SSS rank Mother-In-Law to an Invincible Family-Chapter 437: Fell Into The Trap

It started small.

One beast near the edge of the firepit dropped his mug and blinked slowly.

"Hey… does the ground feel weird?" he asked, rubbing his temples.

Another stumbled back from the fire, eyes wide. "Why… why can't I feel my Qi?"

Someone else stood up fast but then dropped to one knee.

"My legs… they feel heavy…"

It spread like wildfire.

Squad after squad suddenly felt something was off.

Their Qi wasn't circulating.

Their limbs were sluggish.

It was like something was weighing them down, smothering their strength.

A few tried to activate their battle arts, but nothing came out.

Panic began to spread. "What's going on?!"

Then came the moment no one could ignore.

A loud hum filled the air—deep and steady like a gong echoing through the night.

Suddenly, glowing blue symbols began to light up across the edges of the resource site.

All around them.

It wasn't just random.

It was a massive formation, carved into the earth and hidden under the dirt, the leaves, the broken rocks, and even beneath the firepits they had built.

It had been under them the whole time.

A trap.

A real one.

One that didn't go off until they had all dropped their guard.

Garuum stumbled forward, eyes wide in disbelief as he shouted, "WHAT IS THIS?! WHO DID THIS?!"

But no one answered him.

Not yet.

Because at that moment, the forest around the camp began to move.

Slow steps. Dozens of them.

Then hundreds.

From every direction, human cultivators stepped out of the dark.

They were calm.

Silent.

Not in a hurry.

Like hunters surrounding their prey.

Each squad was tight, their gear light but sharp, their formation steady and trained.

At the front stood the special unit captains, eyes cold and firm. Their faces weren't angry or smug.

They just looked at the beasts like they were already dead.

Like they were pests caught sneaking into a kitchen.

The beasts panicked.

Some tried to roar.

Others tried to run.

But the moment they moved too fast, the weight on their bodies doubled. Their limbs trembled. One even collapsed before he could take three steps.

"No… no way…"

"This can't be…"

Garuum tried to swing his massive hammer—but his arm barely moved. His own spiritual energy had turned against him. It felt like his bones were being held down by chains made of gravity.

"I was… tricked…?" he muttered.

He couldn't even believe it.

He was sure they were the ones with the upper hand.

But it was too late.

Everything had been prepared long before they ever got here.

Far away from the chaos, in a small hidden command camp, a group of Shadow members were watching the activation of the trap from a projection crystal.

One of them smirked. "They fell for it. Completely."

A younger member, still new, asked in awe, "When did we set that all up?"

An older Shadow leaned back, sipping a calming tea. "Started over a week ago. As soon as one of the shadow members confirmed their movements, we fed them some clues and let them follow the trail.

Then we quietly moved out, reset the whole camp to look abandoned, and buried the formation under everything."

"What about the spiritual food they left behind?" the new one asked.

"Added a special power that disrupts their Spiritual Qi to make them think of their meridians as bones and their bones as their meridians.

This caused them to be unable to move the qi using their meridians, and there is no way to move the qi using the bones unless they have a special manual for it, but they are not humans.

So they have no way to use the qi, which causes their bones to be under tremendous pressure, causing an imbalance of their body structure, which is why they are like this. "

The new one blinked. "That's… evil."

"No," the elder replied calmly. "It's clean. It's efficient. It saves lives."

Back at the camp, chaos had already started to spread.

The beasts who were feasting moments ago were now coughing, collapsing, or leaning on each other as the spiritual energy in their bodies suddenly stopped flowing.

Their limbs felt heavy. Their Qi was cut off. Their minds started to fog.

"Wh-What's going on?!"

One beast dropped the roasted meat he was holding, his claws twitching as he looked around in panic.

Another clutched his chest, trying to circulate his energy, only to realize nothing was responding.

Garuum stumbled forward, grabbing onto a log near the fire. His face twisted in anger and confusion.

"What... what did you do?! This isn't a real fight! This is cheating! Cowardly trickery!"

He roared, trying to channel power into his voice, but it came out strained, almost pathetic.

"Come out and face me like warriors! Like adults! Not this sneaky crap!"

Some of his captains, now shaking and barely able to move, echoed his frustration.

"This isn't fair! They poisoned the land! The food!"

Others were quieter. A few still standing—those who hadn't touched the food or drink—were frozen in place, eyes wide.

One of them whispered to his neighbor, "We told them... we told them this felt wrong."

From the forest, human cultivators stepped out slowly.

Silent. Expressionless.

Their eyes didn't carry hatred—only cold certainty.

They looked at the beasts like someone would look at pests that wandered into their garden.

The quiet steps of the special unit filled the air.

No shouting. No showing off. Just precise, practiced movement.