingjiang snorted: "He can't shake his habit of underestimating his opponent no matter how many years he's been doing it. He deserves to be beaten."

Despite facing multiple opponents, Xue Shen remained standing on the stage after a series of intense battles.

Having personally tried to intervene, the Shen family members' opinions of him had changed considerably. Some even put their arms around Xue Shen's shoulders and asked familiarly, "Was the Northern Rong King really defeated by you?"

"You have no idea how frustrated we were when we heard the news that the Northern Rong had borrowed a route from Tibet, broken through Taiyuan, and marched south to besiege the capital. If that coward hadn't stubbornly refused to hand over the military tally, we would have already led our troops to the capital and wouldn't have been able to tolerate the Northern Rong's arrogance!"

The "softie" he was referring to was naturally the pacification commissioner who had succeeded Shen Xiuyi.

Although the other party was ostracized by the old subordinates of the Shen family, he was still the pacification commissioner appointed by the government and held the tiger tally. If the pacification commissioner did not give the order, these generals would be punished with beheading at best, and if it was serious, it was not impossible for them to be executed along with their entire family.

When asked about the siege of the city by the Northern Rong, Xue Shen said indifferently, "The Northern Rong king was only able to march south and attack the capital by luck. After the battle, he was nothing special."

The generals, upon hearing his arrogant words, all showed expressions of admiration: "Indeed, those Northern Rong barbarians aren't that strong. It's just that their soldiers are now cowardly and spineless, not as powerful as before, which is why they think the Northern Rong are so formidable. Remember when we were young..."

The man was engrossed in his speech when he was suddenly kicked in the shin. Before he could react, he turned around and glared at the person who had kicked him: "I was talking to the Prince, why did you kick me?"

The person who reminded him almost rolled their eyes and gritted their teeth as they warned, "What nonsense are you spouting in front of the Prince?"

This is the King of Qin, not their general or their pacification envoy. If he says something wrong, he will only be punished with a few strokes of the military rod.

Saying the wrong thing in front of the prince could cost you your head.

The man belatedly realized what was happening, turned his head and gave Xue Shen an awkward smile, finally shutting up his incessant chatter.

Xue Shen, however, did not take it seriously. He said in a calm tone, "There are indeed many problems in the army now. It's not just the local troops, but even the most elite imperial guards are lazy and negligent. Their strength is not what it used to be. It is precisely because the army is getting weaker and weaker that it is powerless to fight back against the mere Northern Rong."