Eternal Thief

Somewhere in the mysterious circle of earthen mist forest. 

Deafening sounds of fighting were booming in the misty area. The ground was filled with cuts, thick emerald liquid, and small craters. 

Three huge monsters were made of emerald liquid and three silhouettes, holding different weapons, were trying their best just defend against those monsters' deadly attacks. 

"Just how many of these monsters are there, damn it!" Lan's frustrated voice with a hint of weariness and dread sounded as he dodged a huge, sharp emerald spike with the Golden Mark Cauldron. 

"Stop complaining and destroyed that damn corpse!" roared Black Reaper with an equally vexed tone. He was holding a black dagger and dodging the golem's punch like an agile cat at a fast speed. 

"These are even more resilient than the last one!" Ridge thrust the long silver spear in his hand and a projection of a spearhead made of metal Qi shot toward the puppet golem's leg which was covering the grave. 

But alas, the metal Qi just made a one-meter deep cut before the emerald liquid filled the gap again! 

These three escaped in the same direction when the first puppet golem showed up that day, without stopping until they were completely lost. They tried to go back after they realized the danger was somehow dealt with, but in this thick mist; they were completely clueless about which direction they should go. 

They end up wandering like lost souls, and now this was their fifth week of searching for the others. But to their anguish, they encountered more of those graves as they unknowingly wander deeper in the mysterious circle. 

The moment they came fifty meters close to those graves, they instantly burst open and formed a puppet golem. These grave monsters weren't like the ones they encounter that day because they didn't need to dig their grave as they were like traps that can be triggered if you step on it!     

Although they eventually found how to kill one, it was extremely taxing even for a Qi river core cultivator like them. Furthermore, they were using a huge amount of high-Qi stones for recovery, and to keep the Qi barrier active, they knew sooner or later they will be going to run out of those Qi stones, and it will be over for them at that point. 

Now, all they wanted was to find a way out of this cursed land and never stepped here again. The thought about soul inheritance and capturing the thief were long forgotten by them. But after weeks of searching, they found nothing, and slowly, but surely they were losing their mind because of terror and exasperation. 

The other wasn't in any better condition either, as they were in the same dilemma. 

Alvin was alone just a few miles away from Lan's trio while Damien King and the woman of Nightmare Ghosts' group, Margaret, were in deeper than Lan's trio escaping from a speed golem leader's group for their life! 

As for, Old Man Black, Marc, and his sword maids, surrounded by a group of stone golems. 

Everyone was fighting for their dear life, and they finally understand just why no one ever came back from this forest alive beside a fortunate madman! 

They were all regretting it while cursing and blaming Ace because if it wasn't for him, they would never step in this damn horrifying place, while they knew it was their fault for being too greedy. But alas, there was no medicine for regret in this world now, is there? 

However, at this moment, something happen that left everyone completely gobsmacked. 

The golems they were fighting, so desperately a moment ago, turned around and sprint toward a specific direction without caring about the attack coming toward them! 

The puppet golem who can't seem to move from its place also move, the skeleton in the grave mysteriously moved in the center of their chest and everyone finally saw a foot-long emerald worm with white strips, encompassing the skeleton's skull. This worm was the real marionette who was pulling the strings all this time and controlling the almost unkillable puppet golem, despite being extremely fragile itself! 

It would never show itself if it was a normal circumstance, but something seemed to had happened that made every golem in existence crazy as they all charged straight toward the depth of the mysterious circle without caring about their life or left open wide for attacks!

This new out-of-the-blue development completely befuddled those nine humans. However, it didn't last long because a few seconds later the cloudy emerald mist moved! 

Yes, it moved, it was very obvious since this never happened before because they were no trace of wind in his place not even now! 

The cloudy emerald mist was moving toward the same direction where all those golems ran so bizarrely a few moments ago. It was as if something like a suction force was pulling the emerald mist towards it. 

Everyone found this very peculiar, and they all knew something was happening in that direction. 

Humans were born inquisitive and when they all saw this strange phenomenon that never happened before they only hesitate for a moment before everyone followed the mist to check if some kind of treasure was born! 

Some of them wanted to take this chance and leave this place, after all, all they had to do was to just run in the opposite direction, and they would leave the mysterious circle which was shrinking for some mysterious reason. 

But none of them leave as the thought of soul inheritance and their missing companions surface in their minds. They all thought someone has got the inheritance that made all those monsters and this deadly mist wild. 

Just this thought was enough to arouse their greed again and suppress the urge to leave this forest and follow the mist. They wanted to see if they could fish in troubled waters. If they find it too dangerous, they would simply escape, as long as they would keep their distance. 

However, one thought that was common in everyone's mind; there was only one person who had the biggest chance of reaching the soul inheritance between all of them, and that was the thief who drag them all here, Sky Stealer!