The Divine Urban Physician Chapter 3426: You Want Me Dead? I Choose to Live! (Fifth Update)

The Netherworld Map vanished in a heartbeat, and though the Giant’s massive fist loomed before Ye Chen’s eyes, it halted abruptly. The Giant then pulled back its hand.

“How to break obsessions?” the Giant’s gravelly voice rumbled once more.

“Obsessions cannot be broken!” Ye Chen answered again without hesitation.

“Nonsense!” The Giant roared, lifting its fist and slamming it down with violent force.

“All living things possess obsessions born of desire; they are eternal and without end,” Ye Chen remarked to himself, completely disregarding the world-shaking strike descending upon him.

“Without obsessions, existence itself would cease to be!”

The Giant’s fist froze mid-air upon hearing these words. Looking at Ye Chen, it offered a slow smile and a nod before mysteriously fading away into the void. As it vanished, the Netherworld Water that had surrounded the Giant transformed into the pure essence of the Netherworld Map, flooding into Ye Chen’s body.

Ye Chen’s frame shuddered violently as a tide of savage power exploded outward. A cryptic aura began to saturate the ancient battlefield, causing the Sky-covering Demon Emperor and his companions to turn pale with alarm.

“A Calamity?” The Sky-covering Demon Emperor stared at the firmament in sheer disbelief.

Xiao Bai blinked in confusion, while the You Ying Ghost Weasel and Ye Lingtian traded shocked glances. Their hearts raced with uncertainty.

Ye Chen was merely advancing to the Ninth Layer Heaven of the Chaos Realm. Why would such a breakthrough summon a calamity? What could this possibly signify?

Explosions suddenly echoed from within Ye Chen. Even though he had not yet reached the next stage, the premature appearance of the calamity sent ripples of panic through his heart, instantly fracturing his aura and inflicting internal injuries.

“Damn it!” Ye Chen snarled at the sky. Above him, enigmatic forces were coalescing—the unmistakable power of Tribulation lightning.

Inside his body, the power of the Netherworld Map began to thrash, shredding Ye Chen’s meridians. He fought to regulate his breathing, desperately trying to internalize and refine this terrifying energy.

Even if the Tribulation lightning was about to fall, it didn't matter. His breakthrough was at hand, and Ye Chen refused to halt now.

As Ye Chen rapidly absorbed the streams of Netherworld Map power, the depths of the ancient battlefield began to churn again. Spiritual pressure and resentment surged out from the abyss once more.

Earlier, the manifestation of the Nine Blood Moons had terrified these forces into retreat, but with the moons gone, the spiritual pressure and resentment came rushing back.

Although a great portion of this dark energy had been consumed, the remaining resentment was still vast and presented a lethal threat to Ye Chen and the others.

Furthermore, the abyss’s grudge against the Sky-covering Demon Emperor had shifted. It had sensed the aura of a War Soul Crystal within Ye Chen—a treasure nurtured over eons that Ye Chen had dared to refine. This act ignited an all-consuming hatred.

Troubles arrived in waves; while the Tribulation lightning loomed and the Netherworld Map power raged within him, the endless spiritual pressure and resentment swept forward, intent on claiming Ye Chen’s life.

In that moment, a realization struck Ye Chen: the Heavens were forbidding his breakthrough. This was why so many disasters were converging at once—to ensure his downfall.

“If Heaven forbids me, then I, Ye Chen, shall become the path of heaven!” Ye Chen bellowed. Dark clouds swirled above and thunder boomed as if the sky itself were enraged by his defiance.

The Sky-covering Demon Emperor’s expression darkened as he saw the resentment rushing toward Ye Chen. The youth was at the most vulnerable point of his Cultivation advancement, already struggling against the Tribulation lightning. If the spiritual pressure hit him now, he would be doomed.

“Help me block it!” The Sky-covering Demon Emperor surged into the air, charging straight toward the encroaching resentment. His overwhelming demonic qi flared as the Slaughter Immortal Sword flew forward, stabbing into the heart of the darkness.

“Sizzle!” The Slaughter Immortal Sword burned through countless wisps of resentment, yet its efforts seemed like a drop in the ocean against such a vast tide.

The Sky-covering Demon Emperor soon collided with the spiritual pressure, pouring his most violent energy into the fray without a second thought.

Despite his vast demonic qi, his face grew deathly pale under the weight of the confrontation, yet he refused to yield an inch.

Xiao Bai, the You Ying Ghost Weasel, and the others joined the fray, throwing their strength behind the Sky-covering Demon Emperor to hold back the tide of resentment.

Ye Chen had no capacity to worry about his allies. Inside him, miniature phantoms had begun to manifest. They were dark, ink-black reflections of Ye Chen himself, rampaging through his meridians and sowing destruction.

These phantoms tore at his meridians and snapped his bones, causing such agonizing pain that his entire body convulsed.

“Damn it!” Ye Chen roared in pain. This was a specific calamity known as the Dark Thunder Tribulation. During a breakthrough, phantoms of the self—forged from the Power of Heaven and Earth—would appear within a martial artist to wreak havoc from the inside.

The Dark Thunder Tribulation was notoriously lethal. In theory, someone at Ye Chen’s current realm should never encounter it. The fact that it had manifested even before the Tribulation lightning had fully formed proved just how much the heavens detested his existence.

“You want me dead? I refuse!” Ye Chen howled. The Flame Tablet surged within his meridians, sweeping toward the dark phantoms.

Blazing fire illuminated his inner pathways. From the outside, his skin glowed a deep crimson, radiating an intense, endless heat.

The power of the Flame Tablet instantly incinerated the phantoms, but the Dark Thunder Tribulation was relentless. For every shadow he destroyed, two more rose to take its place.

Ye Chen was forced to drive the Flame Tablet through his meridians repeatedly, slaughtering phantom after phantom.

Simultaneously, he roared internally: “Heavenly Dragon Eight Divine Sounds!”

“Om! Ba! Ni! Ba! Me! Mou! Wu! Bo!” The Hongmeng Sound Symbols manifested within him, traveling through his meridians to strike down the shadows.

Following this, he activated the Dharma Flower Annihilation Heaven to shield his physical body and meridians. He then focused entirely on refining the Netherworld Map’s power, desperate to complete his breakthrough as fast as possible.

“Boom!” The heavens above Boundary City seemed to shatter, and torrents of Thunder Energy began to pour through the cracks.

This majestic and terrifying Thunder Energy felt as though it could wipe out the entire world. Every inhabitant of Boundary City looked up, paralyzed by the sight.

“This is the Tribulation lightning power that usually only appears in the Outer Realm or the Upper Realm! Why is it here? Is heaven dooming Boundary City?”

Someone recognized the signs and cried out in utter despair.

“It isn’t targeted at us! Someone is breaking through and has invoked the fury of the Heavenly Dao. Heaven is punishing them!”

“That’s impossible! How could a single person’s breakthrough draw such horrific Tribulation lightning? If it truly is for one man, he will be reduced to ash, his soul scattered forever!”

“Crack!” The terrifying lightning continued to amass. It was already nightmare-inducing, yet it grew even stronger, filling everyone who witnessed it with a sense of hopeless dread.

As Ye Chen continued to refine the Netherworld Map’s power, he reached a sudden epiphany. This power was simply too potent; absorbing even a fraction of it granted him an invincible path to advancement.

It was precisely because he used the Netherworld Map to ascend that he had drawn the ire of the heavens. The sky wanted to execute him, to annihilate both his body and his spirit.