Divine Skill-Stealing

After hearing Lumine's explanation, Keqing and Zhong Baiye understood why she had passed out earlier.

"But there's still one problem..."

Before Lumine could continue, Keqing interrupted her.

"Right. My bottleneck couldn't just disappear out of nowhere. Something must have happened just now."

An ordinary person might not have overcome Keqing's bottleneck even after decades of training, yet it had suddenly vanished into thin air.

Zhong Baiye and the others immediately thought back over what had happened.

"Wait, I've got it. When I saw you were in danger, Keqing, I couldn't get over there to help, so I used Stealing on Yuzhong, the one who ambushed you."

Zhong Baiye recalled the events as he spoke to Keqing and the others.

"I wanted to steal the syringe in Yuzhong's hand. Then a white light flashed, and I thought I'd succeeded, but when I checked, I hadn't stolen anything."

Paimon also remembered what had happened and immediately chimed in.

"I noticed it too. After Zhong Baiye shouted Stealing, a white light came out of Keqing's body."

Having pieced things together, Keqing remembered that her bottleneck had indeed disappeared right after that flash of white light.

"I've got it!"

Keqing, Zhong Baiye, and Lumine spoke in unison.

Only Paimon remained confused, rubbing her head as she tried to work out what had happened.

Zhong Baiye glanced at Keqing and Lumine, nodded to them, and shared his guess.

"I think my Pickpocket Skill might have stolen Keqing's bottleneck. That white light was her bottleneck."

Keqing and Lumine immediately nodded in agreement with Zhong Baiye's theory.

If that really was what had happened, the Pickpocket Skill was a divine skill. It could even steal something as abstract as a bottleneck.

Whenever they faced danger in the future, he could simply steal the enemy's will to fight or his allies' bottlenecks. That would make him practically invincible.

But the moment Zhong Baiye remembered that he couldn't control the skill, the smile vanished from his face.

They had been lucky this time, since he had stolen Keqing's bottleneck.

If he had stolen Keqing's Lion's Roar instead, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"But if that's what happened, where did the stolen bottleneck go?"

While Zhong Baiye was still lost in his fantasies, Paimon rubbed her head and raised that crucial question.

Her words brought Zhong Baiye back to his senses, and he immediately began checking his body.

He carefully inspected every part of himself, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find a trace of it.

Yet when Zhong Baiye looked at his Electro Vision, he actually saw an image of Keqing diligently practicing Starward Sword inside it.

A moment later, his head suddenly throbbed as an enormous flood of information poured into his mind.

He was now like a Keqing who had trained diligently for decades, able to perform her Starward Sword with ease-though, of course, only the version without its ultimate technique.

Even so, that was absurd. Keqing's ability to use Starward Sword was the product of both talent and hard work, yet Zhong Baiye had achieved the same thing simply by using Stealing.

Zhong Baiye screamed inwardly, What kind of lousy system is this? Does it even know how to grade things? A divine skill like this is only purple? It's clearly way better than gold!

With that thought, he glanced at the Skyward Blade in his hand and suddenly felt that it truly deserved its reputation as a disgrace among five-star weapons.

At that moment, Keqing said gravely, "All right. I spared Yuzhong's life earlier. Let's first find out who they are and why they came after us."

Zhong Baiye and Lumine came to their senses as well and hurried over to Yuzhong.

Yuzhong was still unconscious, without the slightest sign of waking up.

Zhong Baiye poured a cup of holy water straight onto his head.

"Cough, cough..."

Yuzhong coughed continuously, as though he had choked on the holy water, but finally opened his eyes slowly.

Smack! Smack!

Paimon unleashed her finishing move-face-slapping-on Yuzhong and began interrogating him.

"Talk! Who exactly are you people?"

Yuzhong took in his surroundings, realized the operation had failed, and looked utterly despairing.

No matter how Paimon tormented him, he refused to say a word.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the sound of an arrow slicing through the air reached them.

The next instant, Zhong Baiye and Paimon, who were standing too close to Yuzhong, had blood splattered all over their faces.

When they looked back at Yuzhong on the ground, an ordinary arrow was lodged in his throat. It was clear he wouldn't survive.

Yet an expression of relief appeared on his face.

Zhong Baiye's heart raced. An ordinary person confronted with such a sight might have frozen or vomited on the spot.

But his half-adeptus physique suddenly released a calming pulse. Although his heart was still pounding, his awareness of his surroundings was incredibly clear.

"Who's there?"

Keqing reacted immediately. Spotting a suspicious figure in the distance, she gave chase at once.

Worried about Keqing's safety, Zhong Baiye shook the blood off his face and immediately followed her.

But the black-clad figure was far too fast. Having just used her ultimate technique, Keqing had no way to catch up now.

After pursuing him for a while, Zhong Baiye and Keqing could no longer see even a trace of the black-clad figure and had to abandon the chase.

"We can't catch him. But their attack methods looked a lot like the Fatui's. They must be Fatui."

Keqing shared her analysis with Zhong Baiye.

Zhong Baiye replied to her.

"I recognized their leader. He was a Fatui Pyro Debt Collector."

"Huff... huff..."

At that point, Lumine and Paimon caught up, panting.

The moment Paimon saw Zhong Baiye and Keqing, she said angrily,

"Where's that guy in black? How dare he do something like that to me, Paimon! I'll make him pay!"

Zhong Baiye pointed behind Paimon.

"He's right behind you. Go teach him a lesson."

At Zhong Baiye's words, Paimon's legs immediately trembled. She hastily scurried behind Lumine, shaking as she cried out,

"Don't hit me! I can't fight at all! I was only joking!"

"Pfft!"

Keqing and Lumine couldn't help laughing at Paimon's ridiculous reaction, sweeping away the grim atmosphere.

Hearing even Zhong Baiye laughing at her, Paimon poked her little head out and looked around, only to find there was no black-clad man anywhere.

"Zhong Baiye, you jerk! How dare you trick me! Just you wait-when I get the chance, I'll teach you a proper lesson!"